How to padhack an 08/09 Madcatz 4716 Common Ground Xbox 360 Pad

Tech Talk
1

I’ve been telling people on IRC that I’d do this, so here I am.
I will post pictures in a little bit. This guide is incomplete until those pictures are here.

EDIT: I’m tired and need to do some work. I’ll finish this tomorrow!

Materials Required:
-Madcatz 4716 2008/2009 Pad
-Soldering Iron
-Solder
-Desoldering Equipment (Braid, Solder Sucker, your preferred method)
-Flux (optional, but recommended)
-Solid and/or Stranded Wire (I personally use 24 AWG solid and 26 AWG Stranded)
-Small Phillips Head Screwdriver (I don’t know the exact size)
-Scissors and/or Diagonal Cutters
-Wire Stripper
-Pliers (optional, helpful)
-Hot Glue (optional, required if you’re NOT doing triggers)
-Multimeter (optional, great for testing)
-Time (Goes without saying)

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/759/equipz.png
Most everything listed up here is available at radio shack. You might have to look elsewhere for hot glue.

If you’re doing the triggers:
-74HCT14/74HCT04 Hex Inverter Chip (more varieties will work, I personally used 74HCT14)
-2 10k Ohm Resistors (1/4 watt is fine)
-Electrical Tape (not necessary, I used it though)

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5012/triggerequip.png
Everything here is also available at Radio Shack, except the Hex Inverter Chips. I got mine HERE
I’ve heard THIS place is cheaper.

Skills Required (Honestly, this is ALL it takes):
-Basic Reading Skills
-Basic Soldering Experience (If you don’t have this, go to radioshack, get some solid wire, get a perfboard, get solder and an iron, then practice!! It’s honestly not that hard.)
-Patience

**
Step 1: Obtain Madcatz 4716 2008/2009 Pad.**

The Madcatz 4716 pads are often used for padhacking and dual modding because of their common ground mapping. These are wired pads and they come with breakaway dongles, and are relatively easy to padhack. They don’t have super small contacts, and have a lot more room for error as opposed to other pads. If you want a wireless pad, look elsewhere; this guide is not for you.

There are many places you can obtain the Madcatz 4716 2008/2009 pads. My current go-to store is Gamestop. The Gamestop branded pads are almost always Madcatz 4716 pads, and if they’re in the retail store, they’re probably pretty new. I’ve been to four different Gamestops and purchased a pad from each one, and they’ve all ended up being Madcatz 4716 2009 pads. The color doesn’t matter, and you can usually see the 4716 and year by looking at the back of the pad.

This is what the back of the pad should look like:

placeholder

If you don’t want to get pads at Gamestop, I know Radio Shack sells them, but they’re a little more expensive there, and I’ve heard that Walmart and Toys-R-Us also stock them.

Step 2: Disassemble the Casing Around the PCB

There are 8 screws on the back of the madcatz pad. I’ve circled them in the picture.

http://www.damn-son.com/upas/removescrews%20copy.jpg
Sorry! My hand got in the way! I promise the screw is under there!

Sometimes, the screws can be a bit tricky to get out, and its kind of tough to get them to move with such a small screwdriver. At those times, I suggest using one hand to push down as hard as you can on the top of the screwdriver, and the other hand to use pliers to twist the handle of the screwdriver. Do this for a couple turns and the rest of the way will be easy.

http://www.damn-son.com/upas/methodmark%20copy.jpg
Warning: This method leaves temporary marks on your hand!

After the screws are gone, you can just pull the front and back halves of the casing off. The triggers might get stuck in the back, so gently wiggle the back half while you pull it off. Let all the guts and switches fall off. You can pull off the rubber pads on top of the A,B,X,Y,Up,Down,Left, and Right contacts.

http://www.damn-son.com/upas/pullapart%20copy.jpg
See, its so easy I can use one hand to do it.

http://www.damn-son.com/upas/removedparts%20copy.jpg
Save this part (used to hold the USB cord in) to apply flux!

Now we need to get rid of those rumble motors. We won’t be using them. Simply cut the wires with your scissors.
http://www.damn-son.com/upas/cutrumbles%20copy.jpg
It’s that easy.

Next, remove eight screws on the PCB to free the Guide button and Trigger mechanisms. I’ve circled them here.

http://www.damn-son.com/upas/triggerscrews%20copy.jpg
http://www.damn-son.com/upas/guidescrews%20copy.jpg
If you need to use the pliers trick here, something is SERIOUSLY wrong.

With the screws removed, you can pull off the triggers and guide button. When you pull the triggers off, make sure you don’t pull the yellow pots off.

Step 3: Cut, Strip, and Tin Wires

Next, we need to prepare our wires. Cut and strip them. That should be relatively easy.
Then, we need to tin the ends of the wires we’re going to connect to the pcb. Use your soldering iron to heat the wire, and apply solder to the wire. The solder should be “sucked up” by the wire, and the wire should turn stiff and silver colored.

http://www.damn-son.com/upas/tinned%20copy.jpg
This isn’t the best tin… there’s a glob of solder on the end. It’s okay if this happens, we can still roll with it!

