Reserved for the actual guide. Gonna try (when i get a chance) to write a full guide from the ground up for people who are less familiar dealing with electronics.
The stuff that was used. and how much I spent. Don't go off buying the most expensive stuff.
- DC twinsticks... This one I have on hand is still "brand new" since I used it like 10 times on the DC.
- ~$25 x2 A Madcatz 4716 with PCB version G. You only need one, two was bought cause i'm gonna mod two twinsticks. Technically got these two for 7 bucks cause I had gift certificates. A warning with these ones tho, it seems like Madcatz like to make revisions of this controller so you'll have to figure out what is common ground and what isn't. This will be explained.
- ~$200+ for A Multimeter. What I used was a
Fluke 87 III True RMS meter. This kind is EXPENSIVE. You just need a multimeter. Get one that can beep, it'll make finding common ground easier. I had this one cause it was for school.
- Also to go along with the multimeter it's nice to have alligator clips with your multimeter. This will help you find common grounds on the back side of the controller.
- ~$? Phillips screw driver. You'll need these to open up the DC twin sticks, opening up the Madcatz controller as well as removing the PCB board from the controller. Most people have a set of these in different sizes, if not, i'm sure your local warehouse have them.
- ~$3 x4 for Wire spool. I believe the ones I have are 24 awg. I bought one of each color I could find (black, green, yellow, & white)
- ~$5 for solder. Any works. Lead or Lead free... all depends on if you ever feel like licking solder or something....
- ~25 for a soldering iron. If you already have one, great, just buy a thin tip attachment for it, unless you're an expert at soldering.
- ~$5 for soldering flux. These will make soldering to the controller much easier. Be careful not to spill/splash it around, very sticky stuff when settled.
- ~$1 for a button. You'll need a button of some sort for the xbox guide button. it's not completely necessary since the 360 will automatically assign a player # to your sticks once you plug them in and you could always just exit out of the game instead of using the guide button so this is completely up to you. You can find these at radio shack or something. I tore apart a Saturn/DC fighting stick. This thing was useless to me anyways since i got it free when i worked at EBgames. Someone poured coke on it and luckily 5 of the buttons were still functional and not sticky. Would've been nice if the button was gray.
- As you noticed in the picture, an ESD bag was used to house the controller. Since I suck at making boxes, I decided to put the controller in an ESD bag and punch holes to where the wires will be coming out of so that I can connect it to the twinsticks. I got this from work but you can probably use like the ESD bag from your video card for your PC or something. NOTE: Do make sure it is non-conductive though.
- ~$10 wire stripper/cutter. The crimping tools for the optional reversible mod should have these if you plan on doing that otherwise, you still need a way to strip wires and cut them.
- $? PCB holders. I cannot for the life of me find where mine are hiding. Prices on these things widely range. You just need them to hold the controller while you do your thing. Not required, but recommended. Especially if you're going to solder the reverse side of the board and don't want to bend any wires on the other side.
Optional for reversible mod.
- ~$7 10x
B3B-PH-K-S, 10x
B4B-PH-K-S, &
B5B-PH-K-S. I got these JST connectors from
http://www.digikey.com/ This is more than what you need but you can always use these for future projects.
- ~$1-3 for a bag of crimps. The ones I got were totally wrong and they didn't have anything else smaller from Frys so this got shot down for me. This will make wiring up the JST super easy. Because I bought the wrong crimps I had to hand solder these. Be careful when hand soldering cause if you get the pins too hot it will melt the plastic and loosen up the pins.
- ~10-15 for crimping tools. Used for the crimps. Don't get anything expensive. Just read the back of the box to see how to use it.
To be continued...
Edit: Ugh, been bz at work. Gonna try to get sometihng going once this is over. for now just look at
http://216.246.50.234/showthread.php?t=197388 This is where i got my info for doing pad hacks. MAKE SURE you find your common grounds and don't just go off the picture because my controller's common ground was not in the same area as mentioned in this forums.