Solderless Sony Dualshock Hack

[spiffyshoes]

   I know allot of people out there don't like to solder so I thought I would put together this tutorial for a quick and solid way of hacking a dualshock pad without even having to use a soldering iron.

SpiffyShoes' Dualshock Hack

-SpiffyShoes

[Dave_K.]

SpiffyShoes, you're da' man!

The PS2 Dual Shocks I have (they were the first black ones to come out) use the same plastic ribbon cable, but connect to the pcb via a contact pad.  The cable aligns to the pad, and is pressed to the contacts via a rubber spacer (when the pad is closed).  I always though this was a stupid design.  Nice to see this newer "A-Series" has a connector method.  Just plugging in 22 gague wires is brilliant!

[spiffyshoes]

Thanks, Glad you liked it.  Just wanted to point out that it is possible that not all A-series have this terminal so when you open your up if it turns out not to have one.  Just put it back together and bring it back to GameStop and exchange it.  They usually have a 7 day exchange policy on used pads.

[SNAAKE]

Uh..which type of 22 gauge is wire is prefered on this ? Single or multi copper or both should work fine ? Your site says "solid tined copper wire" and my local radioshack only had multi copper wire but I bought some anyway.I will post the result once I get a series A pad and try it out

[spiffyshoes]

Actually I just realized that I've been using 26 gauge wire and not 22.  I don't know if 22 will be small enough.  I buy the tinned copper wire from Fry's electronics.  I don't know if they carry it at Radioshack.  The reason for using tinned wire is because over time (say a year or two) exposed copper can corrode.  You can tin the wire your self but that sort of defeats the purpose of it being a solderless hack.  I'm not sure what they have at Radio Shack.  If you can't find a local store that has it you can always order it online.

[mcdo15]

thats a great tutorial...
any places online you know where to buy this from?

this is an offical psx joystick right?

[Bgnome]

SpiffyShoes, you're da' man!

The PS2 Dual Shocks I have (they were the first black ones to come out) use the same plastic ribbon cable, but connect to the pcb via a contact pad.  The cable aligns to the pad, and is pressed to the contacts via a rubber spacer (when the pad is closed).  I always though this was a stupid design.  Nice to see this newer "A-Series" has a connector method.  Just plugging in 22 gague wires is brilliant!

i dont think these are ps2 dualshock (2)s.  you would run into that analog button issue.

good job with the hack.  however, i dont see how it is all that different from the h-series hack..  maybe the ribbon connector is different?  personally, i like soldering.  i think there may be too much room for shorts and loose connections with the pushing-in-single-wires method..

[Doctor Nick]

Where's good place to buy these? I only see them selling Dual Shock 2 controllers now.

[Dave_K.]

i dont think these are ps2 dualshock (2)s.  you would run into that analog button issue.

SpiffyShoes, can you confirm if this is a DS or DS2 pad?

Bgnome, what exactly is the analog button issue with Dual Shock 2s?  You saying they can't be hacked?

[Bgnome]

Dual Shock 2s use a variable resistance membrane as the contact points for analog buttons.  afaik, these are not easily hackable.  i, however, have not gone so far as to explore whether there is a driect mapping of inputs via a ribbon connector..

[spiffyshoes]

The one in my tutorial is a DualShock 1 pad but it should work for DualShock2 A-Series pads too.  The DualShock2 Pin Map is a little different because it has an extra ground.  I'll post a map of it later today.

[TalkingOctopus]

Great tutorial!  It might be useful to point out where the +5v is on the pad for P360 users.  To find the +5v, trace the middle pin of the controller plug.  It looks like it would be one of the pins on the left edge of the controller board.

[SNAAKE]

Red wire is 5+ for p360s.

[mcdo15]

Great tutorial!  It might be useful to point out where the +5v is on the pad for P360 users.  To find the +5v, trace the middle pin of the controller plug.  It looks like it would be one of the pins on the left edge of the controller board.

did  you say analog button was the +5?

[spiffyshoes]

No the +5 isn't on the ribbon terminal.  It's usually the red wire coming from the cable to the playstation.  Technically you probably could use some sort of quickdisconect/wiresplitter to crimp an extra wire there but It would really be better if you just soldered it on.

[Sephroth57]

yeah the dualshock 2 diagram would be awesome cause i cant seem to find any DS1 controllers around here

[mcdo15]

Red wire is 5+ for p360s.

red wire from the anaolog part of controller?
(just trying to learn)

[TalkingOctopus]

The red wire you want is one of the wires in this yellow box:



It is really easy to solder to the red wire on the opposite side of the PCB highlighted by the yellow box.  You only want to connect your wire to the pin that corresponds to the red wire.

