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USB joystick only works through unpowered hub?

andywest

I'm nearly finished building a handheld game system running RetroPie. However, there's one thing I can't get working.

 

I'm using a USB joystick encoder (https://www.amazon.com/Reyann-Arcade-Encoder-Joystick-Fighting/dp/B00UUROWWK/). I've hand-wired a USB cable to the test pads of a Raspberry Pi 1 Model A+ with 512MB RAM. The cable is terminated with an A-type female connector. The encoder has a hand-wired cable with an A-type male connector.

 

When the encoder is connected directly to the Pi, the power light illuminates for less than a second and then goes out. RetroPie does not detect it. However, if I plug the encoder into a USB 2 hub (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2998 ) then it works. It's important to note that I am NOT supplying external power to the hub.

 

The fact that it works with the hub suggests that it's not a problem with incorrect wiring or lack of power. Just in case, I built a separate test extender cable with the data wires swapped. As expected, it didn't work. I also tested the encoder on a Windows 10 PC (without swapping the wires) and it works fine.

 

Can anyone think of why this might be failing or know a way to fix it? Thanks!

Parents

  • Hi Andy,

     

    It might be worth a few experiments, e.g. test it without any additional connectors to buttons etc., just to eliminate it down to the board It shouldn't draw a lot of current, but who knows : ( Also, the USB cable doesn't look very high quality in the photo on Amazon, I'm wondering if it is making a good connection to the connector on the Pi, or if the cable length is causing an issue. Some of these things could be marginal enough that it works with the hub but not directly.

  • in reply to shabaz

    I'm not using the USB connector on the Pi or cable for the the encoder board. I soldered a short cable to the Pi's test pads, and another short cable to the joystick encoder. In fact, I stripped all the connectors off the board and soldered everything directly to save space. I've tested all the connections and they seem good, and the cables are only a few inches long.

     

    I'll test the current draw again when I get the chance just to make extra, triple sure.

  • in reply to andywest

    Oh I see... so the USB connection is with point-to-point wiring, and no connector?

    If so, the two data wires should be loosely twisted together (perhaps a couple of twists per inch), and both of the wires be approximately the same length. It shouldn't matter with such a short distance of a few inches, but it could have an impact.

  • in reply to shabaz

    Sorry, I misread your reply and I wasn't clear in my explanation. The cables are exactly as described in my original post:

     

    I've soldered one end of a cable to the test pads of the Pi, and the other end has an A-type female USB connector. Then I soldered a cable to the joystick board, and the other end has A-type male USB connector.

     

    So the Pi and the joystick board are joined by USB connectors in the middle. This makes it easy to disconnect and put a hub in there.

     

    By the way, I just tested current and voltage draw from the joystick board with a USB power meter, both with and without the hub. With the hub it's showing 0.00A, ~4.9V. Without the hub is 0.00A, ~5.2V. While it seems somewhat unlikely that it would be drawing less than 10mA, I also tested a flash drive and it was registering around 50mA which seems correct. So maybe it is just a very low power device.

Reply
  • in reply to shabaz

    Sorry, I misread your reply and I wasn't clear in my explanation. The cables are exactly as described in my original post:

     

    I've soldered one end of a cable to the test pads of the Pi, and the other end has an A-type female USB connector. Then I soldered a cable to the joystick board, and the other end has A-type male USB connector.

     

    So the Pi and the joystick board are joined by USB connectors in the middle. This makes it easy to disconnect and put a hub in there.

     

    By the way, I just tested current and voltage draw from the joystick board with a USB power meter, both with and without the hub. With the hub it's showing 0.00A, ~4.9V. Without the hub is 0.00A, ~5.2V. While it seems somewhat unlikely that it would be drawing less than 10mA, I also tested a flash drive and it was registering around 50mA which seems correct. So maybe it is just a very low power device.

Children
  • in reply to andywest

    I see.. it could be worth comparing with a newer Pi 3, I vaguely remember when the Pi's were first released, they had a lot of USB issues, which should have been resolved in later Linux images.

    I do recall some issues to do with certain USB hubs operating in a different manner to other USB hubs for example.

    Here is a thread detailing some of the USB issues, but this should be all historical and resolved, but I wouldn't know for sure.

    https://www.element14.com/community/message/57988/l/usb-discussions-getting-a-bit-heated#57988

    Have you typed 'lsusb' on the command line, to see if the device is still seen by Linux, even though the light turned off?

    Another option (not great I know) is to try a different manufacturer joystick encoder, if no-one else has confirmed that one works directly with the Pi A+. I can't think what else to suggest, definitely an odd problem if

    other USB devices (like USB memory sticks etc) work fine when you connect them to the same connector : (