Thanks Toodles you’re a God amongst electronics gurus lmao-.
I know the image sucks - let me explain it.
What you need to know about the HRAP3 pins -
Pin 5 (far left) - +5v
Pin 2 (second from right) - Ground
You will be adding a wire that connects the HRAP3’s +5v to the PSX controller’s +5v (Pin 5 on a PSX controller), and a wire that connects the HRAP3’s Ground to the psx controller’s ground (Pin 4 on a PSX controller).
Once you do that, you connect the buttons to the PSX pcb. There are 2 terminals on each button - one is connected to the ground, which is NOT what you want - otherwise that button will always be pressed. To find out which is which, use a multimeter - have the black wire touching the ground pin on the HRAP3 pcb, and the other touching a terminal on the button. If it connects, that’s the ground - if it doesn’t, you’ve found the correct terminal.
I connected an extra wire to the button’s terminal by just soldering the wire onto the quick disconnect. That way, if I ever have to remove the button, I can just remove the disconnect and the extra wire should stay with it. Unless, of course, you add too much solder to the disconnect and it solders onto the terminal - then you’ll have to heat up the solder to remove the button down the road.
You do not have to connect the ground terminal on the button to the PSX PCB’s common ground… because it’s already been grounded.
An alternate way, and probably not very safe way (I don’t know enough about electronics to say so), is to have your psx controller hooked up to a PSX -> USB adapter, and watching the buttons on the screen (Control Panel -> Game Controllers). Connect the wire to the respective PSX button on the pcb, and touch the wire on one of the terminals - if the button lights up, it’s the wrong one. If it doesn’t light up, pressing the button while it’s touching should light it up. This is assuming, of course, the PSX pcb’s ground and +5v is properly connected on the HRAP3’s.
And that’s basically it. However, you will have some challenges and decisions to make when you’re doing this. Here are a few I had to deal with -
- You can not solder on top of the PCB, where the PS3 control panel is (unless, of course, you can care less about the PS3 buttons, then ignore this). If you solder on top, which you’ll be tempted to do because it’s easier, you won’t be able to put the plastic control panel back on. Which leaves the question - how are you going to connect the ground and +5v? On the other side of the PCB is a removable connector that connects the cable to the PCB. Now, if I had the parts handy, I would have loved to just make my own custom connector that had 2 wires coming out of it for the other connection - but I’m not that cool. Instead, I just did away with the plastic connector. I removed the cable from the connector, revealing the 5 pins it connects to. I then took a soldering iron and heated up the solder on top of the pcb, which allowed me to pull away the pin from the hole. However, the plastic connector will give you trouble as far as pulling it out of the hole - a decent amount of resistance is there. I got really tired of this part, so I literally melted the other half of the plastic connector off and did what I had to do to get the pins out. In the end, I just had 5 holes that I could do what I wanted with. Some needlenosed pliers let me pinch/snap apart the connector on the cable, which gave me access to the wires. Not the most elegant job, but I wasn’t aiming for professionalism. Just be careful that you don’t go all Hulk on it, you don’t want to force off the copper on the PCB - then you’d be in real trouble.
2)I forced the copper off the #5 pin on the pcb. I thought I was in deep shit, but I took a breath and traced the lead down to an LED that must power on when the turbo button is on or something - I took out the LED and used the +5v side to plug in my +5v pin. Voila.
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If your PSX controller doesn’t have a removable connector, like mine, you’re going to have to desolder the wires going into the pcb to be able to route the wire outside of the controller. Make sure you accurately map your Pinout using a multimeter.
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Get a dremel or something to make a hole for your PSX wire to go through.
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It’s going to be a rat’s nest in there when you’re done - make sure you use electric tape around all of your joints so none of them touch inside the controller when you close it all up. Otherwise you’ll have a controller that randomly registers buttons when you smack it hard.
If you’re not comfortable with electronics, soldering irons and the like, I would really recommend NOT doing this mod. There is no quick and easy way to do this, and since this is not a custom arcade stick that you designed yourself, you have to be patient with working with their design. With that said, if you’ve done some basic soldering before, AKA you’re comfortable with hacking a PSX pad and have done so in the past, this is a fun mod to do on your HRAP3.
And last but not least…
DO NOT HOOK UP BOTH AT ONCE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
I did this by accident when I was testing the button connections on my computer, and before I realized what I had done, it was too late. The USB worked fine (thankfully), but the PSX was completely fried. Hitting X registered up and O, hitting down registered start and square, etc. I really need to look into getting a switch that chooses the power for down the road.
I hope my information will help someone down the line do this to their controller - I recommend not using my post as a step-by-step guide, and instead try figuring out how to do it on your own given the previous posts on the thread. Then everything I said will make sense. You really shouldn’t be doing any of this stuff unless you have a good understanding of how and why this works.
Have fun,
Ryebread
Thanks for the tutorial, i’m almost decided.
