Anyway, Nintendo released their SNES emulator for Switch Online subscribers (I'm calling it a SNES emulator because that's pretty much what it is and it'll be easier to make the distinction), and I was able to use the 8Bitdo controller fine except for the screenshot or home buttons (which were needed for the emulator menus), but I ended up just using the Joy Cons instead. I forgot when Nintendo launched their Bluetooth SNES controller (again, making distinctions), but I bought a set of four (the max per account) so that I'd have two for the emulator and two for the Super NT. I also bought another 8Bitdo Bluetooth controller receiver for the SNES, which kinda sat after I made sure it worked with the 8Bitdo controller.
When I finally got Nintendo's Bluetooth SNES controllers, they wouldn't pair with the receivers (pretty sure that's what it was), and after checking if there were firmware updates for the receivers, there were none. I decided to take matters into my own hands since I was able to pair the controllers just fine with Pod or my phone, and it shouldn't be that hard to translate the inputs to GPIO outputs. I looked up what ways I had to level shift the 3.3-volt outputs to 5 volts, and besides transistors, I found the SN7407. I also found the CD4021 used in some example SNES/NES controller circuits.
While attempting to design a board, I ran into the issue of where to source the voltage for the SN7407, the pull-up resistors, and the CD4021. I designed an experimentation board that allowed me to switch which 5-volt source to use (either the Raspberry Pi or the
Originally I was going to make one Raspberry Pi handle one player, but I can't remember what lead me to making a board for both players and having one Raspberry Pi handle both players. I also had done some testing with Pod and one of the controllers to poke around with the button values and such.
With all the work I had done (thankfully no other boards besides the experimentation was made), 8Bitdo had finally released the firmware update that included Nintendo's Bluetooth SNES controllers, and I dropped the project since it was no longer needed. Unfortunately I already had bought two Raspberry Pi 0 W boards (from different vendors), but they would end up reserved for another project.
I think it might've waited a while between when Nintendo launched the Bluetooth SNES to starting this project, since the experiment board was designed in June of last year.
Resources I used before I dropped the project:
- https://www.digikey.com/en/maker/projects/diy-super-nintendo-breadboard-controller/788fd6f521824fb58715ca0b95b92840
- https://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=controls:nes_snes_controller
- https://elinux.org/RPi_GPIO_Interface_Circuits
- https://core-electronics.com.au/tutorials/using-usb-and-bluetooth-controllers-with-python.html
The reasoning for the 5-position tiny XLR connectors was that the Mad Catz controller had a wire break near the plug, so I had to hack something together to get it working once more (besides taping the wire to the connector in a position that it would work). I used some SNES controller extension cables to make an adapter to connect the Mad Catz controller to the SNES, an XLR to XLR extension (or to be able to plug in the experiment board), and another adapter so that the SNES to SNES extension can still happen if needed.
To fix the directional pad, I grabbed the old directional pad top and bottom from my XBox 360 controller (I reshelled it from white to black), and used the bottom to model the receiver and bottom plate for the Mad Catz controller. I got a stepper drill to increase the hole size in the controller for the new directional pad assembly and drilled it out to the approximate size of the one in the Xbox 360 controller.
I had the receiver 3D printed via FDM process and while it looked okay, it really wasn't. Besides it having a little more flex than I wanted, some of the holes were undersized, so when I did some sort of test fit (can't remember if it was with or without the Mad Catz controller), I had to use a drill to be able to separate the top piece from the receiver, destroying the only spare XBox 360 directional pad top I had. It was a little tough to decide whether to buy a button set that included the piece I needed or to order a couple dozen of the piece I needed, but I eventually went with the latter.
I think I just had the receiver reprinted with MJF (multi-jet fusion), but with it showed that I had a portion too thick because I screwed up the maths — the button press pads and the connecting plate were supposed to be 3mm thick total, not the plate itself. After the fix (and some tweaks to the keying in the plate), I sent it off to be printed (still MJF), and when I got it, it worked as intended. I also did have to find my own screws to join the top to the receiver (no screws was included with the reshelling kit), but with a small box of salvaged screws, I found something that worked (this was confirmed before I had the FDM receiver).
It looks a bit weird because the XBox 360 directional pad top leaves a larger gap in the recess than the original (though the original was long gone before this, so I don't have a proper size comparison), but it's functionally fine otherwise. I didn't realise that I adjusted the angle of the directional pad until now, but from the testing after finishing the project, I didn't notice any issues? Or maybe I'm just seeing things, I dunno.
Normal (probably about 2mm around the directional pad) and mine (about 5mm around the directional pad).
I dunno how they assembled the directional pad, but I do remember it had a 5-6mm diameter plastic shaft connecting the inside piece to the top piece, and because there was a lot of space below the top piece when pressing down, it slowly strained the plastic where the top piece and shaft meet until the top piece broke off. I think I tried to super glue it back on, but it didn't work (also, this was numerous years ago).
Since I found pictures that I had...
Boards, finished board top, finished board bottom, and modded board.
