Dual mod: add MVS plug to console stick. 5v>3.3v a problem?

[BazookaBen]

In my case this would be an existing stick running the Brook Retro Board, and I want to add a connector to hook up to my MVS

I'm pretty sure the MVS has 5v button signals. But the Brook Retro Board, from my reading, is 3.3v on all buttons.

Am I at risk of killing the Brook board if I were to wire my buttons up to a MVS connector too?

[bobrocks95]

If I remember right the Retro Board will read 5V depending on which console you connect it to. So I think it's tolerant of both?

[BazookaBen]

I may be misunderstanding how it works, but I believe the Retro Board can take either 5v or 3.3v as power from the console, but then its logic runs at 3.3v, including the signal running to each button

I'm basing this on a random couple of posts from an anonymous user on reddit who sounds like he knows what he's talking about (maybe an employee of Arcade Shock or something?)

https://www.reddit.com/r/fightsticks/co ... ard_stack/

So I guess, if I do the proper dual mod procedure, where I power the unused board (Retro Board, when hooked up to MVS) simultaneously, then that means Neo Geo will have a 5v potential on the buttons while the Retro Board will be pushing 3.3v.

[bobrocks95]

Hmm, wonder if that's bad. I'll say my tri-mod with a Brook Retro Board + Hori PS4 board + DB15 connector going to my CMVS works.

[BazookaBen]

Hmm, wonder if that's bad. I'll say my tri-mod with a Brook Retro Board + Hori PS4 board + DB15 connector going to my CMVS works.

Well, if it's worked for you so far, I feel safe enough to do it. Because that's very similar to what I'm doing.

It wouldn't surprise me if Brook used 5v tolerant everything just for this situation.

I didn't mention in the OP, just for the sake of simplicity, but I'm also doing a tri-mod. I'm going to try leaving the original Hori PS1/2 board in the stick, because I didn't want to pay for another cable. And there might be like a 0.5ms input lag advantage to using it, who knows

PS1 controllers are 3.3v so I'm going to just going to connect that to a random 3.3v spot on the Retro Board.

[jd213]

An MVS just reacts to the switches being on/off, so you shouldn't need to hook up any kind of power to the stick (edit: but I guess you would have to bypass the Brook board to do this)

I also had input errors whenever I would try to put more than 1 PCB in a padhacked stick (probably wired something wrong). Found it less of a headache to just put them in external project boxes and have one connected at a time. More of a mess though.