Autofire Circuit for my self-made Joystick

[@JanBeta]

Sorry, forgot to change the title card... Shame on me! Otherwise, the video should be okay, though, so I couldn't be bothered to change it after rendering and uploading... :D

[@JSRFFD2]

Oops, disregard my other comment 🙂 Great video!

[@Doug_in_NC]

You had me at “and it’s got an LED that flashes”. 😂😂😂

[@kkpdk]

I used to build special autofire circuits for my friends in butter boxes: Based around 4009 for oscillator and 4016 fet-switches, they could also wiggle the joystick. Track and Field on the C64 was fun - you could jump two hedges at a time. The last version I did had a photodetector you stuck to the screen for spear throwing, all in 4000 logic.

[@randomblogger2835]

this seems like one of the more complicated 555 based autofires, all that's really needed is the 555 one resistor and one capacitor and one SPST switch

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

Just one tip from someone who has made many projects on Veroboard (back in the 80s it was the only way!) its considered essential to break the tracks before you start fitting any components, so the cutting is easier and you can visually inspect it - its surprising how the reflections from solder joints can stop you from seeing those whisps of copper that all too readily short tracks near the cuts. Other than that, it was really nostalgic seeing someone from the PCBway generation using Veroboard! I love your controller, its great to have something you have designed for your own needs.

[@markevans2294]

It's still possible to buy strip cutting tools. Though, as was the case forty years ago, the Vero branded version is considerably more expensive that the alternatives.

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

@@markevans2294 Yes, the Vero one is a "spot face cutter" and makes a flat bottom hole that doesn't weaken the board as much as a twist drill and is less likey to make those copper wispers.. The cheap tool is a twist drill with a handle, but it still does the job if you are reasonably careful.

[@GerardPinzone]

I used a 555 timer, too. I had an autofire product that I purchased back in the 80s made by Pointmaster that claimed it would automatically fire at the max rate possible for the game. I have no idea how it worked, but I can confirm that every 2600 game I tired using that inline autofire adapter worked perfectly.

[@januszkszczotek8587]

I would have put the potentiometer at the place of the original lock of the box. Of course one would then need an other mechanism to keep the box closed.

[@the_holy_forestfairy]

Das ist Old-School-DIY vom feinsten! Damals hätte man es nicht anders gemacht, irgendein Behältnis, PCB, Komponenten, Kabel, Lötkolben, etc. Frei nach dem Motto: "Was kann schon schief gehen?" 😂😂

[@chrisrobson8540]

nice build......the purple led finished it off perfectly.....cant beat a bit of purple

[@Muldrf]

This video got me to go back and finish a similar 555 autofire circuit I started a year ago and put it into a pad I made for my Commodore 64. I would like to make another one a bit more like the setup here with the additional buttons and LED. That joystick looks great, and certainly is solid.

[@YogSothoth1969]

Klasse Projekt 🙂Bin schon gespannt auf die nächsten 😀Gruss, Michael

[@jips1971]

I made an auto fire for my A/S level electronics project back in 1988. Basically a pass through box with and led, potentiometer and a 555 timer.

[@EviesRevue]

Good job Jan. You are rocking the power drill!

[@omugarcina7392]

Hello Jan Looks nice . Just one small observation , looks like pin 4 is not tied high , but it is floating . Recommendation is to tie the pin 4 to pin 8 for a more stable operation.

[@Mr76Pontiac]

Ep1: "I just built a custom joystick box" Ep2: "I just upgrade my custom joystick box" Ep3: "I just upgraded my upgrade custom joystick box" Keep it up! ;) Next, hope to see eye tracking and predederminate button clicking so you don't have to PUSH the buttons at all!

[@Error42_]

I modded my Zipstik back in the day with adjustable autofire. I just replaced one of the resistors with a variable resistor I had in the parts box. I had only some little idea what I was doing but I just tried stuff until it worked. Xenon II is great for testing too, it looks ridiculous when you tune the fire rate to the maximum. I have to say, I wasn't keen on the cashbox casing idea but it does actually look quite nice. At least it can take a beating if need be too!

[@minombredepila1580]

Beautiful. I was hoping you would change the horrendous lock with the potentiometer, but no luck 😞. Otherwise, the project is great🙂. I want one too...

[@CiociariaStorica]

Congratulations; perfect autofire. In many games it will make a difference!! 🙂👍🏻

[@JosipRetroBits]

Very cool build! We need more of a DIY projects, it is an interesting way to share a knowledge :)

[@bobweiram6321]

That magazine is thick! The US magazine in the 80s was much thinner with mostly Ads.

