hacking a playstation 2 controller?

[proevofanatik]

ive seen guides on how to hack pc controllers to make mame controllers. but is there any guides on how to do it with a ps2 gamepad? the ps2 doesnt have bare metal for you to solder straight onto a button like most pc gamepads do.

[Slippyblade]

The thing you run into using most console controllers is that the data outputs tend to be encoded.  PC gamepads terminate into standard USB that MAME already knows how to understand via the OS.

[proevofanatik]

well i had 2 ideas in mind. 1st idea was to use my ps2 gamepad to usb adapter then solder arcade buttons onto ps2 gamepad. and 2nd idea was to make it wireless by using a ps2 gamepad to wiimote adapter and again have arcade buttons soldered somehow to ps2 gamepad. i prefer the wiimote idea best for obvious reasons.

[Slippyblade]

Now that would work. 

Something to look at when hacking controllers - follow the traces around until you find a via - a plated through-hole in the board - those make fantastic solder points.  Sooo, you might not be soldering to the button pads, but into the circuit attached to the button pads.

[MonMotha]

An original Dualshock (PS1) controller is probably easier than a DS2 since most of the buttons are not analog.  IIRC, the shoulder buttons are hall effect, which causes problems for typical "controller hacks".  There are also some "purely digital" controllers out there.  They tend to be the cheap third party ones with no analog sticks.  These are generally the most ideal "controller hack" candidates, and they tend to be really cheap, too, as a bonus.

It's probably easier to get an encoder that speaks the same language as a Dualshock to the PS2, if you can find such a thing.  I know there were at some point a few available, but with the waning popularity of the system, they may be gone.  Somebody probably has a project to turn an Arduino dev board or similar into one.  The protocol is pretty straightforward (much simpler than USB, actually).

[Well Fed Games]

Search google for "PS2 Padhack".. I looked into this a while ago, and it really depends on the controller you want to hack. All can be done, but some are harder than others. Fightpads and fight sticks will be easiest, but may not work with games that require true analog. If you can find the right controller (I couldn't), you can do a solderless hack. http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_wiring.html

[bootsector]

Hey!

You should keep an eye on this new encoder project:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,122023.0.html

PSX digital pad encoding should be supported in a near future.

Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk 2

[proevofanatik]

im really wanting to make my arcade controller wireless. ive got 2 options for wireless. 1st one is the ps2 pad plugged into a wiimote via an adapter. or i also have a cordless logitech rumblepad 2. i might actually use the rumblepad. might be easier. has anyone done this with a wireless rumblepad before?

[proevofanatik]

also can i wire the analogue sticks from a joypad to the arcade joystick?