Hey dudes, what’s up?
I’m building a secondary stick right now, got most parts and case already, but I still need the PCB
My main stick has the MC Cthulhu, but this one does not need that much
I only need it to work on ps3 and pc. is there a cheap usb pcb out there that i could get?
I’ve been also looking at some USB controllers to padhack
do you guys have any tips?
I think the MC Cthulu is one of the cheapest…
Zero-Delay Encoder board.
$14, if I’m not mistaken. Works on PS3 and PC.
@PresidentCamacho Well alright lol
You could get the cheap third party pad on Amazon for $5.00 and pad hack it, maybe.
that zero delay pcb sounds interesting
i found an old thread here about it, and it seems to work with ps3 (but no PS button, what is not a real problem)
there is always the 20 dollars one with full ps3/2 support as well, but for that price I might as well just go with a Cthulhu again
I have two of the pc/ps2/ps3 ones, they have a ps3 home button.
The cthulhu is great, but it’s more expensive with features you don’t need (given your initial statement).
The ZD is $20 shipped with all the cables and connectors needed (including the system cables), without having to mess with firmware updates. So you’re looking at about twice the price after shipping for the cthulhu itself, plus the cost of a usb cable, a 5 pin harness (assuming your lever uses one), and quick disconnects.
PC/PS3 version of the Cthulhu is $30
it has a Home button terminal and supports S+S=H
and it have some features that increases reliability,
its one of the few PCBs that work on PS2 downloadable titles on the PS3
The Cthulu boards are the most reliable PS3-compatible PCB’s on market.
If your goal is just PC and PS3, the Cthulu is more than enough.
I’m surprised the $15 PCB doesn’t have a home button feature… that’s kind of weird for a third-party replacement PCB not to have that at as a standard feature.
IF you want a multi-console board with PS3 and PC compatibility, the MC Cthulu is the one to get… The MC Cthulu is really around $15 more if you count the fact that an RJ-45 Passthrough Jack is near-mandatory to get the best out of that PCB; a bit more if you don’t have an RJ-45 cable available.
I sorry but I saw the title of the thread and though something…
and I got to comment
This is a niche hobby with a high price of entry, also you really get what you pay for with arcade parts.
the ZD PCB might work, it might do the job well but its not without its faults.
Average person loses a wire-harness on the ZD PCB and they are screwed (you have to fabricate a new harness or solder to the PCB)
the Cthulhu have screw terminals to all but the cable connections for multi systems.
Watch out, Cheaper is not always better. And if you think you can be frugal with stick mods, you are just cheating yourself.
The new ZD does have a home button, I already clarified that.
Didn’t see the comment with the Home Button… Sorry!
Would still recommend the Cthulu over it, though.
There have been too many PCB-compatibility problems in general with PC’s. Doesn’t seem to matter if it’s a Mad Catz TE and even some of Hori’s HRAP’s have fits with some PC chipsets. The extra $10 on the Cthulu for the extra measure of compatibility is worth it.
As i said before, I own a Cthulhu PCB, and i’m aware of how awesome it is, that’s the reason my main arcade stick has one inside it, and I wouldn’t change it for anything else.
The thing is, this other stick i’m making is just for eventual guests coming over that might wanna jump into some final fight action on mame or the good old super turbo on the ps3, and that’s why I’m not whiling to spend too much on it.
And buying the Cthulhu would imply on buying cables, wires, etc, etc, so it would be around 60 dollars more on parts, and with that money I could just buy an SE lol
But it’s complicated, what I really like is building the stuff, i think it’s so much fun.
Well, I think i’ll give the ZD board a try right now, and later i can upgrade it to a MC if i feel like it.
I’ll probably be bored during the summer and will probably end up changing a lot of stuff in both sticks anyway.
Well, thanks for the comments anyway
I got to know about the ZD and that was cool 
In the worst case, I’ll have at least knowledge in both PCBs to help people in the future decide
This
Compatibility issues seem to to be most common with console specific PCB’s, whereas this board is specifically designed to work with the PC. The other variant of it is PC only, which likely means it was first designed as a PC encoder with PS3 (followed by PS2) support added after the fact- I would hope they had the whole compatibility thing down before cranking boatloads of boards out.
Anyways, if the thing covers your console needs, you can’t beat the price (particularly when you consider the included wiring/cable)- it works and it’s not laggy. That’s all I ask of mine.
For clarity’s sake, I should add that I had to swap around directional wires. A paperclip and a multimeter (or just process of elimination) are all it took to straighten that out.
I got the board hooked up and have some results for further reasearchers that ever come through this thread:
The wires that come with it are good. Not great or good looking like a custom made would be, but they work very well and are easy to mount.
The 5 wire stick cable does not work for me for some reason. I didn’t further investigate, but seems like a problem with the board, or maybe the fragile wires broke somewhere. I hoooked up the individual directional wires though, and they worked fine.
Besides that, i had no problems at all, except I had to do some soldering that wasn’t supposed to be done, but that’s because of my stick is peculiar, not gonna go into details here.
It worked fine in SSF4AE2012 on my PC just fine. I tried Super Turbo on the PS3 and works fine as well, gotta try some more games later.
One detail i would like to mention: The downloadable PS2 version of CVS2 doesn’t work with my cthulhu. If I hold directional iputs it only stays “pressed” for 1 frame, but it works very well with the ZD board.
Oh yeah, the wiring that comes with it is kinda short, so be carefull if you order that.
Anyway, i would say worth the money. I still have to see for how long it will work, i hope it lasts forever
I haven’t noticed any differences while playing. My execution was particularly bad today, but that’s because i had 2 exams, didn’t sleep very well, and was generally not feeling like gaming… But when i did the inputs right, I pulled off all my combos no prob
Another detail: the wires that come with it are enough for 8 buttons + 4 directions + Start + Select
More if you manage to hook the stick harness correctly (i think i broke mine trying to change the order of the wires lol)
Still, if you want something of great quality and compatibility, go with the Cthulhu. If you are short on the budget or just trying to DIY for the first time as a test or something, the ZD works fine.
Peace dudes.
Did you try flipping the 5 pin harness?
yeah, they were just not working at all, even by touching them with each other, the only one working was the right button
Odd. Glad to hear you got it all ironed out without to much grief.