Few DC Hack Questions

[Franco]

I am hopefully going to get on and start hacking some DC pads tonight but I need a couple of questions answering before I start.

1) I am going to be hacking some official DC pads, there is a layer of black material on top of the contacts which I believe needs 'scratching' off before soldering the wires. Can anyone recommend a certain tool to do it with? I started last night just using a screwdriver but it didnt leave the best finish and I am after the best contact as possible.

2) There are two contact points for each button. I am presuming one is the ground for each button and the other contact is the same as the NC contact on a microswitch, Im just wondering which is which? The A,B,X,Y buttons have an kind of intertwined 'S' layout like on the first picture on the attched pic. Could some one please point out which is the contact I need to be soldering to? The directional digital contacts seem to have two semi-circle contacts, like on the second picture of the attched pic. Once again which is the contact I need to hack for each direction?

3) I also want to hack the shoulder buttons. I had a look at the FAQ and it gave me a link to the picture http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/images/dcjoy.gif. The link seems to be broken but I have found the

[countchocula8]

hi. i'm no expert on hacking dc pads so my answers might not be completely correct (but i've successfully done 2 for personal usage w/ a guess-and-check job)

1) I am going to be hacking some official DC pads, there is a layer of black material on top of the contacts which I believe needs 'scratching' off before soldering the wires. Can anyone recommend a certain tool to do it with? I started last night just using a screwdriver but it didnt leave the best finish and I am after the best contact as possible.

i dont think this matters too much as long as you have contact. my contacts were pretty battered up but they still work fine to me

2) There are two contact points for each button. I am presuming one is the ground for each button and the other contact is the same as the NC contact on a microswitch, Im just wondering which is which? The A,B,X,Y buttons have an kind of intertwined 'S' layout like on the first picture on the attched pic. Could some one please point out which is the contact I need to be soldering to? The directional digital contacts seem to have two semi-circle contacts, like on the second picture of the attched pic. Once again which is the contact I need to hack for each direction?

you can tell which is the contact and which is the ground by simply tracing it.  all of the ground will be connected w/ other grounds from other buttons.  the signal contact will not be connected to anything from the other buttons.

3) I also want to hack the shoulder buttons. I had a look at the FAQ and it gave me a link to the picture http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/images/dcjoy.gif. The link seems to be broken but I have found the  picture elsewhere (and have attached it for reference). Have kind of answered my own question here as I now know which leg to solder the shoulder buttons to but it has thrown up another question. On the DCjoy.gif all of the contacts have the 'S' type contacts where mine have the 'S' type for the A,B,X,Y buttons and have the semi-circular type for the directionals. I am hoping that the A,B,X,Y solder points are the same as on the picture (the yellow crosses), but im still in the dark about the directional solder points.

the picture might be different from your actual controller layout, but if you use the method described in question 2 to differentiate the ground from the contact, you will be fine.

4) Finally (for now at least!) I presume I have to solder a ground wire to the pad some where. I presume it does not matter which of the ground contacts I solder to as they should all be linked (please correct me if im wrong) but if someone knows a place that is better than others for whatever reason could you please let me know.

i was able to get my hacks to work by simply connecting the ground to an arbitrary point on the ground circuit.

i hope this helps a little.
oh yeah, i hacked the madcatz pads but i think it should be relatively similar.

[abrannan]

1) I am going to be hacking some official DC pads, there is a layer of black material on top of the contacts which I believe needs 'scratching' off before soldering the wires. Can anyone recommend a certain tool to do it with? I started last night just using a screwdriver but it didnt leave the best finish and I am after the best contact as possible.

This is going to sound like a joke, but I'm serious.  Use a toothpick in a dremel.

[Franco]

Cheers Guys. Thanks for the info. Cant wait to bust me toothpicks out! 

[TalkingOctopus]

It is not too hard to do yourself and if you are building your own arcade, you might as well learn to solder.  Here is another reference image: 
http://webpages.charter.net/rbecker5/images/dc.gif

It is of an actual board.  The red marks are the button solder points.  The black point is a suggested ground.

1) I use a small screw driver.

2) Correct.  You can easily tell which one is ground by tracing wires on the board.  The part of the board that connects to every button is the ground.  This is just like daisy chaining.  To give you a rough idea of how to trace the board:



3) See the image:http://webpages.charter.net/rbecker5/images/dc.gif

4) Any point will do fine.  I scraped off the black stuff on one of the directional grounds for mine.