Sony Playstation (PSX) joystick controller port

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videogames connector including adaptation of PSX joystick to PC

9 pin Sony Playstation special connector layout 9 pin Sony Playstation special connector at the deivce, looking at the plug

PSX controllers are intelligent devices and communicate with the Playstation device using a special syncrosound serial bus and protocol. The controller system is implemented in bus architechture, which means that all signal wires are all tied together in PSX end (except select which is seperate for each device).

Pin Name Description
1 DATA Data
2 CMD Command
3 N/C (9V) Not connected (newer dual-shock controllers use it as power for the vibration mechanism)
4 GND Ground
5 VCC Vcc
6 ATT ATT select
7 CLK Clock
8 N/C Not connected
9 ACK Acknowledge

===PSX Signals description==

  • DATA Signal from Controller to PSX. This signal is an 8 bit serial transmission synchronous to the falling edge of clock (That is both the incoming and outgoing signals change on a high to low transition of clock. All the reading of signals is done on the leading edge to allow settling time.)
  • COMMAND Signal from PSX to Controller. This signal is the counter part of DATA. It is again an 8 bit serial transmission on the falling edge of clock.
  • VCC VCC can vary from 5V down to 3V and the official SONY Controllers will still operate. The controllers outlined here really want 5V. The main board in the PSX also has a surface mount 750mA fuse that will blow if you try to draw to much current through the plug (750mA is for both left, right and memory cards).
  • ATT ATT is used to get the attention of the controller. This signal will go low for the duration of a transmission. I have also seen this pin called Select, DTR and Command.
  • CLOCK Signal from PSX to Controller. Used to keep units in sync.
  • ACK Acknowledge signal from Controller to PSX. This signal should go low for at least one clock period after each 8 bits are sent and ATT is still held low. If the ACK signal does not go low within about 60 us the PSX will then start interogating other devices.

It should also be noted that this is a bus of sorts. This means that the wires are all tied together (except select which is seperate for each device). For the CLK, ATT, and CMD pins this does not matter as the PSX is always the originator. The DATA and ACK pins however can be driven from any one of four devices. To avoid contentions on these lines they are open collectors and can only be driven low. How to connect Playstation joystick to PC ? It is possible to adapt a joystick originally developed for PSX to a PC. After connecting joystick to PC parallel port, you must install a driver so the operating system understands that the device connected is a joystick.

    DB25                PSX 
    25 pin D-sub        9 pin 
    male                male 
    2--------------------------2 
    3--------------------------6 
    4--------------------------7 
    5--->|---| 
    6--->|---| 
    7--->|---|-----------------5 
    8--->|---| 
    9--->|---| 
    10-------------------------1 
    12-------------------------9 
    18,19----------------------4 
    ->| means 1N4148 diode 
    18,19 shorted in cable 

The diodes better to be soldered inside the DB25 connector. Joystick with this cable will work only after manual drivers install.

The PSX Controller Signals

All transmissions are eight bit serial LSB first. All timing in the PSX controller bus is syncronous to the falling edge of the clock. One byte of the transmissions will look kinda like this.

                    |BIT 0|BIT 1|BIT 2|BIT 3|BIT 4|BIT 5|BIT 6|BIT 7| 
      
         CLOCK -----___---___---___---___---___---___---___---___----------- 
      
         DATA  -----000000111111222222333333444444555555666666777777-------- 
      
                       *     *     *     *     *     *     *     * 
      
         CMND  -----000000111111222222333333444444555555666666777777-------- 
      
         ACK   ----------------------------------------------------------__- 

The logic level on the data lines is changed by the transmitting device on the falling edge of clock. This is then read by the receiving device on the leading edge (at the points marked *) allowing time for the signal to settle. After each COMMAND is recieved by a selected controller, that controller needs to pull ACK low for at least one clock tick. If a selected controller does not ACK the PSX will assume that there is no controller present.When the PSX wants to read information from a controller it pulls that devices ATT line low and issues a start command (0x01). The Controller Will then reply with its ID (0x41=Digital, 0x23=NegCon, 0x73=Analogue Red LED, 0x53=Analogue Green LED). At the same time as the controller is sending this ID byte the PSX is transmitting 0x42 to request the data. Following this the COMMAND line goes idle and the controller transmits 0x5A to say “here comes the data”.This would look like this for a digital controller

        ATT    -______________________________________________________________ 
                  |   Byte 1     |    |   Byte 2     |    |   Byte 3     | 
        CLOCK  ---_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-----_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-----_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_----- 
                       0xFF                0x41                0x5A  
        DATA   -------------------------__________--__----__--__----__--__---- 
                       0x01                0x42 
        CMND   -----_____________-----__--________--__------------------------ 
        ACK    --------------------__-------------------__-----------------__- 

After this command initiation proccess the controller then sends all its data bytes (in the case of a digital controller there is only two). After the last byte is sent ATT will go high and the controller does not need to ACK.The data transmision for a digital controller would look like this (where A0,A1,A2…B6,B7 are the data bits in the two bytes).

