Madcatz TE PCB issue (Directionals not working)

Tech Talk
1

I was finally getting around to wiring up my leds. To test, I hooked up VCC, GND, one button and the joystick with LED. I soldered my directionals to the FGwidget, jab_in and all that according to one of the guides here. I plugged it into my laptop. The ball lit up. No directionals working and no led on the jab buttion. I decided to take everything apart including removing the fgwidget. Now I only had the jab button and the stick connected. Whenever I clicked that button or moved the stick windows would tell me I was pressing left and holding it.

Thinking I had some solder somewhere I looked closer at the underside of the Madcatz pcb. They had from factory some solder along the side of the board and I noticed the 2 joystick directionals had factory solder touching. I removed some and now jab was working. The problem is I can only press down on the stick now. It doesnt register anything else. Including a pic, not sure what else I can do.

2

You connected the Joystick upside-down?

3

Congratulations - you have one of the worst PCB’s that MadCatz has ever publicly released, the 360 TE Rev A.

On topic: is the joystick cable plug the correct way round on the joystick? Is your stick set to ‘DP’ and ‘unlock’?

4

Yeah, I checked all that. I actually have a spare JLF and tested it with that and still that same thing. Are they that bad, they just go like that?

5

Nope. Wouldnt matter anyway, only one direction is working

I found a picture of it on the web, what a friggin mess this thing is. I don’t even know how it ever worked. Mine looked just like that, I wonder it there is a way to fix it.

http://www.phreakmods.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/0122111404a.jpgu

6

On a working PCB, it does matter.
Because upside-down would cause for only Down to register.

If your Joysticks only does Down with the connector both ways, then TE PCB is messed up.

7

Dude… connecting the cable upside down is one of the greatest matters ever.

Do you see?

8

Im saying I connected the thing every which way I could.

Edit, God Damn it, now its working. I swear to you I turned it upside down and flipped and all that before I posted. Oh well. At least its working.