Madcatz xbox360 LT/RT help

[System_1]

@ Xenon

he clipped the GROUND leg of the pot for the triggers. then he did the easiest solution for resistors which was to adjust the pot till it read 10k on his multimeter. hot glued it in place then wired up the button wire to signal. this is actually the simplest way instead of desoldering the pots and putting in your own resistor.

Yup thats what i did. Clipped the ground wire. Used my multimeter with one end touching the signal prong and other end touching 3.3v prong. I then turned the middle piece on the pod till i got 10k ohms (or close to it) on my multimeter. Hot glued it down. Now all I need it 1 wire from the signal prong running to the button. With the common ground pcb, just daisy chain the button and all seems well. Let me know if this works for you too.

Edit:I think i actually wired up the 3.3v prong to the button and it works that way. I will verify this tomorrow and let you know.

WOW That Is way Easier Then all these other crazy solutions. I will give this a try when I get my hands on one of these pads. Thank you guys.

P.S/ That is a common ground late model pad right.

[System_1]

Ok. I have confirmed that you wire up the signal prong to the button. If someone else gets this working, let me know! This should be a very simple way to setup the triggers.

[System_1]

WOW That Is way Easier Then all these other crazy solutions. I will give this a try when I get my hands on one of these pads. Thank you guys.

P.S/ That is a common ground late model pad right.

Yes this is the common gropund model. I’m not sure what late model means, as this has confused me. I know I have the 2007 version and not that 2008.

[System_1]

greetings recently i made my first arcade stick but i couldnt get the triggers to work, im using a madcatz wired “newer” i guess i tried the transistor and resistors method, but im not sure what im doing wrong, the right trigger seems like its been held down all the time and the left trigger doesnt work at all, i wasnt going to worry about it but now the RB button is doing the samething, heres some pictures of the triggers http://www.flickr.com/photos/37342033@N02/ and this is the link to my thread. thx for the help in advance.

ps: sorry for the wall of text and sorry i posted here but i couldnt get any help on my thread

[System_1]

greetings recently i made my first arcade stick but i couldnt get the triggers to work, im using a madcatz wired “newer” i guess i tried the transistor and resistors method, but im not sure what im doing wrong, the right trigger seems like its been held down all the time and the left trigger doesnt work at all, i wasnt going to worry about it but now the RB button is doing the samething, heres some pictures of the triggers http://www.flickr.com/photos/37342033@N02/ and this is the link to my thread. thx for the help in advance.

ps: sorry for the wall of text and sorry i posted here but i couldnt get any help on my thread

Did you test each connector to make sure they are correct? I made the same mistake. Use a multimeter to test all the connections.

[System_1]

I hacked my first PCB today, a madcatz retro stick for the 360. It wasn’t as hard as I thought even with the triggers. Everything worked out perfect the first time, well almost. I think I used too much hot glue and built up too much. Now the PCB won’t clear one of my buttons. I even bent the tabs on the buttons!

Any advice on removing some hot glue besides chopping at it with a razor? I’ll post a pic of my proudly hacked PCB later.

[System_1]

I hacked my first PCB today, a madcatz retro stick for the 360. It wasn’t as hard as I thought even with the triggers. Everything worked out perfect the first time, well almost. I think I used too much hot glue and built up too much. Now the PCB won’t clear one of my buttons. I even bent the tabs on the buttons!

Any advice on removing some hot glue besides chopping at it with a razor? I’ll post a pic of my proudly hacked PCB later.

I would just use a soldering iron to melt the glue.

[System_1]

I’m trying to wire triggers on a Madcats #4716 - 2008 copyright.

I used my multimiter to figure out which post was low. I then wired it up like the diagram below, but I am not getting any response when I test it with my multimiter or when I plug into my computer and try to test it that way. I’m hoping it’s just some dumb noob mistake. Can you see anything that looks wrong?

For the record, I did remove the pot. I’m hoping that wasn’t a F-up on my part.

http://jasonroosevelt.com/wordpress/wp-content/gallery/joystick-building/transistor_diagram.png

[speedsterharry]

jaycurl: you need to remove the pots, you know ? Other than that, the circuit seems good (provided the low and high are located like on your schematic)

[System_1]

jaycurl: you need to remove the pots, you know ? Other than that, the circuit seems good (provided the low and high are located like on your schematic)

Yeah - pots *are *removed. Hmmm… weird. I wonder what could be wrong, then.

I am a newbie to this wiring thing, but when I tested the three points with my multimiter, the first one registered around 1 Ohm, which was the same as another ground spot I tested. So I’m pretty sure that is the low.

[System_1]

Jeez. Looks like I might have the easy-to-wire version. I just thought that all of the controllers with teh 2008 copyright were the new version. Sigh. So much to learn.

[System_1]

I’m really stumped with this trigger thing. Based on this image, I definitely have this PCB for my #4716 pad:

If you open it up and the pcb looks like the following photo, you have the older(easier) pcb…
http://picasaweb.google.com/wliu0912/PrehackedPads#5282843023799314882

I connected a 10K ohm resistor between the High and Wiper on each trigger. Then, I ran a wire from the Wiper side of the resistor to the button (the button’s ground is connected to the common ground on the pad).

