That is the exact problem i had. I was having the same problem that oxi has, and found out that my solder extended over the solder points to the surrounding scraped green contact mesh. This was causing not only my new "A" and "B" buttons to not work, but also the orignals on the top. ONce i resoldered my points so that it was not running over into the surrounding copper mesh, everything work perfectly.


Also, for all those who are wanting to just swop two buttons, all you have to do is find the points that have trace running from it to another point, then just cut those traces and then jump wires to each corresponding point where you cut the traces. There is no need to worry about cutting traces to the ground points. I did this for swoping the two analog stick click buttons, and it worked perfectly, and was easy to do, once i figured out what to do.



I'm running into the same problems with 360 games trying to re-invent the fps control wheel, when it comes to button setup.

COD2 melee is just in the most fubard place, but i do love the gernades on the left shoulder button, and i'm thinking of doing the same for halo.

I wonder if it were possible to add a jumper switch table to the outside of the controller, so that you could enable and disable with a click on or off of what buttons you wanted for the buttons you wanted changed? I'm sure this would work.

Thanks for the diagram! That looks like how I did it, but I am having a hard time seeing the letters. If you could blow up the pic a little bit more for me that would be great. Thanks again Jeremy! Maybe just make the letters Yellow so they are more destinctive.

I bet it is that I am grounding it because some of them I have scraped just past the circle. Ill resoilder and let you guys know what happens!! Thanks for all the help!

Jeremy check out this on LLama they posted your button mod http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/mods/extra-3...ler-buttons.htm

OK I GOT IT!!! It was that I soildered off those pads. Dam those pads Anyways I want to thank Jeremy for the help and Foe Hammer that last post helped out alot. I gave up with it untill you said I might be hitting ground if I soildered past those circles. Thanks everybody!!!

Took some BIG pics of it (the WIRED pad):

http://arkadesticks.com/360/360W1.JPG
http://arkadesticks.com/360/360W2.JPG
http://arkadesticks.com/360/360W3.JPG
http://arkadesticks.com/360/360W4.JPG
http://arkadesticks.com/360/360W5.JPG
http://arkadesticks.com/360/360W6.JPG

jeremydammit
Can you write what is ground and what is button on the markings I made in this pic please:
http://arkadesticks.com/360/360W1mod.jpg

Thanks!

I would also like to know.

Bump.

Any news???

Hey buddy, I submitted your tut to the main page....should have been on there months ago

Nice shit!

And thanks for letting me borrow your other 360...even though you're gonna cost me 20-30 bucks cause I can't dare hook it up with composite cables.

How goes everyone, glad to see some controller hacking going on. The easiest way to swap the Triggers I've found is to just swap the Wiper on the Trigger Pots. I've made up a tutorial on it that you can get from here if anyone wants to check it out.

http://www.savefile.com/files/7107987 - TRIGGERS


I had a request awhile back before the 360 was out to do a stick swap on a 360 controller. So when I got ahold of one I made a tutorial on that as well. Thought it would be pretty useless considering the 360 dash lets you set that up. But since GRAW came out with no Southpaw or Legacy stick setups a few people have found it useful, until they patch it or whatever they plan on doing. It's made specifically for the wired M$ brand 360 controller, but the principles apply to any controller really.

http://www.savefile.com/files/5614032 - STICKS

Both of these mods are Semi-Permanent, so there's no trace cutting involved, just a lot of unsoldering and resoldering.


TheRealNeoGeo - The 360 Wired controller doesn't have a "common ground" like the S-controller did. It's laid out inside more like a keyboard or telephone keypad. There are 7 connections for 13 buttons. The dashboard button and Start button are the only ones that really share a common GND which you have marked. If you solder a wire from each side of the original buttons trace to your alternate button, then you don't have to worry about what's GND and what's Signal, since you're alternate button will be doing what the original one did. That's the plus side, the minus side is you end up with 2 wires for each button you want to use and that will get messy fast.

It seems like some real progress is being made here but I'm wondering if anyone has tried to mod an original xbox controller or an S to use them on the 360. Some people prefer the button layout on the original controller with the 6 buttons on the face and while the tutorial could work, it'd work even better if a controller could be modified.

Also, TheRealNeoGeo claimed to be working on converting his Arcade stick to be used on the 360. If you're reading this, have you succeeded?

If I had a 360 I might mess around with that mod, be a real mess though, most likely have to stick the 360 board in the S-controller and custom fit everything else.

With the mod jeremydammit did and those buttons, you can pretty much make the button layout like the S-controller. Way easier than getting the 360 board stuffed in an S-controller case, but I still may try it one day for a hoot.


EDIT: There's a typo in my previous post, there are 8 connections that make up the 13 buttons A, B, X, Y, LB, RB, Back, LThumb, RThumb and the 4 D-pad directions on the 360 Wired controller.

