The official Cthulhu and ChImp thread - Try our new Dreamcast flavor!

[Mr_Spadoinkle]

Ive downloaded the Mc Cthulhu update software from the main page version 2.3. I followed the instructions and plugged a USB a-b lead directly into the mc cthulhu, plugged in whilst holding start and select and loaded the bootloader. I hope thats right. I have tried both the 10 ms and 1ms versions of the firmware which both work fine but have the same ps3 home button issue.

Heres some pics of my boards, please forgive the poor soldering this is my first attempt at this mod, so far im shocked all buttons on the 360 and mccthulhu work ><

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/7758/imag0132f.jpg

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/3909/imag0130p.jpg

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/492/imag0131dq.jpg

Some of the attempts to solder rows a-h 1-9 were problematic, as such i was forced in some cases to surface solder, as the wire snapped through the whole. As stated all though not pretty, all buttons work on xbox 360 and ps3.

Ive reattached the guide line, as pictured above and start + select brings up the guide screev 360 mode. but once again i cannot get the ps3 home button to register as start & select.

Unfortunatly i do not have a voltage meter to hand, but will picking one up shortly.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Toodles]

When the connection is present for Home between the 360 and Cthulhu, S+S=G works on 360 side, but not PS3 side. When it’s disconnected, visa versa?
Sounds like the 360 pad is dropping the line low when power is first applied. The Cthulhu sees that has a pressed Home button, and thinks one exists in PS3 mode. In 360 mode, the line has gone back high properly by the time the 360 mode starts, so does S+S=G just fine.

Best option would be to diode the signal line. I dont think you want to roll the dice soldering either end of the wire, so instead cut the wire connecting Guide to Home, expose a little bit of wire on both ends, and solder a diode in. Just any any will work, including left overs from a MC Upgrade kit or the uber cheapy diodes (N4148) from any Radio Shack. Just make sure which way you put the diode in. There’s always a band on one end of the diode. In this case, you want the side with the band going to the wire still connected to the Cthulhu, and the end without the band soldered to the wire still connected to the 360 pad.

[Wrath]

You sound like you’re wanting to go crazy with the uber bright LEDs, which is a bad idea. Having a few are fine, but trying to max the current out and have 500mA of LEDs running is a very bad idea for the longevity of your consoles. The Cthulhu would survive fine; the things you plugged it into would be in danger though. Try to keep your current consumption to 100mA at absolute worst, and figure about 15mA for the 360 pad if you dual mod it. If you want more than that, check out ed’s recent LED work in a SC5 stick; pictures of it are in the BUTTHOLE thread.

Nah, I’m only going for around 10 white/blue LED’s on this one. They need to be bright, but not super. I was mainly checking to make sure that the VCC wouldn’t fry my console if I had VCC—>LED’s—>ground
Is 100mA what I can expect from most consoles though?
I don’t want to need an external switch and I just want LED’s that light up when the stick is plugged in.

[Alex_Smith]

I finally managed to try ChimpSMD_NoSSD.hex (sic), and it works beautifully. No S+S=G on either system (as intended), and it auto-detects both systems very quickly. Many thanks, Toodles!

[Mr_Spadoinkle]

When the connection is present for Home between the 360 and Cthulhu, S+S=G works on 360 side, but not PS3 side. When it’s disconnected, visa versa?
Sounds like the 360 pad is dropping the line low when power is first applied. The Cthulhu sees that has a pressed Home button, and thinks one exists in PS3 mode. In 360 mode, the line has gone back high properly by the time the 360 mode starts, so does S+S=G just fine.

Best option would be to diode the signal line. I dont think you want to roll the dice soldering either end of the wire, so instead cut the wire connecting Guide to Home, expose a little bit of wire on both ends, and solder a diode in. Just any any will work, including left overs from a MC Upgrade kit or the uber cheapy diodes (N4148) from any Radio Shack. Just make sure which way you put the diode in. There’s always a band on one end of the diode. In this case, you want the side with the band going to the wire still connected to the Cthulhu, and the end without the band soldered to the wire still connected to the 360 pad.

Thanks for all the help toodles, I will try this shortly.

Once again very impressed by the products and will definetly buy from you again.

[Callisto]

Having an issue with the ChimpSMD in my board, out of nowhere today the directional inputs stopped working, but only on 360, everything works fine on PS3, and buttons work fine on 360, just not the stick. Can anyone give me some direction on what to look at first?

[Wrath]

Hey Toodles, do you know of a relay that I could use for the Cthulhu? Just realized that might work better than trying to power the LED’s off the console. Basically I’d have batteries and use the relay to switch on the LED’s once the VCC received the power from being plugged in. Something like this:

I want to make this case look clean since it’s for a friend so I want to avoid an external switch. Does this look like a good way to do it? I really don’t know specifics since the VCC is marked as dangerous on the welcome sheet, but I’d like to do it like this. Also, you mentioned frying the console if the VCC is connected to ground so how much current do I need to use to make it safe?

[gahrling]

Having an issue with the ChimpSMD in my board, out of nowhere today the directional inputs stopped working, but only on 360, everything works fine on PS3, and buttons work fine on 360, just not the stick. Can anyone give me some direction on what to look at first?

What stick is it in?

[Toodles]

Having an issue with the ChimpSMD in my board, out of nowhere today the directional inputs stopped working, but only on 360, everything works fine on PS3, and buttons work fine on 360, just not the stick. Can anyone give me some direction on what to look at first?

What stick is it in?

Heh, good call gahrling, Id bet you’re right.
Callisto, move the slide switch to DP.

