N64 Controller Serial Protocol Sniffer

Before we delve into the technicalities of serial communication protocols, let’s talk about communication in general. We already know that communication involves the exchange of information between two or more individuals. Communication can take place in various ways – through written documents, spoken words, audio tapes, video lessons and more.

However, what does “communication” mean in embedded systems? Well, the answer is fairly easy! It is simply an exchange of data between two microcontrollers (embedded devices) in the form of bits. The exchange of data (bits) in embedded systems is governed by a set of rules known as communication protocols.

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Emphasis is given on serial drivers but the framework can be used with any socket. The source also contains the implementation of a PID controller and a setpoint ramp generator. The instrument drivers may further be incorporated in a GUI, using, e.g. Threading is automatically taken care of. Furthermore, generic GUI (called.

In digital communication, there are two types of data transfer:

  • Serial Communication
  • Parallel Communication

To keep things simple, we will focus this article on the basics of serial communication protocols.

Serial Communication

N64 Controller Serial Protocol Sniffer

In serial communication, the data bits are transmitted one at a time in a sequential manner over the data bus or communication channel. In order to understand this properly, let us consider this situation:

Imagine you are shooting at a target with a bow and arrow. How do the arrows fly from the bow? One at a time, right? This is exactly the case with serial communication; the data bits travel from one embedded device to another one at a time, serially.

Now that we’ve covered the basics of serial communication in embedded systems, let’s move ahead and discuss the various types of serial communication protocols.

CAN Protocol

The CAN or Controller Area Network protocol was conceived by Robert Bosch (of GmbH) in the 1980s. Previously during the late 70’s, manufacturers started using advanced features in their automobiles, such as anti-lock braking systems, air conditioners, central door locks, airbags, gear control, engine management systems and so on.

Even though drivers (consumers) loved these new features, they came with some downsides too. These advancements required the addition of heavy and bulky wires, expensive mechanical parts and complex designs, which led to a rise in both the costs and complexity of the in-vehicle electrical and mechanical systems. Fortunately, Robert Bosch made life easier for the engineers by introducing the CAN protocol. The CAN protocol changed the management of electronic sub-systems and the communication between intelligent sensors– a simpler, cheaper method that did all that with a single cable

The widespread popularity of the CAN protocol led to its standardization as the ISO 11898 in 1993. Today, the application of CAN protocol spans the embedded systems spectrum from industrial automation to commercial restaurant fryers and beyond.

The development of these CAN applications ranges from fairly simple to extremely complex. The devices that rely on this protocol are substantial. If not designed, developed, and tested properly can cause severe damage. It is very important to make sure development is well monitored and tested. One easy and important development and test tool for CAN applications is the protocol analyzer.

Uses of the CAN Protocol:

  • The CAN protocol is often used for in-vehicle networking of electronic components.
  • It is also used in aerospace applications for in-flight analysis and networking of components such as fuel systems, pumps and more.
  • Manufacturers of medical equipment often use CAN for creating an embedded network within medical devices.

The CAN products offered by Total Phase:

I2C Protocol

I2C (pronounced “I two C”) or Inter-Integrated Circuits protocol was originally invented by Philips Semiconductor. It is also known as IIC (pronounced I-I-C) and I2C (pronounced I-squared-C). Although this technology is over three decades old, the I2C protocol is widely used today. In fact, it supports a vast number of embedded systems.

The I2C protocol allows embedded engineers to connect multiple slave devices with one or more master. Similar to the SPI protocol, it is intended primarily for short-distance communication within two ICs (Integrated Circuits) on the same printer circuit board (PCB).

It requires only two bi-directional wires for transmitting and receiving data bits. In terms of data rates, the I2C protocol supports speed up to 3.4 Mbps - which is pretty fast.

Here are some of the important advantages of using the I2C protocol:

  • Flexibility of using multiple master devices to speed up communication and improve the design functionality
  • Chip addressing eliminates the need of CS (Chip Select) Lines
  • Supports a robust error handling mechanism with the ACK/NACK feature.

However, there are some limitations. For example, it takes up much more real estate on a PCB as it uses pull-up resistors.

Uses of the I2C Protocol:

  • Changes the various color setting, such as hue, on a monitor.
  • Controls the LED/LCD displays in cell phones
  • Helps switching on /off the power supply of internal components

The I2C products offered by Total Phase:

SPI Protocol

Serial Peripheral Interface, which is commonly known as S-P-I or “spy” is one of the most popular interface specifications used in embedded systems. Since its introduction in the late 1980’s by Motorola, the SPI protocol has been widely used for short distance communication in embedded systems.

