Best way to hack Sony Brand Dual Shock 2 Pads

[mastahkaz]

Whats the best way to go about this since the layout is a little differnt than most.  Do you hack into the ribbon?  Or rig something into the ribbon connector?  Or try and solder to the pins the connector is attached to?  Or is there another way?

Thanks

[hooded_paladin]

I'm guessing that the ribbon cable you're describing goes from the circuit board to the console plug.  You can't solder buttons onto there, that's a digital signal, not just button inputs.

And as for hacking the whole Dual Shock 2, I doubt that you can.  The pressure-based analog button style is such that you'd have to solder to points away from the pad that is under the button, in another section of the circuit.  The other wires are quite small, too, so just find a PS1 controller to hack.

If you don't even understand this lingo, you should not at all attempt to hack a PS2 controller.  Hack a PS1 controller.  Find a PS1 controller that someone ELSE has documented if you are REALLY unsure.

[mastahkaz]

Well i found this link http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jdpyle1/controls_playstation.htm, and it looks like they were able to hack it ok only the P360 wouldnt work right with it (but im not using a p360)

[Dave_K.]

First I'd like to say WOW, great webpage (I should add this to the FAQ)!  I wonder if this is the guy I was talking to about this about 6 months ago.  We were debating the way to hack PS2 DS by either soldering to the surface mount connector (plastic ribbon cable), or getting the H-series white PSOne dual analog (which you can hack the real wire ribbon cable directly).  Looks like this page shows you how to hack the DS1 by soldering to the digital contacts.  I'd try just hacking the ribbon directly and get rid of the extra PCB.

Well as you already see, its possible to hack the DS2's.  But you'd have to have some very fine gague wire, a very fine soldering iron and some steady hands.  This is not a job for an amature.  I'd suggest going the PSOne H-series route (DS1) if you want analog at some future point.  Or just hack the original digital PSX pads if the games you are playing don't require an analog compatible controller be plugged in.

[Infrasonic]

I got just plain sick of hacking gamepads, so now I build my own encoders

 

Check out my listing under Consoles.