Control Modding for Control Panel Construction (xbox 1)

[Jammin0]

Ok, so I've been playing around with all the emulators on the xbox 1 and I've been trying to get a feel for button layouts and what all I am going to need.  My plan is to leave the original controller ports on my arcade machine that I'm building so that I can retain the dual axis joystick in case I want to relieve the Halo 2 days but I want a good universal layout for the rest of my arcade stuff.  I will hopefully be using coinops primarily but I would like the ability to run all of the other emulators independently as well.  I've noticed that most of the emulators have their menus set up to access by clicking one of the analog sticks.  Has anyone ever tried getting a button connected to that controller button press?  Just wondering how hard it might be.

How about button layout?  I'm tempted to do something similar to the xbox controllers just because there are a few xbox titles that I want to leave playable with the joystick controls like Fuzion Frenzy, TMNT, and NFL Blitz but that kind of doesn't work out the best for StreetFighter or even plain old Genesis 3 button titles.  Any ideas?  Anyone done something similar and tackled this exact problem before?

[HaRuMaN]

The analog "click" switches can be hacked, I've done it before.

[ark_ader]

Anyone done something similar and tackled this exact problem before?

Bought an X Arcade.  The layout is comfortable enough and I can play asteroids near perfect.

[Jammin0]

Ok, so I've been thinking more about the button layout.  Thanks to Kevin at ogredog.com for the template.  I'm thinking that I'll have all the buttons except black and white buttons as well as players 3 and 4 will lose the select button.  The three buttons in the middle are for player 1: black, white, and analog click button.

Any thoughts.  Anyone have experience doing a 4 player xbox control panel build? 

[HaRuMaN]

I hope you're not planning on playing any Street Fighter with that layout...

[Jammin0]

good point, what about this one? 

[SNAAKE]

better

[Jammin0]

ok, I have another question for any controller modders out there.  My goal is to have a four player CP but also retain 4 ports to plug in controllers for certain games if I want to.  Any ideas how to do this?  My thoughts are that if I had a 2 position switch with both red wires connected and then split the input in 2 for each pair of the controllers.  Can I power the controllers from a different source and have them still be recognized by the xbox.  I would love to switch one power source to enable or disable the whole bank of controllers.  Does that make sense?

[sharpfork]

Have you figured out which controller type you are going to mod?  If so, why one type over another?
  I'm finding a ton of conflicting info on which type is best and finding tutorials that are still online hasn't been easy.

[Jammin0]

Have you figured out which controller type you are going to mod?  If so, why one type over another?
  I'm finding a ton of conflicting info on which type is best and finding tutorials that are still online hasn't been easy.

You were totally right about some controllers being common ground and others not.  I've found that basically anything huge has common ground.  The smaller controllers don't, it must have something to do with the size of the PCB, even the really cheap chinese ones if they are the newer smaller controllers are not common ground.

[sharpfork]

I soldered a few of the old "duke" controllers, they are common ground but pain to solder.  I've soldered a ton and really don't like dealing with the offical MS controllers.  I can't predictably find 3rd party controllers with a common ground.  Old Dance Dance pads are super easy to solder but they are missing key buttons.

I've been testing other plug and play solutions and I like the Ultimarc solution best at this point.  Now if I can just find a trackball that works with coinops2/3  I'll be ready to write my guide.

[Jammin0]

For 3 of my controllers I ended up using pelican controllers.  They aren't common ground but have one ground for the D-pad/Select/Start buttons and one more ground for everything else.  Seemed super easy to solder to however I have no idea how easy these would be to find.  They seemed like kind of cheap controllers but then again, most of the things that would break on controllers are probably not related to the PCB which is all that is needed.  I wish there was some way to use the Analog controllers (I mean an easy way) on my arcade for some of the cool xbox games.  I've been playing fuzion frenzy and it is a sweet arcade game, I would love to play crimson skies.

[mkfan4ever]

The analog "click" switches can be hacked, I've done it before.

Need someone that sells hacked original xbox controllers. I am trying to build a bartop arcade with my modded xbox running coinops inside. Need to click function also to enter menus. Also if anyone can help me figure out how to wire the arcade controls to the hacked controller. Any help someone can give will be appreciated. This is new to me and I am new to the site so go easy on me guys if posting in wrong place.

[sharpfork]

I think HaRuMaN sells them pre modded.

The analog "click" switches can be hacked, I've done it before.

Need someone that sells hacked original xbox controllers. I am trying to build a bartop arcade with my modded xbox running coinops inside. Need to click function also to enter menus. Also if anyone can help me figure out how to wire the arcade controls to the hacked controller. Any help someone can give will be appreciated. This is new to me and I am new to the site so go easy on me guys if posting in wrong place.

[HaRuMaN]

Yep, sure do.  Let me know what you need.  I can hack the click buttons.   

[mkfan4ever]

Yep, sure do.  Let me know what you need.  I can hack the click buttons.   

This stuff is new to me but I am a fast learner. I am trying to build a mame bartop with a original modded xbox running coinops emulator. (i have 2 so no sense buying a pc to do it) So I am trying to figure how to wire the arcade controls to the xbox. I am guessing your hacked xbox controller will help me do this right? Need the click hacks because some emulators require clicking the right thumb stick to enter emulator menus. Any help u can give will be appreciated. If you have a wiring diagram how to wire arcade controls to the xbox controller that would help also. thanks for replying BTW!

[sharpfork]

Yep, sure do.  Let me know what you need.  I can hack the click buttons.   

This stuff is new to me but I am a fast learner. I am trying to build a mame bartop with a original modded xbox running coinops emulator. (i have 2 so no sense buying a pc to do it) So I am trying to figure how to wire the arcade controls to the xbox. I am guessing your hacked xbox controller will help me do this right? Need the click hacks because some emulators require clicking the right thumb stick to enter emulator menus. Any help u can give will be appreciated. If you have a wiring diagram how to wire arcade controls to the xbox controller that would help also. thanks for replying BTW!

Have you figured out what you going to do yet?  If you are going to try to modify your own controllers, I found a cheap but multi ground solution that is pretty easy to solder.

[SavannahLion]

Have you figured out which controller type you are going to mod?  If so, why one type over another?
  I'm finding a ton of conflicting info on which type is best and finding tutorials that are still online hasn't been easy.

You were totally right about some controllers being common ground and others not.  I've found that basically anything huge has common ground.  The smaller controllers don't, it must have something to do with the size of the PCB, even the really cheap chinese ones if they are the newer smaller controllers are not common ground.

It has less to do with the size of the PCB and more to do with how it's constructed.

It starts to make sense when you stop thinking about a 1:1 button<->I/O relationship with a common ground and start analyzing the buttons and which circuit net they're a part of.