US/German serial and joystick pinouts...

[Dave]

Hi all.

Are the US and German QL serial and joystick ports the same as each other? (I've googled around and can't find an official pinout.

On this QL motherboard, would people prefer the serial and joystick to match the traditional QL layout or the traditional PC layout?

Would people prefer the joystick layout to match the current QL layout, or the Kempston layout?

On the serial ports, I have put a small 2x6 header block behind the DB9s. This allows you to either hook the socket to the internal 8302/8049 serial, or if you later get a fast serial card, to jumper it to that header so the signals are all internal. I can also place a similar header behind the joystick ports, so people could put wire jumpers to configure the pins to any format they liked, including Atari, Amiga, Kemptson, etc.

What do people want?

[XorA]

I would say destroy the secondaries market and wire the port as standard

The only reason I can see for the sinclair wiring is because of the way the d-sockets are shoehorned into the same wiring as the BT sockets.

It would be a whole lot easier for newbs to source a standard 9 pin null modem cable and re-use commodore/speccy joysticks! (not the amstrad ones)

[tofro]

With regards to the 9-pin joystick connectors on mainland Europe QLs, these are identical to what Atari, Commodore, Kempston (and even Sinclair, but not Amstrad) used. Thus I'd recommend to stay with these.

Kempston and Sinclair (IF2) joystick ports have the same pinout as Commodore and Atari, just differ in the internal representation to the CPU.

Amstrad messed with the joystick ports in the +2 and +3 Spectrums, making them incompatible (even dangerously incompatible) to the rest of the market.

The "traditional PC layout" for joystick connectors is 15-pin and analogue. Don't even think about going there.

Tobias

[Dave]

*grins* There isn't room....

The only joystick port I know is the Kempston type.

I found concise serial port info and have matched the ports to the German QL equivalents. I'll just document it clearly. I am also going to provide some static protection on the joystick pins, because the male DB9 connectors do leave pins exposed that are directly connected to the 8049.

[swensont]

The US QL used the same port as the Atari VCS (2600). I used the older Atari joysticks on the QL with no issue. Kempston never really made it to the US, so I don't know what it's format is like.

Tim

[Dave]

It seems they are the same, except Atari explicitly stated a +5V pin and Kempston didn't.

[Cristian]

for me Atari joystick layout

[tofro]

It seems they are the same, except Atari explicitly stated a +5V pin and Kempston didn't.

You don't need +5V for a digital joystick - The Atari has it because it can also connect analog paddles.

Tobias

[XorA]

Whatever the wiring for joystick port, make sure it doesn't blow up like C64 when megadrive compatible pads are plugged in

[Dave]

...or like Spectrum +2/+3 ports... Hehe.

With the, uh.... with the "changes" happening to the 8302/8049 in the distant future, I can see two analog inputs that might just be useful for the X and Y co-ordinates of common analog joysticks. Maaaaybeee.

I, personally, have never used a joystick port on a QL, but I can totally see the attraction!

Now I just need to find that bit in the manual where it describes which keypress each joystick equates to. I remember seeing it 35 years ago, but I haven't seen it round here since! Once I recover that knowledge, I'll be able to work out which of the lines represents which pin.