Need help hacking Astropad for DC

[Hellfromabove]

Let me start off by saying this is one of the easiest pads to hack until you get to the left and right triggers. You may be asking, " Why the hell didn't you just you a madcatz?!" Well to awnser your question I couldn't find any and also I just pulled this out of my closet. Well I need help with the left and right triggers. There are 3 wires there: brown, black, and red. I need to know, do 2 send out signals and there is one ground or are there 2 grounds and 1 sends out the signal if you can awnser to any of the above respond. Also can you please tell me the labeling of the wires aka can you tell me which are grounds and which are signals. Thanx.

-See Ya!!!

[Dave_K.]

Well common sense would say black=ground, red=voltage, and brown is the variable voltage relative to ground.  Try grounding the brown wire and see if that activates the trigger.

[SNAAAKE]

Just trace the lines and see which one leads to the main black stuff.

From what i can guess,it it probley the brown one because I hacked some dc pad before(naki I think) and there  was 3 wires.However,there was a white instead of brown and there was red,black wires.

[android]

Remember that the DC triggers are hall-effect switches. In other words they are not your standard on-off switches, but rather provide a range of values between on and off. They're kinda pots, but based off magnetic field deflection rather than resistance. Do some research before you cross the wires, since there's some circuitry involved to make them work like standard switches. Unfortunately I forgot where I saw the hacking guide. Try the dc2jamma page.

-- android

[Dave_K.]

The only DC pads that use hall effect switches are the original Sega pads.  All 3rd party vendors took the cheaper approach and use mini-pots.  Since he described 3 wires coming out of it, I imagine its a simple potentiometer.

[Hellfromabove]

Quote Earlier posted by SNAAAKE:

Just trace the lines and see which one leads to the main black stuff.

From what i can guess,it it probley the brown one because I hacked some dc pad before(naki I think) and there  was 3 wires. However,there was a white instead of brown and there was red,black wires.

See I try to trace back to the main board and see if it's a ground or not but its kinda hard. these are the only things I am having trouble with on the whole board. Oh yes also to Dave_K I will try your method and hope to GOD that it works because from what I know if I do it wrong shouldn't it blow the ports if I ground a hot or vice versa. Thanx.

-See Ya!!!

[Dave_K.]

You know you could also buy a multimeter and use it to see which wire is ground (safely).  This is probably something you should learn to use if you want to hack around with electronics.  Taking a shot in the dark and just connecting wires to random things is surely going to fry something.

Buy a digital multimeter (all of them have a "continuity test") which is what you can use to see which wires connect to where without having to eyeball trace lines back to their sources.  Its worth the $20, believe me.

[Hellfromabove]

Thanx a lot Dave_K I might go to Radio Shack today and buy one around lunch time today because I'm in school right now. Ha ha. Thanx.

-See Ya!!!

[liche]

Just make sure you get the following functions for your multimeter.  It will help you with this project and any in the future.

VDC - volts DC
VAC - volts AC
ADC - amps DC
AAC - amps AC
Continuity Check (Buzzer)

The continuity check is probably the most useful thing on any multimeter as you can check wiring, verify wires, find shorts, etc...  Its something you definitely want!

Also, unless you are going to pay over $500 for a quality analog multimeter (SIMPSON type), get a digital multimeter.
Radio Shacks analog meters are pretty much useless.

[abstract]

I know this astropad well, it was my first arcade joystick conversion.  About 2 1/2 years ago, I wrote an article over at wrongcrowd.com, never got credit for it, but it was there with pictures and all. I long lost my research, but still have the stick conversion at my other house.  From what I recall, I used a common ground on all the buttons, and the tricky solution on the shoulder buttons was that two of the three wires were used for the open, and one of them was used for the close.  Sorry, that's pretty vague, but I'll be getting my stick back soon (cuz now I want to do an xbox controller conversion), and I'll post a little more detail.

Hope that helped...vaguely  

[SNAAAKE]

HEY

I know wrongcrowd...that where i saw THAT joystick and got the idea that i might wanna do my own.just wanted credit you for the write up .

[Hellfromabove]

Thanx for the replys guys but if you have ever had an Astro Pad you should know that they put the plastic of the controller case around the wire that plugs in to the DC so I was trying to saw the plastic off but went too crazy when it started giving me trouble and I kinda sawed through two of the wires inside the cable. Well no worrys I think I saw a couple of more on clearance at the local Best Buy for like $10 - $20, i'll go get one soon. Oh yes and abstract can you post on the board as soon as you get your pad back and post a diagram of the wiring points on the pad, I would appreciate it a lot and yeah I did buy a Multi-meter from Radio Shack and your right they suck big time. I'm going to go return it and bet my money back. Appreciate all the help guys. Thanx.

-See Ya!!!

[abstract]

Okay, I got my controller back recently and looked feverishly for the notes, though, to no avail.  But I thought I would post some info on the shoulder buttons (this is assuming your going with arcade type microswitches).

Now, usually, if you were wiring up buttons, you would have your daisy chained common ground and then the appropriate NC (normally closed) connector.  
On the astropad shoulder buttons, there are three wires, and is labled on the astropad pcb itself.  
One is Grnd, 3v3 and LA2 or LA1.  
The trick is that you have to use all three connections on the microswitch in order for the shoulder buttons to be connected to a microswitch.  The Grnd goes to the NO (normally open), the 3v3 goes to the NC and the LA2 goes to the COM.  I know, it's a wacky order but I can only confirm that it works in this order, regardless of how you'll wire up the rest of the buttons and joystick.

I have to take some new pictures and re-write the document, and of course, you know this is Thanksgiving hell week, so I won't be able to post anything until after holiday.  But if you want to send me some email (jadedonkey@yahoo.com) I may be able to send you a *.doc file sooner.

Oh yah, one more tip.  Invest in a dremmel for removing bits and pieces from factory moldings.  I feel your pain about cutting the main DC wire, I've done it once myself!

-Abstract