Now I’m doubting myself… It goes 5V, -, +, gnd.
Right?
That is the usual sequence, however I’ve seen rubbish controllers which don’t follow this pattern. I’m not sure if there is a way to test D+ & D- with a multimeter if it isn’t labelled somewhere, so unless you can find a pic of the pad with the USB cable still attached then it will be trial and error.
Assume the first sequence for now, if it doesn’t work then swap over the data lines.
If you can post a closeup pic of the reverse side of the PCB then we should at least be able to isolate the two GND points.
It’s a common ground pad, so I was able to identify both grounds by sticking a prong into each and testing for shorts.
Through trial and error, I did find that it was 5V, -, +, gnd, gnd.
Thanks all 
Question, I have an xbox 360 controller from Afterglow which I used inside my arcade stick. The triggers however act as always depressed and I do not known where to add the switch to operate them either. I de-soldered and removed the trigger mechanism from the pad and this is how it acts now. Anyone know of a fix? I heard that sticking a resistor somewhere in there fixes it but I cannot find a solution anywhere. Thank you. Here is a pic to make it more clear.
http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r17/luvsbren/0126121413.jpg
Each trigger should have 3 contacts. You need two 10K resistors per trigger to neutralize them. Solder the resistors like an M. If you want to use them you may have to invert them. Solder a wire to the middle contact, this is the wiper or signal. If you can touch this to a ground and it works then you dont need to invert. If it activates when you remove it from a ground, You must invert it.
I tried this but it had no effect. The triggers still act as depressed. If you look at the pic i posted above on the middle left and right there are three holes lined up vertically thats where I took the triggers off of and where I put the resistors, two on each making an M. Also tried grounding the middle of the M junction after i put the resistors on and it had no effect. Is there any other way to disable them completely that you know of?
note: i used 12k resistors , thats all I had on hand, don’t know if that’ll make a difference
I think the 12k resistors could be it. I do not know about that specific controller. When I hacked all of the analogs, both sticks and triggers, I found that all voltages and all lows where linked. This was a madcatz pad though. The pots are variable resitors that raise and lower resitance from 0 to 10k ohms. My guess is that you have to match them. If this doesn’t work, you should try to snag a fightpad.
just wanted to ask, i’m planning to buy a axisdapter from godlikecontrols. although i’m worried about how they have it delivered since there’s no option. is it automatically via EMS? and how long do they usually take? I’m from the Philippines btw.
already got my answer for godlike controls, but are there any other alternatives for the axisdapter?
I have a broken pdp versus fightpad, I want to make an attempt at a pad hack.
To my knowledge the trouble i might find would be the joystick on the controller. If at all possible I want to know if its worth the trouble to try removing the plastic parts on the joystick. And if so how?
I was doing a pad hack yesterday on the versus PDP pad for 360 so I did take pictures and notes while I was working on it. you can open the thing up with a philips head screw driver. no other tools needed to open it. the D-pad has 3 screws and one is hidden under the main board.carefully lift it up to remove the last screw. you can cut the d-pad cable and the mic cable if your not using it. I left my mic connected so I can mount it later if I want to. for soldering, a small tip is better. I use an SMD tip, also called the conical tip, for my weller WP35. you only need one ground wire. I connected ground by the Dpad so it would be through-hole. you will need a desolder braid or desolder pump to use through-hole pads. not having that, just tap ground from RB, its huge and has a giant ground mask around it if you slip.
So what do the red and black dots mean on the second photo?
one of the cables is black and red. the other one is white and green. those are mini JST connectors so they have a line that only lets you plug them in one way. but it is possible to plug the red and black one into the other JST where it should not be. if you swap them it will end in a broken pad.
