Gamepad hack, need help.

[crashdmj]

Ok I am new to gamepad hacking and soldering so I took a pic of the circuit board and need help finding the two connection places and ground place to soder (buttons in red). They are needed for mouse controls (joymouse). Thanks you in advance.
Derek
Edit* How do I attach another pic?

[crashdmj]

Close up

[paigeoliver]

Proper solder points marked for those two buttons.

A lot of the buttons on that pad seem to share ground, but those two do not share a ground THAT I CAN SEE from the picture.

Soldering one wire to each point labeled and then running that to the microswitch will work fine.

[crashdmj]

Does it matter what is ground?

[Tiger-Heli]

Does it matter what is ground?

No.

[grafixmonkey]

It doesn't look like you have any common terminals from one button to the next.  They all could be on separate loops.  You could check with a continuity meter, but that would be more effort than you would spend just to solder all four points.

I say just do this:
(image)

Look right to everyone?

**  attachment deleted - modified version posted below  **

[crashdmj]

Eh crap, I circled the wrong buttons, sorry. I meant these:

[grafixmonkey]

ok you just have to move one wire because apparently some of the buttons do have a common contact (pink glowing trace).  I wonder if you looked at the other side of the gamepad, if there would be a jumper or wire between the pink trace and the blue trace.

[crashdmj]

Well I jut blew my first soldering job, need a smaller iron tip. I accidentally bridged two points together.
Does the pic look right for everyone else...just hesitant about screwing up and wasting another 20 bucks.
Thanks
Derek

EDIT* So if the connections all share a ground all I need to do is solder one point and then daisy chain right? However in this pad they are not sharing a common ground so I do need a ground point for each button right? Just trying to make things clear.

[CthulhuLuke]

Umm.. you don't really need to buy a whole nother pad, you can just buy some of that soldering stuff that sucks up solder, suck all the excess solder you botched up on, and try again.  I remember I screwed up my first time, but it was an easy fix.

[F|end]

MAn, this thread is soon becoming a D.I.Y. tutorial! LOL

Nice!  

[grafixmonkey]

Umm.. you don't really need to buy a whole nother pad, you can just buy some of that soldering stuff that sucks up solder, suck all the excess solder you botched up on, and try again.  I remember I screwed up my first time, but it was an easy fix.

If I bridge solder points, I just take a dremel to the place inbetween where the bridge is.  Might not work if there's a huge solder blob though.  

What thickness solder are you using?  I use this stuff that's slightly larger than a mechanical pencil lead, and I have to shove 6" of it on a contact to cause a bridge.

Also, I use the tip of the iron on the tip of the wire, let the wire heat the solder, and let the solder heat the PCB pad.  If you're using the tip on both the wire and the pad at the same time as you add the solder, it might make it easier to bridge gaps.  

Hope that helps!

[SirPeale]

I don't know jack about your soldering skills, but if you don't have any, may I recommend getting a scrap circuit board (like a dead motherboard, dead stereo, or something) and practicing on that, before killing your pad.