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SNES to USB Mod: MCU
The harder way to do a console controller to USB mod is to use a microcontroller and do the conversion from
the controller to USB in hardware and firmware. I'm using the 16c745 microcontroller for this project since
it has USB capabilities on-chip. Interfacing the SNES controller to the pic was pretty simple. The controller
communicates via a serial protocol. It only needs three pins (serial, clock, latch). Getting the USB to
work is much more difficult.
Updated 8/7/06:
I sprung for a professionally made board.
Updated 7/29/05:
Finished the board and enclosure; more pictures.
Updated 7/7/05:
I finally got around to finishing this and it works perfectly. It should work on any operating system that has
HID drivers. Everything since Windows 98SE comes with HID drivers out of the box, so that should cover most people.
The gamepad will show up in the Game Controllers control panel. Apps that support DirectInput should make full use of
the controller. I tested it in ZSNES and SNES9x and it worked fine.
The code is written in CCS C. I used their drivers with modified descriptors. I had tons of problems getting the
device to enumerate. I had the descriptors right, but timing caused a lot of issues. Anyway, I finally got it working.