Funny…I didn’t even notice you were also from San Diego until you mentioned Willy’s. That’s were I went (the newish one in Clairemont/Kearny Mesa). Did you try the Willy’s down south?
I’ll try any one of those and see what happens.
yeah i went to the kearny willy’s. i pretty much just asked the counter guy because i didnt see any on the shelves. he asked me for specific specs. i didnt know so he said i’ll just grab you a common NPN transistor. went in the back and grabbed a few loose ones.
I ended up going to Willy’s this morning to try to make a quick purchase. I wanted to pick up a Euro barrier strip, the resistors and transistor.
So…Slagcoin, ShinJN, Toodles - here’s what I ended up getting:
the Transistor is NTE branded. (NTE377) Here’s the specs:
Vcbo - 80v Pd - 50W
Vceo - 80v Hfe - 60 min
Vebo - 5v Ft - 50MHz Typ
Ic - 10A
They ran out of 1/8w resistors in 1K and 100K, so they gave me a 1/4w 100K resistor and a 1/2w 1K resistor. So will the items I got be OK for this? I’m very clueless when it comes to transistors, capacitors, resistors, etc. Also, is there a way to identify the legs? Do they need to go to specific resistors/wires?
-j
UPDATE/EDIT - A little more help needed - It was only a partially successful mod.
I just finished up doing this mod to my mod. It works kinda. Big thanks to Slagcoin for his help.
I’m going to return the stuff that I got at Willy’s because I was able to find some 1/8w resistors and a cheaper transistor (the one that I got at Willy’s was $4).
I did it up exactly as stnwag0n’s picture because A) I lack any semblance of electronic creativity and B) wanted to reduce the chances of screwing up.
Since I had a significantly harder time trying to get a transistor than stnwag0n (thanks to me not wanting to screw up), I ended up getting an NTE289 transistor from Fry’s. It was $1.39 and the label on the package says “T-NPN, Si, Audio Power Amp/Switch.” The model number, NTE289, should be enough for you guys to go on. Mind you, Slagcoin indicated that just about any transistor will work.
The transistor is round on the side opposite of the ID stamp. In the picture below, the emitter on the left leg and the collector is on the right. The flat side of the transistor is facing you.
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z244/jizzmirk/Arcade%20Stick/Thumbs/Home_Trans_Mod_TN.jpg
After I wired up the resistors and transistor, I pressed the Select and Start buttons and that fired up the controller as desired. So I thought the test was a success, but after getting into SF, it turns out that the Select button works, but when I press the Start button, it acts like it’s pressing the Start and Home buttons together. Any insight? Is the transistor bad?
I took out the multimeter before putting the thing into the stick. I’ve got it set to check resistance and when I check resistance on a couple of the legs, it’s shows up with low ohms only for a moment, then it shows open circuit. I can check the resistances on the thing again, if you guys can tell me what I need to look for. When I read online trying to figure out the base, emitter and collector legs, it said that I’m only supposed to get low ohms from base to emitter…and open all other leg combos.
-j
i had a slight problem (not sure/remember if its similar to yours) when i put it together that i forgot to mention. slagcoin sent me this diagram as a fix and it worked. pretty much connect the CMN © to CMN with a wire.
I tried the common jump as pictured and it didn’t work. I didn’t have too much time to fiddle, but I’m starting to wonder about the transistor. stnwag0n, could you tell me what the marking on your transistor shows?
Any other electronic engineers want to chime on this?
try another transistor. they’re only $.79 each at radioshack. i grabbed a few and they all did the same, even with the different specs. make sure you follow the diagram on their package. two of the three i grabbed where the same, but the third had the collector and emitter positions switched.
Is there a possibility of damaging the transistor if the collector and emitter are wired incorrectly?
cool beans
Dang, I looked up that part number, and the first time I’ve seen, the base is on an outside pin. Try exchanging the resistors. Hopefully that works and your transistor has not been damaged. Sorry, I’ve only seen transistors with bases in the middle until now.
The two resistors that I have are different in terms of their B,C and E placement. Neither of them have the Base in the middle. I’ll try a little switcheroo tonight when I get home.
-j
slagcoin, if you have time can you find an answer or suggest a troubleshooting route for me? pressing start and select to turn on the controller and/or ps3 doesnt work 100% of the time. sometimes i have to press both at the same time multiple times for it to turn on. sometimes i have to hold select, then press start or vice versa. usually i just keep pressing both buttons randomly until the controller turns on. any ideas?
One thing that may possibly help is to use a 1K resistor to connect the two commons instead of using a wire, but I’m not sure if that will actually help.
When the PCB is off (mostly), it pulses current briefly every three seconds. I think the Home button has something special to latch the Home button for three seconds when it is pressed (maybe like a capacitor or some special site on the IC), so that then the pulsing current will see that it was pressed at some point.
I’m thinking you may have to hold down both buttons for at most three seconds each time you turn the PCB on. How long is it taking when you hold them down?
i just tried holding down both for 3, 5, 10, 20 seconds. pcb does not turn on. i will try to replace the common connector with a 1k resistor now.
i notice if i have the pcb off, then connect a usb cable and let it charge for a few seconds, disconnect the usb, then press start and select at the same time, it turns on immediately. the battery is fully charged during all this testing btw.
well i put a 1k resistor in place of the wire connecting cmn© and cmn and so far am getting consistent home button activations. i’ll leave the stick idle for an hour or two and try again.
Mine is working fine now. I switched the 1K and 100K resistors to follow the B, C, and E leg diagram from the transistor’s package. With the flat side facing me, the base is on the right leg and collector is in the middle. Though, oddly, I didn’t need to do the wire or resistor jumper.
So for so good. Thanks again to everyone for their help.
-j
mine stopped working after i let it sit idle for a few hours :annoy:
it still charges, and i get home to activate when i touch the ps and a ground with a wire, but start and select will not turn it on anymore. i just tried taking out the cmn© and cmn wire/resistor, swapped out for a new transistor, and it still wont power up when pressing start and select
:wasted:
does yours continue to work afteryou leave your stick idle for a few hours jizzmirk?
wtf its working again. this thing is driving me nutso. :looney: