Dreamcast Pad hack Finished!

[jay_red]

I have always wanted an arcade stick for my Dreamcast, but could never find a decent price on one, so I figured with a couple extra ps1 sticks I had laying around I could try my first pad hack.

I decided to go with a third party controller that has 6 face buttons since I read that wiring into the triggers on a stock controller can cause some issues. I picked up this "Innovation" brand controller for $3 bucks, it has built in rumble which is a cool feature (not sure if it works in my stick yet)


I took it apart and found out that the controller was not common ground like some of the tuts I read online suggest to use, like in the MadCatz controller, so I had some extra wires to solder in.



I had to take off the joystick and the mechanisms for the triggers to get the board slim enough to fit in the stick. I also wondered what I would do about a memory card, and had a good idea, I took apart a third party one (not a VMU) and attached it to the board to be like a permanent card inside the stick.

So this was my first time doing this I checked each button as I went, I was actually surprised to find out that it worked! and on the first try! I had to solder each wire to one side of the pad, the contacts on the face buttons were rather small, but by taking my time I made it work.

Warning, it looks like a mess inside, but I am proud it works, and actually works really well, I only tested it in MVC2 so far, but it was very responsive and I had no problems pulling off any combos.


You can see the memory card here, I wrapped it in tape to keep it from making any contacts, this stick is rather shallow and I had to strategically place the board to make it work.


Finished! The 2 grey buttons are not wired up since there is no use for them, I even have the start button wired up to work.


I have another of these sticks (one I painted a few months ago) that I plan on doing the same thing to, I will try to get the mad catz controller and see if it makes life any easier!

[d123456]

Good job! One day try something similar.
I did pad hacks in the past, dc and ps and Saturn pads hacked to JAMMA.
Thanks for the pictures.

[DinnerX]

Good Job. I did a similar project a month or so ago. Connected my tatsunoko stick to a GC controller.

[Ziggy]

I wanted to do this with my Six Axis controller (and replace it with another Dual Shock) because I was getting pumped up for the MK collection... but sadly, I read the ports are riddled with bugs.

So how's that painted one looking?

[CRTGAMER]

Very Nice! You can save on some soldering when doing this type of Mod. One side of each button pad on the PCB is a common "ground" connection. Note the large green areas on the PCB, the common connection between the button pads. On most game pads, you only need one wire per button and only one additional common ground wire. The common wire can then be jumpered right at the pushbuttons, for a cleaner wiring harness.

[DinnerX]

On most game pads, you only need one wire per button and one extra common ground wire. The common wire can then be jumpered right at the pushbuttons.

CRTGAMER is right. Hadn't thought about that earlier. This is how I did mine. The D-pad usually has the same common as the buttons as well.

Most dreamcast games support the d-pad I guess? I had to wire to the analog stick on the gamecube since the games I wanted to play didn't support the dpad.

[CRTGAMER]

On most game pads, you only need one wire per button and one extra common ground wire. The common wire can then be jumpered right at the pushbuttons.

CRTGAMER is right. Hadn't thought about that earlier. This is how I did mine. The D-pad usually has the same common as the buttons as well.

Most dreamcast games support the d-pad I guess? I had to wire to the analog stick on the gamecube since the games I wanted to play didn't support the dpad.

A lot of Dreamcast games need the Analog Stick and Analog Triggers to work. The Arcade Stick Mod is great for Direction Pad style games as in SHMUPS, Arcade Compilations and Fighting games.

Of note, you can't just solder wires from an analog stick pots to a digital arrangement without getting the EXACT resistance for each direction of the potentiometer. Also an issue if the analog is utilized as a "speed" control say walk to run the more the stick is pushed.

[DinnerX]

Of note, you can't just solder wires from an analog stick pots to a digital arrangement without getting the EXACT resistance for each direction of the potentiometer. Also an issue if the analog is utilized as a "speed" control say walk to run the more the stick is pushed.

Yeah, you can't get analog control that's true. The way I did it though, the wiring isn't that bad if you just want the character to run full tilt.

Potentiometer's have three terminals. The two sides are attached to the ends of the resistive strip and the middle one is connected to the slider. So when an analog stick is pressed all the way to one side the slider is pushed to one end of the strip. This means you have a straight connection from the middle terminal to one of the side terminals. You can connect the arcade joystick to the analog stick by wiring the switches from the joystick to the terminals on the analog stick. It'll look something like this.



You move the joystick, this closes a switch which connects two terminals on the potentiometer and the system thinks you pressed full tilt in a direction.

You'd need to test which side terminals on the potentiometers correspond to which direction of movement. That's not to hard though. I just used a short piece of wire to temporarily connect the terminals together for testing.

Hope some of that made since. I'm not always the clearest.

Oh yeah. You'll want to hot glue the analog stick to make sure it stays in neutral.

[jay_red]

Very Nice! You can save on some soldering when doing this type of Mod. One side of each button pad on the PCB is a common "ground" connection. Note the large green areas on the PCB, the common connection between the button pads. On most game pads, you only need one wire per button and only one additional common ground wire. The common wire can then be jumpered right at the pushbuttons, for a cleaner wiring harness.

When I was researching this project before diving in it seemed that some controllers were not common ground, and based on the TUT I read the controller I used was not, hence the extra wires. I mention this very subject in the OP stating that I will be doing another but with a known common ground controller (such as the MadCatz one)

So how's that painted one looking?

Still looking for the controller to use with it. I have one, but the board looks so much different than the one I used here, and the pads are tiny, soldering onto them could prove difficult.

[CRTGAMER]

Of note, you can't just solder wires from an analog stick pots to a digital arrangement without getting the EXACT resistance for each direction of the potentiometer. Also an issue if the analog is utilized as a "speed" control say walk to run the more the stick is pushed.

Yeah, you can't get analog control that's true. The way I did it though, the wiring isn't that bad if you just want the character to run full tilt.

Potentiometer's have three terminals. The two sides are attached to the ends of the resistive strip and the middle one is connected to the slider. So when an analog stick is pressed all the way to one side the slider is pushed to one end of the strip. This means you have a straight connection from the middle terminal to one of the side terminals. You can connect the arcade joystick to the analog stick by wiring the switches from the joystick to the terminals on the analog stick.

You move the joystick, this closes a switch which connects two terminals on the potentiometer and the system thinks you pressed full tilt in a direction.

You'd need to test which side terminals on the potentiometers correspond to which direction of movement. That's not to hard though. I just used a short piece of wire to temporarily connect the terminals together for testing.

Oh yeah. You'll want to hot glue the analog stick to make sure it stays in neutral.

Good idea!
Your last sentence is the key, keep the potentiometers hooked up and centered. Allows for the neutral mid range of the resistance reading of the pot when the digital stick is not moved.

Very Nice! You can save on some soldering when doing this type of Mod. One side of each button pad on the PCB is a common "ground" connection. Note the large green areas on the PCB, the common connection between the button pads. On most game pads, you only need one wire per button and only one additional common ground wire. The common wire can then be jumpered right at the pushbuttons, for a cleaner wiring harness.

When I was researching this project before diving in it seemed that some controllers were not common ground, and based on the TUT I read the controller I used was not, hence the extra wires. I mention this very subject in the OP stating that I will be doing another but with a known common ground controller (such as the MadCatz one)

Trace the large green area, all the face buttons on one side are electrically connected together. Not real important though, the main thing is you have an inexpensive working Dreamcast Arcade Stick!