*The "padhacking" thread*

Tech Talk
2301

I guess by the time im done with this project I should be good with soldering. As for lb and rb, I was thinking of just cheating and splicing into the wires off the buttons and just going from there. I cut corners where I can.

2302

I have a problem guys, I just got the urge to start my dreamcast pad hacks today (official sega ones) and the diagram at the start of this thread is more than sufficant for the solder points. I used my dremel with a wire wheel to expose them.

The problem I am having is that the solder refuses to stick to the pcb completely, I will have it melted to the board totally flush and with zero force the solder and wire will come off, so little force that I cant even keep it on there enough to glue the wires down with hot glue after the fact.

Any hints for a solder newbie? I am using radio shack clear flux solder and a radio shack soldering iron. I tinned the wire first but even a glob of solder wont stick to the pcb.

edit: 30 min later pad #1 is done!

Its not the most pro job in the world but I did it some how, I clean off the tip of the iron some, tried to get a bit more solder on the wire when tining it, and then tried to get a small spec of solder on the pcb first by heating the pcb and then just quickly adding the wire into that. It worked well for most of the buttons and directions on the dpad, the ground was by far the hardest one to get to stick. After I had all the wires on there I glued them down well with hot glue I wanted to test them all with my mutli meter first before gluing them down but I eyed it down and it looked good so I did it before I broke one off by moving the wire around.

I just plugged it in to my dreamcast and tested every key by connecting a button wire to the ground wire and they all worked perfectly. Now I just need to wire it into a terminal block and find a project box for it and then wire those blocks into my db25 connector and of course do one more controller.

If it works it works!

Update: 2nd pad just got done, sooo much nicer than the first one. No globs, better wire jobs, great connections.

I think a key thing was cleaning off the pcb with a cue tip and rubbing alchohol first, I noticed the smudging of stuff when working ont he first one, I got a black cue tip when I cleaned the 2nd one before soldering from all the micro debris from the dremel shaving the pcb above the traces. That along with making sure I add a small dab of solder directly to the pcb first seemed to make everything connect great on the 2nd pad.

Next is some pads for Tatsunoko vs Capcom… Do you recomend gamecube controllers or wii classic controllers?

2303

I remember seeing a diagram someone made of how to wire the triggers of a 360 madcatz arcade gamestick pcb to a pushbutton using resistors and diodes, does anyone have it, or can someone explain it?

2304

Well, if I’m gonna fail, I might as well do it big I guess.

The controller is for the 360. Sorry about leaving that info out.

2305

If the pcb is a common ground, then yes, you can just wire signals to all the buttons, then solder one ground and daisy chain that to all of your buttons.

Check this thread, I made a trashy mspaint of how to do it, and there are links to the other posts about it.

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=177122

2306

The ps2 dual shock A Early version with resistor is listed as good on slagcoin for use with making joysticks http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb...2_diagram1.jpg

But the ps2 dual shock A early version WITHOUT the resistor is listed as one you should avoid. http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb...2_diagram6.jpg

Whats the deal with this, the only difference is the resistor? Have you ran into the board without the resistor and used it or is it going to explode or something

I have both, but i want to use the one without the resistor as the test subject, then use the other as the actual one that goes into the case permanently.

if anyone can fill some information on this id appreciate it.

2307

Man, I must be the Dan of soldering. I solder one half of the Left signal, then when soldering the ground, blooop. one perfect circle of solder covering both. I guess I see now how desoldering braid might be usefull… nothing a bunch of quick touching the solder and rubbing with paper napkin cant fix. the whole pcb was nice and warm. but I think Im doing ok. 45 mins or so and I did up, down, left, right, back and start and the grounds for all of them. Some of the zigzag on the back button I covered and just xacto knifed the traces. good thing I bought new leads for my multimeter. i can see if i touch the 2 leads, i get the resistance detected so if I touched the 2 blobs and it didnt move, they werent shorting.
all thats left is abxy, splice off the lb and rb button, then figure out how the hell to solder the guide button.
On a side note, is there anyway to somehow rig the old vmu connector so when I plug in my vmu it would turn on? for shit and giggles have it when I push the vmu in itll trigger the guide button or something whacky like that?

2308

Reading through what you linked me, you say that I need 2 resistors and a NPN transistor for each trigger, while other posts that were linked in that topic say you only need a 4.7kohm resistor between the high and the wiper…

It’s a bit confusing, what do I use? Do I try just the single resistor first or…?