[@unilein]

I have always equipped my joysticks with autofire. I'm not sure anymore but I think the circuit was also based on the NE555. I have no idea how I did it back then. I was 13 years old at most and had little to no knowledge of electronics. 🙂

[@feschbert4035]

Awesome show, great job!

[@MalcolmArmstrong]

Loving the build project videos.

[@al.d9592]

Very cool and much more elegant than an Arduino, which would’ve been overkill in my opinion

[@talesfromthejundlandwastes5498]

Really enjoying this project.

[@KolliRail]

That's a nice solution! I think I'm going to build this. And I think I even have most of the parts ready, apart from that 25K potentiometer,

[@monotonehell]

0:24 Jan: I considered using ... Arduino Me screaming at screen: USE A 555! 🤣

[@Wikcentral]

Still loving that case choice

[@firatyuksek]

@25:10 , Never ever admit that you made a mistake :) Just phrase it as "The external connector was purposely put at 20 degrees for a right hand use to ease the removal and insertion of the external cable, reducing the stress put on the components by X% .. this way it ,s Y% efficient when you use it" and with some zen music in the background.. its never a bug its always a feature.. Loving your videos u r great

[@vresi]

Does anyone have a better quality picture of the layout? The one from the forum is very small.

[@robinaldridge4090]

Or a circuit diagram?

[@purrator]

You could have replaced the lock with a key switch for toggling the auto fire :)

[@BrainSlugs83]

Yeah... I would have just used a single switch (not for "permanently on" auto fire, but to select whether the existing buttons were hooked into the auto fire circuit or not). I think you can find potentiometers with switches built in, so that all the way to the left is "off", leaving the buttons working as normal, and then any other level, re-routes the buttons into the auto fire circuit. Then you could just put that where the lock indent at the top center of the case was / still is.

[@haysoos123]

The way he has it is better, because there are a few games where you want both auto fire and normal fire at the same time. He demonstrated it in Turrican, where you want auto fire and also to be able to hold down fire to activate the flamethrower. Same with R-Type, where there's normal fire and a charge fire by holding down the button.

[@vresi]

@@haysoos123 The way I understood it is that "Frank's version" superimposes the fire on-top of the button meaning that when you hit the switch, it starts to oscillate, and when you press the button in that state, it functions as a normal press. My German is a bit rusty, but that's what I got from it.

[@MrKelaher]

very good :) Home made controllers are the best controllers ! Using lock boxes is an interesting idea, I have used tool and parts cases in the past in a similar way :)

[@JohnnyWednesday]

I have a deep respect for you Jan - which is why I urge you to turn away from the auto-fire! true game enlightenment can only be obtained with sore thumbs

[@Stefan_Payne]

don't you have switches with an opener and closer (wechselschalter), then you could do an alternate switching circuit (=Wechselschaltung) that would allow you to change the state from either switch.

[@sonic2000gr]

555 timer FTW!

[@kevb1816]

Good project, turned out well!

[@Somelucky]

It reminds me of the NES Advantage Controller.

[@hollgo626]

Meine Computermagazine von damals habe ich auch noch auf dem Speicher, 64er, Happy Computer und 68000er und natürlich Amiga... die oldschool Autofeuerlösung hätte ich auch genommen. So eine Schaltung war auch in einem SVI Modell drin, das ich mal hatte, war ein Riesenteil, dast so groß wie deine Sparkassenversion 😏

[@Gunstarrhero1]

real quick and im not griping, its your project, what if you change the auto fire buttons to a momentary on/off switch so you can use the main fire button as regular/auto fire. just a thought. good work.

[@borayurt66]

I did not see the schematic but guessing it is the classic astable setup, you may solder a 5K (~ish) series resistor on the middle (sweeper) pin of the pot making a permanent minimum resistance for the timer. This way it will not go up to useless speeds. You may need to experiment with the value a bit but I am sure you'll come up with a perfect value. I have a QuickShot II Turbo joystick which has autofire on it (yes, with a 555). It is set up so that you don't need to press fire button on autofire, it just fires constantly when the autofire switch is on. While this works perfectly on my Spectrum (with Kempston) It messes up with the keyboard reading of the C64 if the autofire is left on in BASIC. I can't even type LOAD"*",8,1 without getting irrelevant characters if the autofire is on. You may check if this happens with your circuit too. I am guessing the reading of the keyboard and the joystick is somewhat connected in the C64.

