Using MMJoy to retrofit USB to older joystics?

[Nat Roth]

So, a few years ago there was a controler for turning potentiometors and aswitches in to a game controller - it was hella useful in the construction of mame cabinets, where arcade joysticks/arcade buttons needed to feed keyboard data back to a PC - the controller was the Mjoy

Those guys went out of business

BUT FEAR NOT! Because the Mjoy itself used the same processor (and some custom code) found in each and every Arduino Leonardo ($20, available in most big cities, or the internet). Some industrious individual took to thinking 'well maybe a leonardo can be used to do the exact same thing the MJoy did' - they were 100% correct - enter MMJoy

https://code.google.com/p/mmjoy/

Unfortunately they thought that in russian. Here's an english link:
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3899105/MMJoy_Build_your_own_USB_contr

So, my thinking - I have picked up old gameport CH Cobatsticks for $5 at thrift stores - and there's PLENTY of space in that base for an arduino -


Anyone else interested in rehabbing old gameport joysticks in to lean, new, shiny, awesome usb devices? Let's make this work and start posting some howto's and programming online?

A little solder never killed anyone! (the same can not be said of a lot of solder however)

[Xevious]

Sometimes rewiring your joystick is indeed the way to go - there are certain situations where no commercial maker has a good adapter for it.  The Logitech Wingman Interceptor is a great example of this.  BUT, rewiring is not necessary in every single situation.  USB to Gameport adapters are a lot better than they are given credit for because the first to market adapter was a flawed design, damaging the reputation of such devices. 

Having said that, I will take this information down and add it to the website as soon as I have a free moment :D

[Xevious]

Are you willing to help get this section of the website going?