Posted By
TLC
on 2022-07-28
11:36:10
|  Re: Joystick Adapter component advice
@gmontag451 Hi, I was about to reply somewhat similar to what siz wrote, but he has just beat me to it  .
Addendum:
The gated logic will protect your TED from happens between the interface's end and the external world. That is, you're free to use any sort of more-or-less Atari joyport compatible devices (including Mega Drive joypads), that's no problem. The worst that you could expect is that some gadget, or, some part of some gadget, simply won't work. You should be even able to pull and reconnect joysticks off/to the interface without consequences.
The gated logic will not protect your TED from happens between the machine's joystick port and the interface logic. That is, similarly to using any other Plus/4 compatible joysticks, pay attention when you connect the thing to the machine. (Try reducing the chances of shocking the machine's joystick ports with ESD. Try grounding yourself to the machine's metal shielding (say, touch the cartridge port's metal cage) while you connect anything to the joystick ports. Never swap the interface between the joytick ports while the machine is on, etc. etc.)
I was lucky to have received a couple of boards of this design from a friend who'd occassionally also visit this forum (thank you again, much appreciated! ), ...other than having written the original document (which SukkoPera's readme references) some 20+ years ago  . This is a pretty much basic TTL device, with no special components needed. SukkoPera used resistor networks in his PCB design to spare space, those could be somewhat difficult to obtain, but as it looks you have already managed to find them so that looks fine too . When I populated one of my boards, I couldn't obtain the 10-pin isolated 100 ohm network, so I just substituted it by soldering cheap SMD resistors between the vias. As long as the component values are somewhat close, the thing is just supposed to work.
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