Interfacing The Play And Charge Port, I am trying to interface the Play and Charge port Options

[TheCaptain115]

I am trying to interface the Play and Charge port on the Xbox 360 wireless controller. What I am trying to do is pretty simple, I want to read the USB signal coming from the controller that has the data for which buttons are pressed. I then want to take that signal, input it into a microcontroller and do various things for different buttons pressed.

I have been researching this for a few days and have understood that even when the Play and Charge cable is plugged in, the controller still transmits the data to the Xbox wirelessly. I found this pinout on this forum:

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=663878

There are 7 pins total, and I am trying to figure out if any of those pins are actually data output pins for the USB signal. Using an oscilliscope, I have found that pins 2 and 3 (going from left to right in that picture above) have a signal coming from them, but I have no idea if it is the USB signal or not. I am hoping that the 4 pins left after the charge pins are the 4 pins required for USB transmission. I figured I would ask before trying it out and potentially scraping a perfectly good controller.

So, here is what I am looking for. If anyone has a pinout of exactly what all those pins do that would be awesome. If not, I will figure it out and let you guys know. If anyone knows for sure that you can, in fact, tap in to the signal that the controller outputs to the xbox please let me know how to do it.

Thanks!

This post has been edited by TheCaptain115: Aug 31 2009, 06:40 PM

[rjburke377]

This is not exactly what you are asking for but it may help. Try this link for USB and Wireless GamePad protocols: http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/xboxdrv/. Also look for free60 projects.

The protocol between the 360 and the controller is encrypted which I don't think is true when connecting to other hosts like Linux or Windows machines. You may run afoul of the DMCA when discussing details of 360 encryption in an open forum.

Please post anything you can. I am totally interested in this stuff.

/RJ

This post has been edited by rjburke377: Aug 31 2009, 08:07 PM

[TheCaptain115]

Thanks for the link. Does anyone have a pinout of the PnC cable? I remember reading where people were using it to connect to their PC, and windows would recgonize it but it didnt work correctly.

[RDC]

So far as it's known, the Wireless controllers do not send that type of info over the USB lines, but also as far as it's known, no one has looked much into it, I haven't because if I wanted a Wired controller I'd use a Wired controller, not turn a Wireless one into a Wired one where you know for sure that info is there.

If ya want to have at it though the PnC pinout there is similar to a USB cable, 5v, D-, D+ (next 3 are for charging and status between the controller and PnC kit and wouldn't be used for what you're attempting) then Ground.

Good luck, be interesting to see what ya find there.

[TheCaptain115]

Im going to hook it up and see if it is in fact D- and D+ today. Both lines are connected to the microcontroller, if you guys want to know what pins they are connected to let me know. If this works, I will have about 1/3 of my project completed.

Does anyone know if the controller will still transmit data (like button pushes) while it is unbound from the console? I dont have an xbox 360 here with me, I might have to get one for testing purposes.

This post has been edited by TheCaptain115: Sep 1 2009, 02:10 PM

[rjburke377]

Im going to hook it up and see if it is in fact D- and D+ today. Both lines are connected to the microcontroller, if you guys want to know what pins they are connected to let me know. If this works, I will have about 1/3 of my project completed.

Does anyone know if the controller will still transmit data (like button pushes) while it is unbound from the console? I dont have an xbox 360 here with me, I might have to get one for testing purposes.

Do you have a micro-controller USB host protocol stack? I'd be interested in knowing more about this part of your project

/RJ

[TheCaptain115]

Do you have a micro-controller USB host protocol stack? I'd be interested in knowing more about this part of your project

/RJ

No, not currently. What I plan on doing is connecting the wires to a USB cable and simply plugging it in to the PC and see if I can get anything out of it. If not, I'll try and talk to it through hyper terminal. I have already looked at the 2 pins that I am suspecting as being D- and D+ with an oscilliscope and got a nice sine wave. Once I know for sure there is in fact a signal there, thats when I will start programming a microcontroller to read the inputs and give me an output.

Going to solder the wires now, I'll post up the results before lunch.

[RDC]

I already told ya which were D- and D+ on the PnC connector there, and it depends on which version of controller you're actually using as to which leads on the MCU they go to, pins 49/50 on the Matrix and 69/68 on the CG respectively.

[TheCaptain115]

I already told ya which were D- and D+ on the PnC connector there, and it depends on which version of controller you're actually using as to which leads on the MCU they go to, pins 49/50 on the Matrix and 69/68 on the CG respectively.

Yeah those are the correct pins.

I hooked it up, windows recgonized it but I cant find any drivers that work with it. I've tried the official windows driver and the XBCD drivers, neither work. I cant, however, connect to windows update (firewall settings) so maybe I could get something from there.