Step 4: Wire up the PCB!

Here it is! The moment we’ve all been waiting for! We finally get to solder to the PCB! Get familiar with these pictures:

http://www.damn-son.com/upas/frontlabeledcopy%20copy.jpg
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/9564/backlabeled.jpg

Notice my PCB is labeled 4716-1 VER.E and the DPAD addon is 4716-2 VER.C. If yours are different, this mapping MIGHT be wrong.

On my mappings, there are contacts for signal and ground. We need to tap into these. Using that little piece of plastic we saved, apply some flux to each of the SIGNAL contacts. This will help the solder we tinned onto the wire form a stronger connection with the PCB. Once that is done, solder the tinned wires to the contacts. Give each connection a little tug to make sure its solid, but not too hard, or you might remove the contact.

Now, choose one GROUND contact. Since this pad is common ground, we only need to tap into one of them, and we can use that for all of our buttons. I normally chose one of the dpad contacts, since they are bigger. Repeat the process, and solder a wire to it.

When you’re done, the pad should look something like this:

http://www.damn-son.com/upas/hackednotrigs%20copy.jpg
Notice I haven’t added a ground wire yet. You should definitely do that before progressing.

2

At this point in time, decide if you want to use the triggers or not. If you do, proceed to step 5a. Otherwise, go to 5b.

Mod Edit: Some revisions of the MadCatz 4716 (Rev.G and Rev.E) do not need their triggers inverted for them to work. Please check and/or ask around before inverting.

Step 5a: Wiring up the triggers TO WORK properly

In order to do a trigger hack, we need to remove the orange-yellow pots on the PCB.
There are a couple ways to do this, but I’ve found that the easiest way is to gently rock the pots back and forth. You’ll feel the pins getting bent and starting to break, but keep going until the pot finally comes off.
The advantage of this method is there is no chance of wrecking your PCB, which could cause problems, especially if you ruin one of the wiper contacts.

When you’re done removing the pots, the board should look like this:
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/4609/potoff.jpg

We are now going to prepare the Hex Inverter following this schematic:
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/2311/schematicg.jpg

The first thing I like to do is get rid of the un-needed pins. Take diagonal cutters, scissors, or whatever you have that will work and cut off pins 6, 8, 10, and 12. Be careful when you cut the pins! I’ve cut the wrong pins before, and they ended up being useless.
If you’re confused on which is pin 1, and which is pin 14, here is a helpful picture:
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9862/pinlabel.jpg

Remember, when you look at the hex inverter upside-down, make sure you keep track of the pins.

I like to connect the grounds first. Pins 5,7,9,11, and 13 all need to be chained together. Using small bits of solid wire as jumpers, connect the pins.
When you’re done, the hex inverter should look like this:

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9286/grounds.jpg
(Sorry! Mines a bit messy!)

Now we’re going to prepare a little setup to help us down the line.
Take a piece of solid wire, the two resistors, and two wires and assemble them as so:

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/925/resistorsetup.jpg
The Green Wire is my power wire, it will be connected to the PCB for power.
The two blue wires are my signal wires. They will be wired to the buttons.
The resistors are 10k 1/2 watt resistors. 1/4 Watt will suffice, but I had 1/2 watts on hand.

Next, attach this little setup to the hex inverter.

Solder the ends of the resistors to pins 1 and 3. Solder the power wire to pin 14.
Use electrical tape to prevent the resistors from touching each other.

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/6219/assembledhex.jpg
At this point in time, every pin except pin 2 and 4 should either have something connected to it or be cut

Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture for this next step, but its pretty straightforward. Solder a wire to pin 2, another to pin 4, and yet another to one of the ground pins. You’ll have to double up on the ground pins because your jumper wires are already soldered there, so it might be tricky, but patience and meticulousness will greatly help you. THESE ARE SINGLE WIRES. Wire ONE wire to pin 2, a DIFFERENT wire to pin 4, and a wire DIFFERENT THAN BOTH OF THOSE to one of the ground pins you’ve previously jumpered.

Finally, its time to add the hex inverter to our PCB.

Desolder all six of the trigger contacts you broke the pots off of. There are guides to desoldering on youtube, so I won’t cover this in detail, but flux will help you greatly! Make sure you don’t lift any of the contacts.

Solder the wire on pin 2 to the MIDDLE CONTACT (the wiper) of one of your triggers. Solder the wire on pin 4 to the MIDDLE CONTACT on the OTHER trigger.
Wire the ground wire to the LOW points of one of the triggers, and wire the power wire to the HIGH point of one of the triggers. If you did lift a contact while desoldering, as long as you have at least one HIGH and at least one LOW, you’re fine. You NEED both of the middle contacts though to be successful.

When this is done, hotglue the back of the hex inverter to the PCB.
It should now look like this:

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/2173/completed.jpg

CONGRATULATIONS! If you did everything right, you should now have a working padhack! We still need to add quick disconnects, though, which I will cover in the next step.

