RetroPie GPIO Adapter help

[Ozzie Regalado]

Hello all, I’m freshly new to Raspberry pi, Retro Pie, and even Linux. Alot of the instructions for setup are insanely confusing and I must be doing something wrong. I have 2 SNES controllers (third party from US Amazon.com) hooked up to the SNES GPIO board and they don’t seem to be responding to anything, not even the button on the GPIO board does anything when pressed. I first tried using the controllers with the latest version of the retro pie Image (1.5). I thought that maybe the Image didn’t work properly and decided to give it a re-install using the binaries version of the setup. after the re-install, I selected “install/update multi-console gamepad drivers for gpio” and “Enable gamecon_gpio_rpi with SNES-pad config”

I tried loading the Gamecon drivers (Because SNESDev wasnt working out for me on the first run) and noticed a disclaimer about two different versions of boards in their instructions (one uses the first two ports to configure SNES controllers, the other version uses ports 5 and 6?) I would guess since I recently got my SNES GPIO board, that I would have to use ports 5 and 6 for my SNES controllers, like “0,0,0,0,1,1” instead of “1,1,0,0”?

I also have SNESDev set to 2 (or whatever it is), so that it polls only the button on the GPIO adapter. Whenever I turn on SNESDev, it gets stuck on Initializing pad and doesn’t allow me to do anything else until I press ctrl+c to end it. When I do a Jstest on ports 0 and 1 the SNES pads show up, with all buttons as Off. Also when i tried running “~/RetroPie/SNESDev-RPi/bin/SNESDev &” It doesnt work and brings up “No such file or directory”, It’s like as if SNESDev refuses to work.

Basically, NONE of the buttons work, not even the GPIO button on the board itself. I’d also like to point out again that I’m Using THIRD PARTY SNES CONTROLLERS! This could be the whole problem, but it wouldn’t explain why I haven’t gotten the GPIO button to work yet. I’m in the process of trying to obtain some real controllers right now.

Any help would be awesome, I’m working on a project that will be presented at a Tech fair this weekend in California. (If it gets finished in time :P)

Thanks

[Ozzie Regalado]

Okay here’s an update. I managed to get a few authentic SNES controllers and I’m still not getting any response from the controllers. If i try and use retroarch joyconfig, it just says “Configuring binds for player #1 on joypad #0. A button (right)” and then nothing happens and I have to press ctrl+c to close the program. SNESDev still also get stuck on initializing controllers when I try and run it as well. I have to ctrl+c out of SNESDev in order to do anything. When i check the Adapter with a multi-meter, it seems to be receiving power and the voltage seems to change when I press the buttons on the pads too. I dont really know the specifics on the adapter, so im not sure whats exactly supposed to show up when I put it up to a multi-meter.

I feel like im doing something obviously stupid, but I just can’t figure out what it is. I’m DESPERATE for help here. If you’re reading this and you have even the slightest idea as to whats going on, please PLEASE let me know.

[petrockblog]

Hi,

I need your help in order to improve the articles and information that you are reading. If you have any suggestions or any open questions, I would be glad if you could point me to the specific points in the articles where you would expect certain kinds of information! I am also glad that we are talking right now.

If you have the RetroPie GPIO adapter (https://www.petrockblock.com/2012/10/21/the-retropie-gpio-adapter/), the simplest way for enabling the button would be to
– use the Sd-card image
– Enable SNESDev from within the RetroPie Setup Script
– do not enable the gamecon driver and SNESDev at the same time, because both access the GPIO pins and they do interfere with each other.

If you press the button 3 times, the press of the ESC key is simulated. If you press the button 5 times, the shutdown command is executed.

For connecting SNES controllers to the GPIO adapter, the central diagram is given at http://petrockblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/wpid-photo-19-10-2012-20011.jpg. If you are sure that the wiring is correct, I wouldn’t suggest to enable SNESDev with the setup script. I have also attached two images to this post that show the wiring between the crimp connector and the two SNES connectors. If you are following the described wiring between the connectors, and you are using the GPIO adapter, and you are using SNESDev and the SD-card image, then things should work!

Btw: The RetroPie Setup Script installs SNESDev in the directory /usr/local/bin. A binary and (optionally) the sources of SNESDev can also be found in /home/pi/RetroPie/supplementary/SNESDev-RPi, but these are not used when SNESDev is enabled with the RetroPie Setup Script.

I hope this helps!?

[Ozzie Regalado]

Thank you very much for the response! Unfortunately, after following all of your instructs step by step, I still seem to be having no success. I installed a fresh copy of the latest image. In setup, I selected “5 – Start SNESDev on boot?” and chose the second selection (polling pads and button). Then i rebooted the system. When emulationstation boots up, still no response from buttons on controller. also nothing happens when I press the button on the adapter, which has me worried that the adapter could possibly be broken?

I’m attaching a few pictures of my wiring to make sure my setup is okay. the first picture is the inside of the male plug on the SNES controller extension cables that i opened to figure out where the wires went.( Ground – Black, Data – Red, Latch – Yellow, Clock – Orange, VCC -Brown) the second photo is how I have my wiring done for player 1, which I believe I’ve spliced to the bottom row of the 2X5 plug

[petrockblog]

Ok, a few more ideas:

– You need to delete the file /home/pi/.emulationstation/es_input.cfg to have Emulation Station show the input configuration screen again.

– Also, do you put the crimp connector onto the pin headers with the right orientation? GND should be on the outer two pins as shown in the diagram attached to this post.

– There is a program for explicitly testing the button located in /home/pi/RetroPie/supplementary/SNESDev/supplementary/testButton/. If this directory does not exist,you need to install SNESDev together with the BCM library via the source-based installation of the RetroPie Setup Script. If you select only SNESDev and the BCM library this will take only a few minutes.

– Orientation of the adapter itself: The pin header has to point to the inside of the RPi.

Maybe one of these points give you a hint?!

[Ozzie Regalado]

[quote=1775]Ok, a few more ideas:

– Orientation of the adapter itself: The pin header has to point to the inside of the RPi.

[/quote]

THIS… THIS RIGHT HERE IS WAS THE GOLDEN ANSWER. I knew I was doing something stupid. I had the damn thing installed backwards. I guess I hadn’t exactly seen a full on picture of the Adapter installed. Most images are of the wiring diagram, or have the SNES ports covering the actual adapter itself. thank you SO much for helping me out. Everything seems to be in working order now. I’m in the middle of finals right now, but I’d gladly post suggestions for your website and Ill be sure to post pictures of my Portable RetroPie project as soon as I get the chance.

Once again, thanks a lot.

[petrockblog]

Nice – I am glad to hear that it is working now!

Have fun!

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