Padhacking Aftermarket PCB Question

Hello! I’m attempting for the first time various custom builds and i’m trying to use aftermarket PCBs for SNES and Genesis builds that will also feature a turbo switch that works on all buttons. I’m specifically looking for a single turbo switch setup, not one turbo switch for each button. I think I want to use a Hyperkin 6 button controller PCB for genesis, and an unbranded third party snes PCB for the other if possible. On both PCBs, there are solder pads that I can’t identify. Please see attached pics for the red circles I drew. Can anyone confirm that these are “Normal/Slow/Turbo” pads on the hyperkin PCB? If not what are they for And notice the SNES PCB has 4 unidentified pads, what do those do?

Aftermarket SNES PCB picture

What do those connect to on the exterior of the controller shell?
Just a picture of the PCB like that doesn’t really provide enough information to go on.

I’m not familiar with it off-hand, but I googled the Hyperkin Genesis controller, and I don’t seen any indication that’s there’s any turbo switch on it…

You are correct the hyperkin controller does not come with a turbo button, nor the snes pcb I included, but when I was doing research regarding pad hacks I found people that said it’s common to find aftermarket PCBs with extra solder pads on the boards for turbo buttons because the manufacturers save on costs by producing one board for multiple controller configurations. So even though they aren’t used on the kyperkin controller it was still something included in the board’s design possibly.

To answer your question, the pads connect to nothing on the exterior shell. The only path the traces take are directly into that covered IC chip.

Ah, thanks for the clarification.

I don’t know if it’s actually “common” to have additional unused features like that in aftermarket controllers (I’ve certainly never seen nor heard of this in all my years of padhacking). The problem is that even if the contact pads are there to save on the physical manufacturing process, the functionality in the chip may not be, so it may all be moot anyways. Unless you know what it does ahead of time, the only way you’re finding out is via experimentation (ie, “connect them and see what happens”, but that comes with its own share of risks).

Unfortunately., there probably isn’t too much information about that out here either; the people who generally padhack are using them to put into arcade sticks and to use for fighters, and turbo functionality is not something that the majority of dedicated fighting game users care for.

Thanks for the input. I’ll do some testing tonight and provide an update on what I find. The turbo switch isn’t a necessity for this project, but if it can be done with a cheap PCB then I figured why not. There are a couple shoot em up games that wear my fingers out quickly without turbo on.

Update: Those 3 pads are not related to turbo functionality. I’m not sure what they do as they didn’t affect the button activity every time I completed a circuit. I’m going to resort in using an original Nyko 6 button genesis controller to achieve the build i’m looking for.

As I suspected, but kudos to you for testing it out and reporting it back.
Good luck on the other mod!

They are probability just test points used for QC