First hack - sidewinder gamepad

[bigmoe]

Okay, so I have a sidewinder gamepad on the way from an ebay seller, and I'm planning on hacking it for a poor-man's interface that I can play around with until I make some decision about encoders, cabinets, etc.

I've read the article on this website.  But this is my first hack.  Never soldered a join in my life--did some trivial waferboard projects in college, but I don't think those count.  Heck, I still have to buy a soldering iron.  This hack looks easier than a lot of others...and I suppose you have to start somewhere.

One of my first question is...what gauge wire do I use?  Will the standard 22 ga that everyone is using for their controls fit in the testing holes of the Sidewinder PCB?

Any other words of advice, caution, etc?  I admit, I'm a little nervous...

Thanks, guys!

[CthulhuLuke]

Fortunately Sidewinders are some of the easiest pads to hack because they actually come with little holes you can stick some 22 gauge wire into on the board itself.  Alright, this better be a Gamepad sidewinder, otherwise this won't work, and you might also have to wire all the grounds seperately if its USB, I'm not sure, BUT if its a gamepad one, after you unscrew the back and pop it off, look at the PCB board.
  Look in the bottom left corner and you'll see a bunch of holes that have letters by them, I believe the letters are  "A, B, C, X, Y, Z, L, R, SH, ST" and I believe there's also a MODE and a GND one, but you don't want to mess with those.  the L and R might be something else, but you'll figure it out.  Now you're going to be getting your one ground point from the d-pad's contact point as it's easiest to wire to, so just worry bout all the non-common points for the buttons for now.
  -Advice on soldering:  first Tin the wire by putting a small bit of solder on the wire before you solder it to anything, so it basically turns the color of the solder.  This is easily done by placing the Soldering Gun on the top of the wire, and putting the solder on the bottom, so when it heats up, the solder will flow up the wire, and cover the whole thing smoothly, just DON'T touch the wire too closely, I've burned myself many times doing that.  Wiring to those small holes shouldn't be too hard with 22 gauge as long as you have steady hands.  I've done tighter jobs with thicker wire, crappy solder, and my WAY overpowered soldering gun.
   -The D-pads aren't too hard to solder too, check out my tutorial, it's not completely done, but it shows what you do to solder to the gamepad.  The things I left out where that you have to tin your wire, heat up your wire prior to placing it on the game pad, make sure the soldering gun is nice and hot with a dab of solder, and DONT move the wire as it cools for about 30 seconds or so.
    http://members.fortunecity.com/cthulhuluke/solder2.html
     if you need any more help, just ask
    -Luke

[bigmoe]

Thanks!  This helps a LOT!

Fortunately the pads are the gameport version...that's what all the tutorials show, so I figured that while USB might be more convenient to hook up, I thought I'd play it safe.  And it seems I was right to do so.

I didn't realize before I bought them that they can be daisy-chained...?  I got two for $8 shipped, so this could really work out swell.

Anyhow, thanks again.  I'll let you know how it goes.

bm

[DeafBug]

I bought two gameport Sidewinder last year for $10 each shipped. I had one hacked already by a friend of mine.   I didn't know that they could be daisy chained either until I looked at it.  So that was cool!

I beleive I still have the email that I send to myself last year on how to solder and assemble it.  It has some links that I used for reference.  If you need them I could post them here.

[bigmoe]

I beleive I still have the email that I send to myself last year on how to solder and assemble it.  It has some links that I used for reference.  If you need them I could post them here.

That would be great, thanks!  Always looking for more info...I'm a naturally nervous type, I guess.

Feel free to email them to me if you don't want to post them, but others may like to see them!

bm

[DeafBug]

These were taken from the Example page on this site.  I did go thru them to find good instructions.  It was about an year ago when I did this.  I didn't check if the links still work.  There is one link that is quite clear on it, don't know which one.

http://www.mameworld.net/emuadvice/shack.html
 
http://underworld.fortunecity.com/riven/208/index.html
 
http://home.cfl.rr.com/expression/joystick.html
 
http://www.eischools.org/userstuff/
 
 

[rampy]

funny I don't see this one (static X's) in your list  (from the byoac faq no less!)

Rampy

PS good job on rounding up those other examples though, man!

[bigmoe]

These were taken from the Example page on this site.  I did go thru them to find good instructions.  It was about an year ago when I did this.  I didn't check if the links still work.  There is one link that is quite clear on it, don't know which one.

http://www.mameworld.net/emuadvice/shack.html
 
http://underworld.fortunecity.com/riven/208/index.html
 
http://home.cfl.rr.com/expression/joystick.html
 
http://www.eischools.org/userstuff/
 
 

Many thanks, deafbug!  I had seen StaticX's, and that looked pretty good, so I wasn't sure if it was worth looking for any more.

The pads arrived today so...I guess it's off to Radio Shack to buy the soldering iron.  I've found a few simple things on the 'net I'm going to do first, just to get the feel of soldering, then plunge in.

Thanks again!