Making a arcade stick from a ps1 controller, need help, pics included

OK, I got some pics but there not the best. I had some trouble getting good ones. I got this new performance controller and am trying to make a ps1 arcade stick. I just need a few tips. The two buttons above the black circle are turbo set, and clear.

1. If you look there are a bunch of holes on the controller, I know I can solder to these points,but it does not seem there is enough of them. For example, if you look at the d-pad, there are only holes drilled in the board for up, right, and down.

2. When I do make a connection in one of the holes, do I just wire the button to it, or the ground? Or do I do both? I do understand that I only need one ground wire for the d-pad.

3. For the R and L buttons, on my last ps1 controller, we cut off the chips and stripped the wires. On this controller though, all the wires are connected by some sort of belt looking plastic piece. Should I still just cut them off, then pull them apart and connect them that way?

4. Should I just forget about all the wires, and soldering holes and just connect everything to the board on the gold contacts?

Those holes are jumpers and would connect 2 or more switches. I dont think you want to do that.

heres a pic I painted, let me know if this looks right?

You should really try to track down an official PS1 controller as I remember a lot of people having problems with the generic pads since the common was also in order circuit groups or something.

The traces that go to the left of the directional switches are ground. Everything else connect to the right.

Xian Xi said:

You should really try to track down an official PS1 controller as I remember a lot of people having problems with the generic pads since the common was also in order circuit groups or something.

The traces that go to the left of the directional switches are ground. Everything else connect to the right.

Click to expand...

Funny, I have heard nothing but the exact opposite. I have tried to use a ps1 controller and have gotten every button to work except the square, triangle, circle, and x. On the ps1 controller you have to scrape off all this rubber that's over the copper connections. In fact there is so little copper on the sq,tri,cir, and x buttons that the solder just balls up and wont stick. I am going to stick with a generic brand for now.

So if the grounds are to the left of the directional buttons, does that mean the grounds are tho the left of all the other buttons as well?

greedostick said:

Funny, I have heard nothing but the exact opposite. I have tried to use a ps1 controller and have gotten every button to work except the square, triangle, circle, and x. On the ps1 controller you have to scrape off all this rubber that's over the copper connections. In fact there is so little copper on the sq,tri,cir, and x buttons that the solder just balls up and wont stick. I am going to stick with a generic brand for now.

So if the grounds are to the left of the directional buttons, does that mean the grounds are tho the left of all the other buttons as well?

Click to expand...

Use a multimeter to check for continuity. As for solder to the switches I usually solder to the trace at the chip, I usually remove the chip and use the multimeter to check which trace is what.

greedo yes you want to actually solder to the copper pads. take a look here: http://callan.batcave.net/bartop.htm at the second picture. If you examine the copper pads at each button, you'll figure out that one side goes to a trace that connects to one side of all the other buttons. This is your ground. The non-ground sides of each pad is the button contact you want to solder to.

OK, so the tracers that connect to all the other buttons are the grounds, so all the tracers that go to the black circle in the middle are the actual buttons.

This may be a dumb question, but I need to solder at 2 points for every connection right? 1 for the actual button, and one for the ground. Except for the d-pad whitch I solder 1 ground, and then connect it to all the other d-pad buttons on the actual pushbutton using quick connects.

Reason I ask is that the picture you showed me to only had the push buttons soldered to. I wasn't really sure if it was completely don in the picture. Can I use 1 ground for the sq, x, tri, and circle, and connect all them as well using quick connects?

greedostick said:

OK, so the tracers that connect to all the other buttons are the grounds, so all the tracers that go to the black circle in the middle are the actual buttons.

This may be a dumb question, but I need to solder at 2 points for every connection right? 1 for the actual button, and one for the ground. Except for the d-pad whitch I solder 1 ground, and then connect it to all the other d-pad buttons on the actual pushbutton using quick connects.

Reason I ask is that the picture you showed me to only had the push buttons soldered to. I wasn't really sure if it was completely don in the picture. Can I use 1 ground for the sq, x, tri, and circle, and connect all them as well using quick connects?

Click to expand...

To be safe with 3rd party controllers...Yes, solder 2 points for every connection.

With this type of mod, sometimes it's trial and error.

I know you made up your mind already, but if you use a PS1 dual shock, the grey one. Not the colored one, you can solder to each connection, and you only need one ground. Same with the Sony PS1 digital pad.

If you go to Shoryuken.com there is a thread for beginners.

People will always have problems with PCB's. Just like any other electronic. If you take your time and solder neatly, most PCB's will work for you. Once you learn the basics, and get familiar with PCB traces, you will look back and laugh about your first mod.

This is simialr to something I'm in the process of doing for the megadrive.

I've got an agetec Dreamcast stick and I'm just waiting on the 6 button md pad that I have bought to arrive so that I can marry them together.

It just looks very similar to Greedo's project as it's just seems as though it's a matter of soldering wires from traces and connecting them to the buttons and stick.

For the Record:

I've used that pad..
Never had a problem.

Solder directly to the pad....

Scrape off the top......

What does the other side of the board look like?

That particular pad only required 1 ground for all the buttons. But for a few reasons it might needs more than 1 ground. For example, a USB pad I just hacked shared a ground for down, left, a, b, c, d, and a ground for up, left, start and select. There were two epoxy blobs to encode the buttons, that's probably why it needed two grounds.

Oh and yes I only had soldered to two of the face buttons. But I only needed the one ground from the D-Pad side for all the buttons.

Listen to my solid word of advice; get a dremmel and drill in the copper ends after they are cleaned, then run the wire from the back and solder away, not only does it look more professional it will last a lifetime, specially if you use hot glue on the back after you are done.

If you got the ground paths figured out then you already know how a PCB works, so I'm not going to waste time on that. However if you've never soldered on small PCBs like this I suggest you practice on an old pcb that doesn't work anymore, test your steadyness and all that jazz.

This might help, part 3 is where is at, trust me! It's worth the read.

electricgrave said:

Listen to my solid word of advice; get a dremmel and drill in the copper ends after they are cleaned, tIt's worth the read.

Click to expand...

I'd rather use a drill....

norton9478 said:

I'd rather use a drill....

Click to expand...

The bits are too big for a drill pal, but if you have some small bits you can use with your drill that's cool too.

electricgrave said:

The bits are too big for a drill pal, but if you have some small bits you can use with your drill that's cool too.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I used to have a nice bit set...


My rotary tool moved too much to drill a hole.