[@iNimbleSloth]

Nice one! What can't a 555 be used for?

[@KolliRail]

Would be funny to use one of your discrete 555 timer boards! ;-)

[@giuseppelavecchia775]

Un buon lavoro

[@airspeedmph]

Oh man, that crooked connector is fuel for my OCD nightmares. I wish I can un-see it.

[@hajow9303]

Dauerfeuerschaltung.... I love German!

[@roger6606]

Continuvuurschakeling.... I love Dutch!

[@CoCoNutBob]

Is it just my old eyes, or did Jan neglect to cut the trace below R2, the LED resistor? So that resistor is just shunted. Will this lead to prematurely fried timer chips?

[@JanBeta]

Your eyes are fine, I forgot to cut one trace indeed. The joystick worked fine with the resistor shorted out but I of course still fixed it shortly after publishing the video. Well, after somebody pointed it out in the comments. :D

[@CoCoNutBob]

@@JanBeta lol .. I was wondering because it was barely visible in the magazine, and the resistor looked shorted from the beginning, but I didn't see the "cut" marking (watching on my phone anyway lol) and even less so in black and white, but eventually noticed it there. Cheers Jan! Happy holidays! After some good usage, how do you like it? Does the metal box make it noisy?

[@jaycee1980]

I've got a design for a two-transistor one that needs no extra power supply, if you're interested :)

[@beronk6672]

realy nice idea:)

[@pcroom34]

Hi Jan, sorry to bother you again, can you tell me where you got the +5v from, mind you I have only watched bit's of the video, Thankyou in advance!

[@JanBeta]

+5V are on pin 7 of the DE9 on the computer/console side. That is for the standard Atari pinout (also used on the Commodore machines).

[@pcroom34]

@@JanBeta Thanks again, ah I see so carrying that voltage from board through the joystick wire up to into led etc and tee off that led to power something else, Ta very much!!

[@NorthWay_no]

A friend of mine once made me an auto-fire mod, but I think that was just a 555, a potentiometer and a 3-way switch. Hazy memory and I'm not gonna find and open it.

[@bennyyhippi1285]

Gibs die Videos auch auf deutsch ?

[@ProjectHorizonYT]

Hi Jan, I watching your videos at least 2 years ago. But I couldn't figure out why you cover Philips logo to Lips? Sorry for stupid question, but I doesn't know, maybe I missed something. Also thanks for the quality and funny videos. Keep up the good works. One fan from Hungary 😎👍

[@talideon]

Because it's funny?

[@c7261]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has wondered this! 😄 It is now an integral part to the Beta legacy, but I am also interested in it's history/meaning.

[@catriona_drummond]

As far as I know it is out of a certain anticapitalist disdain for brand names. For further information read Naomi Klein's "no logo!" at your own risk. :P

[@TheJonBrawn]

Cut the tracks first before mounting any components!

[@DavidMarvin]

Yayyyy! He said keybox and not cashbox.

[@robinaldridge4090]

Nice video. A parts list would be useful. The drawing on the link will not download unless you are a member.

[@zuimelanieforno4654]

Wait a Moment... Hmmm is it a Cashcow or a Joystick? It is the JanBeta-Arcade-Dominator-500 in Version Alpha 0.2. Nice work. When You found the Case, was there any Money in it? If so I suddenly realized I lost mine... lol See You soon

[@tankgrrl]

"kontrollable blinkenlight" should be the name of your joystick

[@toronado455]

🏆

[@maxhemenway]

0:11

[@catriona_drummond]

Hope you got that long suppressed drilling urge out of your system after these 2 videos now. :P

[@JanBeta]

Haha. I definitely had enough drilling for a while now again. Especially since some metal shavings got caught in my sock during the aftermath. 😵‍💫

[@atatu4551]

Jan ist german name?

[@talideon]

Yes. It's equivalent to "John" in English.

[@darrylteichroeb9132]

Bert.

[@TPau65]

Interesting variation of the autofire circuit with the additional fire buttons instead of an on/off switch! Makes totally sense in practice. 👍 Any chance of a circuit diagram? I woul like to compare it to my 555 autofire circuit shown in my "Competition Pro Board" video kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5C0ia1-l86BZqc The first major difference compared to my version (which is based on Ms Mad Lemons circuit) is that you use two caps instead of one. 🤔

[@anotheruser9876]

The Internet Archive has this 64'er: archive.org/details/64er_sonderheft_1986_07