PS2 controller port power limit?

[kalm_traveler]

Just bought some Brooks Wingman PS2 wireless adapters for my PS2 after being very happy with the pair I have on a PS1 but I've noticed something odd.

testing on my fat 50001 model, it seems that its controller port doesn't provide enough power for the Brooks adapter in either controller port. I must connect the micro USB on the Brooks adapter to a USB port on the Playstation 2 for extra power to get it to turn on.

Some googling indicated that this is the case on 'some' PS2 models but seemed to be mainly the slims (yet not all, some folks reported that the adapter works fine on a 9000x slim without supplemental power).

Anyway, just wanted to see if anyone could point me up the hardware chain to figure out where the bottleneck is exactly? Little odd that a little wireless adapter would need more power than the port is allowed to put out but a 4 controller multitap is fine with 4 wired controllers and 4 memory cards connected through the same port.

I'm guessing there's some component on the mainboard which restricts amperage to each controller port? Could that be swapped out to allow the same amount of power as an OG Playstation provides?

 

[Dariush Aghaee]

If you are good with electronic devices, you can make a modification to the dongle and power it using the pin on PS2 controller port, which powers the rumble motor .That pin is good at current, but its voltage is around 9V, so you need to use a 7805 voltage regular.
This is what I do if I were in your shoes.

Now, I was curious about that dongle. Does it function like a multitap? Or you can only connect 1 controller to each dongle at the same time?

 

[kalm_traveler]

If you are good with electronic devices, you can make a modification to the dongle and power it using the pin on PS2 controller port, which powers the rumble motor .That pin is good at current, but its voltage is around 9V, so you need to use a 7805 voltage regular.
This is what I do if I were in your shoes.

Now, I was curious about that dongle. Does it function like a multitap? Or you can only connect 1 controller to each dongle at the same time?

hi! yes I suppose I could modify the adapter itself, but it supports rumble already - is the signal to rumble a digital signal and the rumble power pin simply provides the electricity to spin the motors?

As for the adapter itself, it is not like a multitap - it only pairs with a single controller.

I would prefer to learn where the bottleneck in power supply to the ports comes from and modify that pathway than try to modify the adapter, however.

 

[Dariush Aghaee]

is the signal to rumble a digital signal and the rumble power pin simply provides the electricity to spin the motors?.

Yeah, it almost works like that. The console commands the controller to activate each motor. Just look at the pinout attached to this post. You will get the point. But don't forget to disconnect the original powering pin on the dongle.

As for the adapter itself, it is not like a multitap - it only pairs with a single controller..

They could make it better then.

I would prefer to learn where the bottleneck in power supply to the ports comes from and modify that pathway than try to modify the adapter, however.

Modification to the console itself? That might be difficult.

 

[kalm_traveler]

Modification to the console itself? That might be difficult.

yes, I need to start by figuring out where the limitation comes from. Since other fat PS2s apparently provide more power (as well as the 90000 slim model), and original PS1's also provide more power... I'm assuming there is some component or chain of components in the PS2 itself on my 50001 model which are restricting amperage to the controller ports.

Just need to figure out what that pathway is so that I can either swap to more robust parts, or make my own new/separate circuit for power to the ports.

 

[1052]

They could make it better then.

This is done specifically to sell more adapters. Such adapters are based on the ESP32, and only with BlueRetro you can use more than one controller and even emulate two PS1 multitaps at once (eight controllers at the same time). More details here and here. By the way, the BlueRetro developer wrote here that the ESP32 is not powerful enough to emulate PS2 multitaps. Currently only PADEMU in OPL can do this.

@kalm_traveler, maybe this information that I found about this adapter will help you:

If your PS7 fuse for controller vibration is burnt out, the adapter will not work. Apparently the adapter takes power from there, but it can be powered via USB, switched to XID mode and it will work.

 

[kalm_traveler]

@kalm_traveler, maybe this information that I found about this adapter will help you:

thank you! I don't *think* that's the issue, as the vibration test in MGS3 works with wired official DualShock 2 controllers.
Incidentally, I didn't switch anything when powering it with the front USB - simply as soon as a cable is connected it just "turns on" as expected.

Since I still have the console apart I'll see if I can follow any traces around. What I was hoping for ideally was to identify the +7.5? and +3.3v circuits to hopefully figure out where between the PSU and the controller port the limitation lies, and just run an external wire with appropriate fuse to bypass whatever is on the mainboard.

 

[alexboanta3107]

This is done specifically to sell more adapters. Such adapters are based on the ESP32, and only with BlueRetro you can use more than one controller and even emulate two PS1 multitaps at once (eight controllers at the same time). More details here and here. By the way, the BlueRetro developer wrote here that the ESP32 is not powerful enough to emulate PS2 multitaps. Currently only PADEMU in OPL can do this.

@kalm_traveler, maybe this information that I found about this adapter will help you:

If your PS9 (earlier boards) or PS7 (later boards) fuse for controller vibration is burnt out, the adapter will not work. Apparently the adapter takes power from there, but it can be powered via USB, switched to XID mode and it will work.