Ah, OK Toodles, you got me, I’ll just do it the hard way and check everything with my multimeter. Just checking to see if anyone had seen this version of the controller. And it turns out it isn’t common ground… Why anyone designs non common ground pads, however, is a mystery.
Why do you think that?
EDIT: Set the resistance on your multimeter to like 20k ohm, or whatever the lowest setting over 12kOhm is, and try again. It looks like the common line on the six face buttons has a 5.1k resistor between the button and ground. I hope that’s just them being overly cautious; if that resistor is required, you’ll need to do some extra work. Try the buttons connected to ground directly, and if it acts up, let me know and I’ll show you have to rig it up proper. The d-pad doesn’t do this, so that should work just fine as a proper common ground setup
P.S. Laying bare exposed electronics on a static-y carpet can’t be good for the gear.
Yep, theres about 5k resistance coming from the grounds on the 6 face buttons.
NYC sources for parts:
http://wiki.nycresistor.com/index.php?title=Local_Resources_/_Parts
The resistors can prolly be anywhere from 4.5k to 7k ohms just fine, but the original is 5.1k. Any rating (1/8 watt, 1/4 watt, whatever. doesn’t matter) and any precision.
As promised, here is a hack map for the Madcatz Arcade Stick. I apologize for the quality; my home computer is down and I couldn’t find a computer on campus with photoshop that I could access. I’ll reload higher quality images next week.
Misc notes:
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These pads are super easy to hack. Most of the solder points even have holes to anchor on.
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These pads are either on clearance or no longer stocked in many retail outlets. To my knowledge, these are the only X360 PCBs that are guaranteed to be a universal ground pad out of the box every time. Get them while you can. Do not sleep on these.
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Note that the button and ground solder points are reversed on RB and LB.
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I did not include RT/LT as I’m not going to hack them.
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I included the ground on all the buttons/directions just for the sake of completeness. Every button and direction is tested to function with the ground from “direction left,” IE, is universal.
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I’m pretty positive that the think black wire is ground from the console and red is +5v. I’ll test soon to confirm.
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Enjoy!
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k244/guile747/madcatz_arcade1.jpg
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k244/guile747/madcatz_arcade2.jpg
Hey guys as a FYI the newer xbox 360 wireless controllers (Halo 3 mcfarlane ones for sure) have a common ground.
I’ve never tried this before, someone gave me some pcb’s, I don’t know what brand this 360 one is and seems different from the pics here. Anyone help me out with the solder points. Also for this PS1 seems different than the pics i’ve seen here. I think 'ill have to solder back the broken connections at the top of the ps1. 
http://imagehost.vendio.com/a/7953033/aview/Xbox360_2_2.jpg
http://imagehost.vendio.com/a/7953033/aview/Xbox360_1_2.jpg
http://imagehost.vendio.com/a/7953033/aview/Xbox360_3_2.jpg
http://imagehost.vendio.com/a/7953033/aview/PS1_2.jpg
I would like to use all the 360 buttons (left trigger and right trigger), so can anyone direct me where to solder any resistors to I’d be grateful. I have resistor packets labelled 800K, 560k, 330k, 150k? I’m a noob with this too so if I need a different resistor?
I think I like that you’re not spoon-feeding all of your answers. I’m having fun with this stuff. 
It’s about time I buy a multimeter!
This PS1 PCB is common ground, the ground is at the bottom of each contact, for the buttons, and the top for the directions. What else would you want to know ? As for the 360, I’m not sure.
I got a weird problem with 2 Microsoft X360 wired pcb’s. I hacked them, everything went fine, but after a while, the stick/pad would be acting up. i get totally random 1 frame direction pushes. left and up to be precise. i don’t know what to do, at first i thought the problem came from the first PCB so a friend gave me another one… and the exact same problem is happening. weird thing is that if i remove all wires, both pads are fine. I got no brigdes, and the wires are good.
anyone have a solution for it?
Just to expand on what I posted a few days ago… the new xbox 360 wireless pads have a common ground and easy way to ensure your getting the new batch is to get a halo 3 mcfarlane one. More info here.
Also here is a diagram I made that shows how to wire the triggers on the new PCB’s since it they switched up the voltage going to the triggers it has to be done differently. I was able to put together a wireless saturn pad for xbox 360 with one of these recently.
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/9961/transistoriy7.jpg
Here is something I got off ebay that I would like to hack but I dont know how to determine where to solder to. Its a Capcom Soldier pad for snes Any ideas? I would preferably like to solder in the lower right corner where the chips are so that I could put it back together. I want to use it with a playstation or Xbox 360 PCB
Here are some scans I made: (click for larger)
Thanks speed, I have butter fingers and want to do as little desoldering as poss, so I was hoping a solder schematic like this one would help me out. I want to use all the buttons so I also need to know the solder points for the left and right triggers and where to solder any resistors onto aswell if thats required.
If you didnt want to put it back together than you could just hack it like any other controller. But since you want to put it together you will have to follow the traces to find out what is connected to what. Then you could solder down by where the chip is. The only problem with this is that some of the traces go under the chips so you will have to use a multimeter to figure out where exactly its going.
The only thing you could do easily is hack the d-pad and start/select is to just splice into the ribbon cable.
yeah thanks. The end of ribbon cable on the right side has easy connect points for the ground, start, select, up, down, left and right buttons. The other six buttons are the issue. I guess ill just get a multimeter or solder to most of them by the chips and test it to see whats what.
Can anyone think of a Gamecube controller PCB that is common ground and simulates the left analog stick’s functionality as four digital points (as though it were another d-pad)?
The Hori Digital Controller’s d-pad only functions as the Wavebird’s d-pad. All I can think of is maybe the Hori Soul Calibur II stick, but I don’t know if that just mimics the Wavebird’s d-pad instead of its left analog stick. Hopefully something exists that is smaller and less rare! :lol:
For the PS1 triggers: the ground is the middle solder point (out of 3 in a row)
http://imagehost.vendio.com/a/7953033/aview/PS1_2.jpg
I think i’ve sorted out a PS1 layout for my particular pcb (shown above) here (stolen from this pic).
Still searching info where to put resistors onto my 360 pcb to be able to use the right and left triggers. :wonder: 
oh thx, checking it out now. :woot: 
:tup:
omg i think i can wonderfully hack this pad without losing its case and functionality as a pad
i’m gonna ‘add’ a D15 male connector to link my neogeo stick to(and agetec one) and use this adapter both on pc and x360
thanks for the pics…