New Version of Wireless Controller Board, CG, Looky what M$ did... Options

[RDC]

You need to put a 10k Resistor between the Emitter and Base leads of the Transistor. Also, do you have the grounds of the 2 boards tied together? If not they need to be.

[Fallback]

I have the grounds tied together. Below is the setup I have and when I connect the common ground to the base lead it resets the whole 360 controller. The PCB immediately cuts off then turns back on. What is connected wrong below?




This post has been edited by Fallback: Jan 21 2008, 04:36 PM

[rb8720]

I love this new version of the board. It is soo much easier to mod for button presses. I use a microchip to modify controllers and with the old version the output pins on the chip had to be ran to a Oprocoupler and the oprocoupler ran to both sides of the button that you wanted to activate. This ofcourse added extra wiring for the buttons as well as the optocoupler. With the new board all you have to do is run a wire from the output pin of the chip directly to the trace of the button that you would like to activate. It makes things alot easier. Another plus is that I can use the Capacitor on top of the board aas my powersource for the chip which will allow the chip to work with a rechargeable battery pack or the standard aa batteries. With the old board the only good powersource that I found were the battery terminals, so the chip wouldn't have power when using the battery pack. I just wish I could find a way to identify the new boards without having to open the battery bay.

RB8720

[Fallback]

The fact that you wire can one button instead of two is great. Once I get the trigger voltage issue squared away and fix this transistor issue ill be set but im learning a lot in any case.

[RDC]

I have the grounds tied together. Below is the setup I have and when I connect the common ground to the base lead it resets the whole 360 controller. The PCB immediately cuts off then turns back on. What is connected wrong below?

Put another 10k or so Resistor in series between the Base and the button, that worked for me here.

With the old board the only good powersource that I found were the battery terminals, so the chip wouldn't have power when using the battery pack.

The + terminal of the PnC pack has power on it when using the PnC or AA pack, use that spot.

This post has been edited by RDC: Jan 22 2008, 01:40 AM

[Fallback]

YES! The extra resistor worked. Now the triggers work. THANKS!!!

[jhferry]

Is there a +5v connection on this new board anywhere? I have a new project this year and would like to use Happ P360's with 360 wireless pcb's.

[adol_ivxx]

Hey, I was modding my black 360 controller by (cheesely, I hear) scraping off the vias and soldering the buttons directly. Apparently YOU'VE been spoiled with the other 360 controller; I remember opening it and MARVELING at how "hack-friendly" they appeared to have made it. My REAL reason for posting is that I was looking at your pictures of the new controller and marking with a sharpie on my controller which sides of the buttons were ground, when I came to a button that had been turned 90 degrees, button K11.
K11? Yep. As I kept looking at your picture and my controller, I saw a number of other differences, the craziest one being that the other side has 2 chips, and the one's on some kind of raised board. Oh, and ALL the component names are different, on the front anyways. You can still see a TP19 through the back with the battery removed.
Still appears to be a common ground setup. At least, I HOPE it is; I don't relish having to (cheesily, I might add) solder 2 wires for every damn cherry key.

Also, the controller's LB didn't work properly out of the box- M$ is lucky I voided my warranty opening it; the CAUSE of the button not working properly is the button being soldered improperly, at a perhaps 7degree SLANT, so it just BARELY doesn't reach, even when the case part of the button is fully depressed.
If I can get ahold of a camera, I'll snap a picture of it and post it.

I bought it at either Bestbuy or Sears, if anyone cares about that sort of thing.

adol[IV:XX]

[RDC]

Is there a +5v connection on this new board anywhere? I have a new project this year and would like to use Happ P360's with 360 wireless pcb's.

If you find a 5v source in there you'll be the first, 2 x 1.5v AA batteries are around 3v and the PnC pack has NiMH that are 1.2v each, around 2.4v total.

Hey, I was modding my black 360 controller by (cheesely, I hear) scraping off the vias and soldering the buttons directly. Apparently YOU'VE been spoiled with the other 360 controller; I remember opening it and MARVELING at how "hack-friendly" they appeared to have made it. My REAL reason for posting is that I was looking at your pictures of the new controller and marking with a sharpie on my controller which sides of the buttons were ground, when I came to a button that had been turned 90 degrees, button K11.
K11? Yep. As I kept looking at your picture and my controller, I saw a number of other differences, the craziest one being that the other side has 2 chips, and the one's on some kind of raised board. Oh, and ALL the component names are different, on the front anyways. You can still see a TP19 through the back with the battery removed.

Who's been spoiled? I have no problems with any controller PCB I've had my hands on so far. Your controller looks a might different because you have the older version 'Matrix' board (der) it's not a common ground though X, Y and B all share a common line. That controller board and button solder points are located HERE, this thread is for the new CG version board. All 4 versions that I know of are in the tutorials section, Wired, Matrix and CL (Common Line, not ground though) then Wireless, Matrix and CG (Common Ground).

[controller-guy]

anyone who if there is test points for the triggers wiper signals?

if so what are the TP#'s needed?

also when they swapped from the old version to the new it may have been becuse it saves on power consumption perhaps becuase it is not running everything seperatly where now it has common ground and use's less to function power wise.

