28 Nov
2007
28 Nov
'07
3:20 p.m.
On Nov 27, 2007 5:23 PM, Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com> wrote:
To try to add some new information, the VIC/64
joysticks should not be
overlooked for small IO projects for kids. DE9 female sockets are easy
to find, and there's Vcc, GND, 5 pins of IO and 2 pins of 8 bit ADC
available for the taking per port. In fact, using both ports with a bit
of ML and a nice BASIC program, you could make a nice electronics
trainer for possibly multiple machines (It looks like the Atari variants
had true joystick IO ports, but I know very little about the Apple and
TI units. Google says Atari created such a trainer for their 400/800
units, so the idea held some merit.
The TI joystick port uses the same 9-pin connector as the Atari and
Commodore, but wired differently and without any ADC. Both joysticks share
the same connector and signal pins back to the console, which generates
"test joystick 1" and "test joystick 2" signals. There are adapters
for
plugging in an Atari joystick (because the TI ones were really phenomenally
wretched), but all they do is rearrange the pins -- there aren't any with an
ADC or support for paddle controllers, as far as I know.
One very nice item that's still readily available for the Atari and probably
works just fine with the C64 or VIC as well is the "AtariLab" kit, which
includes a few sensors, basic programming information, and ideas for
experiments.