Through the SPI protocol, devices communicate with each other using master-slave architecture. Although multiple slave devices can be supported by SPI, the number of master devices is limited to one. SPI is known as four-wire serial bus because it consists of four signals:

  • master out slave in (MOSI)
  • master in slave out (MISO)
  • serial clock (SCK),
  • slave select (SS)

In full duplex mode, data rates over 1Mbps can be achieved - this is one of the main advantages of the SPI bus. Compared to I2C, SPI also supports using simple hardware interfacing and provides a higher throughput.

However, the SPI protocol also has some drawbacks – the lack of error-checking mechanism and slave acknowledgment feature are some of the major disadvantages.

Uses of the SPI Protocol:

  • Apply for communication with temperature, pressure sensors, and video game controllers
  • Interface with LCDs and SD cards
  • Communicate with FLASH and EEPROM memory
  • Read data from a real time clock.

SPI products offered by Total Phase:

USB Protocol

It isn’t a secret that USB, the Universal Serial Bus protocol, is by far the most common protocol in use. You can probably find a dozen USB cables and connectors lying around in your home. Originally developed in the 1990s, it was intended to standardize the connection of a number of peripheral devices to a computer. Today, you can connect almost anything from external hard drives to printers to your laptop/computer through USB cables.

USB protocol was designed for two specific purposes:

  • Communicate with peripheral devices
  • Supply power to the connected devices if applicable

There are many variations of USB connectors - the standard USB that you find on keyboards, mice, and printers. Micro USB and USB Type-C are used mostly with cell phones - however, their popularity in other devices is growing.

When a device communicates with another device through USB protocol, data travels in the form of packets. All the data packets are composed of 8-bit bytes (or multiples of 8-bit bytes, depending on the supported bitrate), where the LSB or Least Significant Bit is transmitted first. If you are building an embedded system that involves USB, make sure you use a USB protocol analyzer to monitor the data on the bus.

Uses of the USB Protocol:

  • Connect peripheral devices such as keyboards, mouse, printers, etc. to a computer
  • Supply power to the peripheral devices
  • Charge accessories such as power banks and devices like cell phones and Bluetooth speakers directly from the power outlet or from computers

The USB products offered by Total Phase:

  • Beagle Protocol Analyzer Models: USB 12, USB 480, and 5000 v2

eSPI Protocol

eSPI was developed by the Intel Corporation as the successor to the Low Pin Count (LPC) bus. eSPI stands for Enhanced Serial Peripheral Bus Interface - its primary function is to reduce the number of pins as compared to LPC.

Uses of the eSPI Protocol:

  • Reduce the number of pins required on the motherboard
  • Used in applications where real time flash sharing is required

eSPI products offered by Total Phase:

Total Phases offers products that support all of the above listed protocols. Our range of protocol analyzers and host adapters help with the test and development of almost any embedded device using CAN, I2C, SPI, USB and/or eSPI. Click below if you would like to learn more, or have a personal demo designed to specifically address your needs.

N64 Controller Interface

Authored by Francisco Martin and Andrew Smith

The Nintendo 64 Controller Interface is an mbed library that allows one or more Nintendo 64 controllers to be used as input devices for the mbed. With this library, one will be able to control games created for an mbed using a Nintendo 64 controller. In addition, the library can easily be used to forward N64 inputs to a computer. Using the N64 Controller executable, one can communicate with multiple controllers.

The N64 Controller executable is it's own stand alone program. It is highly configurable including modifying keybindings to be used with an emulator or changing background colors for streaming and recording. The N64 also allows passive listening. During this setting, one can connect the N64 Controller Interface adapter to an Nintendo 64 and play normally. Connecting the computer simply displays button presses in the GUI . For more information on the N64 Controller program, check its section below.

The N64 Controller Interface requires the following additional devices:

  • 1x Extension Cable for Nintendo 64 N64 Controller
  • 1x Nintendo 64 Controller
  • 1x Switch
  • 1x 2.2K Ohm Resistor

Wire Stripping and Soldering

1. Cut and strip the extension cable closer to the female end. Strip each internal cable on both ends.

2. Solder stripped ends to pin wires.

3. Hide exposed wires with electrical tape and/or shrink tube.

Suggested Hookup

The following image is our suggested wiring schematic. Refer to this image when reading the following hookup tables.

