Great explanation, I'm fixing a controller that was "fixed" previously but in a bad way. Actually I get a aleatory B pressed button so I'm analizing circuit. Thanks!
You would like this very much then. I was just looking it up for another reason but I saw your comment and thought it would be just the thing you like. Even if you don't like the page itself, the site in general is a treasure trove of information about how NES hardware works. Literally everything you need to know in order to make your own game even, if you read up enough of course heh. www.nesdev.org/wiki/Standard_controller
Great video! It has helped a great deal with a NES Advantage refurb I am working on. It has a broken potentiometer. Would you happen to know where I could get a replacement? Thank you in advance for any tips you might have.
I forget the pot resistance but surely it's common, and otherwise a close enough value should still work, just might have a different effect on how fast a turbo works. The cheapest option to avoid shipping and markups would probably be Ebay or AliExpress if waiting a month is ok. There's different physical sizes so it would be good if the mounting options could be confirmed so a huge body doesn't come that can't be installed. www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=potentiometer www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=potentiometer
@@GadgetReboot Thanks for the good advice. I looked closer at the pot now and it says “18 Alpha” on the bottom, so I will try and track down the part now.
Thanks for this most excellent video, much appreciated. I recently purchased a second NES Advantage at Goodwill, it didn't work. Upon disassembly and inspection I found the main board to be broken into 3 pieces, it looks like someone else had done some soldering as well, maybe attempting a mod. I glued the board and repaired (soldered) all of the broken traces and it is showing signs of life except any input from the joystick or the left button are seen as Right + Down. Do you know where I might find a schematic of the entire board, I believe it's a simple short somewhere. Thanks, Doug.
One day I might try to get the ROB robot working in some sort of project, but don't know what practical use to give it. Anything I do though should make the robot way more useful than it ever was in the 80s!
@@GadgetReboot I don’t think I ever even saw one in person, but, yeah, they didn’t look useful. But I saw a video talking about how it was great publicity and helped then move a lot more NES without the ROB.
@@MegaCadr Yeah there were only ever 2 games for it and it was more of an obstruction like waiting for a tv commercial to end. They used it as marketing to make it seem less like a video game (with the market crash at the time and lost interest from people) and more like a "home entertainment system"
I'm not sure of the pros and cons of different configurations but it probably wasn't much difference in cost if they still had to use a hex inverter package, they'd have 3 spare inverters sitting around. But they might have saved 3 resistors. I think single inverter oscillators work best with Schmitt inverters and the cost is the same today but I wonder if it was more expensive 35 years ago...
I'm trying to make an 8 button USB arcade stick with turbo functionality that's mostly identical to the NES Advantage, but I'd like to use a separate microcontroller to handle turbo functionality. Would using a transistor inline with the button work for toggling it at ~30hz, or am I going to fry my USB microcontroller?
if there is a working USB joystick circuit already with buttons, and the buttons connect something to ground, putting an NPN transistor in parallel with the button so the emitter goes to ground and collector goes to the other side of the button and the base is controlled from the micro controller for turbo with a series current limit resistor, that should work
Yeah the advantage basically has two normal controller cables going into it with the 5 wires on each cable attached to the board, so if there's spare controller cables, they can be used or else get cheap ext. cables on ebay and cut the jack end off and connect two to the advantage. www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=nes+controller+cable
I’m trying to convert my NES Advantage to work with microswitch arcade buttons but the solder points on the turbo toggle switches are giving me trouble. I can’t figure out how to make it work correctly. I’ve gotten the turbo function to work on the “slow” button but not in tandem with a regular pause (I haven’t even tried the adjustable A and B buttons yet). Could you help me understand which contact point does what on those turbo switches?
Hello man ! Congrat for your scheme and your explanations. I would have a little question for you who look have knolwedge on this Nes advantage PCB. In the case where one of the two chipsets (the 7404 and the 4021) are down and by the fact theses exacts models (MC74HC04A and MC14021BCP) are no longuer build, could they be replaced by another chipset of the same sort and which one ?
Yeah they are very standard across manufacturers so the prefix and suffix for things like MC or MC1, A, BCP would just be certain manufacturer's specific part number indicating things like package type, temperature range, or other traits that were being implemented way back and needed to be identified but are just standard now. So basically any "4021" or "74HC04" should work. The 74 does have to be 74HC because all the different types of 74 can act differently but that's another story. HC is high speed CMOS and if resistors/capacitors are used with that, it will work differently from just a regular 7404.
Thanks for this demo. I'm tackling a joystick project now. I liked your visualizations.
You’re awesome! Your 4021 8 bit shift register scheme works like a charm!!
I have an advantage controller where the start button doesn't work. I've cleaned it an don't see any bad solder connections.
Great explanation, I'm fixing a controller that was "fixed" previously but in a bad way. Actually I get a aleatory B pressed button so I'm analizing circuit. Thanks!