Hey Toodles, do you know of a relay that I could use for the Cthulhu? Just realized that might work better than trying to power the LED’s off the console. Basically I’d have batteries and use the relay to switch on the LED’s once the VCC received the power from being plugged in. Something like this:
I want to make this case look clean since it’s for a friend so I want to avoid an external switch. Does this look like a good way to do it? I really don’t know specifics since the VCC is marked as dangerous on the welcome sheet, but I’d like to do it like this. Also, you mentioned frying the console if the VCC is connected to ground so how much current do I need to use to make it safe?

Im sorry man, but I can’t help you. This doesn’t have anything to do with the Cthulhu. Youre best option is to post up the question in the absolute newbie thread.

[Callisto]

Heh, good call gahrling, Id bet you’re right.
Callisto, move the slide switch to DP.

Phreak just called it a few seconds ago, pardon my hurrdurr lol. :oops:

[Callisto]

aaand I’m back, I don’t think this is me being an idiot this time…on the PS3 it’s normally start + select = guide. When I hit start alone it does the guide function, and once I do that, after getting out of the guide menu the stick/buttons no longer work in the game. I don’t see anything switched where it shouldn’t be…

[Toodles]

aaand I’m back, I don’t think this is me being an idiot this time…on the PS3 it’s normally start + select = guide. When I hit start alone it does the guide function, and once I do that, after getting out of the guide menu the stick/buttons no longer work in the game. I don’t see anything switched where it shouldn’t be, but I do notice that there’s a red LED on in addition to the normal blue one…anyone know what that means?

Nope, need more info. This happens on 360, PC, or PS3? Then, plug it into a PC and go into the game controller’s applet (Start->Run->‘control joy.cpl’), go into the Chimp properties, and list up with button(s) light up when you press Guide, Select, and Start individually. make sure the slider is set to ‘unlocked’ when you do this.

[Callisto]

Nope, need more info. This happens on 360, PC, or PS3? Then, plug it into a PC and go into the game controller’s applet (Start->Run->‘control joy.cpl’), go into the Chimp properties, and list up with button(s) light up when you press Guide, Select, and Start individually. make sure the slider is set to ‘unlocked’ when you do this.

Happens on PS3. Checked it on PC, 9 is lit full time, 10 and 13 both light when I press start, nothing happens for select.

Edit: Everything appears to work fine on 360.

[Toodles]

Im assuming that button 13 lights when you press Guide?
So the Chimp thinks Select is pressed down all of the time. If your Back and Start buttons work fine on 360, then it should be easy to find. With the stick plugged into a PC, use a multimeter to measure the voltage on the Select screw terminal on the Chimp. Have that Game Controllers window open so you can verify the #9 button is still lit. Write down the voltage you see, then cut the wire for the Back/Select button connecting the Select screw terminal to the 360 board. Measure voltage again, see if the #9 button is still lit, and post up what you see. With the info, the cause and fix should be easy to see.

[Callisto]

Nothing happens at all when I hit guide in PS3 mode. I’ll have to get back to you when I can track someone down with a multimeter, I didn’t do the mod myself. I appreciate the guidance, I’ll get back once I can get someone with one to take a look at it and follow what you posted.

[Toodles]

Well, go ahead and cut that Select wire if you can and tell me if the #9 button remains lit. If the button goes dark when you do that, then it was miswired. If it remains low, then either there was a nasty soldering glob somewhere on the bottom of the Chimp, or a possible (unheard of, but possible) fault on the Chimp. I was hoping to be able to figure out which with that info I asked for.

[Callisto]

Well, go ahead and cut that Select wire if you can and tell me if the #9 button remains lit. If the button goes dark when you do that, then it was miswired. If it remains low, then either there was a nasty soldering glob somewhere on the bottom of the Chimp, or a possible (unheard of, but possible) fault on the Chimp. I was hoping to be able to figure out which with that info I asked for.

#9 does go dark when removed from the Chimp, and with it removed Start only triggers 10 and not 13.

[Toodles]

That’ll do. There’s a wiring problem. The wire was pulling the line low making the chimp think the select button is pressed. Since the back button works normally, I’d bet just undoing the other end of the wire and putting it in the right spot will fix it.
As for the Home button not working on the chimp, I dont know if your modder skipped that part or what. You could just use S+S=G for the PS3 side, but why both. Just connect the Home screw terminal to the guide signal line like everything else.

[Callisto]

Up until a few hours ago it everything was working fine, fwiw, for the last several months. Home worked normally on 360, it was S+S on PS3, I played on PS3 all last night, and 360 for a chunk this evening with no issues in either session, switched to PS3 tonight and it borked as soon as I got into a match. I just tried it again on the 360 and it’s wonky there now too haha, PC applet doesn’t show anything held down on there, but nothing lights up at all when I hit select, and within the game it appears that select only fires when I hit guide. Works fine within Xbox menus, but within the games themselves it’s being pretty random. Within Skullgirls it worked fine at the main menu, went to training mode, within training mode buttons/stick did nothing, hit guide, guide comes up, menu there works normally, guide closes and select input fires.

I’ll have someone local who knows what they’re doing wiring-wise have a look if it seems like just a plain wiring issue.

[JusticeDude]

Hey Toodles (and everyone else), I’m doing a dual mod on a friend’s TE round 1, and having a little problem. Everything seemed to work when I was hooking up the USB cables. It detected properly on PC (appeared in USB controllers) and 360 (green LED turned on) before I had any buttons or the joystick hooked up, but something went wrong later in the mod and I’m not sure where.

Silly me, thinking that since I had done these before that I’d totally get it all right.

Now it no longer appears on the PCs list of game controllers and the green light won’t come on when hooked up to a 360. I can’t find any loose connections or bad solders, and the only thing I’m doing differently this time is using these to splice wires together, but I don’t see how that would affect anything.

Any ideas on what might be going wrong?