Sigma Raijin -> wired xbox 360 controller pcb

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thamasha69
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Sigma Raijin -> wired xbox 360 controller pcb

Post by thamasha69 »

There was a guy building Dreamcast Jamma adapters in the trading station recently. I was in contact with him about the possibility of making an adapter that essentially only took control inputs from the jamma connector on my Sigma Raijin so I could use my supergun as a DC controller (using a VGA box on the DC for video/audio output).

I was thinking that the same could be done, only taking control inputs on my supergun's jamma edge connector and connecting it to a modified wired 360 controller or box containing the controller pcb. I missed out on a 360 arcade stick I was going to purchase, but in thinking further, I would like to use my Raijin as a 360 controller/stick instead. How feasible would this be and if so, who could possibly make one?

Thanks a lot.
Last edited by thamasha69 on Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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thamasha69
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Post by thamasha69 »

Theoretically the controller inputs could be taken straight from the jamma connector on my supergun, correct? I would much prefer this to wiring a pcb directly to the sticks/buttons inside my sigma.
kemical
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Post by kemical »

yep it will absolutely work. you could get a jamma edge connector and plug that into the sigma's harness.. then have wires solder on the edge connector for the controls which go to a padhacked 360 controller.
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thamasha69
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Post by thamasha69 »

So I could buy an edge connector and solder the corresponding control inputs to the pins of said connector and the other ends to a 360 controller pcb? Sorry, i just wanna clarify because if its as simple as that I may just do this mod myself. Would this create any lag? What if I took the ends of the wires from the edge connector and soldered them to a db15 connector? And had the wires from the controller pcb going to a db15 - plug and play....Then I could make adapters for other systems as well and use the same jamma connector...would this create any lag?
kemical
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Post by kemical »

No lag, unless the xbox 360 controller had bad lag to start with for some reason, and I have no idea about that, I haven't noticed lag.

You need the xbox 360 controller to be common-ground though. I know the official controllers have sometimes been, but it varies, there might be a way to identify which ones are. It is easier to just find a 3rd party controller, the Madcatz Classic arcade joystick is (looks like a deformed atari 2600 stick), and there are also madcatz Gamespot branded pads which are common ground, I used one for my stick which has a DB-15 connection to make it universal like you mention, uses the neogeo pinout + extra buttons. The first auto-fire switch is wired up and I use it for Credit on jamma, Select for other systems, and the Back button on 360, while the yellow button acts as start. The Xbox guide button is used on the pad.

Image
The flat ribbon cable is about the same width as the headset connector, the controller casing holds the ribbon cable tight against it so that solves the issue of yanking on the wires and potentially breaking the solder connections inside the controller. I'm able to still use the headset if needed, plugs in just a bit tighter than usual.

So..the db-15 route would be the way to go I think, then you could use the Sigma setup on other systems.

here is a layout of this particular controller pcb:
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=174467
So all that is involved is soldering really, I know some people disable or remove the analog sticks and triggers, or they make them function as regular switches, and you could always put it in a project box and make it all nice but getting the basics working is pretty simple.
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thamasha69
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Post by thamasha69 »

Wow, thank you for the detailed reply. You have confirmed everything I need to know. To get it working quick and easy, I'm thinking I may just remove the d-pad and face buttons and run the wires straight thru the respective empty holes. I will only wire the d-pad and face buttons to my jamma connector and leave the analog sticks, trigger, guide button, start, back to function as normal on the pad. That should work I presume.
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thamasha69
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Post by thamasha69 »

So I found one of those mad catz game stick deals at gamestop yesterday....$20. There website lists $10 and there was a previous price label (underneath the $20 label) showing $7.99. The girl there said there was absolutely nothing they could do to honor the $10 price - Man these chain video game stores piss me off with their BS and incompetance. Probably has to do with some BS SFIV price gouging, but who wants to play ANYTHING with that mad catz stick. Needless to say I found the stick at game crazy for $13 and bought it. Rant over.

