Hey there,
Lots of great advice in this thread, really helpful. I've actually commissioned HarumaN to hack a wireless controller for me, and he's been incredibly patient and informative throughout. I would, however, like to mess around a bit myself and try building my second stick with a wired pad, as I've found a couple of USB passthroughs lying around that I can mount in a case for cable convenience.
From Slagcoin, for reference:
http://slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_diagrams/360_diagram3.jpgI noticed that the official pads, as HarumaN mentioned, have two commons, one for the majority and another for the triggers, circled in red and pink respectively. I'm going to be picking up one of the Madcatz wired pads to get my feet wet, and just wanted to make sure that I'm understanding correctly.
I'm not worried about hacking the triggers, I just want to make a fight stick for a friend of mine. The Madcatz pad has common ground as I understand it, so that means that I would only need one ground wire soldered to any one of the three red-circled soldering points on the pcb? I just wanted to make sure it wasn't broken up by "button groups". Also, the 5v point by the resistors is only related to setting up the triggers, correct?
Thanks in advance!