2309

I should’ve been more specific, the second link in that thread goes into detail about the madcatz boards, and why they need an NPN transistor. Basically, you only need a single resistor per trigger if the trigger is high when unpressed, and grounded when fully pressed, which is the opposite of the madcatz new triggers. The madcatz triggers are grounded when not pressed, and high (3.3v offhand? I didn’t actually check) when you press them.

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=169203

Post #5 has a pic that’s almost what you need, Toodles made a written correction directly below it, which is what I threw together in my quick pic. You can use any resistorsfrom around 5k to 10k, 4.7k would be fine, but you’ll definitely need to use the NPN setup with two resistors per trigger.

2310

anyone know if there are alternate solder points for the directionals on a 360 wired series b pad?

2311

What about an official xbox controller though, not sure if its new or old revision yet (picking it up pre-owned on the cheapo)

What kinda setup would that need? and clues?

edit:

I has Idea!

If i get the pad, and post front and back pictures of the pcb, would one of you smarty pants be able to scribble on the points in ms paint, and tell me the names of the components i would need?

I know thats alot to ask, but as good as i am with a soldering iron, ive only ever done point to point chip installation that someone as planned out for me and ive just followed instructions.

thanks :slight_smile:

2312

I’m hacking this pad: http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_diagrams/360_diagram1.jpg

And i just managed to pull the copper off the RB point, i can’t seem to find alternate points for RB and LB, so i guess my only option is to use one of the triggers (unless anyone knows if there are alternate points for RB and LB?)

In assigning a button to one of the triggers i heard it is necassary to use resistors or something (presumably because they’re analogue). I’m not sure what needs to be done, can anyone help me with this? Would save the day for me.

Cheers

2313

Guys, I’ve created this thread, but should have put it here I guess:

Hi guys, I’m looking at making my own custom stick using the pcb from a Logitech Precision gamepad. I have a pic of the PCB with info from here

I’m new to this stuff though, and I’m not sure I understand the diagram.

I think I understand that red 5 through 10 (buttons 5-10) need to map to the blue circled 5-10, and that they share a common ground (red circle in top left). Up should also map to the common red ground in top left.

I think that left signal & 2 & 4 buttons go to pink ground, down & 3 signals goes to orange ground. Button 1 goes to green ground.

So now the confusion:
So that leaves right, which I guess goes to the yellow circle, but why does that have 5V written in red beside it? And why is there another red circle in the exact middle of the board? Whats that?

Thanks for the help guys!

2314

I have a problem

so i made the mistake on removing the usb wires of my madcatz 2008 wired pcb and not listing the color order for the wires (example. green/white/red/black) well heres a pic. i dont know if there’s a universal usb wire scheme but heres a pic of my pcb. and the group of 4 wires are the usbs. i was wondering if anyone could be able to double check my work. it would help alot.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t220/clifftiong88/IMG_0193.jpg

p.s. sorry for the bad picture, my camera sucks.

2315

Does anyone know if a sanwa flash joystick could be used with
a sony sixaxis pcb? From what I understand the flash needs 5v to
operate but the sixaxis only outputs 3.7v. I can’t find the post but
I thought I read somewhere that it would still work. And yes I would
have to upgrade the battery bigtime. I want to see if I can pull off a
wireless stick with a flash.

2316

Guys, can someone please confirm / deny something that I think I’m only just realising?

I’m going to mod this pcb into a stick:

http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_diagrams/pc_diagram1.jpg

I was going to use a Sanwa JLF stick. From what I’m reading this will not be possible as there is no common ground on the pcb. Is there any way around this with this pcb? If not, what are my options?

Thanks all!

2317

Okay, so it looks like swank spotted some 360 FightPad PCB photos and put them in the FightPad thread. Not sure if these are clear enough but you can get’em bigger here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/homeconsolearcade/

Anyway, here’s the front:

And the back:

2318

SQUEEL
OMG that is awesome, thank you!

2319

To use the JLF without modification, you’d need a common shared amongst at least all of the directional buttons. That’s not the case with the controller you linked. You’re not completely out of luck, but you’ll have to cut the ground traces on your JLF PCB and wire in separate ground wires to each switch. It’s not really a hard job if you’re keen on keeping the JLF.

2320

Yea man, your ok. I just did my very first mod for a no common ground 360 joytech. Im taking a break now but I just got the common ground agetec stick i had to work perfectly fine in windows.
you would cut the traces to separate each of the switchs. then the “common ground” wire can be used as the ground for one of them, depending how you cut the traces. then solder 3 wires to the others ground.

and now that ive successfully soldered the pad and shorting everything works and nothing is stuck down, I think its time to order some sanwas…
now i just have to figure out who to borrow stuff from to drill these holes and grind this metal down…