Gamepad hack

[CGRemakes]

Ok, I'm just about done with my cabinet (finally!).  I have put it most of the way together and have it most of the way painted and have all the controls in place.  I'm now to the point of soldering the controls to 2 cheap WalMart $10 gamepads.  Someone recommended this pad to me awhile ago because they share a common ground.  I have a little soldering experience (and I do mean little), but have not worked much with actual circuit board soldering, so any diagrams, info, etc. to soldering this particular gamepad would be greatly appreciated.  I understand the idea of how it is done and everything, I just want to be sure that I do everything right because it's easy to mess up, and it can get a bit expensive to buy a bunch of gamepads if I do mess up.  By the way, my old website:

http://www.classicgameremakes.com/

has changed to

http://www.classic-game-remakes.com/

(got tired of all the pop-up adds)

I will be posting pictures and everything soon.  In the meantime, everyone is welcome to download freeware classic arcade games if they wish.

[CGRemakes]

OK, I have a few pictures online now.  I still have a bit of painting to do, and I will put the monitor/speakers in.  I designed it so that the monitor remains flat, and just uses the swivel base that came with it to tip it back at the correct angle.  It works beautifully, and lines right up at the correct angle.  I know my cabinet is very simple, but I'm poor and don't really need much more than the joysticks/buttons.  I used 8 buttons (including "insert coin" button and start button) per person, and Super Joysticks (not installed quite yet).  I noticed that someone mentioned using mat board for the bezel in another thread.  Has this been used by many people?  What do most people use?  I can use some of the wood I used for the rest of the cabinet (3/4" MDF), but I think something like mat board would be easier if it looks good.

[CGRemakes]

Another question.  I have a few options to go with on speakers.  I have some decent car speakers that I can use that have a grill and everything.  I also have some old labtec computer speakers.  I think the car speakers would be easier to mount, and handle more wattage, but they are of course not magnetically shielded.  I don't particularly want to warp my screen, would I run into problems with that?  I don't know exactly what the minimum distance is between the magnet and monitor before there are problems.  Any info would be appreciated.

[paigeoliver]

I replaced the tattered factory 12" subwoofer on my Turbo with a 12" car one, and the red in the monitor instantly gained a gradient sloped towards the speaker. A year later the red went out all together (and is still out, but it looks better that way anyway).

I say just use the PC speakers. That is what I use, they are plenty loud. OR use the AMP out of a pc speaker, and wire up the original 6x9 that came in the cab (if it had one).

[aj6500]

Speakers: don't know the min. distance depends on the size of the magnets really.  My Gorf cab which I'm trying to resurect (KRK hasn't returned a message in a while) has plain speakers mounted underneath the bezel.  You could try the car speakers and just watch for problems.  I warped  a screen on one of my pc's years ago, but a few days after moving the speakers the screen reverted and was ok.  I don't think most pc speakers are actually shielded, the magnets are just so small they don't cause problems.  

For the soldering: that's the pad I recommended.  Strip the case off the pad and peel the rubber buttons off of the board.  You'll be able to see all the traces.  Under each rubber button will be a circular mesh of traces, kind of like when you almost interlock the fingers of both hands.  They'll be close together but not actually touching.  One side of this mesh will be the ground, the other the contact.  You'll be able to ID the ground as that trace will  connect to 1 side of the mesh on every other button on the board.  Take a flat blade screwdriver or similar and scrape the green coating off so you can connect to the copper trace.  Don't try and solder through the coating.  You can solder into this trace anywhere on the board and it will connect to every button.  The other side will run directly to the chip mounted at the top of the board.

On the (contact) side of the mesh you'll see a small copper pad w/no coating.   The best way to make these connections will be to drill a tiny hole through the center of this pad.  Just big enough to slip a piece of solid 24ga or smaller wire through, and solder it to the pad.  Then connect your controller to the small jump wire.  Almost no voltage passes through this wire, so wire size is not an issue.  

An alternate method is to scrape the coating off of the trace and flat solder to the bare patch.  This is what I did on my jukebox controller, but only because I was in a hurry and didn't have a small enough bit at the time.  You have to be carefull as heating the board as once it's heated, if you pull on the wire it can easily separate from the board and break the connection.  If this happens you can try again further upstream of the break, but the traces get pretty tight in some areas.  I lifted 4 traces before I finished.  Fortunately I only needed 5 buttons at the time so I had plenty of room for do-overs.  I'm redoing my control panel and will be using all 12 inputs on another pad, so I'm going to drill and be more carefull.

Once you have this done w/all your jumpers connected to the board I'd recommend taping the sh!t out of it w/electrical tape.  This isn't to insulate the connections, but to take any stress off of the actual connections if you pull a wire by accident.

After that run a single ground wire to the common side of all your buttons, and then to the common on the pad.  connect each jumper from the pad to a contact on each button.  Program each button for it's function and you should be in business.  If you mess up and can't use the gamepad, it's only $10 for another go, so that's good.  If you mess up 4 times you could have bought an Ipac and not had the problems, so try and limit the mistakes.

Good luck, and as always No warranty offered or implied and your mileage may vary.

[paigeoliver]

If you look long enough and hard enough in the various bargin bins and thrift stores you can often locate a joystick that requires no soldering at all to hack. Looks for ones that resemble those the NES Advantage (That nes arcade stick). I used a PC stick like that, and didn't have to solder anything at all, as everything was wired up with wires in the first place.

[aj6500]

On that same page, wouldn't a joystick w/several buttons on the stick itself use wiring through the handle to connect to the board?  Might simply a few things...

