CPC464 Wireless Controller/Gamepad

[dannyh]

Hi All,

Just wanted to share a little something I put together last night. I'm sure it's been done by others many times before. I've been struggling to find a gamepad for my 464. I unscrewed a few of the aftermarket "Mega Drive" style pads, but they contained chips for the rapid-fire etc., meaning rewiring them internally wasn't as straightforward as I'd hoped. After digging through some boxes, I grabbed an EPS32 and a ULN2803A, and knocked together a very crude bluetooth host/joystick interface. Surprisingly (considering my soldering skills) it worked flawlessly the first time and I can now use my Xbox controller (or any other Bluetooth controller) with my 464!  

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This weekend I might try to make a PCB/boxed version and see if I can power it from the +5v of the joystick port. Also, because there's plenty of spare buttons not in use on the controller, I'm going to try and implement rapid-fire, macros etc. in the ESP code. Should keep me busy for a few days.

I used the BluePad32 library on the ESP32...
https://github.com/ricardoquesada/bluepad32

[arnoldemu]

How many fire buttons on the amstrad side are supported?
Also does this have the equivalent of diodes to prevent keyboard/joystick clash?

[dannyh]

Hi Arnold,

Currently I've wired up the two fire buttons. Apparently there's a third (undocumented) FIRE button pin for a mouse or something like that? I didn't bother with that. The joystick port allows connection of 2 joysticks using the COM/COM2 pins, so technically you could connect two controllers to the same ESP for 2 player games etc.

I'm not 100% on the diodes, but the ULN2803A does have internal suppression diodes, so I don't think external are needed. I didn't notice any keyboard noise during use.

[Brocky]

i dont think you even need the ULN2803A... should be able to connect the esp32 directly

this has given me an idea to upgrade my DIY arcade style joystick i built for my CPC, to wireless, by hooking up an esp32 and battery inside it.. and an ESP32 on the cpc side....
and the benefit, i could then use a ESP32 on my PC and use the joystick for things like mame!

[dannyh]

Hi Brocky,

The ESP32 is 3.3v and the port is 5v active low. I didn't want to risk feeding 5v into a 3.3v chip hence using the ULN2803A. It might work direct, I wouldn't like to try. I'd be too scared about frying something in my 464