Hey Toodles, what AWG wire would you suggest for putting in the toothy grooves on the IDC connectors? The wires that were attached to the buttons on the TE seem kind of big, and I am just wondering if I would be better off with a higher guage or if you believe I could manage just fine with the current wiring. Thanks much!
Using the 22 AWG wires in the TE are right out. It’s made for ribbon cables, but if jury rigging it with wires, go for 26 or better yet 28 gauge.
Thanks Toodles. I ended up taking some IDE cable, cutting it down to 20 pins and then lined it up as best as I could on the toothy inserts. I then pushed down the clamp as far down as I could, confirmed it was still straight, then took a hammer to the clamp, and tried to evenly hammer the clamp shut on the connector. It looks pretty clean!
I’m about 80% done with building my UPCB. I ordered all the parts listed on the Instructables site, but I guess the xbox 360 piggyback got bumped up from 16 pins to 20 pins. So now i gotta go out and find some 20 pin headers. This is my first time putting together a pcb and I’m kinda lost since the instructables site is based on the V1 UPCB’s and i got a V2 from Toodles.
My first question is whether or not that “Power” jumper solder point is still on the chip? And second, since the jumper headers are now 20 pin, will all of the inputs register coming out of the db15 out? Lastly, does the UPCB support the “PS3 Home button” and the "360 Dashboard button?
Not sure about the power. There is no problem with the db15, and start + select gives you PS3 Home / 360 Guide.
You don’t need to worry about the jumper solder point anymore; the later revision board already takes care of that. As far as the DB-15 is concerned, that is fine as well. On Toodle’s initial board, it used the the 16 pin IDC connector, but then had a different area on the board for the “2 optional buttons,” Those 2 optional buttons now comprise the extra pins for the 20 pin IDC connectors.
And as far as the differences between the 1.0 instructible and the 2.1 board, I was kind of in the same boat so I know where you’re coming from. I ordered everything off of Digikey based on the Instructible and only when I started putting the thing together did I realize the discrepancy. Off the top of my head, the key differences were.
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10k ohm resisters instead of 4.7k (this one doesn’t matter so much as it was just meant to be a pull-up.)
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10uF 35V capacitor instead of the 33uF one. I’m not really sure how much of a difference this one made, but I found the capacitor at Radio Shack for something like 70 cents.
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the 3x 20 pin headers for the button connections, and two piggybacks instead of the 16 pin headers. I ended up needing to get these on a second order at Digikey since the Fry’s in my area didn’t carry these headers.
Great! Thanks for the help!
Does anyone sell these assembled in the UK?
I have a Dreamcast arcade stick - nothing special I know, but I’d love to be able to use it on my Xbox and Wii, as well as retaining DC functionality. So this sounds ideal - but I really think I’d need to buy one ready built up, I’ll have enough of a job connecting it up to the stick’s innards as it is!
A Cthulu MC would be another option, I know, but I prefer the DC piggyback solution the UPCB offers to using a PSX adapter which I’d have to do with the Cthulu.
Hrm, a UPCB is remarkably annoying to try to put in a T.E. stick, mainly due to the DB15 connector being impossible to place usefully in the cord stowage area!
The cord stowage box isn’t deep enough to contain the db15 backshell as well as the cable sticking out, so the only options are to mount the plug from either end of the box, or having the db15 connector on a cable which protrudes outside the opening flap, through the hole that already exists. I’m tending towards this latter solution, because without cutting out some of the support pillars there is not enough space to mount a db15 at either end of the cord stowage box…
It’s going to look pretty dumb having the db15 dangling out the back of the TE stick though!
Also I’m strongly considering covering over the entire top left turbo/switches/guide panel, since turbo is completely useless, and the UPCB has it’s own tournament-lock system. Seems kind of a waste though!
I’ve had the stick in pieces ever since I got it, just trying to get my head around how to do this decently 
Any and all suggestions welcome, I haven’t seen any mention of ppl using UPCBs in their TE sticks yet!
If your sole purpose is a dual PS3/360 mod, then why not hardwire the high/low signature to force the UPCB to USB button-select mode and get rid of the DB15 altogether? Then all you would have to do is make sure you have a cable stop that will prevent stresses to your soldering points on the UPCB.
That’s worth considering, although I do intend to have other systems usable (dc, gc), so I’d rather sort out the db15 properly. I’m thinking that splitting the ribbon cable and then heatshrinking one half of it into a rounded cable and posting it out the back is probably not too bad…
The USB cable in the TE is pretty well wrapped around for a cable stop by default just btw 
What about connecting a long db15 cable to the upcb, routing it securely through the existing usb pass-through, and using it as your cable? Then, your console cables could be just an inch or two cuz you’d already have the length. I thought about doing this anyway because I have 2 upcb sticks, and dealing with multiple long console cables is kinda messy.
Icsp
Toodles,
Am I correct in assuming I’d be able to program at least the bootloader via the ICSP header and the ICSP programmer described in this thread?
I mean, i could always send the pic to you, but I’m impatient. :wgrin:
That sounds like a really good idea! I’m trying to get my upcb in a TE stick as well, so hopefully we can get some good ideas going:wgrin:
You can program the bootloader via ICSP, but you’ll want to use the BOOTLOADER.hex in the UPCB zip file for the latest revision.
DO NOT JUST PROGRAM THE UPCB CODE! The UPCB release .hexes in the zip dont have the bootloader. You MUST flash the chip with the BOOTLOADER.hex first, then connect the board via USB and use the bootloader program in the zip to update the code to the latest version.
Hi Bencao,
I’d PM you, but I don’t have enough posts yet… will you ship to the UK?
Cheers
Pistol
I’m looking for an interface to make my custom-stick***** work on my Commodore Amiga 1200 (which uses DB9 connectors as joystick ports) since the Sensible Soccer World Cup that will take place in Germany in August will be held on these systems.
Would the Universal PCB work?
*****My stick, currently based on a Toodles’ Ctuhlu since I’ve been using it on PC with emulators and on PS3 with SFIV (it hasn’t been finished yet though, still missing paint, a Sanwa JLJ-PL2, a new Quickshot Apache QS-131 handle, etc.):
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm60/Retrievingsensi/QSX2.jpg
EDIT: perhaps the picture ain’t exactly self-explainatory but the stick on the righ is a heavily-modded LS-32 (the metal shaft doesn’t spin anymore, etc.) with the handle of an old 16-bit era Quickshot controller.
Possibly. What kind of controller does it use?
The ‘four direction plus one button’ controller works, definite. The Amiga CD32 support is untested, so I don’t know if that will work.
Hi Retri,
I’m very interested in UPCB experiences with commodore in general!
Please keep me informed about news.
Bencao
I’m currently working on modding my TE with the UPCB and had initially considered this. I ended up passing on the idea because I figured that I would need to have a cable thick enough to hold 15wires. With a cable that thick, I figured I’d lose some of the flexibility and would have a hard time getting any kind of decent length cord in the cord holder.
I’m almost done “I think” with modding my TE, just need to figure out how I am going to tackle the DB-15 still. I’m wondering how good a length I could fit in the cord case if I mounted the DB-15 inside there, not to mention how easy it would be to screw in/out the cable if I did put it in there. if that idea doesn’t work, I may install the DB-15 vertically next to the select/back button.