Was just feeling depressed about my pelican converter dying, and the hrap sitting in my closet drawer having a half soldered mess of wires from months before that I can’t be bothered getting around to. Reading something like this sounds exciting.
The only platforms that seem relevant being a fighter fan would be DC, PS2, PC, 360 and PS3.
Given that the DC and 360 are not really viable, I’d be happy happy paying about $50 for a board with the solderless option you’ve supplied Toodles, that does PC/PS3 and PS2. I’m Australian, so shipping might end up being hefty for us, but a group of us in Melbourne would probably do a bulk order.
We pay up to $60 extra to import sticks here, they aren’t sold locally and we don’t really have local stick makers, so the investment would be worth it for us.
Through-hole spots with 2.54 mm / 0.1" pitch would be perfect, that way people could either solder directly to the PCB or install whatever compatible header they can find in their local market (JST-NH, Molex KK, etc.).
The spots for the button/stick wires to go area 5mm pitch, with a rather large drill hole and very large pad; that makes it perfect for the 5mm pitch screw terminals, and easier to solder than most of the pads Eagle gives me. I’ll try it out when it gets here, but it wouldn’t surprise me for the holes to take 22guage wire.
If the UPCB has taught me anything, its that while WE may have a stash of different connectors and headers in our bits boxes, the VAST majority of the potential customers don’t, and anything dealing with them becomes expensive and overall pain in the ass. So I absolutely do NOT want to rely on the customer having anything more than a screwdriver for this. I’m seriously debating about picking up some #4 screws to include screws for mounting the board, just to try and be complete.
Yes, I could have made the holes and spacing 100mil spacing, and that would have been a small boon for those who like having proper connectors, but compared to the larger 5mm pitch and pads that are almost a full 100mil across, I think the boon for those that need the least heartache is worth it.
All of the connectors for buttons and power needed for a dual pcb setup were also routed to the end of the board opposite the USB connector; That should make it a bit more convienent for dual pcb setups, but most wont need it.
Yeah, when I think back to when I started planning a first controller, I didn’t want to solder, to find a cord, to find mounting screws (I was looking at standoff screws), to understand how a PCB works in general. I just wanted to quickly get an easy PCB, some wire, some QDs, and a cutter/stripper/crimper and get the job done.
Already is. Four directions, eight play buttons, start, select, home. If you only want the six play buttons, no problem, just dont use those. If you dont want the Home button and want Start and Select pressed together to be Home, there’s a little solder jumper on the board you short with a little solder, or you can use a piece of wire and the screw terminals to connect Home to ground.
I know its silly, but I get giddy every time I get a delivery. :woot: The initial boards for Ed came in, and this time they came in still panelized; the place takes your design and copy/pastes it to fill the size of the boards they have and process them. The divisions between boards are already scored on both sides, so snap and they’re apart.
The individual boards are SMALL, smaller than a business card, and a good amount smaller than a credit card. And the 5mm spaced holes and larger drill size work perfectly for the screw terminals I want to use.
Those look pretty nice. I guess as you said in your first post, they are designed for the PS3, but tweakable to other systems. And they are 2.7"x1.7" which actually happens to be a good number:
95mm (joystick spacing in many layouts) - 66mm/2 (large LS-40 body radius) - 36mm/2 (Sanwa nut radius) = 44mm = 1.73"
But I guess they are not ready for fitting a steady connector at one end?
I do really like the optional wiring for hitting the Home button using a combination of switches too.
The fourth and fifth rows have been removed in my design and a USB connector put in their place. The USB connector will hang over the end of the board, so if someone wants to mount it like you described, they can. For those that don’t get the USB connector and screw terminals, the USB cable can be soldered to those holes (I just got through enlarging them so it’ll be easier.) directly, and still have three rows available for other cables.
hi toodles, i’m relatively new here, but have been building sticks for SC for years. with the release of SC4 the demand for ps3/360 dual mods is insane. from what i understand, even though you can’t directly implement 360 functionality, you can set up the pcb so i can connect my own 360 board and get dual functionality (ps3 comes with the pcb)?
