Help with triggers?

Tech Talk
1

Hey all.

I’m in the process of wiring up a common ground, wireless 360 pcb. It’s just about finished, and just about everything is working. Except the right trigger… (I’m not using the left)

I know people have asked time and time again about how to neutralize and get the triggers to work, but I cannot for the life of me find the answers I need. Maybe I’m stupid.

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/9341/transistorrx7.gif

This is essentially what I did (found the image from RDC’s thread regarding the common ground controller), except that I managed to destroy the RT2 solder point, but seeing as that’s the common line for the triggers, I soldered the emitter to the same spot for the left trigger, figuring it would not make a difference.

Any input? I’m anxious to get this done.

2

Bueller? Beuller?

3

Oh, I also put another resistor between the base and the button.

4

anyoneanyoneanyoneanyone???

5

What’s the question? I have no clue what you’re asking, only the vaguest idea of what you’ve done, and no idea what the problem is. Help us help you.

6

http://shoryuken.com/threads/169203-Madcatz-xbox360-LT-RT-help?p=6225303&viewfull=1#post6225303

:coffee:

7

I’m sorry. I suppose I wasn’t very clear.

I guess my question is, does what I’ve done make any sense at all? Was I correct in assuming that I could simply solder the emitter to the “LT2” spot? If what I did wouldn’t work under any circumstances, then I’d know to look deeper for other problems in my wiring. That’s essentially what I was hoping someone could help me out with.

The trigger is not working and I’m not sure what to do about it. Therein lies my problem. Sorry about the vagueness.

Sleazoid, even though that thread is regarding a madcatz pad, I’m assuming the concept is the same as with a CG MS pad, no?

Thanks for helping out guys, I appreciate it.

8

Does that doohicky you describe make sense? Sure, if its connected right it acts as an inverter.

Find the RDC post on xbox-scene with the layout of that exact version of the pad you’re doing and link it up so I can see it. RDC knows his shit like no other, and the post should have all of the information one could need on that pad. Then describe everything about the stick you’re making or hacking, in great excruciating detail. If there’s enough good information, it should be easy to recommend a couple of different options for you to take.

9

I can tell that RDC knows his shit, his threads have helped me loads in the past.

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=618909

There are now 2 common ground wireless boards, but this is the thread corresponding to the one I’m wiring up. The other has it’s own thread.

Unfortunately I am not at home (where my project is, naturally) and won’t be till the weekend, but I’ll try to explain things as best I can.

Stick I’m building:
CG Wireless 360 pcb, Sel,Gui,Sta,A,X,B,Y signals are all soldered to their respective contact pad, below the black epoxy that I scraped off. All connections are functional. D-pad signals are all soldered to corresponding vias (found thanks to RDCs mapping). All are functional.

Pots for analog sticks are, at the moment, and unless I decide otherwise, staying on.

Both triggers have been removed, left trigger has been neutralized.

Now, forgive my lack of initiative here, but I never really bothered to figure out which solder point for the trigger is high and which is low… I’ve just been kind of looking at pictures and going “oh, so that goes there” without necessarily understanding what that or there is. Thus, I assumed that the emitter of the transistor in the converter should be soldered to the “top” of the three solder points, when looking at the pcb as if you were holding the controller.

Like I said, I managed to destroy the top two solder points while removing the trigger… Thus, I used a via for the wiper (again, thanks to RDC’s mapping) and soldered the emitter to the “top” of the solder points for the left trigger, as according to the pcb diagram on slagcoin, that is the common line for the triggers. I figured it would not make a difference…

At the moment, it SEEMS as if both triggers are neutralized, although I haven’t really checked the right in a proper manner. Before neutralizing the left though, as soon as I plugged in the pcb, the 360 dashboard would scroll as if the left trigger had been depressed, which is no longer does. The right trigger seems to do absolutely nothing regardless of whether the base of the transistor is touched to ground or not.

Let me know if there are any other details I could provide.
Thanks a whole bunch Toodles.

10

That’s the key point I wanted verification on.
The only part left is which of the outer pins are GND or VCC.

  1. What about the trigger pots themselves? Are they still on the board or have both (RT and LT pots) been removed? How exactly did you neutralize the trigger?
  2. MASSIVE MASSIVE problem. You need to know this 100%. Turn on the controller, and read the voltages for the four spots (top and bottom pins of each left and right trigger). Throw RDC’s picture into paint, put in the four voltages you read, along with markings of the two pads you burned off so I know what you have to work with.

Lastly, are you married to the idea of having the ground daisy chain going to all of your buttons? This’d be tons easier on your if you were ok with having the two wires going to your RT button without it being part of the ground chain.

11

  1. The pots have been removed. I neutralized the left trigger by putting a 10k resistor between the wiper and the bottom pin.

  2. I will do this as soon as I get home (sunday, i believe), if I can’t find some info on it before then.

Would a dual mod still be possible if the ground was not daisy chained through the RT button???

12

Sorry, I won’t be involved in dual modding wireless stuff. Just so much going on. If you’re going that route, grab one of gummowned’s leo boards and follow what it requires.

13

Fair enough.

This stick is actually for a friend, and I’m not sure if he plans on dual modding it at some point or not. I will however be building a dual wireless stick for myself in the near future, using the same 360 pcb along with a sixaxis and one of Gummowned’s leo boards, so I figured I’d ask.
If my friend wishes to dual mod this stick he may just use one of your cthulhus as opposed to a sixaxis, anyhow.

Could you tell me why it would be easier to have a separate ground wire for the trigger?

14

Parts needed to common ground the inverted trigger:

  • two resistors and one transistor, one set needed for each trigger.

Parts needed to properly use the inverted trigger as is:

  • One resistor.
15

So is the idea basically…

To common ground the trigger
-Use transistor and resistors to make a ground connection send a high signal to the wiper, in a similar fashion as the diagram I originally posted

To use it as is
-Neutralize with a resistor and run power instead of ground to the button

Correct or no?
And sorry if you don’t have enough info from me or about the board to answer this… but I still don’t quite understand why the little transistor inverter shown above didn’t work, unless of course that out of my laziness I ended up wiring it backwards from not knowing which pad is high and which is low. That will be the first thing to check when I get home… But if I ended up wiring it correctly, why would it not work?

16

Correct.

Why didn’t it work? Probably because you did it wrong. Your troubleshooting should tell you much faster than my latent psychic abilities will.

17

Haha ok.

Let me ask you a couple more questions then I’ll stop bothering you.
Was I correct in thinking that as the top pad, be it high or low (I’ll figure that out soon), is the common line for the triggers, that I could just solder the appropriate pin of the inverter for the right trigger to the corresponding pad of the left?

Which side of the inverter in the diagram ought to go to the high pad and which to the low?

Oh. I lied. One more…
I think I successfully neutralized the left trigger with a guess, but just to make sure… neutralizing resistor goes from high to wiper or from low to wiper?

18

Wow, I have not been thinking straight at all.

Both your ChImp board and Gummowned’s Leo board have the inverter built in… Thus, for now I can just wire the trigger as it is, and if my friend decides to dual mod, no inverter needed.

I never really realized before that you could just use power instead of ground and leave the triggers as they are… I don’t know how that escaped me. I feel much better about all this now.

Thanks for all your help, Toodles. I appreciate your patience.