BASIC Engine NG USB Gamepad Issues

painintheworld

I don't have the program on the microSD card at home, unfortunately MC10Guru . It was the simplest of programs, as in it just polled the gamepad and printed to screen. Something like this:

100 SCREEN 13 110 WHILE INKEY$="" 120 PRINT PAD(0) 130 WEND

The only other thing I have tried it with is the Shmup demo game Uli wrote.

One controller, I can't remember which at this moment, does register an upper left diagonal movement and nothing else. As in when I try it in Shmup, the character goes to the upper left and stays and no other movements will register. Same thing with Opi PC and Opi Lite versions. My Tauon PC should be here any day; as soon as it comes I will give it a go. Will order one of the Libre boards later on tonight 🙂

I was digging through some old PC stuff looking for an old, low DPI mouse, when I came across one of the Microsoft boomerang style gamepads. Will give it a go later on Friday.

Whilst testing mice this evening, I did notice that an old (early 2000s vintage) USB mouse I was using wouldn't register at all, in either of the three USB ports. It worked fine when plugged into a PC...BUT!...looking at the power draw on it it said 250 milliamps. The other mice and the trackball I've tried were all only 50ma. Maybe the Opi USB ports can't output the required current? Will try a powered hub with it Friday evening.

Thank you for your help!

uli

painintheworld @uli advised to go to a Linux terminal and run sudo usbhid-dump. Below are the results:

Thanks, that's what I was looking for. It would also be good to know how well (or not) each of these devices work.

(Don't hold your breath for a fix, though, because I have quite a bit of (paid) work to do in the next weeks...)

painintheworld

uli I will have to go back through the tests this weekend...but only one of the controllers did anything. Whether playing Shmup or just polling the controller, the only thing that worked was an instant upper left diagonal movement - which would not go away, even using the virtual pad keys on the keyboard.

Make that money, uli 🙂

I have the Tauon PC on the way and have a Libre H3 SBC that will be delivered Monday.

If there is a specific controller that would work for me, I am all ears and have my wallet open 🙂

MC10Guru

Ahoy,
The weekend is nearly here and I may have more time then. I will try your program with various gamepads and give some results for you. BTW with mice, gamepads & keyboards they tended to mimic the previous sytem drivers before they used the newer systems. So game controllers went from gameport to (maybe) serial to USB regardless of connector. I've run into this with ps2 to USB keyboard adapters.
daveyb

MC10Guru

Ahoy,
I tried the short program on my Tauon with no real results. It prints a line of "0" on the screen. No controller was recognized at all. On my powered hub and directly on the USB connector (USB1) I tried:
Generic NES Wired: nothing
Trooper VR Wired: nothing
Generic SNES Wireless: dongle not recognized, no link w/controller
Vtech PS-style Wired: nothing
The keyboard reads no value in the program. I just quits with "OK" when you press "ANYKEY" (look it up) 😉
This is the point in Linux where I do a "lsusb" to see if the contollers are even on the USB bus. I admit I'm at a loss.
Sincerely, daveyb

painintheworld

Thank you, daveyb 🙂

My Tauon's tracking info was updated on Saturday to say that it had been delivered on the 7th, in Oregon. I'm in Western North Carolina 🙁 I did order the Libre H3 chipset SBC you have mentioned and it is supposed to arrive Wednesday. I need to get over to our woodworking shop at my mother's house and start on the retro luggable computer for the BASIC Engine NG, Color Maximite, Color Maximite 2, and ??)

MC10Guru

Ahoy,
Before you contact eBay write to the seller and let them know about the mixup. Mr. Volodymyr Mishyn (the designer & owner) should let you know that it will be sent and give you new tracking info when it ships. I already have a Tauon and am buying a second one right now. A similar thing happened to me last week on the 7th (but I actually got a $10 USB keyboard shipped from Elmhurst IN). However, I trust the company and the designer so you will get it.

As for the Libre Tritium H3, did you buy the large (blue) heat sink also? The board runs ice cold with that heatsink, no fan needed as it covers both the SOC and the RAM.

