Hey there. This is my first post on SRK. My wife and I have “completed” the LED mod for our MadCatz SE. We have a few quirks that we cannot seem to fix.
We have ONE button that stays lit constantly.
When the LED switch is turned off, none of the buttons work except for the one that was constantly lit.
When we touch the controller, the lights flicker.
When we turn the LED switch to off, [in game] the controller registers a fully charged focus attack.
OMG!!! (checks shorts)
I was able to able to get led’s up and running on activation all thanks to you guys!
big thanks to TingBoy Toodles and ALL the other members for all the helpful info, couldn’t have done it without you!
So I got my parts form Lizard Lick today and hooked it all up. My led board works yay! I have only tested it on one button however, but so far that single button works swell.
Does anybody have any mounting tips for 5mm LEDs with white ps-14-kn buttons? Right now I have it set up so the button uses 2 leds, one on top and one on the bottom, and they are attached using electrical tape. I saw a post some time ago saying they could drill into the button and hot glue it, but the 5mm is a tad too big for that. There is also space inside the button but I couldn’t think of a convenient way to have the leads coming out as the nut must go past the hole in which the leads come out.
Thanks to Tingboy/Kaytrim/others for the great information in this thread.
I’m too lazy to solder all those LEDs to wires again and much too lazy/scared to drill into my buttons :wasted:. Taping to the sides of the buttons using electrical tape seems to be fine to me.
Anyway, I ran into a problem. 5 of the buttons light up fine, however the heavy punch (R1) button doesn’t light up. I checked the LED itself using 3 1.5v batteries and it worked. I put it into other slots of my LED board and it still didn’t work. I also checked to see if the grounds of my barrier strip were connected correctly and they were. I’ve made sure all the leads are tightly and correctly connected in the screw terminals as well. I took the wire from button->cthulu and button->led board out and soldered them right onto the button as well. The button works fine in game so the problem is not that the button isn’t functioning. I also made sure the leads from the LEDs aren’t touching anything such as the quick disconnects and insulated them with electrical tape.
I have an attached a picture if anybody wants to offer suggestions. Disregard the two grounds that came out of the MK quick disconnect, I soldered that on (after finding out that none of the button but LK worked). If I use a multimeter, how should I check it? Attach the anode probe to the button and the other end to the negative end of the LED, and see if there is any voltage?
For LED board:
Blue wires on LED board = lead to LED
White and Green wires on LED board = lead from button
Yes that could be a possibility (if there is voltage across the led’s “pins” but no light the led is toasted or is incorrectly wired).
Did you check all the grounds were linked together ? This caught me a few times (not in the LED light-up mod but on regular padhackings), usually when I daisy-chained the grounds with a crimping tool. The mechanical connection was OK but not the electrical one. Now I use solder tin on all my hacks to prevent this kind of problems (inside the 2.8 mm terminals), and don’t trust the crimping tool method anymore.
Haha, yeah I ran into this exact problem with the grounds on one of the buttons. The grounds are all working fine for the buttons (buttons after the unconnected ground weren’t working when I didn’t notice that two the grounds came out of the QD) and I double checked the ground chain for the LEDs in the barrier strip. I ended up getting frustrated and just soldering those two grounds to the button. I also ended up soldering the two leads to the button that isn’t lighting up (fierce punch or R1) to the button to ensure it wasn’t the QD. Again, the button works fine but it just doesn’t light up.
The LED board might look weird because I wired it up for 9 buttons and then realized light wouldn’t shine through the 3 24mm buttons because of the white bezel/white inner plunger, and therefore there are no LEDs connected to the terminal strip on the left. It also might seem like there are two wires missing on the top right side of the LED board but I simply used some left over metal wire instead, if you check the underside picture: http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/964/img0290.jpg .
I am sure the LED is wired up correctly and is not burnt out because I took it out and test it on 3 D batteries with a resistor. I also tried switching the button signal/led lead into the LED board into different spots and it didn’t fix the problem either. The only thing left I can think of is that there is something wrong with the wire from the button to the LED board. Don’t see how the wire could be faulty though since I tested all the wires with the 3D battieres+resistor+LED set up.
Is there anyway you can post a picture of the wiring you’ve done for one of your modded controls?
Also, is the difference between the 2 diagrams based on power? As in the latest diagram will allow the buttons to light up only when the controller is plugged into the console?
Hello - I have a few questions specific to my project:
For applying this mod to a wired Xbox360 controller using the 5v lead for power, what type of LED, resistor, and hex inverter should I use?
Are there buttons that come “pre-drilled” for fitting with LEDs? Seems odd that a button manufacturer wouldn’t have developed buttons that house LEDs without having to drill.
If not, what is the best button type to buy? I’m looking for a white translucent button with blue LED. My application is SF IV for 360.
What is the minimum depth necessary for the controller housing to fit all the guts? I want the final product to be as slim as possible because I intend for these to sit on the lap when playing.
The resistor needs to the proper size for the LED using 5v power. Otherwise follow the instructions given through out this thread
No pre-drilled buttons. Use the Seimitsu PS-14-KN clear “White” buttons. For a 3mm LED use a 1/8" drill bit, 5mm LED use a 3/16" bit
The case limit depends on the joystick you intend to use. Sanwa and Seimitsu joysticks can fit in a case that measures about 2" tall. Poke around this forum for more information.
Thanks for the fast and informative reply. I’m sorry to belabor the point, but what do you mean by “the proper size for the LED?” Somewhere else in the thread it mentioned using a resistor “scaled for the voltage” or something… Sorry but I guess I’m missing the point.
Hey folks. I actually found something that may help with wiring the ic pins without solder. I am using these,
I won’t get to try this mod out till this weekend, but hope to remember to report how well using mini jumpers work.
Right now I am using 26 gauge solid wire. I think that 24 gauge may work better and fit more snug in the jumpers, but I have found mini jumpers useful for a lot of things when I don’t want to solder. The only thing is that they only work well with solid wire and not stranded. The best thing is that if you mis-count what pin you where on, the jumpers just slide off and can be reattached.
Bought 100 for about $5 at Fry’s Electronics.
When I get everything working I am just going to fuse with wire to the terminal jumper by melting solder into it. I hope folks find this useful.
If you use a resistor that is too small the LED will either blow or have a short life. LEDs will use as much power that they can get. Think of putting your mouth on an open fire hydrant. The resistor limits the amount of power the LED receives so it doesn’t blow. There are calculators on the web that will tell you what size resistor you need for a given LED. There are also some sellers that will include the proper resistor for a given voltage.
Been thinking of different mods for a joystick and stumbled upon this thread. This is fun stuff. I’m not sure if the switchless version of the mod has been figured out but looking at the schematic on the first post, the base voltage seems to be too high. 3.3V/25kOhms (assuming negligible base current) is 132 uA. The base voltage is the same current X 20k ohms. This give a base voltage of 2.64V. In order for the transistor to conduct, the base collector junction needs to be reversed biased. Best case would be 3V at the collector terminal. The hex inverter now has a headroom of only 1.5V.
