PS360 Controller, DualShock 3 in a 360 Shell Options

[sassyness77]

could you email me with the type of xbox controller and also the type of ps3 controller that you found was the easyiest to do this with? sassyness77@yahoo.com
thanks

[RDC]

Or, ya could read the post right before the one you made where I explained just that.

[L33]

Great work RDC, I'm looking at doing this myself and have a question for you..

Are you using the PS3 stick pots on the 360 board, or have you left the 360 ones in place and linked them to the PS3 board? I think this mod would be much easier if there was a way of leaving those sticks/pots in place, I notice that on my sixaxis board the pots are in a different configuration(direction) than those on the 360 board (mounted on the top and left of the stick shaft as opposed to bottom and side).

Thanks for any help!

[RDC]

If you're going to use one of the older version Six-Axis controllers that have the 3 legged POTs then you can leave the 360 ones in there, however if your PS3 controller is a newer version Six-Axis or a DualShock 3 then you will have to swap the POTs because they are a different type with 4 legs.

The direction the sticks face is irrelevant so long as the Axis (POTs) are lined up, they can both point up, one up one down, both point right and so on, just as long as the Axis are kept in line. After that it's just a matter of wiring them up correctly as one may be reversed from the other, and on the 3 legged version ones that's as easy as swapping V+ and GND for the POT that's backwards, while on the 4 legged ones ya just reverse the 2 signal leads.

PS3 controller version info is here.. http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=648322

[L33]

Thanks for the info, thats a great help
I've test-wired up my 'ps360' pad and so far so good, however I now need to trim the PS3 PCB, removing the solder points for the X-axis of the analogue sticks. Were you able to find alternate solder points for pin #2 of the 2 pots? The only points I was able to find are the empty capacitor spaces C40 & C39 below and to the left of the main Toshiba IC (using MSU PP4.0 9 board).

Also, in Ben Hecks guide on Engadget, he uses a 100k resistor between the top and middle pins of the L2 potentiometer, did you find you had to do this too, or did you leave this part out. I just can't quite work out why he's done that.

Last question Have you done this mod using any of the earlier revision boards and found that the metal shielding of the large 'ALPS' IC gets in the way - i.e. takes up a lot of room in terms of depth, I'm just wondering if its safe to remove to save some space (I'm guessing its a bluetooth controller or something?).

Thanks again for all your info, its helped greatly and is a far better way to do this mod than Ben Heck's cut and pasting perfboard method.

Just to add what you said about the older style 360 wireless boards, they are indeed a complete pain to use as a base for this mod, I've spent countless hours tracking and cutting traces to isolate buttons etc!

This post has been edited by L33: Mar 2 2009, 11:12 AM

[RDC]

The spots at C39 and C40 are for the Left stick and are about the best alternate spots there are, for the Right Stick it's the same deal, just C41 and C42.

I have no idea why that 10k was done on LT (L2) I don't have to do that the way I make mine up, and the thing is already a 10k POT, so that just drops it to around 5k in initial value. Those 4.7k Resistors though, the ones that replace the built in ones of the Daughter board, should be 7.5k instead.

Removing the shielding of the Bluetooth board could cause issues, it's better to just Dremel or sand away on the inside of the bottom half of the shell until it fits if it's causing issues, but CC3 there next to it sits up higher than that and needs to be moved.

In the end I believe it's a better controller, but ya really do pay for it in the amount of work involved in it versus the way Ben Heckendorn did his up.

I use the older Wireless Matrix 360 controller as a base most of the time, just 5 traces need to be cut (plus isolating the ground/power leads of the Trigger's POTs) then a couple jumpers to get it rewired to the PS3 controllers 3 common line setup, still it's no walk in the park for most and I spent a good deal of time figuring out how to make it that easy.

[L33]

Thanks for the info, hopefully I'll be able to finish up my pad this evening
Excuse my ignorance but why 7.5k instead of 4.7k for the resistors on the PS3s plastic button grid?

You've done well to get the matrix board down to just 5 trace cuts, I've cut alot more than that! Also how did you isolate the grounding for the LT/RT pots? Did you just remove the solder barrel for that leg from the board?

Thanks again

[RDC]

The Resistors built into the Daughter board are around 7.5k, not 4.7k, and for the Triggers it will make a difference since they stay Analog. If ya were making an arcade stick or something similar it wouldn't matter too much and ya could use anything from 4.7k to 10k really, but to keep it more like the original setup 7.5k should be used.

You can isolate the ground leads by just cutting the traces to them, 4 small ones to each Via (solder barrel) there, or just use a Dremel and a small engraving bit and go around it until the traces are gone. Ya really want to keep the Via as it helps to hold the POT in place when soldered.