[paigeoliver]

Yes, BUT sticks with buttons on the stick are often analog, and the cheaper ones don't even have circuit boards inside at all. I just ripped up a PC trigger stick to make an 8-way trigger stick, and it had NO PCB at all inside, just wires and POTS.

[paigeoliver]

Oh, and shoulder buttons on gamepads are almost always connected with wires.

[aj6500]

So did the lack of pcb make it easier to do, or not work for what you wanted?

[paigeoliver]

All I wanted was the handle, so it worked out fine (still haven't actually put the handle on an arcade base yet, but I will eventually).

But, that thing would have only been good for four inputs otherwise (the buttons), as the directions were analog pots.

[aj6500]

Analog potentiometers?  So it uses a measure of resistance to determine the sticks position?  

[paigeoliver]

Yes, that is how just about ALL pc joysticks used to be. The gameport can read that without any sort of PCB at all. Any real cheap stick (not pad), is likely to be like that, especially if it has little adjuster thingys on the base.

[aj6500]

Interesting.  I'd never pulled apart a pad until I built my juke, had no idea how they work.  I just bought another $10 walmart pad to re-do my control panel.  I need 14 inputs, each has 12, so between the 2 it should work, assuming I can get the software to work w/2 pads instead of one.  I haven't looked at it yet but I think it will work.  If not I'll use 1 pad and my USB keypad stuck to the back of the cab for clear, volume...

BTW, KRK Pm'd me today and I think we're in business.  Hopefully between the 2 + a monitor I'll have it up and working.  I think I'm going to take the full cab so I can see where the part I'm pulling installs on the new one.  Shipping will be more, but I think I can refurb the cocktail.  If I can't I'll break it down and use it as a full size template.  Should about even out in the end.  I don't know what I'll use a coctail for, but I'll think of something.

[paigeoliver]

Beware about using two pads that are the same kind of pad. I used to have two hacked pads set in a machine. Only problem is that they would swap positions sometime on reboot. (Pad 2 would become pad 1 and vise versa),

I had to resort to plugging in pad two AFTER the computer came up all the way. But that was a pain because it wasn't really accessable. Eventually I just got an Ipac instead.

[aj6500]

I just lifted 3 traces on my new pad.  Had the whole thing done (13 connections) and caught a wire on my pants when I moved it.  Fixed that one and lost 2 more.  Fixed those and the 1st lifted from it's new spot.  Out of patience, ordering an Ipac.  I just don't really need 54 connections on this project so was trying to get it cheap.  I should re-assemble the pad and see if walmart will take it back!  It's obviously defective.

[paigeoliver]

I-Pac is really the way to go if you need more than about 8 inputs or so (it is fairly easy to find 4 button sticks that have wires everywhere inside, so you don't have to solder). I went through so many USB game pads that I could have bought 2 I-Pacs.

In fact, anybody want like 3-5 soldered up gamepads? I have no use for them anymore.

[IceCold]

In fact, anybody want like 3-5 soldered up gamepads? I have no use for them anymore.

Which gamepads?  Could I still hack them?  Or are they messed up?

I'd be willing to take them off your hands...

[SNAAAKE]

Beware about using two pads that are the same kind of pad. I used to have two hacked pads set in a machine. Only problem is that they would swap positions sometime on reboot. (Pad 2 would become pad 1 and vise versa),

VERY true !
Man its sooooo anoying.Never use 2 of the same pads.Yes I wired 2 same pads for someone's cabinet and eventually had to wire an I-pac.
Double wiring (its hard enough already do hack pads for free..well friend but still...).

[paigeoliver]

In fact, anybody want like 3-5 soldered up gamepads? I have no use for them anymore.

Which gamepads?  Could I still hack them?  Or are they messed up?

I'd be willing to take them off your hands...

None of them are dead. But you would have to figure out what was going on with them. I'll find them and get back with you tommorrow. IIRC a pair of game pad pros, an original sidewinder, and some generic gameport pad (maybe one or two more, maybe less).

[armad1ll0]

What is the gamepad with the common ground?
Is it USB? every USB pad that I've looked into had multiple grounds.

[IceCold]

None of them are dead. But you would have to figure out what was going on with them. I'll find them and get back with you tommorrow. IIRC a pair of game pad pros, an original sidewinder, and some generic gameport pad (maybe one or two more, maybe less).

I can definitely take them then.  How much do you want for them?

[paigeoliver]

Oh, just enough to pay for shipping and to make it worh it for me to take them to the post office rather than the trash can (I'm thinking $10 total).

[IceCold]

Oh, just enough to pay for shipping and to make it worh it for me to take them to the post office rather than the trash can (I'm thinking $10 total).

Ok, do you accept Paypal?  

[paigeoliver]

No Paypal. Postal money order, or cash.

[IceCold]

No Paypal. Postal money order, or cash.

Cash sounds good, where should I send it?  You can tell me in personal message, or email me at abcfriedyabc@aol.com to tell me.

[CGRemakes]

What is the gamepad with the common ground?
Is it USB? every USB pad that I've looked into had multiple grounds.

I just purchased a WalMart $10 gamepad and it has a common ground.  If you need 8 buttons or less, this is a nice pad to hack.

[CGRemakes]

What is the gamepad with the common ground?
Is it USB? every USB pad that I've looked into had multiple grounds.

It is called a Saitek P150 USB Action pad.

[armad1ll0]

You dudes should just learn to solder. It's really not that hard and after a while you get really good at it. All of the tools are pretty cheap also. less than $20