S-132 Joystick Adapter Cable Help

[ronaldlw]

Is there any info on the correct way to attach the connectors to the joystick cables? That is, what orientation each connector should be on each side of the cable?

I connected one up but there is either something wrong with the way I did it, or there's something wrong somewhere else.

When I attach a joystick to pad 1, enable "Joystick/Audio" mode in the system menu (ctl-alt-F6) and go into the D+7AIO screen (ctl-alt-F7) the xy coordinates display for joystick 1 is just moving around randomly and joystick 2 is centered. The buttons all seem to be working (when I press a button the expected corresponding bit flips and i see the number of the button in the upper right of the joystick 1 output. Moving the joystick around doesn't appear to do anything at all.

If I connect to Pad 2 then things look the same, when i press buttons they seem to be recognized, but pressing some of the buttons moves the x or y coordinates down to zero. moving the joystick does nothing.

Based on what's going on on pat 2 it seems that the connections are likely messed up somehow.

[ronaldlw]

I did some testing and the cables seem to be fine. I am seeing the expected signals on the expected pins on the joystick adapter 40 pin header. I think there must be something going on with either the A/D converter or whatever is driving that.

Are there any schematics or anything for the s-132 board?

[Retro-Tech-Reboot]

You need to specifically enable the joysticks in the S-132 setup. In this video I go over how to enable and calibrate the joysticks, at about 6:20:
https://youtu.be/7XmZkFa_wUg
The video is part of a 3 video series where we look at programming for the S-132, first video is:
https://youtu.be/skwqI-xDGBM

[ronaldlw]

Thanks for responding @Retro-Tech-Reboot ! Yes, I watched all those videos before, and I think I did enable the joysticks with this process (from my initial post)
"When I attach a joystick to pad 1, enable "Joystick/Audio" mode in the system menu (ctl-alt-F6) and go into the D+7AIO screen (ctl-alt-F7) "

And have tried calibrating the joysticks but they don't seem to be doing anything at all.

I put an oscilloscope on the pins of the A/D converter and it appears that there is no clock signal to that chip on pin 13, so maybe something else in the circuit is messed up.

Was hoping to find a schematic so I could try to figure out where that signal is coming from. I'm assuming one of the ESP32 pins, but not sure.

[Retro-Tech-Reboot]

I can't help you with the schematic.
The settings to enable the joysticks do not persist, if you power down the IMSAI they are reset to disabled. I believe resetting (pushing reset on the S-132 or on the IMSAI) also disables the joysticks.
Have you verified the VT100 emulation works on the S-132 (you can boot into CPM and interact with it from the S-132)? This will check communications between the emulator and the S-132.
I know this is obvious but triple check you have the surface mount chips in the right orientation, that there are no shorted pins and that all pins are actually soldered to the PCB. I've watched someone swear the surface mount packages were in correctly then after days realize one of them was backwards; it's an easy mistake as some of the parts have multiple marking in the plastic that can be confused as the pin 1 indicator.
With the system powered up you should be able to measure the voltage on the wiper pin of the joystick pots which should change as the stick is moved. The other meter lead can be connected to ground or to one of the other pins on the pot. Across the two outer pins of the pot you should measure, if memory serves, 3.3 volts or so.
When you try to calibrate the joysticks do the centering lines move all over the place or are the frozen in one corner of the box?

[ronaldlw]

I can't help you with the schematic. The settings to enable the joysticks do not persist, if you power down the IMSAI they are reset to disabled. I believe resetting (pushing reset on the S-132 or on the IMSAI) also disables the joysticks.

Yep, I noticed this, wasn't sure if there was a way to save that config somewhere, but hadn't gotten that far. :)

Also, I don't think you can even get to the D+7AIO screen (ctl-alt-F7) unless the joystick is enabled in the system menu (ctl-alt-F6). And I can get there where I see the results I described before.

Have you verified the VT100 emulation works on the S-132 (you can boot into CPM and interact with it from the S-132)? This will check communications between the emulator and the S-132.

Yep, I'm able to use the VT100, CRT and Dazzler displays with my monitor and keyboard with no problem. Have booted CP/M 2.2 with the standard rom as well as the vio one.

I know this is obvious but triple check you have the surface mount chips in the right orientation, that there are no shorted pins and that all pins are actually soldered to the PCB. I've watched someone swear the surface mount packages were in correctly then after days realize one of them was backwards; it's an easy mistake as some of the parts have multiple marking in the plastic that can be confused as the pin 1 indicator.

I'm pretty sure they're oriented correctly:

I'll try to do a connectivity test later today, but a schematic would be super helpful for that lol. It's hard to know where some of the pins are connected to due to the multilayered board.

With the system powered up you should be able to measure the voltage on the wiper pin of the joystick pots which should change as the stick is moved. The other meter lead can be connected to ground or to one of the other pins on the pot. Across the two outer pins of the pot you should measure, if memory serves, 3.3 volts or so.

Yes, I measured the voltages on the 40 pin connector and was able to verify that the button voltages (pins j5-2 to j5-9) all dropped to around 0v when pressed and were at around 5v (4.7V) when not pressed.

The Joystick voltages (pins J4-5 to J5-8) all were around 2.3-2.4V when centered and would range from 0V to around 4.8V when moved to up and down for the Y or left and right for the X.

When you try to calibrate the joysticks do the centering lines move all over the place or are the frozen in one corner of the box?

The x and y seems to jump around in the upper right hand quadrant of the calibration display.

You can kind of see it here, where the cross hairs move around changes some each time.

Moving the joysticks around doesn't seem to affect the position of the x-y calibration lines at all.

The buttons are steady 1111 on both until buttons are pressed and then the correct bit goes to zero and the number of the button shows up in the upper left quadrant of the respective joystick calibration area.

Pressing buttons on joystick 1 doesn't affect the x-y positioning at all, but joystick 2 buttons seem to have some affect on the x-y position.

Button 1- doesn't seem to affect anything
Button 2 - seems to make the Y value for Joy 2 drop about 1/4 to 1/8 of the range of values
Button 3 - same as 2
Button 4 - moves both X and Y values on both joysticks to lower left (-128) - note that the voltages on the joy1 and joy2 X and Y pins on the header do NOT change when button 4 is pressed. But the display indicates that the values being read go to -128.

This is with button 4 pressed:

Things are very strange!