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General Category => Technical support - Hardware related => Topic started by: Dansbo on 19:29, 02 November 21

Title: CPC 464 does not respond to fire button on Joystick port
Post by: Dansbo on 19:29, 02 November 21
Cheers!
I have just bought myself a CPC 464 again. This was my first real Microcomputer when I was a child so it is with great nostalgia that I got it to work.
Though I am having an issue with my joystick port. I have tried several joysticks but to no avail. All is good receiving directional input but nothing happens when I press the firebutton. I have confirmed on my C64 that the fire button is functional.

As far as my research has gotten me, is to find out that the fire button should be connected to pin 6 on the joystick port.With a multimeter I can confirm that there is a connection between pin 6 on the joystick port and pin 10 on the AY-3-8912. As far as I can see, there is no corrosion. Do you think I need to replace the AY-3-8912? Sound generation is flawless under normal circumstances.
As far as I can figure the AY-3-8910/8912/8913 are in the same family. Are they all interchangeable? Do you have any recommendations regarding "brand new" AY-3-8912 from China?
Any suggestions would be appreciated
Title: Re: CPC 464 does not respond to fire button on Joystick port
Post by: eto on 20:04, 02 November 21
Do the keys K,F,J,D,A and L,H,G,S work? If yes, then the AY works fine.
Title: Re: CPC 464 does not respond to fire button on Joystick port
Post by: Dansbo on 20:25, 02 November 21
Quote from: eto on 20:04, 02 November 21
Do the keys K,F,J,D,A and L,H,G,S work? If yes, then the AY works fine.


Yes they work fine. The joystick port is C64/Atari compatible right?


Do you perhaps have any other ideas?
Title: Re: CPC 464 does not respond to fire button on Joystick port
Post by: Dansbo on 21:42, 02 November 21
Quote from: Dansbo on 20:25, 02 November 21

Yes they work fine. The joystick port is C64/Atari compatible right?


Do you perhaps have any other ideas?


How embarrassing....


I looked up and just tried to connect pin 6 and 8 on the port, which worked straight away.
Tried yet another joystick and that worked fine. So I will see if there's something I can do to my zipstick to make it work.


Thanks for your help.
Title: Re: CPC 464 does not respond to fire button on Joystick port
Post by: eto on 21:59, 02 November 21

The CPC doesn't provide 5V and depending on the autofire circuit, this can have side effects. Did you try autofire on/off?
Title: Re: CPC 464 does not respond to fire button on Joystick port
Post by: Dansbo on 22:37, 02 November 21
Quote from: eto on 21:59, 02 November 21
The CPC doesn't provide 5V and depending on the autofire circuit, this can have side effects. Did you try autofire on/off?


Yeah I tried that.
Thanks for the 5v hint. Will surely look into it
Title: Re: CPC 464 does not respond to fire button on Joystick port
Post by: Devlin on 11:02, 03 November 21
Quote from: Dansbo on 22:37, 02 November 21

Yeah I tried that.
Thanks for the 5v hint. Will surely look into it


Yep. Most joysticks with auto-fire will not fully work correctly - in some cases they are fine when the auto-fire is off, but in some cases they won't work at all (like my QJ SuperStar which literally has a switch for CPC operation and still won't play nice)
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