Looking for controller extension solutions

[DirkSwizzler]

I have a problem that I imagine lots of you have. All my consoles are close to my TV.

When I play them. I am not close to my TV. Which presents a few problems:

• The controllers cords generally aren't long enough

• If they are long enough with or without extensions. They cross a space where people walk and move
  • If anyone were to trip or yank one of these cords. A console would likely fly right off the shelf.

• It's impossible to tell if a cable extension actually wires up all the pins to work well

• wireless options exist, but screw the lag and weird feel of 3rd party controllers

Right now I have a hodge podge of extensions that work at varying levels of usefulness. When I switch consoles I need to pack away the last console's extensions, and unpack the new ones. I do this so I don't have a snake pit of wires causing my wife to murder me in my sleep.

I also live in constant fear of consoles flying off of shelves.

In my head it would be MUCH better if I could plug all my controllers into a box close to my couch that has zero risk of pulling a console off a shelf.

I was thinking that it would be super awesome if a product existed that would let me:

• Run a controller cable from an individual console to a box on my shelf-o-consoles

• That box uses some kind of generic cable with many wires to connect to a companion box near my couch

• The companion box had connectors that let me connect original controllers for the current console

This would provide several improvements over my current setup

• Assuming I secured the companion box and generic wires connecting the 2. It would solve my flying console worries and general "wires across the room" problems.

• I could free up a lot of storage space currently consumed by 1 or 2 extensions per controller per console.

• Presumably if someone made such a niche item. They'd wire up all the freaking pins correctly

Does such a product exist? I haven't seen anything like it. But if there's one thing I've learned about retrogaming, it's that I shouldn't be surprised when I come across new old products on a daily basis.

If not, does anyone have suggestions for easy ways to make my own? I was vaguely thinking that a single standard ethernet cable probably has enough wires to stand in for any extension cable.

So if I:

• harvest an extension cable's connectors, I could adapt any generic console's connector to RJ45 on each end as long as the pins match up.

• Run 4 ethernet cables along the perimeter of my play space with male-male couplers on each end, making them female on both ends.

• Label each ethernet cable on both ends as "1","2,"3", or "4" so I can match them up.

• Plug both ends of a cable with my custom adapters and enjoy

But it would be great if I could hook up some kind of matrix selector on the shelf end so I could leave all the consoles wired up and simply select which I want to control. But I'm definitely not doing that on my own.

Suggestions? Modifications? Waste of time? Product already exists?

[Syntax]

What happens when someone trips over the cable between the companion box and the console?
Seems like more clutter to me.

Just silicon spray your extension cable ends and pretend they are like the easy disconnects Microsoft made for Xbox.
The amount if times I've tripped over an Xbox lead and thanked the engineer behind that little masterpiece..

[SCARTicus]

In my mind, the easiest and most elegant solution would be to keep your consoles close to your seating area, like in a shelf next to the couch, or inside coffee table drawers. Then you use a video switch and power strip, also by the consoles/seating, and then you only have two cables running across the room, which you can route along a wall to keep out of sight. It's not the best to run analog AV too far, so if you are worried about signal degradation, get an OSSC.

[DirkSwizzler]

What happens when someone trips over the cable between the companion box and the console?
Seems like more clutter to me.

Part of the reasoning for using permanent generic cabling is that I can secure the wire much better and likely use a longer run around the perimeter of the room instead of across the middle.

In my mind, the easiest and most elegant solution would be to keep your consoles close to your seating area, like in a shelf next to the couch, or inside coffee table drawers.

A good idea. But the space near my seating is much more limited than near the A/V center.

[bigbadboaz]

Pretty sure the product doesn't exist, but also pretty sure this could be done rather easily by a skilled modder.

I don't have anyone I can recommend, but would imagine if you hunt around many forums such as this one there will be someone who can help you. Maybe reposting this as a WTB in the trading forum would be a start.

One concern I would want to address specifically with anyone doing the build for you would be the need for repeaters as the real wiring distance increases. At some point along a cable run you're going to get beyond the range of ideal performance. USB, for example, has a defined spec for the length at which a signal should be power-amplified. I have no idea how this varies from console to console or if it's truly a concern. But if going to the trouble and expense of this kind of custom setup, I'd for sure not want to end up with unreliable connections or even hardware damage.