[mcdo15]

thank you..  

[Doctor Nick]

How about that DualShock2 map  

[spiffyshoes]

Uhm well I messed up my dualshock when I was putting it into my Red Octane case.  I'm getting an error where it shows all the buttons are pressed at one time.  I usually get this when one of the wires I soldered isn't conecting properly.  I hope I can figure out which one.  Any way I think the map was something like this.  I'm definently sure the two grounds, start, select ,analog togle, R1, R2, L1, and L2 are correct.  But I can't remember for certain the order for the other buttons.

Dual Shock 2 PIN MAP

[Sephroth57]

thanks man!  

[eypyeash]

I saw some other site that had a hack for the DS2, but they said it didn't work for them either - had the same symptoms you described, where you move the analog and it presses all the buttons at once.  Sorry I can't remember the URL, been a long day already.

 

[TalkingOctopus]

I saw some other site that had a hack for the DS2, but they said it didn't work for them either - had the same symptoms you described, where you move the analog and it presses all the buttons at once.  Sorry I can't remember the URL, been a long day already.

 

Is this the page you're refering to?
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jdpyle1/controls_playstation.htm

I always use ps1 controllers for my hacks.  They are 5.00 at gamestop.  However, soldering is required.  

[spiffyshoes]

Well their problem was that they were hooking up a P360 to the DualShock which as they explain doesn't work.  I haven't even hooked up a joystick to the pad yet.  Before I cut the playstation coord on the DualShock I tested all of the conections and they worked fine.  It was only after I cut the coord stuck it throught the little hole in the Red Octane case and then soldered all the wires back to the PCB that I started getting errors.  So more than likely my error is just that there is a loos conection in one of the wires I soldered back on.  Now I have to go and figure out which one it is.  I have a bunch of other projects I'm working on right now so I haven't had time to fix it yet.

[mcdo15]

how could somthing so easy be so hard...
can i be doing this wrong

to me there is just enough space for wire w/ 22 gauge wire w/o ribbon part put in....

any advice?

[spiffyshoes]

If 22 guage fits without the ribbon, then don't use the ribbon.  I use 26 guage wire which is much smaller than 22.

[adonis_minus_20]

I know this is an old thread, but I still have a question.

[Dave_K.]

I know this is an old thread, but I still have a question.  Why would you connect a wire to a button off of the analog pin (on either the DS or DS2)?  Do you need to?  Does this provide any special functionality?

Thanks.

Jim

The are not analog buttons/pins.  You use the PSOne dual analog sticks.  Look for the clear plastic ones, turn over and inside on the back, you should see a ribbon cable going into a slot connector.  Thats the correct one to hack via Spiffyshoes instructions.  Make sure you check before you buy the pad though, as there are a lot of models that don't have this connector.

[adonis_minus_20]

I mean one of the slots you would connect your wires to in the ribbon cable.

[AlanS17]

I never saw this post before. That's great!

I was also going to add that if you're concerned about loose connections or wires coming out, you can always safely hot glue the wires into place once they're in. It's a common practice for water-proofing.

[spiffyshoes]

The "Analog" button is used to toggle the analog sticks on and off.  They are on by Default when you plug the controller in and I've found that when useing Playstation to USB adapters some emulators won't reconize imputs from the D-Pad if the Analog sticks are on.  In particular Ultra64 has this problem but there may be other emulators that do to.

[adonis_minus_20]

Thank you!

[canoshiz]

Saw this on Shoryuken a while back.  Great hack for people who are scared to ruin something by soldering (i.e. me)

[Lilwolf]

btw, something you might want to add.

Adding a good glob of hotglue (from gun of the same name) should really help the connections.  After you test all the connections, hot clue both sides.

Trouble is, you have to remove them all or none (unless you try hard). 

But I did this for a similar type hack using a serial cable in a MK64.  (had a female to male ide cable, plugged it into the board, then plugged the wires into the ide female end.  Then after everything was find, I hotglued it and I never had a problem again... before I hotglued it... I have to touch it ever few months.

[dogg0]

correct me If I'm wrong, but since the "analog" mode is on by default, it would be necasary to include an "analog" button when making a control panel that would be used primarily for digital games (i.e. fighters)

[spiffyshoes]

Most fighters will still register the digital signals from the D-Pad even if the "analog" sticks are on.  I haven't played any yet where leaving the analog sticks on was a problem.  The only time I've ever had a problem with the "analog" mode being left on was when useing a usb converter to play some emulated games on my PC.  A few emulators won't register imputs from the D-pad signals if the analog sticks are turned on.