PS1/2 Controller - Grounding?

[s34n]

Hi all,

I'm working on a project, which is pretty much done apart from soldering some push buttons to a PSX controller.

Here is the project link I have been using http://www.shapermc.com/popn/popnasc.html. Its a pop'n music controller. The idea is that the 9 buttons (under each button is a 3-prong switch) map to the psx controller's (R1, R2, Up, Square, circle, triangle, cross, L1 and L2). The controller i am using is wireless and i have included a battery pack inside the box (this works and the controller has power).

The problem I am having is to do with the wiring of the controller for the buttons. Inside the controller, for each button, there are two contact points. What seems to work is if i contact each pair of contact points to the controller (18 connections in total).
The guide i included the link to uses a different approach. They 'ground' each switch/button in series, then connect the final link to a point on the controller labelled 'GND'. The rest of the buttons are then soldered to one of the contact points for each button. This is the bit i am struggling with. I have an analogue controller and found the GND pin, but when i press a button, four keypresses are detected. I experimented with another pin for GND as there is a 'GND1' pin too, and this seems to make 5 random keypresses.

Does anybody have any insight as to why this is happening for this approach?

Sorry if i missed some info

Thanks

Sean

[BurgerKingDiamond]

You should be able to daisy chain the GND's like you are saying. As for why in your particular case it's not working, I have no idea. You can always just run an individual GND from each switch and call it a day. It will double the # of wires you have to run, but  it may be quicker than trying to troubleshoot the problem.

[MonMotha]

There's a good chance your controller is built with a matrix for the buttons.  I don't think the official ones are built like this, but 3rd party ones might be as it reduces cost.  Your only real choice in this case is to run two wires for each button: one to each set of contacts used for the button.

The easiest playstation controllers to hack are apparently the official digital ones, but most 3rd party digital ones work, too.  Analog 3rd party and even official dualshocks are apparently something of a pain.  You can also get encoder boards such as the Cthulhu.

[northerngames]

yeah I would suggest the original stock non analog ps1 controller also or a pre-fabbed pcb converter as mentioned prior already the controller being the cheapest and they are simpler when compared to a a anolog or ps2 controller.

[pmc]

Isn't it also possible that there's no single common ground? That would make sense considering there's a GND1 pin in addition to GND. Daisy chaining the ground pins on the microswitches wouldn't work for a controller like that.

Might want to get a different controller with a common ground to keep it simple (easier to troubleshoot, that's for sure). Try DealExtreme.

[northerngames]

the problem with cheapo controller's from DX is the effort is wasted when the controller fries 2 weeks later becuase it was cheap junk or just when you get down to the last few solder point's the pad's lift right off the pcb becuase the metal and board were cheap and could not take the heat.

a regular original official ps1 controller is your best bet and cheapeast soultion plus you can get them for less then $8.00 shipped off ebay and ot have to wait a month to get it.

[s34n]

hi thanks for the replies... the only problem with an official one is that they are wired. The only wireless ones I can find seem to be these third party cheap ones. The PCB I had before did have a common ground, I think I just assumed they all did.

I guess asking if anybody knows any wireless brands with a common ground is a bit of a long shot!

ill wire them up in pairs for now and see how that goes, thanks

[northerngames]

try a google search I am not a 3rd party fan or use any of it for any console for anything and would not be able to help any for them.

littery everything I have ever bought for any console that was third party either just completly stopped working within weeks some day's and the one's that did not fry just felt weird with sticking buttons or something not working right all the time like they should type thing.

one 3rd party ps1 controller I bought once I plugged it in played for like 5 minutes and it shocked the hell out me and still was one of the worst elctronic shocks I felt and it went dead on the spot just in minutes and all I did was plugged it in and held it normally