Male End Extension Cable

Only necessary if you plan to have controller plugged into genuine N64 as well, and passively read inputs from controller instead of actively polling for them (not yet supported by the mbed library).

Cablembed
+ (red)Vout
- (white)GND
SignalParallel to Female End

Female End Extension Cable

Cablembed
+ (red)Vout
- (white)GND
Signalp25 (pull-up with 2.2K Ohm Resistor)

2.2K Ohm Resistor

Set to High parallel to the female end of the extension cable. The data pin (p25) should be pulled high, and must be set to OpenDrain mode in order transmit low values as well.

N64 Controller Serial Protocol Sniffer

Test Video

To understand how to interface with an N64 controller, one must first understand the protocol that a genuine N64 uses to interface with the controller. All data is transmitted on a single, half-duplex wire (the signal wire plugged into pin 25 above). When this wire is idle, it is high (hence the pull-up resistor). If a falling edge is detected, it means that bits are being transmitted. Bits are transmitted in 4μs intervals. For a 0, the wire is low for 3μs and high for 1μs. For a 1, the wire is low for 1μs and high for 3μs. In order to read a bit, you must simply wait for a falling edge, and then read the wire 2μs after the falling edge. If the wire is high, the value is a 1, if it is low, the value is a 0. All transmissions end with a 1 bit that is not followed by a falling edge, called the signal bit.

The mbed has a built-in wait_us(int) function that waits a set number of microseconds. However, a microsecond is the smallest resolution that the built-in clock has, so relying on it to wait exactly 1, 2, or 3 microseconds (as our code requires) is not reliable. Instead, a custom assembly function was written to wait an arbitrary number of microseconds. Because the mbed has a clock frequency of 96 MHz, it was calculated that 96 clock cycles should equal 1 microsecond. Assuming a throughput of 1 instruction per clock cycle, this corresponds to 96 instructions. The assembly code does bogus add instructions to consume time equal to 1 microsecond. It does this in a loop, with the number of iterations equaling the parameter that was passed in. NOPs are not used, since according to the ARM assembly reference NOP instructions are liable to be optimized away from the processor.

To request data from the controller, the mbed must write the byte 0x01 onto the wire. The controller then responds with 4 bytes, indicating the inputs on the controller.

Bit0123456789101112131415
DataABZSD↑D↓D←D→**LRD↑D↓D←D→

S = Start, D = D-Pad, C = C-Buttons, * = Unused

Bit16 - 2324 - 31
DataAnalog XAnalog Y

Each button is indicated by a specific bit of the response. A 0 in that bit means the button is not pressed, a 1 means it is pressed. The analog values are signed 8-bit integers. For X, negative is left, and positive is right. For Y, negative is down, and positive is up.

The mbed library polls for this data 100 times a second (using a Ticker), and stores the result. It has methods that allow client code to check the stored result to see which buttons are currently being pressed, and what the values of the joystick are.

Source Code

n64

The Nintendo 64 Controller Interface is an mbed library that allows one or more Nintendo 64 controllers to be used as input devices for the mbed. With this library, one will be able to control games created for an mbed using a Nintendo 64 controller. In addition, the library can easily be used to forward N64 inputs to a computer. Using the N64 Controller executable, one can communicate with multiple controllers.

Last commit 28 Apr 2016 by

Serial

The source code for the GUI program is available at the link below. It is divided into three main sections:

N64 Controller Serial Protocol Sniffer Download

  • N64GUI: Takes care of the UI of the program and loading important components.
  • ControllerListener: Runs on its own thread and listens the serial port for signals.
  • ControllerEventHandler: Takes care of mbed commands and simulates button presses.

One can choose which COM port to connect in the Conneciton tool strip. One can choose the Quit command to close the application. Test Connection is used during debugging and will write to the Output window in Visual Studio if the connection is successful. Layout currently allows to hide/show the controller outline. Future updates will allow new layouts. Finally, Settings Allows to set key bindings and background color. Under Key Bindings, you turn off or on Emulator Mode. When on, Emulator Mode simulates the key pressed with the corresponding button.

Source Code

The source code and installer can be found at its GitHub page here or the following website:https://github.com/fomartin/N64_Controller

N64 Controller Serial Protocol Sniffer Usb

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