Building an arcade stick out of an old PSX pad?

[Shatterhand]

I have an old PSX pad (No dualshock) here which is working and its having no use at all.

Is it possible to build an arcade stick using its internal hardware? Would it be too much costly? Anyone ever done something like this? Any tips?

[Neon]

I always hear about people using the PCB but I dunno. I'd register at shoryuken.com and do a little research.

[japtor]

yes its possible. most custom sticks people make connect to consoles by a hacked up gamepad of some sort.

cost wise, its pretty much the cost of whatever materials (joystick casing, stick, buttons, wiring, etc) you buy, and whatever tools you need to buy to get work done. sticks are anywhere from i think ~$10-25, depending what kind of stick and where you get it. buttons are ~$1-5 or so. a few feet of wiring is a few bucks, and should be more than enough. casing can vary a lot depending on what you use, and how you finish it and stuff. you could use something around the house already for a case (on my old desk i turned the keyboard tray into a stick base), or build your own (i think big ass sheets of wood can be had for $20-40 at home depot), or buy some other stick and hack it up.

its pretty basic, although there might be one small extra step on the official sony pads. i dont remember if they have a certain coating (black) or not on their button contacts on the pcb, but if they do, i think you just have to scrape that off first.

sorta ghetto quickie tutorial/guide:
each button/direction contact consists of 2 points, a ground (electrical current), and one to signal the button. when you do the wiring for a stick, you basically only need one ground wire, which you would daisy chain along all the switches of your stick/buttons. so just pick one ground point on the controller pcb, solder a wire to there, then connect it to all the switches.

for each direction/button, you solder a wire to the whatever contact on the controller pcb, and connect it to the corresponding thing on the joystick setup. so for the X button, you connect it to there on the pad, then connect the other end to whatever button you want X to be on. the joystick can be a little confusing, since each direction triggers the opposite switch. like if youre looking at a stick from above, pushing up will trigger the switch on the bottom, left hits the switch on the right, etc (course if you go with a japanese stick, they have a different wiring setup...).

thats the basic gist of the whole wiring system. basically just open the pad up then wire whatever point to the corresponding point on the stick. theres different ways to do a bunch of stuff, like case material choice, stick/button style, and little personal touches everyone has. check out arcadecontrols.com for some basic tutorials and general info, and/or search google for 'custom joystick' or something referring to mame or homemade, theres a lot of stuff.

[elvis]

Anyone ever done something like this?

Yup:
http://pcdb.overclockers.com.au/view.ph ... &page=pics

Hacked a thrustmaster USB pad to a HES Tank joystick (steel case, Happ parts). Soldered direct to the pad's contacts. Easy as pie. It would be the same thing for any gamepad on any console.

[TalkingOctopus]

Yes, it's very possible -- I've made several. I think the old non-analog ps1 controller is easiest to hack. Here's a picture of the soldering points for a ps1 controller I made for another forum.



The joystick is probably the most costly component, depending on the type of joystick you get.

[neorichieb1971]

So basically you just solder the lives to each of the button positions mapped on that picture above and daisy chain the grounds to the point in the center of the D-pad?

That sounds pretty easy.

[thchardcore]

I can help anyone with questions as I mod stick all the time for people.

Hit me up on aim.

Signalfades

PAYCE

[Shatterhand]

I have no AIM.

Thanx A LOT for all the tips. I am a completely novice in electronics stuff (I think I soldered an iron like only 2 times in my whole life)


There's no way to use at least a couple of the shoulders buttons? I'd like to use this to play some street fighter, and 4 buttons aren't enough.

I'll search if I Can find stick parts here in Rio de Janeiro. I bet I can. I really don't want anything fancy, no professional parts nor a beatiful stick. I just want something that I can use to play some fighting games properly, as the Dual Shock controller just isn't up to the task (I can bear it for shmups, but 2D fighting games just suck on it).

[captain ahar]

the shoulders should have pcb mounts just like the other buttons, just trace the connection.

edit: found a pic, not very good (and not mine) but i think it explains what i am trying to say


if you are just doing a quick jobbie, same theory applies to the little shoulder extensions.

[thchardcore]

If you look closely (or have a multimeter) you can see that all the grounds are chained. Whatever isnt ground is signal (aka: goes to button). It's pretty braindead, directions go to joystick directions, buttons to buttons. Just get ready for some soldering work.

As for shoulder buttons, there should be three solder joints where the seperate mini shoulder pcb connects to the main board. Cut them off and look at the three solder joints. The outside 2 are the R1/2-L1/2 and the center point is the ground.

PSOne dualshocks are the best to use as they work flawlessly with all converters, digital pads have lag or won't work.

Again: I'm on aim for further help.

[Shatterhand]

Really? I tested the digital PS1 pad here with my PSX>USB converter, I didn't notice any lag.

I will search for a place where I can buy arcade parts here in Rio.

[thchardcore]

vgonetwork.com has sanwa sticks for 12.50 and snap in buttons for 1.60

[Shatterhand]

I don't want to buy from another country, because then I have to pay for shipment, and then theres always the risk of the stuff getting blocked in customs, and then I have to pay an extra to bribe a cop because he will say thats an "Illegal import".

ARgh, I hate my country sometimes

[thchardcore]

Damn, and people bitch about the US being corrupt, you can't even get Joystick parts without bribing a cop. Is Brazil really that bad?

Interesting.

[neorichieb1971]

Illegal import!

Once an item passes customs its declared a legal purchase.

[Shatterhand]

This may happen at random. It never happened to me to be honest, but I heard from a few people who import a whole lot more than me that this does happen, that IS bullshit from them, but you just can't do much. It doesn't seem to happen too often, but there's always a risk

Someone told me once that it depends of the kind of package the product has. If it doesn't look like something that was purchased (If it looks like a gift, for example), they won't bother.

[iatneH]

I luv PS1 pads. I used to go to the flea market and buy bags of them for hacking.... have a couple for Neo-Geo -> PS1, and also used them for IIDX and a couple on standby for Guitar Freaks and DrumMania once I find time to work on them..

The best thing about making a custom arcade stick from a hacked PS1 pad is that adaptors are very common and you'll be able to use it on PC, Xbox, and GameCube (and other retro systems if you're willing to pay for the adaptor)

[japtor]

Someone told me once that it depends of the kind of package the product has. If it doesn't look like something that was purchased (If it looks like a gift, for example), they won't bother.

any clue what kind of parts you want to use? cause maybe you can get in on oxtsus group order for japanese parts, and ask him to send it in some uh 'gift like' looking packaging or something.

[Shatterhand]

No, I still don't know how I will do that.

I don't want to make anything too expensive really...