Soldering controllers for fun and profit *renamed*

[MechDeus]

So here I am attempting to make an arcade stick for some GGXX love, but can't seem to find a proper diagram for soldering the wires in the right places. I found this place, but they used a third party controller and the points seem moved around and I'm not sure where the ground is. Next up was this site, but it conflicts with all the other faqs I've found in that it says you should wire up both sides of each direction to the arcade button/joystick. It also has no diagrams, no placement of ground, and my controller PCB isn't labelled like that one is.

I'm using an official Sony PS(1) non-Dual-Shock pad. Does anyone here know of any diagrams of such or are willing to share any first-hand experience doing this? Please?

[seen]

You see those big areas on which half of the contact for the button lies in, that's the ground. The areas which go out with paths are the signal lines. I got this by judging that MadCatz controller PCB picture. If the Sony PCB is made so that the ground is concealed and all you see are the circular contacts then you need to use your own judgement or get a multi-meter and... I recommend having a multimeter around for operations like this anyway.

With is you can check voltages, current, and resistance. The one you especially need in this case is checking connectivity, which you can do with an ohm-meter. Put the multimeter in ohm-meter mode, and then just keep probing the two ends around the board until the needle jumps to the max. Then you know that the two points are internally connected. This is useful for finding out ground points and other connections including the multi-line cable ones.

[catty]

Follow that first site you mentioned. A real PSX controller is pretty similar to that knockoff. Each button and d-pad direction has a ground and a trigger connection under it. You can tell which is the ground because it's connected to the grounds on other buttons . Hook each trigger connection to the N/O on your switch. And then take the ground from 1 spot and daisy chain it to the ground terminals on the switches.

Originally posted by seen
If the Sony PCB is made so that the ground is concealed and all you see are the circular contacts then you need to use your own judgement

It's easy to tell visually which is ground on the Sony PCB.

[MechDeus]

Alright, my roomies digital camera can't focus worth a damn, but we'll see what we can do.



I highlighted the side of the button area that travels to the center ship and would guess the other sides which all connect are the ground (like I said, I'm newbie as all hell here). A bit hard to tell, but the inside halves on the shoulder buttons are the grounds up there, right?

My next question is the MS Paint-style pic I drew in there, which is a closeup of where the X, Circle, Triangle, and Square buttons go. Would I actually need to scratch off the rubber (the black lines) there, or can I solder a wire anywhere on the left side of that entire area? If I do need to remove the rubber, do I need to be careful about getting the wire precisely on that tiny line?

Seen, catty, thanks a ton.

P.S. A roomies has a multimeter, but I have no clue how to use it and he's asleep.

[Bonestorm]

This might be a little tough if you are new to soldering, but I beleive this is the same 1st party pcb as yours.

http://www.neo-geo.com/cgi-local/ult...c&f=5&t=004009

[Opaque]

wow that some tricky work right there... good luck and all....

[Matt]

The big metal area around the outside of the PCB is all ground. You can either scrape off some of the solder mask and attach your ground wire directly to the board, or look for a place where there's a component attached and solder it there. I usually just use the spot where the controller cable goes in.

The button connections will be one the side of the button pad that's not attached to ground. You can probably scrape off a little bit of the graphite (the black stuff) and solder to the underlying copper trace. Or, you can trace the button leads all the way back to the IC and solder directly to the chip. The first method will be a lot easier if you aren't concerned about appearance.

- Matt

[japtor]

dont you have to scrape the graphite off? (heard about that on the dc controllers, if something went wrong the controller or dc controller board could short or something).

anyways, yeah basically just the big connected areas are mostly ground. as for the button contacts, looks like theyre intertwined a bit with the ground so it might be a bitch to solder those. theres a ghetto way to get around that though. with a knife or (preferably) a dremel or something, basically cut off the small contact to the ground. that opens up the whole circle area as a solder spot. and if you screw up, go for a ps1 madcatz pad. if anything itll be a little easier since you sorta know what youre doing then. i got mine at blockbuster for like $5 or 10 with a mem card and free game rental card.

[MechDeus]

I have successfully rigged up the start button. Seems to be easy sailing from here on out now that I have some hands-on with how to do it. Now to wait for the drill to recharge so I can put the buttons in place and do up the rest of the solders (excluding the joysticks themselves, which won't be here until probably the end of the week). Feels good to piece something together.

Tonic: That specific link didn't help me too much because that guy did the soldering in a way I don't want to try, but it gave me a link to another helpful place.

DiffX: I guess you deleted your post, but it made me laugh.

Thanks for all your help everyone, I'll post some pictures when I get it closer to up and running.

[japtor]

are you gonna be soldering directly to the button/stick switches? if you are i have one tip, DONT. .187" female quick disconnects are your friend. itll be easier to connect to the switches and in case you have to do some rewiring or something, itll make things much easier and quicker.