USE YOUR PAD CABLE IN YOUR TAP!!!

[nat]

Careful nat - they call that 'rape'. 

Where I come from we call that a good time. 

Do your instructions work with a cable from a Turbo Stick?  I have a broken one and they have pretty long cables. 

that's a very good question. I've never taken a TurboStick apart before to try and determine it's workings.

The next time I get a chunk of time (maybe this weekend) I'll sit down with one and see what's what.

Those instructions should work with the TurboStick if the cable used in the TurboStick is one of the two common color-coded variants.

I should have noted in that text that I have seen one other cable variant that is used on extremely old TurboPads. If you have a cable from one of these pads, my instructions will not apply. These are so old now, though, I believe they are quite rare relatively speaking. Out of like 12 pads that I have only 1 is of this type. These pads also use a different PCB internally in addition to having a completely different pin-out for the cable connector.

If the TurboStick just happens to use this old-style cable my hack won't work.

That said, it wouldn't be too hard figure out the correct wiring schematic for those cables too. I simply focused on the two most common types.

[kattare]

Incidentally, the very old controllers referred to (PCB shows model VG-1001) are much easier to use for this mod.  Just pull the connector, flip it 180 deg, and plug it into the Tap.  ;-)

It won't go in easily, as it is a 180 deg flip of the connector, but if you break the plastic tabs on the receptacle on the Tap you'll have no problem.

[nat]

That's great information to have, kattare. In the two and a half years since I wrote that article I still haven't bothered to figure out the pin-out for those old pads. Using your information it should be fairly simple to figure it out, without any testing, by simply using what we know about the pin-out of the newer style pads. I'll update the article when I get a chance.

[kattare]

I think the mapping is something like this:

PWD-624 / VG-1001
1 / 8
2 / 1
3 / 2
4 / 3
5 / 4
6 / 6
7 / 5
8 / 7
9 / 9 (shield/ground)

The pins 1-8 correspond not only to the connector inside the controller, but also to the pins in this diagram:

http://www.gamesx.com/controldata/turbocont.htm

I've spent a little bit of time with 'em lately, swapping out the built-in cables on some turbo pads for longer 10ft duo versions.  ;-)

I think I may actually setup a small turbo store (kattare's junk fo sale!) here sooner or later for some of my mod'd consoles and accessories.  We'll see if I can figure out a way to make the time investment worth it...

[m1savage]

Just wanted to point out that there are a couple of misprints on the gamesx.com turbo controller page when referring to the TG16 controller. For instance, I believe the color picture of the 163 chip should read Pin 7 where it shows Pin 5 if I remember correctly. The part about the 173 chip being used to control the rapid fire seems to contradict the paragraph above it too. No big deal because it's still a great source of info.

[kattare]

I have something to add to my previous post here too...

I ran into another old-school vg-1001 controller today. (why am I playing with them so much, you might ask?  because I've been turning them into duo pads w/ 10 ft cords of course!)

Anyway, this particular one I went to use to 'upgrade' another TurboTap with a 3ft cable and I didn't even have to flip it 180 deg... it just plugged right in.  So it looks like some of the vg-1001's had the tabs up on the cable to pcb connector, and some of them had the tabs down on the cable to pcb connector.  To be safe, all you have to do is look at the one you're replacing, find the big black ground, and make sure you put the new one into the tap with the same orientation.  ;-)