TashPad: Super Nintendo to Gravis GamePad ADB Converter

zefrenchtoon

Well-known member
It's doable, yeah, though as you say, the mapping would be highly awkward... part of the appeal of making a SNES controller emulate the GamePad is the straightforwardness of the button mapping. From a firmware perspective, it's not very difficult to make a SNES controller emulate a keyboard/mouse with any set of keystrokes or mouse behaviors, the difficulty lies in how the user is meant to configure it - that's why being able to use the existing Gravis control panel is such a significant win for user friendliness.
So why not emulating a Gravis Thunderbird ? 😉
I know, with this, we are going far away the initial goal of this adapter. 🙂
 

zefrenchtoon

Well-known member
Not familiar with that one, looks like it's a cut-down version of the Firebird? I only see the PC version on ebay, did Gravis ever make an ADB version?
I was pretty sure mine was labelled Thunderbird at the time but here is a Firebird 2 ADB version:

(Unfortunately, I don't recall where I stored mine)


After looking at some photos on G**gle, the Thunderbird seems to be the first iteration with less buttons than the Firebird 2, mine had many buttons like the one on Ricardo's link.
 

Tashtari

PIC Whisperer
Ah, yeah, I've RE'd the Firebird joystick, though I don't know if mine is the same as the Firebird 2. It looks similar except for the color scheme (mine has green buttons and red levers)...
 

Tashtari

PIC Whisperer
Interest check time!

I'm considering putting together some TashPad kits for the US audience. I haven't priced out such an endeavor but I assume it'd wind up being similar to @demik 's EU group buy, that is, somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 for the PCB, parts, the case, and the case front and back panels.

If I'm convinced there's enough of a customer base, I'll start ordering things and put the kits up for sale in my Ko-fi shop (along with the other neat stuff for sale at cost, nudge nudge).

Who's interested?
 

demik

Well-known member
During the group buy, a lot of people were interested for a color closer to our old gear (white/beige/light gray), here is what it looks like

B%26W%20lineup.jpeg


B%26W%20front.jpeg


B%26W%20back.jpeg


Activity LED is orange-ish like the Mac II era HDD ones, whereas on the blue one LED collar is sea-ish blue
 

davewongillies

Well-known member
1731197310328.png
So I decided to order myself a batch from jlcpcb. First one down, four more to go. Still need to order a PIC programmer since all the parts arrived quicker than I was expecting.
 

Tashtari

PIC Whisperer
So I decided to order myself a batch from jlcpcb. First one down, four more to go. Still need to order a PIC programmer since all the parts arrived quicker than I was expecting.
Nice, the beige looks great! I can program PICs for you, too, if that makes more economic sense than buying a PIC programmer - but if you like doing builds based on my projects, it may be worth your while to get the programmer.
 

demik

Well-known member
So I decided to order myself a batch from jlcpcb. First one down, four more to go. Still need to order a PIC programmer since all the parts arrived quicker than I was expecting.
Nice job! I'm seeing lots of controllers in the background. What will you use with this one ?
Nice, the beige looks great!
Yeah, think I wall have ti extend that to a few others projects :p
 

davewongillies

Well-known member
Nice, the beige looks great! I can program PICs for you, too, if that makes more economic sense than buying a PIC programmer - but if you like doing builds based on my projects, it may be worth your while to get the programmer.
The programmer didn't cost too much (I got a pickit3) and I'm sure I'll use it again but trying to wrap my head around how to get the software working is a whole other thing since I've never used anything like this before. Its all part of the fun of this hobby though, I'll figure it out.
 
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opualuan

Well-known member
I’m having a strange issue. I have a tashpad with an 8bitdo snes controller, it works with the gamepad driver- sometimes though it prevents the keyboard from working- keyboard sends only tashpad keystrokes (even if from different keyboard keys). Only a restart fixes it.

Maybe there is interaction with my setup? Bmow wombat with logitech wireless usb keyboard/mouse. Does it matter if tashpad is first or second in the adb chain? This is on Lc475 running 7.5.5.
 

opualuan

Well-known member
I have the gravis utility issuing u d l r / a b c d keys for the gamepad outputs for testing. This works. After trying the gamepad, typing on the keyboard will also only issue u d l r / a b c d characters, regardless what is typed. It’s very strange. Backspace key is “b” for example.
 

Tashtari

PIC Whisperer
I have the gravis utility issuing u d l r / a b c d keys for the gamepad outputs for testing. This works. After trying the gamepad, typing on the keyboard will also only issue u d l r / a b c d characters, regardless what is typed. It’s very strange. Backspace key is “b” for example.
That's very strange. I'm strongly tempted to blame the driver, because I have no earthly idea how the firmware could cause this behavior - the firmware only communicates the state of the buttons to the Mac, it knows nothing of the keystrokes to which they're mapped. Have you tried connecting a standard ADB keyboard in lieu of the Wombat?
 
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