Yup, assuming you’re connecting it to a common ground wired pad like the MadCatz one we use a bunch around here. See the rows of unlabelled holes to the left of the quarter in the second picture? Those connection points go to all of the buttons and directions. so the wiring should be rather clean. You can use it in a dual or more PCB just like the VSHG. You can do a normal dual PCB setup, but you’d have two USB cables coming out, or you can use the DPDT switch method like CodyK’s tutorial on virtuafighter.com does and have only one USB cable coming out the back.
Dual PCB setups are covered bunches in other threads, like the ‘2 pcbs in one stick…possible?’ thread, so please ask any questions about it you may have there, but this board is common ground, and has the holes on the end to make a dual PCB wiring job easier.
As someone who wants to slap together a stick of my own at some point, I have to say that these boards you designed are awesome. They’re what I’ve imagined I wanted over having to “hassle” with pad-hacking.
Do you have any pricing estimates for the screw-connector version with either USB or PSX out?
Not yet. The delay isn’t the board layout or anything else. The main delay is I need to rewrite a bootloader so I can push out firmware updates in the future. Once I have that, I’ll throw together the PS3 and PSX code and start taking orders, and work on improving the code (additional consoles and better PSX code). Anyone can update the firmware to get the new features.
Im in the middle of studying for an important test, and the semester is starting up; I’m going to be in a bit of a timecrunch for a while, but I’ll do my best as soon as I have a spare moment to work on the bootloader.
Honestly, I think making a second board would be spreading yourself a bit too thin. The whole point of the UPCB is to be as versatile as possible and as upgradeable as possible, and that creates a market. If another PCB is made just for 2-3 consoles, you may as well just hack a pair of controllers imo. The UPCB is SO much more for just a little more effort, it isn’t worth it and it may distribute your market too thinly, making it not worthwhile for either of them to exist. And that would make me a sad panda.
He’s not, you can still use this board for a wide range of consoles, if you read the post right above yours Toodles said he was gonna implement many consoles just like the last UPCB. Just don’t expect some of the obscure consoles that might have been in the first UPCB.
I can understand that, but I think there is nothing to worry about.
Having another board project won’t spread my think or dilute the effort that goes into this project (pretty sure to be called ‘Cthulhu’. Multiple cords hanging out the back makes me think of Cthulhu’s or Zoidberg’s tentacles) or the UPCB. The code for the Cthulhu board mostly comes from the UPCB project and porting it over is fairly simple. The only code that isn’t from the UPCB is the bootloader I’m tweaking. That work will help me make a standalone bootloader program for the UPCB that won’t involve that damned pdfsusb.exe program that’s scaring people with the ‘unable to flash config’ messages. Otherwise, its mostly moving over UPCB code.
The goals of these projects are entirely different. To me, the UPCB is a controller version of MAME; Having the protocols written down in a tested and working set of open code and a way for someone to play on any console they want. The Cthulhu board is simply here to make installation of common desired sticks easy and cheap, and the silly goal of helping to pay for my tuition. UPCB is for the love, Cthulhu is for the money.
Any progress on one is progress on the other. After the bootloader is done, my first priority is fixing PSX converter support, and that will show up on BOTH boards. After that will be Dreamcast, and the little daughter boards needed to get Dreamcast working; again, for BOTH boards. If I make it that far and still have my sanity, I’ll be working on the Xbox360 controller security. And then Wii-mote connections. And then NES, SNES, and PSX Multi-taps. And then the Nuvon DVD player system. And then the Phillips CD-i. etc etc etc. Those that can be added to the little Cthulhu board will be, and all will be added to the UPCB.
Only some time working on the bootloader is needed for the Cthulhu board, then every bit of progress on either board will be progress for BOTH boards.
Heh, my first thought upon seeing the board design was “I am SO glad I won’t have to wave-solder those”. Then I realised that it will of course all be done by hand…
I like the look of it so far. Are those holes for SIP resistor packs I see?
