Can you use ANY USB controller to make a CP?

[Banford]

I'm just looking to make my first CP, nothing fancy just 4 buttons and a stick. I have 2 USB controllers both of them have 8 buttons, So I can use 4 for the buttons and the others for coin, start etc..

So my Q, can I use any USB pad or does it need to be a certain type? I'm using this first one as a test really and will then move onto my full 2 player/7 buttons per player i-pac CP.

[NickG]

-some are easier to interface than others (common vs. multiple returns) (digital vs. analog)
-using two controllers, you will probably wish to make sure that the controllers do not swap order; make sure the player one controller remains player one in your software when you re-connect, restart, etc.

[richms]

The swapping was the problem I had when using modded xbox controllers on the computer. It would seem that the shoddy 4 port hub I had would reset some ports sometimes when there was something turned on or off on the same circuit - and the ports that reset moved to the end of the list of game controllers.

Thats what drove me to changing to use a keyboard hack for each player - the keys pressed were the same no matter what order they were detected in.

[kayoteq]

Generally it all depends on how careful you are.. tapping the right traces, staying within those traces (avoiding shorts)
but how simple the mod depends also on your controller. Can't know that till you have it apart.  But yeah, as long as your
software keeps proper track of the switch inputs, you can use about anything that you can get a reliable connection into or onto.


Budget-minding tips:

Try goodwill/salvation army for some cheap controllers, USB keyboards are showing up nowadays, and if you have a 'Tuesday Morning' store,
they have some brand new 'Disney' USB game controllers last I saw about $3, nothing wrong with em other than color scheme

Non-gamestop video game trader stores are good for cheap x-box controller rejects; usually the analog joysticks have gone bad/broken.. plenty left to use.