Both of these computers run EngineBASIC NG great. I use my Tauon mostly for the convenience. Hook up the included mouse & power supply, connect the monitor (either HDMI or Composite) and its a complete system. In the Tauon OS Android it will mirror the OS on both monitors at the same time. That doesn't work for EB NG. But if you boot EB NG w/o HDMI it goes to composite (for that real 1980s feel)

Make sure you check out the Tauon PC-1 forum. I'm over there too, same user name.
Sincerely, daveyb

painintheworld

Mr. Mishyn responding very quickly to my private message on eBay. They had put a couple or three up for auction, instead of Buy It Now, and I got it for $28 plus shipping - which was more than the purchase price. I hope they get reimbursed for their costs...if it was the freight company's fault. He promptly sent another tracking number, so I am do believe it will come. I was burned by a former member of this small bulletin board last year, being swindled out of a Color Maximite and Color Maximite 2. An old high school friend lives in New Mexico and has invited me many times to come stay in his camper in the high desert of NM...so if I do that I'm going to stop by Arizona on the way and see if I can find the guy that swindled me 🙂

No, sir, no heatsink was purchase with the Libre; it was just the Libre and a cheap black case. The case came with a couple of small heatsinks that I may use sometime or the other. I'm not sure about anything other than the superficial stuff that I can see, but it seems like the Libre is a much nicer board than the Orange Pis that I have. I will take your advise and procure a heatsink, but do not see a blue one right off. Most of the stuff I've been fiddling with on the NG I will make the first line CPUSPEED 99 (at least on the Orange Pi versions this has proven to be the fastest), so it won't hurt to keep her cool 🙂

I'm quite banged up physically, having had 43 surgeries this century from three rounds of the big C (mostly spinal, hip area related), heart surgeries, etc. - so I try to take the wife to work as often as I am able. We live almost adjacent to the Blue RIdge Parkway in the mountains of North Carolina in the United States (in case you're not American). Until I get to the woodworking shop and get to making my luggable, I've take one of my laptop lapdesks and fastened an 11.6" LCD monitor to the lapdesk, fastened a LiPo 12 volt 6000 mAh/5volt battery to it, and use a killer little mechanical (brown switches) keyboard from Prime Day. It works well enough, but I want to mess about with the Color Maximite 1 and 2 some more (the monitor has HDMI, composite, VGA, and another composite capable BNC jack) and have it all in a one piece luggable, suitcase type "laptop" 🙂 So I will take her to work when I can, jump over to the Parkway and get up to above a mile and do some easy (relatively speaking, a walk in the park for most) walking. When that is done, I will eat lunch and then mess about with the BASIC Engine OG or NG a little/play about on a laptop/watch a movie/livestream/etc. My brother was given a couple of new riding lawnmower sized batteries (not lithium, sadly) and he gave them to me. I had a nice buck converter, a nice little inverter, etc - so I put together a quick and dirty power source for my after walk leisure electronic stuff 🙂

Back to the NG and gamepads: for kicks and giggles, I did try three gamepads out on the Libre H3 today and expectedly got the same results as before. If anyone happens to see this and has a known working gamepad, please post the name and I will order up a couple of them 😃

Thank you for your help!!

davegardnerisme

I’ve ordered a couple of random USB game pads. Will report back once I get them!

painintheworld

Thank you, Dave! I found an old Xbox 360 I had forgotten about and it needs a new controller. I might as well just buy a USB corded version while I am at it 🙂 Will find a different style USB to Playstation controller adapter, too. The PS controller works very well with the original BASIC Engine, so having one function with the NG would be icing on the cake.

davegardnerisme

First one doesn't do anything ☹️

It's an "8BitDo SN30 Pro USB gamepad". https://www.8bitdo.com/sn30-pro-usb-gamepad/

painintheworld

davegardnerisme It will be a nice gamepad to use in an emulator 🙂

One of us will get the right one sooner or later 🙂

davegardnerisme

OK I've got a winner! This works fine (testing so far with DO:PRINT PAD(0):LOOP)

miadore 2 x Retro Classic USB Controller SNES Gamepad, Wired SNES USB Controller Mac Controller for PC Game Windows Raspberry Pi Controller Pads(Multi-color Keys)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01N59IUV5

painintheworld

davegardnerisme Thank you, Dave! I do not see that exact model on the U.S. version of Amazon, but do see that brand, as well as an exact duplicate of the model you posted, but under a different brand - it is supposed to be here October 7th. The same brand, but different color, of the one in your link will be here on the 3rd 🙂

painintheworld

You did pick a winner! I bought the closest thing available from Amazon's American site. The only difference I can tell is that these are gray, instead of black. They work great!
.
U.S. Amazon link [ 2 Pack USB Controller for SNES Retro Gaming, miadore USB Classic Gamepad Joypad Gamestick for Windows PC MAC Linux Raspberry Pi 3 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071KQN1BP/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apan_glt_fabc_2VJ190F329M8YR8BFA8H?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 ](https://)