These still available or only cthulu now?
I’ve gotten a quote to fab some v2.1 PCBs and in low volumes it is not cheap. If I do 12, I can get them done for $40 each shipped. If I do 24, the price drops to $25 each. I’d be willing to handle the organization of getting them made, putting up the initial cash, and shipping them out to people if there is enough interest. Turnaround time from order to product is 5 days.
It also looks like I have a choice of PCB color. I am leaning towards making a batch of red UPCBs instead of the normal boring green.
Is anyone interested in getting in on this group buy?
hmmn
Out of curiosity, how many places did you talk to about getting a quote?
I thought about doing the same thing and found a whole bunch of places online that will fab PCBs but I didn’t get to the state of requesting quotes.
I’m potentially interested in a group buy.
Well I just looked at my local shops. I asked for quotes from 3 places and heard back from one only, probably because of the small volume. I have no idea how many toodles had to make in order to get them down to under $10 each but I am not willing to front thousands of dollars for a huge batch.
Do you have any more UPCBs in stock?
Hrm, I was just re-reading the UPCB assemblage instructable, and noticed it has a section saying:
However I can’t seem to find the actual details in the Installation instructable. Are they there, and I’m just blind, or has this not be documented?
I’ve used the UPCB several times and it hasn’t blown up, so it’s possible I’ve avoided this already, but just want to make sure…
Cheers,
v1.0 owner 
The 1.0 ones I sold, I manually tweaked the output cables to they’d work. If you have the blue ended one, look on the back where the ribbon goes in. You’ll see pairs of wires twisted when it was put together in order to fix it.
I self-assembled it, so probably not?
I assembled the output IDC->Dsub on almost every one, including the unassembled kits. But it’s no big deal; if it works and comes on a console, then it’s assembled properly and there’s nothing to worry about.
I do believe those are the first pics of the internals of a Finkle stick I’ve ever seen…
Nice job btw.
Ty for the compliment. I only ordered a case from him, not a completed stick.
I have a question for you toodles. It turns out that I’m using the same Madcatz PCB that Zombie Cpt. has (2008 common ground wired xbox360 controller). What has been done is the trigger assembly has been removed and it’s been wired up as a normal button (wire to signal point, that’s it). Zombie pointed me to his post about the transistor/diodes etc. and it was very informational.
My question to you is, if I’m not using the triggers, can I just cut the wires that are there now and leave the pcb as is, or do I need to put the transistors/diodes in even if they’re not being used. The joystick works fantastic as a PS3 and PC stick, but I can’t get it to boot in Xbox360 mode. It always gives me a “Please reconnect controller” or “Unrecognized USB device” error message on xbox and pc respectively.
I know that the data wires from the MC pcb run to the UPCB and wondered if the triggers not have the diodes was contributing to the error message or if that wouldn’t make a difference.
If you don’t want to connect them to the UPCB, you can ignore the whole transistor setup on the triggers. The only gotcha is that if you remove the original pots, you do need to tie them in place with a single resistor, and you need to make sure the resistors go between the middle wiper pad and the low (ground) pad. Considering you’ll already have the iron on, I personally would go ahead and take care of the transistor+resistor mod just so I’d never have to think about it again, but that’s just me.
The worrisome thing is that the problems you describe when going into 360 mode aren’t caused by messing with the triggers. You most likely have another wiring problem you’ll need to track down, most likely with the D+/D- wires on the 360 pad.
Alright. I’ll try that tomorrow night hopefully, this weekend if not.
Thanks!
After reading the guide, I feel more comfortable with making a UPCB. I wish to begin making one, but I’m stuck on a few things…
1.) As far as making one, it states that I could have a PCB fabricated, etched, use a breadboard, etc.
What would you recommend for someone who’s just learning about electronics such as this?
2.) Also, I was considering getting a PCB professionally fabricated, How would I go about doing so? [what should i ask for, and what files should i email them]
2a.) I found a few companies via google that ask for a price quote and a description. how should I explain the situation to them?
3.) With the exception of a PIC, would I be able to purchase the required parts from Digikey versus waiting for the UPCB pack?
Thanks for the help.
Do you have anymore of these available? I ordered from LizardLick (Cthulhu PC/PS3 Board) and didn’t know it wasn’t wireless so I want to change my order. But that will push my order back another week since I ordered last week.
Please let me know.
Thanks.
Toodles would it be possible to adapt UPCB for use in gamepads roughly the same dimensions as the 360 controller? I have been looking for a remappable gamepad I could use with shooters for a long time and did find one that almost worked The Thrustmaster 3-1 Run N’ Drive. But that controller has imperfect support in games and is just plain clunky, not to mention the fact that it lacks motion controls so it’s not exactly useful in games that do use motion controls on the PS3 like Killzone 2 or even Uncharted.
Something along the lines of UPCB could be useful for people who like to use non standard layouts for FPS type games on consoles in particular since developers seem to think it’s appropriate to stick people with shitty presets and only those presets.
Totally possible, sure. Here’s what you need to do:
- Scan in the pcb from the pad you want to use.
- Layout the outside shape of the pad in a layout program.
- Implement the schematic in your layout program
- place all of the parts in ways that will fit in the plastic pad casing without interfering with anything. I recommend changing all of the parts to surface mount. use small holes for soldering the 15 wires of an output cable to.
- Implement the pads under each of the pad ‘nipple’ thingies. There’s one in the SparkFun library for EAGLE that should work nicely.
- Get the board made, solder it all together and assemble.
Good luck.
this is awesome.