1

Hey guys.

As the title suggests, I want to get into stick modding. I took four semesters of Electronics in college and loved it. I recently got my first stick (always mooched off of my friends) and I want to start doing some mods to it to keep my appetite for the engineering satiated. I switched out some buttons and put an octo-gate inside as well as a couple of plugs, but that’s not enough; I want more. Only problem is, I have no tools, I have no “workbench” area, and I don’t have a ton of free time between work and trying to continue leveling up my actual playing. I want to get some advice (or opinions/anecdotes) on the following:

How much time do you spend modding in a week? How much time do you spend playing? (I’m assuming you all play as well as mod.) When you get home from work/school, do you sit down and hit up the lab to practice combos, or do you grab your stick and start plotting your next Frankenstein?

What tools do you have, what tools do you want, and what tools could you not live without? As I have nothing besides a few screwdrivers and wrenches, what should I try to get my hands on? Soldering iron? Oscilloscope? Drill? etc. etc.

How do you organize your stuff? Do you have an area of your house/apartment/dorm where all of your tools live?

Any advice/encouragement/discouragement is welcome!

2

[LIST=1]
[]Depends on the orders, though is averaging around 10 hours of modding a week. Most of that time is spent scheming and procrastinating, the rest burning and cutting myself. Only game I’m playing at the moment is Windjammers.
[]Soldering iron is invaluable, along with some decent quality solder. There are too many important tools to list. Wire is another obvious - I use cat5e cable.
[*]Bedroom floor is my workshop
[/LIST]
Use this website as an excellent starter guide: http://slagcoin.com/

3

Thanks for your input and the link. I’m assuming that most of the work that you do is commissioned; how would you advise someone who might not have orders to fill but wants to get experience to spend his time?

4

Practice soldering and de-soldering on old circuit boards, like something torn out of a broken radio. Also a good idea to get hold of a cheap arcade stick or two (for any format) so you get a better understanding of how they work.

You could also try asking any other local modders to let you to sit in on a mod they’re currently working on.

5

solder, solder solder… and be prepared to have no money… unless you’re baller, then you’ll just have less money.

6

Haha, sweet. I’m pretty good at soldering already, but your advice to practice on “garbage” sticks and old electronics is solid advice, I’m gonna do that. Thanks!

7

3 tools you’ll need.
-soldering iron
-dremel
-supply of beer.

8

Work on your own sticks. Do every mod you can afford on it…dual mod, art, LED. Find some broken sticks to fix. If someone has a busted stick in the corner of their basement, tell them to get you a pad and you’ll fix it. People will usually jump on it if you’re willing to do it for free. Honestly, that’s how I got into it…did a lot of free work.

9

I would dual mod, but I have the Qanba Q4 3-in-1. I’ll probably offer to mod my friends’ TEs, solid advice. How much do the parts costs to do a dual mod (outside of the guts from another pad)?

10

Well, the pad/pcb is the biggest cost. You also need a switch for 3-10 bucks. You’ll get wire and solder for like 20…but that’s enough for several mods.

11

hmmmm Q4 eh? well not much to do with that since its a great stick as is. may i suggest buying/adopting a used or broken stick either locally or thru the Trading Outlet here on SRK to mod.

12

I know that wire and solder are things to always have on-hand. (In my opinion, one can never have too many different colors of wire…I saw someone asking about color coding wires and the advice that they were given was to use two colors. Whaaaa???) But here’s a more specific question about PCBs: if doing something like a dual mod, I believe that one would simply take the PCB from a pad and go from there. Is there any reliable resource to get custom PCBs made?

13

Yes.

Its name is Toodles.

14

Duly noted, gahrling, thanks!

15

There are several custom pcbs for PS3. Wired PS3 controllers are basically just a PC USB controller. 360 controllers on the other had, have a proprietary security chip in them. This chip has to be lisenced, and Microsoft isn’t selling them to anyone for PCBs…or it’s just not worth it. To get a custom 360 pcb, you need to order from Asia. They don’t worry about our laws so much. This is why most people just hack a Madcatz Fightpad for their sticks.

16

@Dannkk: why not just use the PCB from a regular 360 pad instead of tearing apart a stick?

17

most ppl use the pcb from a FightPAD, not fightSTICK. And the regular 360 pads require more effort to mod than the macatz fight/brawl pads out there. If they do use a fightstick, its most likely from some generic stick that is more valuable for its pcb than its components.

18

Regular (i.e. official 360 controllers) are not common ground, and thusly looked down upon for sticks (as they are not suitable for dual mods). This isn’t to say you can’t use them though, as they would work fine in a single pcb stick.
There are some common ground 360 controllers (namely some madcatz models) but they require some work if you want the triggers to function on a stick.
Honestly the best 360 pcb option at the minute is the Brawlpad (If you live in the US). They’re going for $20 at gamestop, and are dead simple to work with.

19

Sounds good! However, all of my friends have 360 sticks and I would need a PS3 board to dual-mod. One of my friends has a crappy PS3 stick that he got for $30. Would I be able to take the PCB out of that? Would that suffice?

Also, as an aside, your avatar never ceases to disgust me.

20

Hey guys. My name’s Josh. I’m new to modding - completely. I was wondering if there was a place that was reliable online that I could get parts. Seems like no place has the parts in stock i.e LizardLick. Maybe I should just wait?