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Hi, as previously mentioned here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5624

I am keen to get some working Joystick adapters for my Dragon 32. Alastair and robcfg kindly pointed me in the right direction, as may be seen on the other thread.

I'm pretty sure I can build these, but I thought it may be fun, and useful to future readers/Dragon/CoCo owners to do a step by step guide, hopefully with some advice from the site's famous Dragon engineers to point me in the right direction!

So, my aim is to build a Double Atari Joystick adapter.

I have sourced the parts for about £10 on Ebay.
My list was:

100 K Ohm resisters X8 (I got 20) 1/4 W

Texas Instruments Integrated Circuits 4000 Series DIP DIL - 2x CD4066BE

9 Way D Sub Sockets X 2 (I got the plugs as well)

5 PIN DIN Plug 240° X 2

Vero Type Stripboard 25 X 64 X 2, I got a pack of 5.

I also have a Spectravideo Quickshot 1 and 2 Joystick (if needed) as donors for cabling and wires.

The Vero Boards arrived today, hopefully they are suitable.

Please see the picture:

https://imgur.com/eWjydgI

I will need two of these to make my adapter I think, but that is not a problem.

I need to build some of these too (to cope with Megadrive controllers, which requires
feeding +ve and also pulling a select line high).

I have a noddy stripboard layout ready that seems reasonable. If I do get it together
before you do, I'll post it if it works.

..ciaran

That would be great! Many thanks sixxie.

For those who wish to help you can find the original instructions and schematics at Vrai's Retro Stuff.

Commodore, since I have not built the boards the best advice I can give at present is that before soldering or cutting anything you should first lay out the components on the board and move them about until you get an arrangement you feel comfortable with. Then double-check to make sure that it tallies with the schematic, after which you should mark the board according to this arrangement.

Thanks Alastair, that's a great idea because that is the bit that I will really struggle with. I can sort of understand the schematic (thanks for posting it), but not really well enough to translate it onto a circuit board.

Maybe if I try, and then show my attempts, between us we may be able to put it right before I actually solder it. I'm fairly sure I can solder it OK, although I'm no expert, this doesn't seem too difficult. I'll have a practice on some wire first anyway.
Cheers.

The 5 PIN DIN plugs (240 degrees) and the 9 Pin D Subs (Atari Sockets) arrived today.

Right. I'm back on this today, after a few days mucking about with my BBC Micro.

So, I have just wired up one of the D Sub sockets (which took longer than I thought it would! My bad soldering.
I had two old spectravideo joysticks which have both donated their leads. Very kind of them.

The D Sub is wired up thus:

Right is red, green is left, black is down, white is up, blue is ground and brown is fire.

That really was a baby step!

I might do the other one tomorrow, or maybe a DIN plug to mix it up a bit, or maybe both!

So today I have wired up a 5 pin DIN plug so far:

5v Brown
F Orange
G Blue
Y Black
X White.

What a fiddly job that was!

There's a reason why I don't do soldering! It's because I'm rubbish at it.
I just soldered one of the ICs to a board, I think! It's not very tidy, goodness knows if it will work.
Just when I think I was starting to fathom the schematics too!