NESTang since 0.6 has experimental USB gamepad support, allowing you to use your existing controllers without the need to purchase new ones.
Limitations,
- Currently only USB low-speed gamepads are supported. So controllers like PS5 or Xbox 360 pads are not compatible. We do not have a compatible controller list yet. But here are two that I've tested,
- Tang Primer 25K only has one USB port. So you can only connect one gamepad. For Tang Nano 20K, you need to connect the circuitry yourself.
To try USB gamepads on Tang Nano 20K, you will need the following,
- Two USB-A Female to 2.54mm adapters, which can be found here.
- Four 15K ohm resistors as USB pulldown resistor.
Then wire things up correctly, refer to the image above and the Tang Nano 20K pinout). Follow these steps,
- Connect USB VBUS to the 5V pin of Tang Nano 20K, and USB GND to the Tang GND.
- For controller 1, connect D+ to pin 42 and D- to pin 41.
- For controller 2, connect D+ to pin 56 and D- to pin 54.
- Connect four 15K ohm resistors from D-/D+ to GND.
Please note that using the resistors is necessary for stability.
That's all you need to do.