Is the Famiclone controller 3.3V or 5V?

Using, learning, programming and modding the Gigatron and anything related.
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thwill
Posts: 4
Joined: 13 May 2019, 19:16

Is the Famiclone controller 3.3V or 5V?

Post by thwill »

Hi folks,

I've still not put my Gigatron together, but have been repurposing the controller.

It seems to work at 3.3V but not correctly at 5V. If anything what I had read (outside of the Gigatron project) had led me to expect it to be the other way round.

Inside the controller there isn't anything terribly informative, just an epoxy blob that I presume covers a CD4021 shift register.

Does anyone know what the actual spec of these controllers is?

Best wishes,

Tom
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marcelk
Posts: 488
Joined: 13 May 2018, 08:26

Re: Is the Famiclone controller 3.3V or 5V?

Post by marcelk »

Electrically they're all wired the same. But there are at least 3 IC/signal types we're aware of and unfortunately you can't distinguish them by the enclosure. Our early batches had CD4021-type of behaviour. But that can't be the full story when you think of the auto-fire buttons. We always test new batches on a Gigatron to verify that its signals still work...
thwill
Posts: 4
Joined: 13 May 2019, 19:16

Re: Is the Famiclone controller 3.3V or 5V?

Post by thwill »

Thanks Marcel.

I have now got mine working. The resistor I was pulling the latch and clock up to 5V through was (at least for my application) too big (4k7).

Regards, Tom
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