[VERTIGONIX]

I am a newbie on this site but I did want to say that "RDC" you are the man when it comes to modding the controller. Great pics and explainations! I have been looking over the few posts there are about modding the controllers for rapid fire and I started to some ideas of my own that I wanted to run by you and the other peps.

This setup is for the CG controller and it utilizes two dual timers (SMT). I am a tech/engineer so I like to use surface mount when I can. I think I came up with a way to use the exsisting trigger with rapid fire by flipping a toggle switch between normal mode and rapid fire mode. This allows people to use the farmiliar trigger when playing instead of learning to use a different button.

I also incorporated the 2nd dual timer as a sequencer to perform a jump & crouch automatically. You can either press a momentary push button to perform the task or flip a toggle on and do it constantly.

Please check out the circuit and see if you think it will work! I have never modded a controller before so the behavior of the controls may not be as straight forward as they appear, but I think they are.

P.S. There is some trace cutting for the trigger part of the circuit as I noted on the schematic.

Thanks,
Vert

Ok, I'm a real newb. How do I upload my pic?

This post has been edited by VERTIGONIX: Apr 15 2008, 07:08 PM

[VERTIGONIX]

Finally got it!

This post has been edited by VERTIGONIX: Apr 15 2008, 08:14 PM

[spankymcgee27]

RDC... do you have the new wired controller's pcb mapped out? i need to know which traces to solder. thanks man

[RDC]

@ - controller-guy

There are no nice TP spots on the Wireless controllers like on the Wired ones, the TP spots that are on this version of board aren't for anything useful. Going right to the spots of the Sticks or Triggers are you're better bet.

The reason they've switched over board versions is it's cheaper to make the controllers now, less parts to do the same job, but still cost ya the same price to buy it so they make more money.


@ - VERTIGONIX

Thanks. Sorry bout not getting back to ya sooner.

I get the Crouch/Jump part of your mod, and on the CG controller that's fairly easy to do, but getting the timing of it just right using a 556 IC will be a real pain and probably not stay in time very well over extended use unless ya use precision components with very low tolerances, and even then I'd imagine it would drift in and out of working just right. Plus if it's not setup just right timing wise it'll start miss firing anyway, too fast to register each set of presses so it may catch the first one, but then miss the first press of the next set causing issues, if ya follow what I mean there. That's something that could very accurately be done using a PIC or MCU though. The 556 idea ya have would work, I just don't think it would hold up after finally getting it all timed up, nice idea though.

Using the Trigger to do the rapid fire how ya have it is a pretty good idea, though it's not really using the Trigger per say. I may break out the breadboard and a 555/556 and build it up to see how this works out. The schematic is a tad misleading how ya have it drawn up, but I get where you're going with it. Killing the V+ to the Trigger's POT and using the pulsed output of the 556 instead for that line, really nice idea and I see no reason it shouldn't work right now, will let ya know after I build it up on an actual board and see how it goes. Don't be afraid to get yourself an old Wired or Wireless controller and lay the iron to it and see what else ya can come up with.



@ - spankymcgee27

Pics of that version board are in the Tutorials section.

[VERTIGONIX]

Thanks RDC for replying!

"to do, but getting the timing of it just right using a 556 IC will be a real pain and probably not stay in time very well over extended use unless ya use precision components with very low tolerances"

I am trying to use the timers as sequencers, per say! I figure that the jump will just need a quick pulse to get in the air and the crouch happens right after that for whatever duration a jump lasts. It doesn't need to be percise and the crouch can end early near the end of the jump really. Crouch can't happen until jump. I can see where the continuous jump/crouch might get off, maybe tie the output of the 2nd timer (after the transistor) to the reset of the first timer. This would keep the 1st timer on until the 2nd timer (crouch) started then during crouch time the 1st timer will be turned off so no other pulses will get to the jump or 2nd timer.

The one thing I messed up on was I needed to switch RT and LT, but that really doesn't matter right now. Curious as to how the schematic is misleading!?! Note that S1 will be mounted on the bottom of the controller to switch between normal or rapid fire. You still use the trigger, it just depends on the mode of S1. From my volt meter tests I found that at rest the trigger voltage at the wiper is 0.2v. When the trigger is at 50% it is ~3v and trigger at 100% is 1.5v. So when switched into rapid fire mode the pulses toggling 3v to 0v when trigger is at rest will not trigger a fire. Is this correct? When you start to pull the trigger and the voltage increases above threshold the pulses will start to tickle the microcontrollers input causing rapid fire.

I am going to try the rapid fire stuff first then once I get that working I will tackle the jump stuff. What is really nice is that I can a TLC552 dual timer 14 SOIC that operates from 1v to 18v. Great for this project. I am curious about how a PICAXE handles wireless controller voltage. I can get this rapid fire circuit on a 0.75" x 0.5" board and very flat. Can go anywhere in the controller without removing anything.

Let me know what you come up with and I will do some experimenting over the weekend and let you know what I have done wrong!!!!

Thanks RDC!