I just dual modded my stick with both a Cthulhu and a madcatz 360 pcb. I installed the Cthulhu first and tested it on my pc and everything was working fine, then I installed the 360 pcb to accompany it and it worked fine when I tested it on my pc. But then I went to retest the Cthulhu and all the pushbuttons and the directions work still but start and select wont work, and buttons 9 and 10 on my computers game controller thingy are held down (presumably start and select?). I don’t understand, no wires are touching, no wires are touching any metal (be it the bottom, mouting bracket, stray solder, whatever). Anyone have any idea?
Edit: Disconnected the cthulhu wire to start and 10 unhighlighted on the windows thinger, so its definitely them. I then reconnected it and then disconnected the madcatz wire and it works normal now… how do i get it to work with madcatz wire also connected?
I was getting my controller prepped for a PS3 SFIV tournament yesterday with a working MC Cthulu. I hadn’t tested it that day, but it was working fine in another dual-PCB setup (I went from dual’ing it with a x360 ver. G PCB to a diff x360 ver. E PCB I have…both are common ground and both work completely fine solo). The cthulhu was working great in the other setup (ver. G). However, after I had everything wired up (inputs from both pcb’s, connected usb vcc between pcb’s and grounds, etc.) I tried to plug the Cthulhu into my computer to test it out like I always do. This time, it said “Found new hardware”, said a brief message about a cthulhu bootloader, and finally installed some generic USB device that wouldn’t show up in ‘Game Controllers’. I unplugged it and rebooted the computer thinking there was some funny windows driver issue. When I tried to plug it in again, windows didn’t find new hardware or ding; as far as it was concerned there was no device being plugged in. I unwired everything and tried plugging in the Cthulhu without anything else connected to it. No dice. Same results.
I used the multimeter to determine the MC Cthulhu is receiving power. I know that on some level it works because windows will ‘ding’ and find hardware if I hold down start+select when I plug it in (if I don’t hold these buttons down when I plug it windows detects no hardware). It will simply no longer detect it as a device called ‘MC Cthulhu’ or as any device that counts as a controller. I tried this across some other computers where we had tested the cthulhu’s before without issue and the same problem occurs; no device can tell if this is a controller.
So I missed the tournament (:crybaby:). I’m now trying to figure out what the hell can be wrong with this board and what I can do to fix it. I’ve tried searching but nobody has this specific problem. I see people have been given instructions to flash EEPROM and mess with the bootloader but I’m not even sure if any of this is necessary. Is this a known issue? Is there something else blatalntly obvious I should check? I love the board but this is driving me NUTS :looney: Any help would be appreciated it.
EDIT: I’m very thorough and have probably somewhere between beginners/intermediate experience with dual-modding with these. No suggestion is too silly; you want me to check something and I’ll check it three times. I can post pics, vids, whatever is necessary.
It’d probably be best to pull the board out of the stick and get it working by itself first. Pull it out, plug it in, see if it comes up with nothing connected to it. If not, then short start and select to ground and see if the bootloader comes up (minor odd point: the bootloader mode causes my game controllers control panel applet to crash. If the little status popup doesn’t come up, you may have to check device manager to see if it is showing.)
Cthulhu PCB is disconnected from everything else. When I plug it in nothing happens (and the game controllers applet doesn’t see anything). If I plug it in with start+select shorted, it crashes the applet and I don’t see windows doing anything (but I do hear the “USB connected” sound when I plug it in like this).
Then the bootloader is working. Can you do the same with the Left direction shorted to ground when plugged in? It should show up as an Xbox controller.
Before you get people’s hopes up, you might want to edit that. It’s an Xbox, not an Xbox 360
So, this tells us a bit. First of all, the chip is programmed, and can communicate over USB. Do you have another PC you could plug it into, or perhaps a ps3? (on a ps3, you can just use a piece of wire in a ground screw terminal and touch it to a direction or button to check for a reaction.)
I just got 2 of your boards. MAN!! its SO easy to solder up the parts and its pretty quick!!! But I think I’m gonna get the USB jack next time cause USB wires or so thin and annoying my god I ran into a little issue with them that took an hour and a half to fix!
But DUDE! Amazing boards and the price is outstanding! Keep up the good work and whenever I need a board I’m coming straight to you!!
I set up the PS3, put in SFIV and went to training mode and set opponent to human, and now it says “Press START on the controller you wish to use”. I plug in the cthulhu into the PS3 and short start but nothing happens. Nothing happens when I short home either.
I presume you’re using a hybrid setup with same connections ( as outlined in http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=6985 ). For this to work 100% right, did you ensure that the data cables are separated? If you’ve soldered or connected data the same between them (cable to pcb + pcb) then you’re lucky to have anything working. You need to put a DPDT switch between the data terminals, so that the cable for data goes to one or the other.