When I test it with my multimiter, I get about 5 Ohms resistance, which is pretty much identical to every other button I wired.

I plugged it into my PC to test with the “Properties” window. All of the buttons work, except for the trigger. I believe that it’s supposed to affect the “Z-axis” display, right?

Any other ideas of what I might be doing wrong? I’m quite certain I’m connected to the High and Wiper spots with that resistor, as the open spot registers about 1 ohm resistance, which is comparable to the resistance shown by the other ground points.

Thanks a ton.

[speedsterharry]

It’s easy to tell if you have an active low or active high PCB:

First, connect the controller in the system (console, PC). Determine which pin is low, which is pin is high, using a voltmeter between the points farthest apart. If the read value is positive, the red wire of your voltmeter is pointing at the high, otherwise, it’s pointing at the low.

Then, make sure you disconnect the PCB, use the ohmmeter function and turn the wiper till the resistance between low and wiper or wiper and high reads half the value of the resistance between low and high (the high-low resistance should be around 10K).

Then, reconnect the PCB to the PC/console. and short the contacts between wiper and high or wiper and low. If the hit or button is registered when connecting wiper and high, the pcb is active high, you need the Zombiecpt-Toodles mod (transistor or inverter), otherwise, you don’t and you can follow the resistor method.

I hope that makes sense and I didn’t write garbage.

[System_1]

It’s easy to tell if you have an active low or active high PCB:

First, connect the controller in the system (console, PC). Determine which pin is low, which is pin is high, using a voltmeter between the points farthest apart. If the read value is positive, the red wire of your voltmeter is pointing at the high, otherwise, it’s pointing at the low.

Then, make sure you disconnect the PCB, use the ohmmeter function and turn the wiper till the resistance between low and wiper or wiper and high reads half the value of the resistance between low and high (the high-low resistance should be around 10K).

Then, reconnect the PCB to the PC/console. and short the contacts between wiper and high or wiper and low. If the hit or button is registered when connecting wiper and high, the pcb is active high, you need the Zombiecpt-Toodles mod (transistor or inverter), otherwise, you don’t and you can follow the resistor method.

I hope that makes sense and I didn’t write garbage.

THAT is the best and easiest to follow advice i’ve read on this topic! thank you. lucky me my pcb turned out to be an active low one, found this out by trial and error yesterday

[hybridmink]

removed contacts

So I’m working on a dual pcb mod using the mad catz 4716 (2007 model) and while removing the gray plastic trigger components, I stripped two of the three contacts for one of the triggers. The one that is left is the ground. I’ve dealt with stripped contacts before, but I don’t see where I could solder to instead. Am I completely screwed here?

I know I need resistors and diodes but when looking up 4.7k ohm resistors, I notice there are also different watt values. Do these even matter?

Thanks!

[System_1]

THAT is the best and easiest to follow advice i’ve read on this topic! thank you. lucky me my pcb turned out to be an active low one, found this out by trial and error yesterday

does quoting myself make me look a bit shizo?
well, i guess i wasn’t so lucky after all. when i tested the unsoldered pcb everything worked fine when i hotglued the poti down and used the 2 topmost pins of my trigger to work as a button.
now after having connected all the buttons and directions my triggers have died on me. they will work once at the very start after i plug the stick in and then stop working. anybody have any explanation for a non tech savvy like me?
where did i mess up? is it because all 3 legs of the poti are still connected?

has anybody ever wired a saitek 360 gamepad?

[System_1]

Here’s a quick question… when you solve the trigger problem with this method and then test the buttons in windows, what is the behavior? I am working on a modified version of this, and the test in the windows driver is doing something odd…

The z axis readout sits perfectly centered when nothing is pressed, which is good, and when I press either button it goes full on or full off, which I believe is also good. the odd part is that it returns V–E--R–Y------S–L--O–W--L–Y back to neutral. Is this a problem with my resistor wiring, or is the software just expecting something it isn’t getting and behaving oddly? I’m still mid-mod so I would rather not hook it up to the 360 yet…

Thanks in advance! This forum in general and this thread in particular have been unbelievably helpful =)

[System_1]

meh, soldered my second saitek pad today, same behavior as the last one. lt and rt work on the first and sometimes second push then both of them die simultaniously. does anybody have an idea why?
this time i unsoldered the potis, fixed them at 10k ohm and resoldered it between wiper and high with the button being soldered from wiper to ground. what did i do wrong?

[System_1]

If Im using a madcatz retro arcade pcb to dual pcb w/ a cthulu do I need the resistor/diode as pictured here: http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/6366/1000207tg7.jpg . Or will a simple resistor w/o the diode work?

Thanks

[lcatfishe]

LT and RT problems

I have followed the diagrams for the triggers hook up using 4.7 K ohm resistors and NPN transistors but the results are wonky. I press the push button for either LT or RT and the directonal pad holds down-back and random buttons come out. Any ideas how to correct this?