Changing Xbox360 analog triggers to digital (on/off)

[Ballard]

I'm trying to get the analog triggers on an Xbox 360 controller to work like a normal button. Rather than the analog of somewhere in between. On episode one of the Benheck show (11:30ish), Ben shows you how to do it, assuming you kept the pots (and perhaps glued them in place so they don't rotate). However, I desoldered mine because there wasn't space for them. Well, I've moved houses since then and have no idea where they could be. However, I know there is a way to do it without the pots, I'm just not sure how.

I found one thread on the subject here. Problem is, there are two solutions given, and I'm not sure which is right:

There are three pins on the pot/pad. If you look at the pad as if you are holding it, bridge the bottom two pins with a 10k resistor. Attach a ground wire to the bottom pin and attach the NO terminal of the buttons microswitch to the top pin.

One is to remove the potentiometer if you do the best thing to do is solder 2 10K resistors to the contacts so that they won't register as open. You then solder a wire to the middle contact as your signal wire and then wire the ground wire to any common ground on the controller.

Has anyone here done this in the past and can confirm which way is correct?

[HaRuMaN]

Depends on whether you have the old pcb or the new pcb...

[Ballard]

It's a gamestop-brand PCB actually.

[HaRuMaN]

It's a gamestop-brand PCB actually.

Well, there are two versions of that one, too.  One is more complicated than the other, requiring NPN transistors along with resistors.

[Ballard]

My digital camera is a bit crappy.

[HaRuMaN]

I don't remember which is which... you can check the shoryuken forums for more details.  I'm blocked at work, and can't check.

[Ballard]

Been trying to find the answer on there but keep running into issues. First, I had to register to view certain threads. And after I registered, I was able to read stuff and search for a while, but now I can't load anything, and get an authorization error. Most likely the admins temporarily de-activating my account before they authorize it. Blargh. Luckily I have a few tabs open from before my account was deactived. Still, it seems this particular controller has not yet been documented on there. I just bought it a couple months ago, so perhaps it's just too new for anyone to have figured it out yet.

Since you've done this before, maybe you can help. I do recall that when you pulled the triggers, it would rotate the pots clockwise (and of course, snap back into position when released). If that doesn't help, can you tell me what the typical methods are? I can just try them then. I've got 4 10k resistors. I need to check if I have any transistors.

Edit: I found the pots! But I also found some transistors. They're NPN ones. Well, if I use the pots, I know of two ways that might work. One, which was in the Benheck video, says to just wire the button to connect the VCC and the wiper. The second way, which was in the thread I posted above, mentions making the button connect the wiper to ground. Does that sound right? Oi. I wish there was one, standard way the manufacturers made controllers.