Dreamcast Stick to PS3 Mod

[elaverick]

I received my cthulhu PCB from the states today.  I went with Gamingnow.net, placed my order late on Friday evening (UK time) and it arrived the following Thursday.  Also nice to note they labeled the board as a corporate gift which meant I didn't have to pay import duties on it.

The idea was to use the Cthulhu to upgrade my Dreamcast Arcade stick for use with the PS3 and free up the maple bus VMU connector for the CPS2/Naomi arcade cab I'm building at the moment.

I should point out from the outset this was designed to be a budget upgrade.  I'm not replacing the stick or buttons or wiring in additional buttons for select and home or the other two shoulder buttons.  There is a reasonable chance in the future I'll come back to this project and pimp out the controls with some nice Sanwa bits and pieces, but for now I just wanted something that will allow me to play SFIV and MvC2 without leaving my hands crippled for a week or two afterwards.

The upgrade itself was unbeliveably easy.  After unscrewing the base plate I removed the connectors going to the existing PCB and lifted that clear of the case (remebering to seal it in the anti-static bag the Cthulhu came in for later use).  Next I snipped the pin header connections from the button and joystick connector and stripped a little sleaving from the wires themselves.  All that's needed after this is to wire them in to the corresponding screw terminal spots on the Cthulhu board.

If you're attempting this yourself the joystick wiring is as follows:
Yellow -> Left
Orange -> Bottom
Red -> Right
Brown -> Up
Black -> Common Ground

The buttons are even easier.  Trace the wire from each button to the desired connection place and then use the gray wire as the common ground.  And that's all there is to it.  It took me a grand total of 15 mins to do and a good 8 mins of that was trying to find my screwdriver set.

[HaRuMaN]

How are you handling start / select / PS button?

[elaverick]

Start button is wired in, select button tends to get used rarely enough for me not really to worry about it and the home button I'm using from the Sixaxis pad.   The only button I'm really missing at the moment is Home, so I might look into getting a button slot sorted for that.  It's more than functional for a good long bash in the one game tho.