My “fear” is that you say that can’t solder on the top of USB PCB, it will be more easy…
Again, if you could live without the Turbo/Home/L3/R3 buttons and the switch to make your stick analog, you could just leave the pcb inside the stick with your PSX PCB. You could leave the hole where the panel would be open, you could just screw in the panel (without the buttons), or get creative and custom make your own logo to put there or something.
Can’t the +v and GND PSX PCB wires go through this hole and solded in the top?
PCB TOP.
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/2748/dsc00369mf3.jpg
HOLE
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/632/dsc00371mf5.jpg
Another question for the buttons:
Instead of cut the HRAP 3 original wires like says this pic:
is possible launch wires from PSX PCB and make contact with this directly?
http://inlinethumb57.webshots.com/5944/2994763880084014115S600x600Q85.jpg
…
:annoy:
Good observation. I guess I should be getting more sleep…
If you can route 2 wires through that hole to the PCB solder points, definitely do that - That way, you won’t have to mess with the connector, and it’ll be much more clean in the end. I would’ve done it this way if saw this ahead of time.
Yes. That pic is using a distribution block. You do not have to use it. Like I said in my post, I just had a wire for each button going from the PCB to the buttons quick disconnect - I soldered the wire on the quick disconnect. You could cut the wire and crimp your own quick disconnect to have 2 wires in it, if you wanted to.
krost, you are my hero. 
is the same for the stick ground? (1-ground stick-to-4grounds d-pad?) or simply 4 (directions) wires from the stick to the PSX PCB.?
Thanks.
hey…
I am completely new to this so some of these questions will seem amateurish…
- In the following picture, there is a green/grey thing in the middle which all the wires are going into… is that a terminal strip?
if not, then what is it?
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I am trying to connect a saturn, PSX (one of the original digital only models) and a Quantum fighter dreamcast controller all in one, is this possible?
-
Aside from getting a multimeter from radioshack, is there any other way I can figure out where the grounds and +5/+3V are in each of these controllers?
THANKS!!!
Yep, it’s a terminal strip.
They look like this (standard):
http://rocky.digikey.com/WebLib/Molex/Web%20Photos/38780-0112.jpg
or this (European):
http://rocky.digikey.com/WebLib/Molex/Web%20Photos/39150-0312.jpg
It should work OK.
Really, you oughta pick up a multimeter. It’s a huge help for projects like this, especially for testing continuity. You’ll hate yourself if you wire up 3 PCBs, a stick, and a bunch of buttons, then something’s not connected properly when you fire it up, and you’ve got no idea where the problem is.
Yup, stick is already grounded to your HRAP3 pcb, so you only have to solder the 4 directions from the stick to the PCB.
Also to be noted- Sanwa sticks have the 5-pin connector that goes straight to the pcb. I didn’t want to mess with this connector, so instead, I soldered onto the stick itself. The stick has 4 PCB-like panels with copper on it for each direction - I soldered directly to that for the PSX buttons. If you need help locating them, I can post a picture, but it should be pretty obvious.
This is the last question for my PCB adventure
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/9734/stibr1.jpg
Which is exactly each +v direction copper?
Also, if anyone could link me to a site that has parts/tools to make your own custom connectors that’ll fit parts like on the HRAP3 and Sanwa stick pin-out, please let me know. I’d like to be able to just crimp my own connectors down the road if I were to do this again.
Like the connectors on the top-right of this page ?
http://www.gotronic.fr/catalog/connectique/connectframe.htm
Every good grocery should have them
Yes, exactly, except that link brings you to the very top link (accessories), I had to click “circuits imprims” to see them.
The 5-point female should do the trick.
Thank you, at least I know they can be bought easily. If I were to look for it in a store, besides Radioshack, is there any other place you’d recommend? And what tool would I need to be able to “crimp” these kinds of connectors?
The original parts are made by JST, and have 2.5mm spacing. Most american parts have 2.54mm spacing. I dont know of any easy to find places to find the proper part.
They have their own tool for crimping, but I always just use a pair of pointed pliers, like a leatherman, to crimp them.
Since Mono had a backorder for all the items I wanted, I went with computercablestore.com - I ordered the 6-way db25 switch. It has a very compact lay-out, and I figure, this can be turned into my own personal ultimate stick. I will have one stick that mainly uses converters for guests… and a more personalized (completely custom lay-out and design) stick for my own needs, which has that switch in it. This switch-box concept just appeals to me greatly. Those 6 slots will fill up quick if it goes as planned.
Up with this topic, the reason, i want to give the thanks to everybody that help me here, specially to krost , finally i finish my psx pcb install in the HRAP3.
PD: 2 PSX pads die in the process.
Congrats : )
And I killed a PCB in the process as well…
I recently tried to wire up a Dreamcast PCB in my HRAP 2, and couldn’t figure out why all the buttons would fire and reset the thing.
I will connect the 5v and ground together, and it should work fine.
Thank you all for sharing your wisdom.
Let us know how it goes