Anyone familiar with the PCB’s on these controllers? Could find no mention of it on google, perhaps due to their companies name. These controllers are cheap and would love to know if they are common ground.
read this in the review “The L2 and R2 triggers aren’t analogue”. this should make it a little easier to pad hack. the first 4 buttons are pressure sensitive so that may or may not present problems. the harder you press a pressure sensitive button, the lower the resistance across the 2 contacts. replacing it with a button that has 0 Ohms resistance would be like that hardest you could ever press the button. so in theory you should be able to wire it without adding resistors. the only question is if the pressure sensitive buttons share the common ground. if not, you just run 4 more wires.
the 360 pad might be made by the same company. one thing I don’t like about Dpad hacks is you can’t play some xbox live arcade games that require the analog stick. hacking the left analog stick with resistors would solve that. I would totally play peggle with an arcade stick
Ty. I was planning adding a FGWidget LED chip to it, but they are the best ive seen for padhacking so far(as in as cheap as possible). So I’ll take a risk and see how they turn out after I order them. Leaving out a resistor on pressure sensitive buttons doesnt short anything out?
Saw a post in the check my arcade stick thread.
I’ve never made a fullon arcade stick and was lead to believe that a controller pcb hacked and wired up would provide just as fast confirmation of presses as a regular controller or arcade stick would. Is there latency from cheapo pcbs? And what would be the best way to confirm?
I am having no problems at all with the cheap $15 pad hack I just did. I don’t agree with a blanket statement that pad hacks are shit or even the statement that cheap PCB’s are shit.
first of all, not sensitive enough? are you serious? arcade buttons are not pressure sensistive lol. and wait a minute… not sensitive to play SF4 on? like the game really makes a difference for a button that is on or off? I guess it is possible for a PS3 pad hack but it is also likely that it was not hacked correctly. like I said before, 0 Ohms to ground will always press the button harder than you can press the button on the pad. most games that have analog to digital conversion, call of duty L2 and R2 for example, have the threshold in the first 1/3 or 1/2 of the button travel. maybe the controller is getting damaged without a shunt? it would be difficult to test the resistance across the button while it is still assembled. it is possible that the button acts as part of a voltage divider even when not pressed. like a button not pressed divides V+/2 and button pressed divides V+/20. 20 could be any large number. if it is infinite, then you are approaching 0v + (1/(infinity)) = 0v = ground. if you lift your ground by removing the button, you could be sending V+ somewhere it is expecting V+/2. and also you could be out of range with 0v if it is expecting V+/10. the solution would be to solder a large resistor to ground and a smaller one in series with the button. the values can only be determined by testing the original controller with a meter while it is still assembled. good luck with that.
Thanks for the anwers tigermaskchi, really appreciate them :).
I padhacked a Logitech Dual Action and a Microsoft Sidewinder USB. For both PCBs, if I pressed the buttons carefully and held buttons, they did what they were supposed to, so I assume it wasn’t any fault of my wiring/soldering. Something could very well have been my fault but I’m not aware of how. But actual gameplay scenarios, they didn’t perform as well as I have been accustomed to with Toodles boards.
I play ST, and I often drum two fingers on jab and short as a Guile player at a certain rhythm to get the rapid fire effect going. The Sidewinder was not sensitive enough to pick up this drumming. It was difficult even to do a basic sonic boom. The Logitech Dual Action fared better but not great. But I couldn’t do fierce HHH as ST Honda with the drumming method on the Logitech PCB as I could when I swapped out the PCB for a Toodles board. ST has tighter execution requirements than other games though, so Logitech could be playable for some other games. I kept that one for my ‘backup’ 4th stick.
PCBs definitely aren’t created equal, I mean you can even see that in the testings they’ve done between high performance boards like Mad Catz vs Hori vs Toodles vs Qanba etc. But I think the differences between those top tier ‘approved’ boards is much smaller than the difference between a generic pad and a top tier board. I think given the amount of work required to padhack vs the cost of a trustworthy PCB (Toodles, Paewang, “approved/tested” pads) and how much you will actually be using it, it is definitely worth it just to buy something you know will work.
I didn’t mean sensitive that way doofus.
I remember when I first realized this problem, I did some searching to see if anyone else had similar issues and I found this:
so I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a problem on my padhacking but the PCB itself.