Now all I need is a jamma edge connector. Thank you for all your help kemical. Sorry for all the noob questions, but now it's getting to seem TOO easy to make this all work. So all I need to do is connect the d-pad and face buttons to the corresponding jamma pins. Regarding ground, I presume I would go from just one of the ground points on the 360 pcb to the ground jamma pin (pin 1). Anything else need to be done?
kemical
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Post by kemical »

Yup any of the ground points should work on the mad catz controller PCB, I guess one questionable problem is the Jamma standard supports 3 buttons off the edge connector per player, maybe a 4th (for neogeo) but I'm not familiar with what pin it usually takes up.
Does the Raijin have some sort of kick harness pins for making use of the 6 buttons? You could create something to hook up to that as well, and have it run to the DB-15 connector or into the 360 controller too.

Pin 1 should work for ground, there are 4 at each end i think? And the Raijin has it's own Jamma harness right? It is a female connector that has the wires run off to a more compact edge connector.. so the grounds should all run together to maybe 2 contacts which are joined, at least that is how it is on the old AV2001 supergun I have.
kemical
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Post by kemical »

oh and when I say edge connector i mean the fingerboard thing, I saw the post about a raijin one but really you could use a jamma fingerboard and plug the raijin harness onto that, it would function the same, could also potentially cut one down to fit.

Also, something I just thought of, I don't know if it is potentially bad for power supplies to be turned on when there is nothing to draw current from them, but I assume the Raijin uses +5v from the PSU to power the autofire circuit.
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thamasha69
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Post by thamasha69 »

Yeah, I was wondering about the 3 button thing and a kick harness, but I dug up my manual and it looks like buttons 4,5, and 6 and wired to the sigma's smaller end edge connector. I found this diagram online too:

Image

It is the same for my raijin, so I was thinking I could simply buy a fingerboard and use pins 17 thru 22 to wire to the 360 buttons and make use of all six buttons on the sigma.

You are correct about the sigma harness. The standard jamma edge connector (the end that attaches to pcb's) comes together to a smaller 22 pin (44 pin) fingerboard that plugs into the sigma. There are two ground wires that join at pin 3 on the fingerboard. I like your idea as well of using a standard jamma finger board to plug into the sigma harness...guess it would just be a matter of seeing where buttons 4,5, and 6 terminate on the female jamma side.

I was wondering about the power supply issue as well...
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thamasha69
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Post by thamasha69 »

I have another noob question. I have been reading around on other forums and hear the term "daisy chaining" from the ground on the 360 pcb to the other buttons (of the same pcb). I have also seen some pics, however, that don't seem to have this done and I'm really confused :oops:

Any clarification would be much appreciated and once again, thanks a lot.
kemical
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Post by kemical »

I'm not sure, usually people say daisy chaining when taking the ground and linking it across to each button, but that would be done inside the arcade stick, using segments of wire that have crimped-on quick disconnect terminals at each twisted pair of wire ends.

You probably won't even have to do any daisy-chaining actually, you'd just pick a solid looking ground point (usually there are grounds that have nice blobs of solder, likely one of the bumper buttons would be a good candidate) on the pad's PCB and solder a wire from that to the fingerboard or however the connector will be setup.


Does your Sigma Raijin harness have any other connectors coming from it besides the Jamma one? Sigma may have sold various harnesses that suit different needs, like having 4 5 & 6 break off to capcom kick harnesses and stuff like that.
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thamasha69
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Post by thamasha69 »

Excellent. Thanks for the clarification. I was hoping you would say something to that effect 8)

My harness only has the jamma conenctor. I was getting confused about buttons 4,5, and 6, thinking about the whole kick harness thing until I saw how it was wired. Guess I just need to get a hold of a fingerboard so I can get this together and test it all out.
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thamasha69
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Post by thamasha69 »

Well I built the adapter last night. Thank you so much for the help kemical. It works flawlessly and I saved a ton of money doing this vs shelling out for an actual xbox 360 arcade stick and mods. Plus using this setup just feels perfect.

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