Converting standard joysticks to wireless infrared for Amiga CDTV and Chameleon 64

The Chameleon 64 is a great cartridge. With each release of the firmware, new features are being unlocked. Recently, the Minimig core was ported to the Chameleon 64 which means you can now have a fully emulated Amiga that fits in the palm of your hand.

To play games using a joystick, you need a CDTV infrared (IR) remote. They are still available for purchase here and here but it would take a few weeks for it to arrive.

I wanted to see if it’s possible to convert a standard joystick to wireless IR communications. I know it can be done– I’ve had some experience using Arduino’s to communicate over IR with a vintage LED sign I have. I reverse engineered the original protocol by using the original remote to the sign. That project taught me a lot.

In this case, I don’t have the remote. So I asked on the forum and got a response from the programmer of the Chameleon IR code with all the info I needed (Thanks Peter!).

This version uses an original Nintendo NES game pad for the joystick but this could be easily changed to support a standard 9-pin Commodore/Amiga/Atari style joystick. The gamepad is connected to the Arduino and decoded into button presses. It then transmits it via infrared signals to the Chameleon. The code uses the Arduino-IRremote library with additions (included) for the CDTV remote type added.

Download CDTV IR Remote

5 thoughts on “Converting standard joysticks to wireless infrared for Amiga CDTV and Chameleon 64

  1. Permalink  ⋅ Reply

    Stefan

    March 28, 2012 at 7:15pm

    Hello, I cannot see any mail contact adress on your page, I would have questions about this project, please write back, see mail below as I write it into the email field. Please write an mail so I could answer and ask some questions. Thanks.

    • Permalink  ⋅ Reply

      admin

      March 31, 2012 at 10:56pm

      Hi Stefan, You can feel free to ask your question here. The answer may help someone else with the same question.

  2. Permalink  ⋅ Reply

    Chris Millard

    February 3, 2015 at 8:31am

    Hi, apologies for the ‘newbie’ question, but I am unfamiliar with this project. I have a CDTV and would love to be able to use regular joysticks over IR. Could you possibly go a little more in depth of what it is you have done?

    Kind regards
    Chris

    • Permalink  ⋅ Reply

      paulrickards

      February 9, 2015 at 2:05am

      Hi Chris, That’s exactly what this project does. In this case, I used an NES gamepad as the joystick, which contains a shift register chip. Converting it to a standard joystick would be easy as they are simple contact closures (switches). It’s built in the Arduino platform. Hope this helps!

  3. Permalink  ⋅ Reply

    Peter

    March 10, 2017 at 5:53am

    Hi,

    I have CDTV without IR sensor on the front panel. Do you help me, what type is it?
    What can I use as a replacement? Thank you

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