NesGamepad

Yet another library to read buttons from NES (aka Famicom, aka Dendy) gamepad.

Installation

Arduino IDE

Download this repo as .zip file: https://github.com/IvoryRubble/ArduinoNesGamepadLibrary/archive/master.zip
In the Arduino IDE select Sketch > Include Library > Add .ZIP Library.... Browse to where the downloaded ZIP file is located and click Open. The NesGamepad library's examples will now appear under File > Examples > NesGamepad.

Or simply open library manager in Arduino IDE (Tools > Manage Libraries) and search for NesGamepad.

PlatformIO

Library is also available in PlatformIO registry:
https://registry.platformio.org/libraries/ivoryrubble/NesGamepad

Sources

Protocol description:
https://tresi.github.io/nes/
https://web.archive.org/web/20150829043041/https://www.mit.edu/~tarvizo/nes-controller.html

Protocol reverse engineering:
https://www.raspberryfield.life/2018/09/01/nespi-project-part-4-the-nes-controller-protocol/

Pinout:
https://smiheys.narod.ru/dendy.html
https://habr.com/ru/articles/147356/
https://habr.com/ru/articles/191936/

Pinout

There are several versions of NES gamepad with different connectors.

Original NES "D-cannon" connector

          +----> +5V (white)
          |
5 +---------+  7
  | o  o  o   \
  | o  o  o  o |
4 +------------+ 1
    |  |  |  |
    |  |  |  +-> GND (brown)
    |  |  +----> Pulse (red)
    |  +-------> Latch (orange)
    +----------> Data (yellow)

NES clone female DE-9 connector

       +--------- Pulse        
       | +------- Latch
       | | +----- Data
       | | |           
5 +-------------+ 1             
   \ O O O O O /                
    \ O O O O /                  
   9 +-------+ 6                 
        |   |
        |   +---- +5V
        +-------- GND

NES clone female DA-15 connector

     +------------------- Data
     |             +----- GND
     |             |           
8 +-------------------+ 1             
   \ O O O O O O O O /                
    \ O O O O O O O /                  
  15 +-------------+ 9                 
      |     |     |
      |     |     +------ Pulse
      |     +------------ Latch
      +------------------ +5V

Connection

Connect +5V and GND pins to VCC and GND pins of microcontroller board.
Connect Latch, Pulse, Data pins to microcontroller I/O pins.

Usage

Set Latch, Pulse, Data pins in NesGamepad::NesGamepad() constructor. Optionally set custom delayBeforeReadMicros delay (default is 6 microseconds).
Example:

const int latchPin = A0;
const int pulsePin = A1;
const int dataPin = A2;
const unsigned int delayBeforeReadMicros = 6;
NesGamepad gamepad(latchPin, pulsePin, dataPin, delayBeforeReadMicros);

Call NesGamepad::init() method in setup() procedure to initialize microcontroller ports for gamepad.
Example:

gamepad.init();

Call NesGamepad::update() method to read new values from controller.
Then you can get buttons values from gamepad object fields. True value means corresponding button is pressed.
Example:

gamepad.update();
Serial.println(gamepad.btnA);
Serial.println(gamepad.btnStart);
Serial.println(gamepad.btnUp);