        ATT    _______________________________________------- 
                  |   Byte 4     |    |   Byte 5     |   
        CLOCK  ---_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-----_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-------- 
        DATA   ---D0D1D2D3D4D5D6D7----E0E1E2E3E4E5E6E7------- 
        CMND   ---------------------------------------------- 
                                                        *** 
        ACK    --------------------__------------------------ 
        NOTE: No ACK. 

PSX Controller Data

Below are five tables that show the actual bytes sent by the controllers

         Standard Digital Pad 
      
         BYTE    CMND    DATA 
      
          01     0x01    idle 
      
          02     0x42    0x41 
      
          03     idle    0x5A    Bit0 Bit1 Bit2 Bit3 Bit4 Bit5 Bit6 Bit7 
      
          04     idle    data    SLCT  JOYL  JOYR       STRT UP   RGHT DOWN LEFT 
      
          05     idle    data    L1   R1    L2  R2   /\   O    X    |_| 
      
         All Buttons active low. 
      
         
      
         NegCon 
      
         BYTE    CMND    DATA 
      
          01     0x01    idle 
      
          02     0x42    0x23 
      
          03     idle    0x5A    Bit0 Bit1 Bit2 Bit3 Bit4 Bit5 Bit6 Bit7 
      
          04     idle    data                   STRT UP   RGHT DOWN LEFT 
      
          05     idle    data                   R1   A    B 
      
          06     idle    data    Steering  0x00 = Right 0xFF = Left 
      
          07     idle    data    I  Button 0x00 = Out   0xFF = In 
      
          08     idle    data    II Button 0x00 = Out   0xFF = In 
      
          09     idle    data    L1 Button 0x00 = Out   0xFF = In 
      
         All Buttons active low. 
      
         
      
         Analogue Controller in Red Mode 
      
         BYTE    CMND    DATA 
      
          01     0x01    idle 
      
          02     0x42    0x73 
      
          03     idle    0x5A    Bit0 Bit1 Bit2 Bit3 Bit4 Bit5 Bit6 Bit7 
      
          04     idle    data    SLCT  JOYL  JOYR       STRT UP   RGHT DOWN LEFT 
      
          05     idle    data    L1   R1    L2  R2   /\   O    X    |_| 
      
          06     idle    data    Right Joy 0x00 = Left  0xFF = Right 
      
          07     idle    data    Right Joy 0x00 = Up    0xFF = Down 
      
          08     idle    data    Left Joy  0x00 = Left  0xFF = Right 
      
          09     idle    data    Left Joy  0x00 = Up    0xFF = Down 
      
         All Buttons active low. 
      
         
      
      
      
         Analogue Controller in Green Mode 
      
         BYTE    CMND    DATA 
      
          01     0x01    idle 
      
          02     0x42    0x53 
      
          03     idle    0x5A    Bit0 Bit1 Bit2 Bit3 Bit4 Bit5 Bit6 Bit7 
      
          04     idle    data                   STRT UP   RGHT DOWN LEFT 
      
          05     idle    data    L2   L1   |_|  /\   R1   O    X    R2 
      
          06     idle    data    Right Joy 0x00 = Left  0xFF = Right 
      
          07     idle    data    Right Joy 0x00 = Up    0xFF = Down 
      
          08     idle    data    Left Joy  0x00 = Left  0xFF = Right 
      
          09     idle    data    Left Joy  0x00 = Up    0xFF = Down 
      
         All Buttons active low. 
      
         
      
         PSX Mouse  
      
         (credit to T.Fujita  
      
           [ http://www.keisei.tsukuba.ac.jp/~kashima/games/ps-e.txt ](http://www.keisei.tsukuba.ac.jp/~kashima/games/ps-e.txt) ) 
      
         BYTE    CMND    DATA 
      
          01     0x01    idle 
      
          02     0x42    0x12 
      
          03     idle    0x5A    Bit0 Bit1 Bit2 Bit3 Bit4 Bit5 Bit6 Bit7 
      
          04     idle    0xFF 
      
          05     idle    data         L    R 
      
          06     idle    data    Delta Vertical 
      
          07     idle    data    Delta Horizontal 
      
         All Buttons active low. 

Notes

References

Category:VideoGame Connectors

 

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