What joystick..?

[Morkin]

Hi everyone,

Just got my first Dragon 32 machine hooked up and working.. Nice machine!

I'm looking to get hold of a couple of compatible joysticks for it, the only thing is I'm not overly keen on those 'original' ones (the ones with the handle and the stick that doesn't self-centre).

Can anyone give any recommendations on others I might be able to get hold of? Which ones do you use? Are they any good? Have done a bit of digging around but I'm unsure of what to get. I hear you can convert joysticks (PC) but not sure whether it's tricky to do or not. Any suggestions welcome.

[zephyr]

Hi,

You can use most joysticks if you are handy with a soldering iron.

http://www.gifford.co.uk/~coredump/dragonjoy.htm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/anachrocom ... 230110392/
http://www.grempc.demon.co.uk/dragon/info/pinouts.html

Joystick.gif (4.08 KiB) Viewed 4294 times

If not, follow the link below to for more information about Dragon compatible joysticks. Other joysticks can also be used via one of the adapters currently being sold on eBay.

http://www.dragonwiki.com/wiki/index.ph ... eripherals


BTW, does your Dragon 32 run at double speed without crashing.

Regards,
Steve

[robcfg]

It seems easy to adapt an analog PC joystick to the Dragon, but is a nice schematic out there just to be sure I'm not frying my Dragon?

[Morkin]

Hi,

You can use most joysticks if you are handy with a soldering iron.

BTW, does your Dragon 32 run at double speed without crashing.

Regards,
Steve

Thanks - had noticed that conversion link, I have a pal who can solder (better than me anyway!) so I think I'll have a crack at doing a PC joystick conversion, the schematic & instructions seem reasonably straightforward (probably shouldn't say that really!).

Hmmm, I'll also try to test the double speed POKEs and see what happens..

[zephyr]

Did your Dragon run without problems at double speed?

[Morkin]

Sorry for the delay, I didn't realise but some of the keys were a bit 'sticky', so had to do a bit of internal spring cleaning...

Anyway thanks for the heads up - I didn't even know about the double speed thing until I started looking here. Unfortunately I don't seem to be in luck, tried running the POKEs in a BASIC program (one of the tests that's listed somewhere here) but just got crashes.

[zephyr]

Thanks for testing. Does it crash when running any of following BASIC programs.

Code: Select all

10 POKE65495,0
20 FOR I = 1 TO 1000
30 PRINT"QWERTY"
40 NEXT
50 POKE 65494,0

Code: Select all

10 POKE65495,0
20 FOR I = 1 TO 20
30 PLAY"CD"
40 NEXT
50 POKE 65494,0

[Morkin]

Cheers Zephyr...

Just tried those 2, it runs them both fine without crashing...

[zephyr]

If it runs the two test programs without crashing, you have nothing to worry about. That is the poke which is often used to speed up BASIC programs.

(a) Which these four Motherboards is installed in your Dragon.
http://archive.worldofdragon.org/index. ... d_Pictures

(b) Is XL2 marked up as 14.218 or 14.31818 (MHz).

(c) Is the UHF modulator (ASTEC) marked up as UM 1233, UM 1286, or UM 1287.

Regards,
Steve

[Alastair]

If it runs the two test programs without crashing, you have nothing to worry about. That is the poke which is often used to speed up BASIC programs.

I wouldn't speak too soon, when my Dragon is cold it will run BASIC double speed but after it warms up (perhaps after quarter of an hour) it will crash. So it is best to run these tests after your Dragon has warmed up.