[L33]

I guess I made a bad move here, I decided at the last minute to switch over to using a dualshock3 board (MSU_VX 1.03) as I wanted the rumble feature.
I've got everything wired up, and it seemed to all work ok, yet I've found for some odd reason, 'down' on the d-pad also triggers 'triangle', and left also triggers 'circle' I can't seem to work it out, theres no continuity between down & triangle, or left & circle. I've checked all wiring for shorts etc, none found.
The right and middle of the board work fine (ABXY / RT / RB / start / back / home), but the problem seems to lie with the left side. I'm wondering if it is something to do with the resistor values on that left common line? I've used 7.5k as you said, is it worth trying another value in there (4.7k / 10k etc)?.
Thanks again

This post has been edited by L33: Mar 6 2009, 12:30 PM

[RDC]

There's no way for the D-pad to cause that kinda issue unless something is wrong somewhere, they don't even share the same common line, so there's something somewhere causing it. I could probably write a book on all the different things that the controller will do if ya forgot to do this or didn't do that just right, but I've never had one do that, and I'll bet ya it's not the Resistors that's causing it either. Ya most likely have something shorted somewhere, as in forgot to cut a trace and have a couple lines connected that shouldn't be or some solder splash from removing components that's making connection between two pads and causing it, those are the 'biggies' that will cause issues making this thing up.

What I'd do first is pull the wire for DD from the DS3 board and then press it, see if Triangle still goes off, same with DL and see if Circle is still triggered when pressing the D-pad, if it is you'll know the problem is there with those lines on the 360 board.

[L33]

Thanks, I'll give your suggestion a go I'll also double check for shorts.

The L-com and R-com are sort of indirectly connected, as pins 8 & 14 on the PS3 flat-cable connector link directly to eachother via a trace on the PCB, so the order is:
Lcom -> Resistor1 - > Home 1 - > Resistor2 -> Rcom

[RDC]

Those are pull up Resistors, so saying Com 1 and Com 2 are indirectly connected is kinda like saying the muffler on yer car is indirectly connected to the steering wheel.

To be more accurate the order is PS Common > Resistor > Com1 and then PS Common > Resistor > Com2.

[pOps_uK]

Hi RDC
am in the process of trying to make a ps360 controller and just wondered if you have used tact switches or are you using xbox board? cause your picture doesnt really show much of the way of button set up, at the moment am using tact switches cause i started off doing a "Ben Hack" one, i try let you know what boards i have in morning now, thx

[pOps_uK]

Hi
right after a quick look on the two ps3 boards i have the first one is MSU_V2 2.14 (Six-Axis) and MSU PP4.0 9

the MSU_V2 2.14 (Six-Axis) is now going to have to be used for maybe a joystick mod as i balls it up removing the pins from the ribbon for the D-pad & buttons, i will have to use the TP Spots to salvage that one, but as for the other board MSU PP4.0 9 that is all wired up and ready to wire up to xbox board

if you have,nt used tact switches for your buttons or D-pad and have some how wired it to the 360 pcb i would like to know how, could you please explain how you wired up D-pad & buttons if you used tact switch or 360 pcb? if so i may need a new 360 pcb as i pulled parts off it and drilled holes in it, here the 360 board am using
thx pops

[RDC]

Hi RDC
am in the process of trying to make a ps360 controller and just wondered if you have used tact switches or are you using xbox board? cause your picture doesnt really show much of the way of button set up, at the moment am using tact switches cause i started off doing a "Ben Hack" one, i try let you know what boards i have in morning now, thx

This thread describes just that in the second paragraph, and if you see any tact switches in the pics it's just the one for the Sync button, cuz that's the only one there is.

Hi
right after a quick look on the two ps3 boards i have the first one is MSU_V2 2.14 (Six-Axis) and MSU PP4.0 9

the MSU_V2 2.14 (Six-Axis) is now going to have to be used for maybe a joystick mod as i balls it up removing the pins from the ribbon for the D-pad & buttons, i will have to use the TP Spots to salvage that one, but as for the other board MSU PP4.0 9 that is all wired up and ready to wire up to xbox board

if you have,nt used tact switches for your buttons or D-pad and have some how wired it to the 360 pcb i would like to know how, could you please explain how you wired up D-pad & buttons if you used tact switch or 360 pcb? if so i may need a new 360 pcb as i pulled parts off it and drilled holes in it, here the 360 board am using
thx pops

Again, it's explained in the very first post that I used no Tact switches and the 360 board is used. It's also explained why there is no step by step on how to do this later on in this thread, there are just too many combination's too use and I'd never use a straight Six-Axis controller to make one personally.

All of the 360 controller boards, with the exception of the new CG2, are all traced out in the 360 Case Hardware Modding section. If you've messed the board all up then you'll have to use a new one, and exactly how/where you solder up for the buttons depends on you really, there are several spots that can be used, after you figure out the Matrix Layout and get it wired up to the 3 Common line setup the PS3 controllers use, and as I've explained in this thread before, I have no desire to get into a 'step by step' for any version of this thing as it's way, way more work to explain how to do it than it is to just make one up.