I hacked my first pad not too long ago because I had a broken PC and a broken PS2 pad and could borrow tools from a friend and had spare wire from home renovations. For me, it was really cheap to do. I recycled trash into a useable controller.
I ended up burning the PS2 board because I tried on that first. If you have any piece of broken/useless electronics, try on that first. Get to your controller board of choice only once you have good joints everytime.
First safety tip: Don’t breathe the fumes.
Second safety tip: Be careful with the soldering iron… it’s very hot, I made myself a nice 1 inch long welt on a finger… not fun.
Third safety tip: Don’t breathe the fumes.
(Stupid tips but you know… don’t breathe the …ok i’ll stop)
The biggest mistake I made was trying to solder to the copper trace on the board. The heat will separate the trace from the board and the contact will be very fragile. Just the weight of the wire would rip the trace from the board. It is much easier to solder on to existing solder spots. You will not want to “bypass” components to make sure you respect the electrical schematic of the board.
The thing that I did not understand at first but helped me a lot get better joints is that you tin the soldering iron because the heat will transfer a lot better to the wire if it goes through the melted solder than if you only apply the tip of the iron to bare copper. The rest is just getting to know where to solder and acquire the required dexterity.
Make sure you map your board properly, even if you have a chart or an image from slagcoin, it does not hurt to actually find out for yourself where the signals go through. You may have a different revision of a board. If you have a problem, you will have an idea of how to go around it and you will have a better understanding of what you are doing. You will also be more confident on the work you are doing.
I highly recommend getting sepaate flux. While most solder has flux in it, applying flis to the parts to be soldered together will greatly assist in heat transfer, making for a neater, more solid contact.
Shameless Plug Alert!!
You can also have a look at my blog entry here. It details what I went through soldering up a wireless 360 pcb as well. There’s also an entry on wiring the LEDs
Thanks guys. Yeah I already will be testing it onto a board that toodles showed me. As for safety gear guess I won’t really need it. I have a understanding that its best to understand your solder iron to make things easier too. Getting use to how fast it takes to heat up and so on. Yes I have studied about the tinning my solder irons tip. Some people say I could just flick the solder iron when i’m done tinning and the solder will fly just right off? I’ll probably just use a moist sponge. Flux I’m guessing is somewhat like “glue”, but more of a assistance to helping the solder? This guide will be me learning and other people who want to learn with me also. =]
PROTIP: don’t do that, use a damp (not soaking) sponge to wipe it off after you tin it, there’s chemical reasons to do this…but the easiest way to describe it is that it gives it a nice thin coating of solder, making for a better “thermal highway” so you can transfer the heat with better speed. Tin as often as you’d like, just make sure you do it…people who don’t will get “maybe” 5 uses out of their tip, I’ve been using the same tip on my iron for almost a year now.
I suggest you don’t use solid core. It is likely to snap off contacts on your PCB and tends to be more likely to break when bent. Use stranded. I like 26 gauge stranded but 24 seems to be what everyone else likes. Try Frys.com and type in the search box:
“24 gauge stranded wire”
“26 gauge stranded wire”
I like to go to Bulkwire.com to get more colors on spools. There is also this bag of wire in 10 colors for $10. Lemme look for it.
Mhmm, that a good tip. But I’d probably get a cheap solder iron first just to test it out and all first. Guessing it’ll either be the basic solder set or the 25-watt pen. Solid pretinned bus wire, solderless quick disconnects, copper braid, now all I need is to figure out where to get wires for the buttons/so on. Is there anything else I’m missing?
The QDs are good to get from Lizardlick or Gamingnow.net. They run about $0.10 each. Spend $5 and get 50. You’ll have dome as spares and in case you mess your crimps up. Also, get an inexpensive crimping tool for the QDs too. While you could solder the QDs to the wire, it’s not necessary.
As a cheap nerdy alternative, if you happen to have any IDE ribbon cable from an unused computer, you’re in there like swimwear.
Ah, guessing crimping is that tool that you can strip wire with and so on? I live in Vancouver, B.C. and today I went to The Source and they pissed the shit out of me. I went in just to check if they had some solder items and they do, but when i was looking around in this tiny corner the worker just barges up to me and kept bothering me making me feel clustered in a corner and monitoring me like I’m going to run out with a handful of items or something. I couldn’t even think of what I needed lol. Guess I’ll probably order it from radioshack online though since its must cheaper than The Source. They have NexTech branded solders and stuff but it was quite pricey. >_>
What wires would I need if I were to dual mod a pcb? Like USB cables and so on. Basically all I need are wires to solder to the pcb/QDs and the USB cable?