Try a dab of hot glue, or double sided tape…
I was that complete noob LED modder. I just finished installing my AE3’s + Remora into my SFXT PS3 Fightstick Pro! IT LOOKS** BEAUTIFUL**!
Thankyou Purplearms and Toodles for such a great product. Highly recommended.
Any pictures of the final mount? How did you deal with the pinout issues? Rearrange the pins on the madcatz ribbon cable or piece together some sort of rewired extension cable?
Hey Wahoo,
For the pinout issues, as you know, the PS3’s JST Header does not match the X360s, so it doesn’t work with Remora. That being said, its really easy to rearrange the pins so that they do match up. I took a needle and lifted the “mini-tabs” and the pins then come out easy. Look at Vicko’s Diagram to see the arrangement of the pins.
The actual hard part for me was wiring power to the Remora, I had no solder equipment! But I just wrapped some wires together and used electrical tape. Anyhow, here’s my results, first then cleaning up stage and then the final result:
Very nice! That must be the fabled 2nd mount spot. I havent removed the 2 plastic halves myself so I never noticed that. Very cool. I guess you just found the 5v wire from the USB cord and patched the power in there?
Thanks for the help and pics. You have inspired me to finish my art and if a PS3 version isnt ready by the time Arts Hobbies ships then I’ll just go the xbox route =)
Hah, looks like we’re in the same boat. I also ordered Art from tek-innovations. Oddly enough, even though I ordered Remora a week after, Ive gotten it before my art. STILL WAITING FOR my art.
Honestly, I suggest you just buy this X360 Remora. I am an absolute noob modder, this is my first time even working with PCBs and Id was able to do it. I dont even know how to solder. And if you need help, I can just help you too.
The 5v wire from the USB cord is the redwire. The USB cord branches off into different coloured wires when it connects to the PS3 PCB. Take that red one and using an exacto-knife or a wire stripper, try to expose the wire from the insulation. Then either solder if you can, or mesh the power wire from the remora into it and tape it up. (In my pics, you can see that long blue wire which gives the Remora power)
The only “hard” part honestly, was rearranging the pins to match the Remora’s CN_1 and CN_2 thing. It wasn’t hard for me,(used Vicko’s diagram), but I can see why people would get a little confused. You just gotta make sure you understand the orientation when it plugs in to the Remora.
As for mounting it, the Remora has a perfect fit on that 2nd mount spot. My screws didnt go in all the way, so I just used some leftover washers to stabilize it.
If you want more pics wahoo, let me know.
Also posted in Remora thread but in case people wanted to see it here too
[media=youtube]FJMXGuBIYQc[/media]
Never thought I’d be able to do an LED mod myself but you guys sure made it easy :tup:
Hey Toodles,
I got the missing AE3s. Thanks!
I’ve finally gotten around to putting together the joysticks, and connected the Remora and AE3s. Everything looked great until I tried hitting two of the buttons. One of the AE3s has a dull red light and won’t change. The other AE3 won’t light up at all. I checked all my connections and tested all the possible connections between the Remora and AE3 (different wire ribbon, connection on Remora etc.). My other Remora and set of 8 AE3s work fine. It’s just these two AE3s that seem broken. 
Check your power wire. I had the same issue. A couple of my Arc Eyes had a dull pulsating red colour. I fixed my power wire (remember to make a “loop” with the exposed wire before putting it into the Remora Screw terminal, increases surface area) and the AE3s were good.
I made a loop with the power wire (both on Remora terminal and Cthulhu terminal), but it’s still the same–one faint red, one not even lighting up.
I just did some more testing and it looks like some of the wires cables don’t work with certain AE3s. It’s weird. Since I have another set of wires from the other Remora, I was able to find a combination where all of the AE3s light up. I haven’t hooked up the other Remora, so I’m afraid I’ll end up with a combination of wires/AE3s that will leave some AE3s non-functioning.
On one of the cables, it looks like the pins were reversed when inserted into the 6-pin JST. I just popped the wires out and reversed it.
However, the other wire is wired correctly into the JST, but the LED won’t light up at all. At least on the reversed wire, there was the dull red. I don’t know what else to do. I tested the other 7 cables and they all work.
Did you plug in the headers the wrong way at any point, because that can fry the LEDs (feeding current the wrong way)…
All i can suggest now is to test each color of each LED with 5v power and ground via the pin headers on AE3. Connect - to the common pin, then touch the 5v wire to each color (R G B). Do that to verify if your LEDs do in fact work.
Hey purplearms,
All the LEDs work. I tested all 16 with a working wire. That one wire was pinned in reverse in the JST. Luckily that didn’t fry anything.
The other wire just seems to not connect the pins. Maybe the crimping on the metal connectors doesn’t have enough wire connecting through (or at all)?
Well that eliminates the LEDs as the source of the problem… if you have a multimeter, you can test to see if there is a problem with any of your connections using the continuity function (multimeter beeps when you touch the probes together, indicating an electrical connection)… is this on a TE-S stick? did you cut the kill ground trace? did you use two 6 pin jst harnesses to connect to your controller board? i need more details…
I figured it out. I tested each wire of the ribbon and found that GND and Blue wires weren’t passing through any signals. I ended up re-crimping both ends of the wires. Everything works now, but the cable looks messy because of the different lengths of wire. 
I’m just using Remora, Cthulhu, and SparkCE on a custom stick.
Great job =D
Thanks. You guys really made a great product in the Remora/AE3s! I love it.
< Will be using this in at least 10 sticks in the next 6 months. Can’t wait!
also badass use of Alpha 3 logo. I <3 A3
When I connect the Remora to the MC Cthulhu terminals, do I use the TE or TE-S pins of the Remora? Also what’s up with the kill ground, what is that/what does it do/do I need to bother? lolol
either one… the only difference is kill ground,… which is a second ground separating start/select (and remora itself) from other grounds… its a lock-switch feature on TE-S sticks and newer, to disable start/select (and remora) when you throw the switch… you can retrofit this to your setup by connecting kill ground to a SPST switch, and then to ground (and cut the trace as shown in post #3)… or if you dont’ care about this feature, you can simply connect kill ground wire to ground, or ignore it…