Anyone tried max. length of controller extension cables?

[kendjet]

Hi all,

I'm looking into buying a lot of controller extension cables for a lot of consoles such as the NES, SNES (Super Famicom), PS2, etc...
I read in another topic that this should be virtually lag-free although there might be a voltage drop when daisy-chaining too much of them which would end up in button presses not reaching the console anymore.

Did anyone ever tried this out? E.g. daisy chaining 5 six-feet cables was fine but issued popped up when adding another one... etc... I ordered 8 six-feet extension cords for the SNES to give it a shot.

I understand results may vary depending on the brand of cables but when placing in order online, most websites don't even list the brand name, so I can't go by that when ordering these type of cables...


Thanks!
Kendjet

[Guspaz]

If you really need to run an extremely long extension cable, you may be better off making your own so that you can use thicker conductors, or maybe coax.

Why do you need a 50 foot extension cord for controllers, though? At that point you may be better off going wireless.

[mvsfan]

I used to have 3 extention cables on each controller on some my consoles. that gave me enough room to run the cable back behind the tv stand, to get it out of the way of my TV. (i have consoles over the tv.) and it also let me run the cord to the other side of the room.

I never had any issues with it.

[kendjet]

@Guspaz: yeah I know, but unfortunately I do not have the skills to do that... I'm going to hook up all my gaming consoles to 9 displays spread across the room, and I like to keep the consoles as close as possible to each other and to the Extron Crosspoints I will be using for that purpose. I've been thinking about wireless controllers as well but tbh I'd rather have the option of using the original controllers for each platform as their wireless counterparts (if they exist) are often bad quality from what I read

@mvsfan: great, thanks for confirming! Do you remember which consoles those were?

[mvsfan]

Nes Snes and Genesis.

[Ikaruga11]

Longer wires will give you more input lag.

[Guspaz]

No, they won't. The signal travels at 95% the speed of light, so we're talking about billionths of a second difference, which won't even fall outside the timing of the console polling for the input.

[Ikaruga11]

No, they won't. The signal travels at 95% the speed of light, so we're talking about billionths of a second difference, which won't even fall outside the timing of the console polling for the input.

It's still more distance which the signal has to travel and thus tacks on to the latency. OMG Trash it

[Guspaz]

No, it wont. The polling timing will not change so the console will receive the input at the exact same time. There will be no additional latency whatsoever as far as the user or hardware is concerned. Voltage drop or interference could be problems on long runs, but not latency.

[kendjet]

Great, thanks all!

Will report back here with my own test results as well as soon as I got my SNES extension cables.

[Wolf_]

It adds no latency because the controller input is only polled at specific intervals (16ms) so according to retrorgb's math you would need like 800ft of cable to cause ANY delay.

If you are running into voltage issues or just frustrated by all that mess I strongly suggest just getting retro receivers for the consoles supported by them.

[werk91]

The 8bitdo range of products are great. Just wish they'd do some for Megadrive, Saturn as their original wireless pads are expensive and hard to track down too.

[Guspaz]

There may be some workarounds... For example, Raphnet makes a SNES-to-Megadrive controller adapter, which would allow you to connect an 8bitdo Retro Receiver. From there, you can use any wireless controller they support (be it an 8bitdo one or something like PS3/PS4/Switch), with selectable button mappings to go from SNES-to-Megadrive, and since the vast majority of controllers out there are more like the SNES than the Megadrive (in terms of being 4-button), those mappings remain relevant for stuff like the Switch pro controller or the PS4 controller.

I have not specifically used the Raphnet SNES-to-Megadrive adapter with an 8bitdo receiver (or at all), but I do use the Raphnet SNES-to-GameCube adapter with the 8bitdo SNES Retro Receiver to use wireless controllers with my GameCube.

[mvsfan]

how are the Raphnet adapters? do they work well?

I have a Retrousb Snes to Gamecube controller adapter, (discontinued) and it works like the controller was being used on an Snes. the controls dont feel off at all.

I would like to get another one.

[werk91]

Thanks Guspaz, that's a pretty good idea. It would be better range wise than the wireless MD controllers from the 90s (I do wonder how bad is IR tech for playing games). Unfortunately it'll be more expensive for sure, the adapter will be ~£30 delivered plus at least ~£20 in customs fee. Then another £15 or more for the 8bitdo adapter and I guess I can use one of my ps3 pads otherwise cost will be even more if I was to get 8bitdo SNES pad. And say I wanted the same for player 2 then the Genesis will turn into my most expensive venture yet There's a few 3rd party wireless ones on Ebay atm which are going cheaply but without knowing how I'll like the need for 'direct line of sight' for them to work it's safer to just stick to good old thick tangly cable.

[kendjet]

Ok so I just received my 8 SNES (Super Famicom) extension cables, each one being 1.8m, adding 14.6m (47.9 foot) to the length of the SNES gamepad and its attached cable.
I daisy chained them all and guess what... works perfectly fine Maybe I should try longer playing sessions, but up till now I did not perceive any issues at all!


Thanks!

[kendjet]

I received extension cables for other consoles as well but unfortunately things didn't work out well this time...

Using the Gamecube extension cables (connected to a Wii), I was only able to use 2x1.8m extension cables before I started to see issues. With 3 extension cables, everything seemed to work at first sight, however pressing multiple buttons at the same time did not seem to register all of the presses

For the PS2, 5x1.8m extension cables was the maximum. Using 6 or more of these cables, none of the button presses were registered

All the cables I received were fine when I tested them individually

[viletim]

It's worth mentioning that older consoles (16 bit) tend to do controller reading in software so you might get different results between different games for limit-pushing controller cable lengths.

[mvsfan]

Id have to guess here, that an newer xbox controller uses some more power than Nes Snes or Genesis do thus more susceptible to not getting good communication between controller chips. I cant actually test that though because i dont have one.