Now, assuming that’s not the issue, are you certain that the 360 PCB you’re using is 100% common ground? I’ve ran into some versions of some boards of ‘semi-common ground’ (sic) such that there’s one ground for MOST of the board, and a separate ground for the central buttons (one shared between the three, but separate from the rest of the buttons, for back, start, and guide). If this is the case, then start, select, and guide would give you problems, or a mix thereof. Especially since the Cthulu boots into different modes based on what’s shorted when its initialized. Only way you can check this is with a multimeter, checking resistance, and ensuring that the ground for the start and select buttons is a 0 resistance to the common ground (just because it ‘works’ when you plug it in that way doesn’t mean its not putting a small current always through, which could potentially confuse the Cthulu also attached)
Was going to PM you, but I have yet to earn the post count to.
But when you offered to make a MC board that would automatically go Xbox1 for my mame project, would it still be able to jump to pc/ps3 as well? I wouldn’t mind getting a little playtime on HD remix with it as well.
Its currently setup to to default to PS3/PC, and go to Xbox1 if Left is held when plugged in. It would be pretty easy to switch that around so it was Xbox1 on default and PS3/PC if Left is held when plugged in.
Toodles, I’ve got a few questions about your board. I’m trying to modify my friend’s PlayStation 3 FightStick Tournament Edition for PlayStation 2/PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 usage using your MC Cthulu and Imp boards. For this, we decided to forgo Mad Catz’s circuit assembly entirely since it didn’t let us use his PS3 for backwards compatible PS2 games and as such we were going to get rid of the Home/Turbo/Lock-switch/directional input switch window as well.
Getting rid of the stock circuit board would mean only having access to 8 buttons and Start and Select, which would be fine and dandy, but a few concerns came to mind.
First off, can the MC Cthulu be set such that the button combo Start+Select activates the Home button? If so, how? I thought that you had to unsolder the bridge on the Cthulu PCB when making it support multiple consoles?
When using the Home button on a Cthulu board, be it by the Start+Select button combo or by a dedicated Home button, does it act like a real Sony controller’s Home button? That is, if you tap it, will it bring up the XMediaBar (the multi-purpose menu) and if you hold it, will it bring up the controller specific menu (where you set vibration options and assign controller slots)?
When playing backwards compatible PS2 games on a PS3, what happens if one needs Start+Select pressed at the same time on the PS2 game? Like for instance, what if you need to press Start+Select to soft-reset in Street Fighter III 3rd Strike? How does the MC Cthulu handle that? Is it even possible to do this without bringing up any of the Home button functions?
On that same note, does that behavior of pressing Start+Select carry over to an Xbox 360 when using an MC Cthulu in tandem with an Imp? That is, can you press Start+Back together on the Xbox 360 without activating the Guide button due to the presence of the Imp board?
That’s two questions, with two different answers.
1a. MC Cthulhu BY ITSELF: Short the DISABLE_HOME jumper, and Start+Select will give you the Home button on PS3. Do NOT try if doing a dual mod.
1b. MC Cthulhu + 360 dual mod: Leave the DISABLE_HOME jumper alone, and instead the Imp to do it. Connect the Start, Select/Back, and Home/Guide signals between the two boards and also to the respective points on the Imp. Solder together the unlabelled jumper on the back of the Imp. When the Imp sees start and select pressed, it will ‘press’ the Guide/Home signal line for you.
Naturally
I frankly don’t know. As far as the PS3 is concerned, it will see it as all three (start, select, and home) being pressed at the same time. That will definitely bring up the in XMB menu, but whether or not the start and select commands will also be seen by the PS2 game, I don’t know. Keep in mind, this can easily be remidied by putting in a proper button.
Yes, as long as you DO short the jumper on the Imp, and DON’T short the DISABLE_HOME jumper on the Cthulhu.
Oh man, I COMPLETELY forgot about the Imp’s Start+Select jumper. Thanks for that reminder Toodles; I would’ve friend something otherwise! And thanks for the reply. I’ll see how he feels about the Start+Select button combo for Home. Hopefully, the Start+Select button combo not working 100% for other games won’t put him off too much.
Before i try to order an already assembled cthulhu board, just a quick question before i order parts hope i don’t get flamed with this post =)
This will be my first PS3 project so…
How many buttons would i need? i’ll be doing a 6-button layout there will obviously be a HOME and START buttons, do i need the SELECT button? am i missing anything?
Does anybody know if my Cthulhu is salvageable (troubleshooting posts above)? Bootloader is working and it can be started in Xbox1 mode by shorting left+ground when plugging in. I wouldn’t mind if it was fried but I’d need to know that it’s a goner before I order another Cthulhu. EDIT: Should I try flashing with a different firmware? Are there instructions for doing that somewhere?
Yesterday while trying to figure this out Arcadeshop delivered a package for button plugs and an LS-32-01. It only had button plugs inside and now I’m sending pictures to Jan Fleck from Arcadeshop of the package sans the joystick. I’m beginning to think there’s just some cosmic joke being played on me. You guys know a few days ago I saved a turtle from certain death on the road (I live in Florida) and the little bastard whizzed all over me in front of the motorist I had stopped from squishing it? I ended up being late to work between stopping for the turtle and going home to change my pants. I hope these stories help you troubleshoot my Cthulhu; I’d honestly accept “Now confess your sins to the Lord and drink chickens’ blood while dancing with a litter of black cats” as a valid troubleshooting step after this crazy ass week.
