making a custom controller - advice/help needed please.

[spinksy]

Hey all

Now I don't actually know if this has been attempted before, but I intend to try and make a custom Dreamcast controller. By this I mean I want to try and either add another analog stick on the right of the controller or move the normal analog to the right side.

For the casing it wouldnt be to hard - abit of cutting/fibreglassing/time etc it could be done and the buttons could be re-arranged. The only thing is I havnt a clue how to electricly move the buttons. Do I just add wires to the button contacts (as in pic below in yellow) and can I cut the circuit board at all (so to move the current analog?)



What I was thinking is I may need a box in between console and controller to mount the hacked up circuit board then run the wires from that into a custom controller case. (see pic below )) This wouldnt really be a problem.



Any help would be great.

[bacteria]

For one thing, you will need a third party DC controller like the MadCatz, the reason being they use more conventional methods to register joystick movement rather than magnets.







You can move the joystick elsewhere but that would mean re-casing the controller; or getting a far flatter joystick, like the MadCatz PSone controller which are only about 6mm thick - downside is this controller is expensive to buy these days as it was unusual. Will need some good filling and repainting though to look good.



You can use rubber topped tact switches to relocate any buttons if you want to, and connect the diagonals to the contacts on the controller buttons to them.

Buttons can be relocated

[MrPopo]

Bacteria, that reminds me. On your wordpress you mention for the N64 that one should pick up a third party N64 controller rather than use the controls from a first party controller. Is there any technical reason to do so if I feel the N64 analog stick is good?

[Hobie-wan]

You can move the joystick elsewhere but that would mean re-casing the controller; or getting a far flatter joystick, like the MadCatz PSone controller which are only about 6mm thick - downside is this controller is expensive to buy these days as it was unusual. Will need some good filling and repainting though to look good.

Noooooooo, no kill the Retrocon!

[Hobie-wan]

Bacteria, that reminds me. On your wordpress you mention for the N64 that one should pick up a third party N64 controller rather than use the controls from a first party controller. Is there any technical reason to do so if I feel the N64 analog stick is good?

Probably because the analog sticks in 3rd party are electomechanical, not optomechanical. The analog stick in a N64 controller is a huge beast compared to a 3rd party one.

[bacteria]

If you like the official N64 joystick then that is fine. They can be replaced if needs be (the official ones tended to fail after a while). One reason to use third party controllers is that you can use the majority of joysticks from other systems in their place, so you can use very slim ones (eg the RetroCon), large ones SuperPad 64 (as i'm using on my project), ones from GameCube, PSone controllers (and many others). This means you can find a joystick you like and use it; reason being that they are, as Hobie-wan said, electromechanical. For example, the joystick in an official Dreamcast controller uses magnetic contacts to indicate the position of the joystick, which is why it is overly sensitive to use. The MadCatz one on the other hand uses electromechanical methods, so compatible with most joysticks used in most controllers; hence i'm using the large SuperPad 64 (an N64 controller).

[spinksy]

ok thanks for the help - for the buttons/D pad - How do you attach the wires to the original contact points on the controller board? I can't imagine you can just solder straight to the board.....?

[MrPopo]

I see. So using third party opens up the number of potential joysticks that you can use for the same control board.

[Hobie-wan]

ok thanks for the help - for the buttons/D pad - How do you attach the wires to the original contact points on the controller board? I can't imagine you can just solder straight to the board.....?

On boards where the button contacts are bare metal, that's exactly what most people do. The button contacts are giant palaces for soldering as opposed to tiny legs off an IC. Of course you're only soldering to one side.

However, I don't know if you need to do anything first with black contacts on the board first. Its possible you might need to scrape first. I've never done it though, just read. So let's see some other opinions first.

[bacteria]

Either use a knife to gently scrape off the light green silk-screen to get to the copper trace, or use a sanding drum on a very low speed, and touch the surface VERY gently. Once the copper is exposed, you can use a little flux, then add a little solder to the trace to "tin" the copper trace, you can then solder a tinned wire to that connection. I do this a lot.

You then wire the two connections to a button and secure it to your case.