Soldering controllers for fun and profit *renamed*

my turn to answer the exact same questions (woo for repetitiveness)

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Would I be able to do it with a USB PC controller? (I'm getting all school girlish thinking about it.)

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yes, but some controllers are more of a bitch than others. i was gonna hack up my old usb gamepad pro, but i couldnt really figure it out (without doing separate ground wires for every single button). i heard some ms sidewinders are easy to do it on though.

for the cost, yeah under $50 is more or less right. id say down to $30 minimum if you can get good deals. i had to buy some tools myself though. and i think i got my buttons for $1 each. and i bought a huge ass chunk of wood that i used for everything (still got a bit left to do on the minicab actually). think it was 1/2" medium density fiberboard, somewhere around 8'x4' or so (at least). it was under $20 i believe.

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Would it be possible to make one unit to work with multiple interfaces? (i.e. Xbox, PSX, etc)

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yeah (check out my last post above). depending on what systems you plan to use it with, the best (well easiest) way would be to just do a psx controller (i highly suggest the old madcatz psx pads) and buy ps adapters for other systems. if you want to use it for a system w/no ps adapter (such as saturn), then youll have to make a separate controller hack for that.

Woo hoo I'm such a n00b, so here's stupid n00b question # 1:
What the fuck is a Magic Box:wtf:?
stupid n00b question # 2:
Edit: Answered, Competition buttons it is.
stupid n00b question # 3
Edit: Answered, Competition stick it is.
stupid n00b question # 4
Mech can you please take a close up of the PCB where the ground is attached so I know which the ground is?
Woo Hoo, I'm back to being me til I have more stupid n00b questions.

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Originally posted by ShineAqua
What the fuck is a Magic Box:wtf:?

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A device for the XBox that let's you use PS, DC or Saturn controllers with the XBox.

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Mech can you please take a close up of the PCB where the ground is attached so I know which the ground is?

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I would love to, but until I figure out how to manually adjust the zoom on the resident digital camera it will be too blurry to make anything out. On a (mine) PS controller, if you take a look a look at each connection point you'll see one side has a very thin lead that trails to the center of the controller, while the other leads to an area along the outside edge that all the buttons connect to. The inside trail is the trigger point, and the outside is the ground.

This will differ a bit from controller to controller, but take a look at the first link in my first post for some closeup pictures to help a bit. He only used a main ground and then trailed that to all the buttons, while I did a ground wire for each individual point.

You know, people always talk about how cheap and easy it is to make a good arcade stick, yet when you get a place to build you one, it's $100 bucks.

If anyone were so inclined, they could probably make some cash building sticks and selling them to tnl'ers that either do not have the time or the skill necessary to do it themselves.

HINT HINT HINT

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Originally posted by GohanX
If anyone were so inclined, they could probably make some cash building sticks and selling them to tnl'ers that either do not have the time or the skill necessary to do it themselves.

HINT HINT HINT

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One person already thought of this and has contacted me, and I'm currently looking into a solid price and shipping costs. I'm clearly not the best, but my sticks do work perfectly fine and I'm up for more. Perhaps some would want to contact Japtor or someone who has more experience and/or makes better cases, otherwise feel free to PM me.

As for the inflated price, a lot of places probably do it for a living and need the extra cash. It's comparativily cheap to build your own, but still not as low as the cheaply made third-party sticks.

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You know, people always talk about how cheap and easy it is to make a good arcade stick, yet when you get a place to build you one, it's $100 bucks.

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to their defense (other than doing it for a living as mech said), look at many home made sticks, then compare them to the expensive commercial ones. there is a large difference in polish for the most part (although i have seen some really really nice home made ones that look better than commercial sticks).

as for selling any myself, right now im not sure. before i do that i want to polish up the process so it almost becomes like an automated task for myself (all that stuff in those pictures, including the cab, were done in around 2 days, maybe 6-8 hours per day, it was a rush job). i got a bunch of plans for improvements, but no clue when im gonna do another stick. i should just stockpile a bunch of parts at least.

as for soldering and stuff, ive been thinking about making a ghetto 'soldering for dummies' guide or something (just for pad hacking of course). thats pretty much where i was when i started. ive seen a few gamepads and know some generic styles by now. if i remember to do it i might have something to put up tomorrow.

Ah, I forgot about this thread before posting my own.

Japtor, did you ever get around to cutting up your gamepad pro?

damn. blast from the past :P

i had a ps->usb adapter so i just use my hacked ps pad with that. i gave up on the gamepad pro and just put it back together (didnt try soldering anything cause i couldnt figure out for sure if it could be done with a single ground). with like 2 extra screws. it still works so whatever. should the other joystick thread be merged with this one?

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Originally Posted by japtor

damn. blast from the past :P
should the other joystick thread be merged with this one?

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Perhaps, but since it contains little new information, the mods can just delete it.

Anyhow, I ordered from http://www.therealbobroberts.com who seems to have a good reputation from rec.games.video.arcade.*. The process is slower because he doesn't take credit cards, but I paid about about $15 less than I would have from Happ.

Thanks for all the info I will use this thread!