No more 555 for the turbo buttons. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for the wonderful explanation. I enjoyed learning it✨✌✌
cheers
You would like this very much then. I was just looking it up for another reason but I saw your comment and thought it would be just the thing you like. Even if you don't like the page itself, the site in general is a treasure trove of information about how NES hardware works. Literally everything you need to know in order to make your own game even, if you read up enough of course heh.
www.nesdev.org/wiki/Standard_controller
@@VoidHalo Thanks for sharing the link. 😊😊
Great video! It has helped a great deal with a NES Advantage refurb I am working on. It has a broken potentiometer. Would you happen to know where I could get a replacement? Thank you in advance for any tips you might have.
I forget the pot resistance but surely it's common, and otherwise a close enough value should still work, just might have a different effect on how fast a turbo works.
The cheapest option to avoid shipping and markups would probably be Ebay or AliExpress if waiting a month is ok. There's different physical sizes so it would be good if the mounting options could be confirmed so a huge body doesn't come that can't be installed.
www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=potentiometer
www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=potentiometer
@@GadgetReboot Thanks for the good advice. I looked closer at the pot now and it says “18 Alpha” on the bottom, so I will try and track down the part now.
Thanks for this most excellent video, much appreciated. I recently purchased a second NES Advantage at Goodwill, it didn't work. Upon disassembly and inspection I found the main board to be broken into 3 pieces, it looks like someone else had done some soldering as well, maybe attempting a mod. I glued the board and repaired (soldered) all of the broken traces and it is showing signs of life except any input from the joystick or the left button are seen as Right + Down. Do you know where I might find a schematic of the entire board, I believe it's a simple short somewhere. Thanks, Doug.
I don’t know if there is an official schematic but there’s lots of custom drawn ones like this furrtek.free.fr/noclass/nesadv/nesadv_full.png
@@GadgetReboot Thank you.
Nostalgia overload!
One day I might try to get the ROB robot working in some sort of project, but don't know what practical use to give it. Anything I do though should make the robot way more useful than it ever was in the 80s!
@@GadgetReboot I don’t think I ever even saw one in person, but, yeah, they didn’t look useful. But I saw a video talking about how it was great publicity and helped then move a lot more NES without the ROB.
@@MegaCadr Yeah there were only ever 2 games for it and it was more of an obstruction like waiting for a tv commercial to end. They used it as marketing to make it seem less like a video game (with the market crash at the time and lost interest from people) and more like a "home entertainment system"
What is actually the reason they used two inverters per oscillators?
Basically you only need just one to get the same result?
I'm not sure of the pros and cons of different configurations but it probably wasn't much difference in cost if they still had to use a hex inverter package, they'd have 3 spare inverters sitting around. But they might have saved 3 resistors. I think single inverter oscillators work best with Schmitt inverters and the cost is the same today but I wonder if it was more expensive 35 years ago...
I'm trying to make an 8 button USB arcade stick with turbo functionality that's mostly identical to the NES Advantage, but I'd like to use a separate microcontroller to handle turbo functionality. Would using a transistor inline with the button work for toggling it at ~30hz, or am I going to fry my USB microcontroller?
if there is a working USB joystick circuit already with buttons, and the buttons connect something to ground, putting an NPN transistor in parallel with the button so the emitter goes to ground and collector goes to the other side of the button and the base is controlled from the micro controller for turbo with a series current limit resistor, that should work
Hello, i need to change or replace the cable of my advantage. What should I use? Does the old nes controller cable works?
Yeah the advantage basically has two normal controller cables going into it with the 5 wires on each cable attached to the board, so if there's spare controller cables, they can be used or else get cheap ext. cables on ebay and cut the jack end off and connect two to the advantage. www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=nes+controller+cable
Super
I’m trying to convert my NES Advantage to work with microswitch arcade buttons but the solder points on the turbo toggle switches are giving me trouble. I can’t figure out how to make it work correctly. I’ve gotten the turbo function to work on the “slow” button but not in tandem with a regular pause (I haven’t even tried the adjustable A and B buttons yet). Could you help me understand which contact point does what on those turbo switches?
Sorry i know this was a while ago but i too am facing a similar issue working out the solder points for these buttons. did you ever work it out?
@@HarrisonMarchant sadly no I never solved it
Hello man ! Congrat for your scheme and your explanations. I would have a little question for you who look have knolwedge on this Nes advantage PCB. In the case where one of the two chipsets (the 7404 and the 4021) are down and by the fact theses exacts models (MC74HC04A and MC14021BCP) are no longuer build, could they be replaced by another chipset of the same sort and which one ?
Yeah they are very standard across manufacturers so the prefix and suffix for things like MC or MC1, A, BCP would just be certain manufacturer's specific part number indicating things like package type, temperature range, or other traits that were being implemented way back and needed to be identified but are just standard now.
So basically any "4021" or "74HC04" should work. The 74 does have to be 74HC because all the different types of 74 can act differently but that's another story. HC is high speed CMOS and if resistors/capacitors are used with that, it will work differently from just a regular 7404.
Thanks a lot for your help !
I wish you all the best. 👍
Wow I love this video.