[Dochartaigh]

I'm still looking for the person's website (and failing at finding it) but there's a modder along the lines of RalphNet who makes CNC'd (aluminum?) blocks with a bunch of controller ports on them so you can convert multiple types of controllers to USB (so you can use real controllers on your emulator).

It would be IDEAL to have a single block at your couch which you could plug any controllers into. That would then run (ideally by a single wire....but don't know how that would be accomplished without either a switch for choosing which controller(s) you want to use, or a HUGE thick wad of wires housing the individual wires for __ number of controllers) to the far-away area where your consoles are located. You would then have to do some cable management there to plug all these into your consoles.

If anybody knows the modder I'm talking about please chime in.

**EDIT** It was very similar to this but you could choose a couple different systems to have their ports on an aluminum block like this:

http://www.raphnet-tech.com/products/An ... /index.php

[SCARTicus]

Raphnet is great. I use his SNES to GC controller adapter for my GameBoy Player (GBI), and it works flawlessly and without lag. That being said, I do not think that he does custom orders, and the only aluminum enclosures of his that I am aware of are for nes and snes. He's Canadian, so you do get the advantage of the currency exchange rate fwiw.

[DirkSwizzler]

Failing to find one generic solution. Can anyone at least point me at a listing of per-system extensions of top quality? I keep getting burned by half-assed extensions. Like for my snes bomberman multitap. I can't even extend the thing to reach the floor. And I've had at least 2 NES extensions that literally had their pins pushed so they were recessed into their housing while connecting them.

[Syntax]

Having cables go to a box is the same as console to controller as far as a trip hazard goes.
If you can secure the console then do it, line the console ends with dielectric grease or something and be done.

Short of that pull out the iron and build it yourself.

Buy a ps360+ or toodles chuthulu board and hack your controllers into it. They are compatible with a buttload of old systems.

Pretty sure toodles can be plugged into 4 different consoles at once. Lots of work. And more when you need a new controller.

[Hoagtech]

If you came from underneath your coffee table you could bypass the trip hazards by installing a controller connection interface into your coffee table.

You would have to go underneath your flooring

Fun with paint

[Dochartaigh]

Raphnet is great. I use his SNES to GC controller adapter for my GameBoy Player (GBI), and it works flawlessly and without lag. That being said, I do not think that he does custom orders, and the only aluminum enclosures of his that I am aware of are for nes and snes. He's Canadian, so you do get the advantage of the currency exchange rate fwiw.

The custom person wasn't Ralphnet - I just can't find him again (guess I didn't bookmark it). Think it was actually 3d printed enclosure for whichever controller plugs you wanted (running to a USB controller) if that rings anyones memory.



OP, what systems do you want to do this for (sorry if I missed that info). If you're not one of the crazy twitchers who SWEAR they are human computers who can notice 1/60th of a frame of difference in lag or whatever, I have had good luck with wireless controllers for NES, SNES (latter two 8BitDo brand), PS2 (generic which I tested a couple types of - I also play all my PS1 games on the PS2), and the original Xbox so far. Only ones I'm missing from the 6 systems I run is Sega Genesis (which seems to be the only one which is IR and needs a direct line of sight - but supposed to be very good actually). --- just another possible option for you.

I've even seen people run Arduino boards in stock controllers and run them to their console (via a Raspberry Pi I think)

[DirkSwizzler]

OP, what systems do you want to do this for (sorry if I missed that info). If you're not one of the crazy twitchers who SWEAR they are human computers who can notice 1/60th of a frame of difference in lag or whatever

NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, Neo Geo AES, XBox, PS1, PS2, and TG-16.

While I can't visually see a difference between instant and a frame or two of lag. I have felt the difference in Megaman and some particularly hard jumps in Link's Awakening. So I definitely chase zero added latency.

[DejahThoris]

If you came from underneath your coffee table you could bypass the trip hazards by installing a controller connection interface into your coffee table.

You would have to go underneath your flooring

Fun with paint

I was thrift shopping this past weekend and found a 70's art deco living room set, real wild patterns/colors, and in the two end-tables for the couch were these flip-over panels that had ethernet, USB, and standard outlets in them. I should have taken pictures, but it worked pretty much exactly like your picture.

OP, I don't think there's much of a market for your product idea, but I'm intrigued enough to see what cheap controllers I have laying around to at least provide proof of concept with. I'll muck around with it this weekend.