MadCatz pcb - Analog sticks registering as trigger presses

Most games I’ve had the triggers set as no action (SSFIV/MvC3 etc.) on my 6 button custom. Just purchased MK9 where you can’t set any button as no action, LT has ended up as stance swap.

I’ve noticed in training mode I would see the occasional LT activation. I thought the pots on the triggers on my (common ground) pcb needed tweaking (glued in place) What I found was the right analog stick, when pushed down would causes trigger presses!? Moving it away from down and securing it in place seems to have cured 99% of the unwanted trigger inputs but I’m still seeing the odd one. Can anyone shed any light on this? There don’t seem to be any obvious shorts.

EDIT: Secured the right stick in the up position and no unwanted trigger presses so far, very odd.

Any ideas why the sticks are registering as trigger presses?

Pics of the wiring.





Mortal Kombat seems to be really sensitive with the sticks, if either of the analog stick shafts are pushed ever so slightly out of place, the left stick will register the odd direction press and the right will show the odd trigger press (as mentioned above) No other game does this even if I set the triggers as an action.

I also noticed start and guide buttons will cause trigger presses to show in MKs training room.

Have you tried playing with a regular pad? Does manually actuating the right stick give the same inputs? If so, it could be a calibration issue with the software calibrating to whatever position the stick is at the start.

Right stick on normal pad doesn’t register as any inputs in MK.

I’ve secured the sticks in position and tweaked them so I’m not getting any unwanted inputs any more.

Still doesn’t explain why I see triggers for right stick movement. I reckon the pots on the triggers are screwy which is causing screwyness on all the analog paths.

I been having a similar issue with my pad hacked madcatz 4716 PCB. It also registers the right trigger being held down, except it does it at all times, no clue what it is at all…

Similar questions have been asked in this thread as well…

http://shoryuken.com/f177/having-strange-problem-mk9-271514/

I’ve removed the pots (didn’t make a difference with them off completely!) soldered 10k resistors to the contacts and now I don’t get trigger presses when I move the analog sticks and (so far) no unwanted trigger presses.

One reason to use Madcatz fightpads over 4716’s is that sometimes the trigger hacking can have unexpected results. The voltage between all the analogs seem linked somehow, for example if you use 10k resistors on one analog you need to use the same resistance for all of the analogs. I guess that what I was deducing when I was hacking my pinball controller.

Even after a while sometimes I’ll get random analog direction presses due to how the controller may be calibrated.

Didn’t mean to threadjack, but I have a similar question regarding the version G of the boards.

I’ve got one of these PCBs that I need to re-commission for a friend. It looks in good shape, but it looks like the triggers were untouched, just the yellow/black pot on each section remains. If I connect this guy to a ChImp SMD using the 4K INV input, would that defeat the need for adding a resistor to the triggers?

Yes, that’s exactly what its for, assuming that pad require trigger inversion. Go ahead and remove both trigger pots and connect those signals to 4kINV and 3KINV.

Yeah the voltage is definitely linked between the analog inputs. Viewing the controller under Windows ‘Game Controllers’, my Z-axis (triggers) would be jittering around (an extra ~10% each way) when the sticks were moved (with pots on and also removed, I think they were completely ‘open’ by all the glue gummed inside) Most games seem to absorb this in their deadzone, MK doesn’t and is really sensitive.

I did notice the occasional direction input being registered when sitting in MK training mode (only in MK) like you mentioned, not enough to make the character move mind. I expect this is down to the cheap analog sticks on the MadCatz, if you move them full in one direction and then release, they don’t return to full neutral and still register about 10% in that direction