Step 5b: Wiring up the triggers TO DO NOTHING

If you’ve decided you don’t need the triggers, then you don’t have to do much.
I don’t have pictures for this, but I will work on getting them the next time I do a padhack.
There are two methods which can be used, and I will detail both in this section. Method 1 doesn’t require resistors, while Method 2 requires 4 10k Ohm 1/4 watt resistors. Both accomplish their job, but Method 2 allows more room for error.

Method 1:

First, plug in the USB cord of the pad into your computer. Go to Control Panel -> Game Controllers, and click on the Madcatz Xbox 360 Controller.
Click properties and bring up the window to test the pad.

The triggers control the Z-axis, so we will only be looking at that.
Spin the pots around. You should see the Z-axis move. We need to find a placement of both pots that leaves the Z-axis right in the middle.
Spin the pots around until you find this placement, then hot glue the pots down, neutralizing them.
If you glue these and the Z-axis is not in the middle, you will run into trouble, so be careful!

Method 2:

With this method, you need to remove the pots as detailed in step 5a. After this, wire a 10k resistor from Low to Wiper, and Wiper to high for each trigger. This will neutralize the triggers.

Congratulations! If everything was done right, you’ve completed a padhack! We still need to add quick disconnects, though, which I will cover in the next step.

Step 6: Crimping Quick Disconnects and Making a Ground Daisy Chain
(Coming soon!)

3

Thanks To:

Toodles for his hex inverter method :smiley: Great success!
Akuma001 for helping me on all my previous padhacks. USE DAT MULTIMETER.
Fiveways for resizing the images, hosting the pics, and helping me make this thing READABLE.
Kfree, and #srktt in general for motivating me to do this. And the countless of scrubs who don’t know how to use search.
Zombie capt for making that first 08/09 madcatz thread.
ProtomanSTi for buying a dual mod wiring job for me. Protoman, this is YOUR pad, actually. I had to do a great job with it so I could make this tutorial.

Another placeholder just in case.

4

Good shit, keep it up man.

5

This is fanatastic. wish i had this before i started my 2009 madcatz pcb hack. will definitely use it if i attempt another one (or i muff up this board and have to start again). FYI to newbies to soldering, i’ve found that the bulb ‘solder sucker’ kind of sucks at removing solder. Going to invest in a desoldering braid this week and give that a shot to compare.

edit: Also, Upas, do you think you could cover mounting this PCB inside a custom case in your guide if you have a good method? I just can’t figure out how you’d do it and made a thread asking for the same kind of advice…

6

was looking for the 2009 padhack… straighforward tutorial! Thanks a bunch. :tup:

7

I am bookmarking this page. And I never bookmark pages.

Thanks man.

8

Alright guys :smiley: I added a section on the trigger hack. Sorry for the blurry-ish pictures!

Sure, I can do that. I use velcro.

9

Wow I just decided to finnally get around to modding my stick with a 360 controller thanks man this helps a bunch.

10

I’m grabbing a pad today. I hope he finishes this tutorial, so I can hammer away this weekend.

Exciting times.

11

I’m going to take some better pictures and do the rest of the tutorial tomorrow guys! I know the triggers are a really hard part, and I’ll try my best to make it understandable.

I’ve already made a few clarifications, and if anyone is confused about anything, feel free to ask. It’ll help me improve on this!

I hope you find it helpful!

12

Edited again! I had two of the contacts switched (LB and RB).

Adding quick disconnect tutorial tomorrow!

13

I cant wait!

14

Tomorrow is just a day away :wink:

no, really … great tutorial and pics … so for triggers using inverters is essential or is it possible to do this without them … how do you test if your pad needs inverters or not?

why do I need inverters anyway? is it so the triggers always get the maximum voltage, when you press the button?

15

With the 08/09 pads, inverters are virtually guaranteed to be necessary. All 09 pads need the inverter.

The inverters are needed because of the active-high nature of the pads. The old pads used to be active low, so the triggers were defaulted to a high voltage. When you pressed the button, a low voltage signal was sent, and the triggers were activated. Now, the triggers are active high, so we need to invert the low signal we get and send it to the pad as high for it to work. This probably isn’t the best explanation, but it gives the gist of it. I’ll think of a way to put it better.

Other than using the year to distinguish between active high and active low, you could also use a multimeter on the signal line with the full trigger assembly on. Put the black diode on low, and red diode on signal. When you press the trigger, if the voltage readout on the multimeter is high, your trigger is active high. If the voltage readout on the multimeter is low, your trigger is active low.

If you have an active low trigger, you have to use a different method. Your PCB will also most likely be mapped differently.

16

aha, I get it I think …

the active low or high is just how they are made differently from other buttons which are active low and activate when you press the button and voltage drops …

now the same will happen with the triggers and the voltage will drop, but since the PCB activates the signal when the voltage is high, we have to invert the low signal to high so the PCB will activate the trigger signal …

also, can you please explain the reason for connecting the trigger button signal line with the power line through a resistor? is it to limit the voltages so they don’t “jump around”?

17

I got question. Which controller are you using for the PCB? The one on the left?
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/5148/img0488c.th.jpg

18

This should be stickied.

19

Yes, I am using the one on the left. That is the newer version.

20

Thanks to upas, I was able to finish my first xbox360 stick.

Right on!