I take that last post half back, I just looked at the 360 wired board and the S-controller board and the Sticks as well as A, B, X, Y and D-pad buttons all line up, so that still makes it a mess, but a lot easier mess to do. I may take a stab at it sooner. Still have to add buttons for the Dash, B&W. Star, Back and get the Triggers stuffed in there.

Have you figured out how to do this on a wireless controller?

Sorry about getting back to ya so late, I haven't been getting any e-mails that let me know about replies in the forums.

I've got a tutorial for swapping the Sticks on the Wireless, and I can swap the Triggers as well, but haven't made the tutorial for that exact mod yet. The Wireless mods are a little harder than the Wired controller, there's no nice easy TPxx spots to solder onto, but it can be done.

how exactly can you re-arrange your buttons?? This confuses me.

and how is it possible to disable the bumpers and move the button to where there used to be black and white buttons.

~jeff~

jeremydammit's tutorial is for adding extra "physical" buttons on the controller, like where the B&W buttons are on the S-controller. You can add a couple there on the 360 controller since there's room for them. You can disable (unsolder or cut the traces) the Bumpers, or just add a couple of switches where the B&W buttons would be, then wire them up with the Bumpers so they do their functions.

It's not a move X to D-pad left type of mod, but I've done that. Swapped the D-pad and A,B,X,Y buttons functions inside the controller, for some REAL hardcore Southpaw gamers.

Hello, how can i solder to these points? I tried and the solder doesn't stick to the holes on the board at all, just the wire. I really want to duplicate the A button so I'd appreciate some help.
thanks

You have to carefully scrape away the coating of stuff and you will get metal to solder to.

Ok

Edit: I tried doing that, i scrapped a little off and saw some metal(at least it looked like metal) and it still wouldn't stick at all, so i scrapped pretty deep and it stuck a little bit but then when you even touched the wires it popped off. When I get a new wireless, cause i pretty much screwed this one up trying to drill the torx screws out, is there a chance I can send it to someone to add an A button on the bottom, and how much would it cost?
thanks

bump

idk how much it would cost, but you can pm jeremydammit and see what he can do, afterall he did make this tut and use it

Is there a way I can just wire it different so that the a button is on bottom instead of adding an extra button, I still can't figure out how to solder to them points and I don't want to pay $20 to get it done, the reason is I can do everything but soldering the stupid wires to the points.
What are the big pad underneathe the a button? can I wire that to a button and place it on the bottom, even if the original a button stops working?

You can hold the controler upside down. Without adding another button how else would you expect to have one there?

You can try scraping the "balck" off the original A buttons contacts until you get down to trace, then solder to it. That WILL ruin the original A buttons ability to function though.

The traces for the A button on the bottom of the Wireless board are here, connect to the DARK RED and GREEN lines somewhere to duplicate the A with another button. They're still small places to solder to or you'll be doing some masking removal to get a place to connect to.

When you scrape them open, is that copper colored ring the metal part, or didn't i scrape far enough?
I don't know if I have different solder that doesn't work as well or doesn't it matter?
And would it work if I used something else to get them to stay on the points?
Thanks.

You should be using 60/40 Rosin Core solder.

If you see copper that's the trace you need to solder to. Depending on what it looks like will tell you if you've scraped off enough masking. Use several LIGHT scrapes until you get enough of the masking off and can make a good solder joint.

If it's dull almost orange looking then there's most likely still a thin layer of masking still on it.

If it's bright and shiny then STOP, you've removed enough and any more scraping and you could end up scraping it completely off the board. Then you'll have to make 2 correct scrapes on that line somewhere in order to solder a "jumper" wire over the open you made. If it IS shiny and you're using the correct solder and you're not getting the solder to stick, then you need some practice.

Practice on something you don't care about ruining to see how much scraping it takes to get the trace exposed and soldered to correctly. All boards aren't exactly the same, but it will give you a better "feel" for doing it on something that can be messed up on and not worried about, and you'll be better prepared to work on something important, like a $50 controller, after you've made a few good scrape/solder joints on a crap board.



No, solder them on. Tape or glue will sooner or later come undone, and it makes for a lousy connection in the first place. The main reason for soldering is to make a good electrical connection between the 2 pieces, the fact it holds really good as well is just a great bonus.

Maybe it's the solder, it's a pretty thick coil, i can't remember what type it said on it when i bought it.
Oh and I practice on the other wirless i messed up trying to drill the torx screws out after not being able to find the bits. scraping too much off the points don't mess up the controller unless you scrape all the way to the other side, i tried. might not be able to ad extra buttons, but it didnt mess up the ones that are already there.
Thanks for the help.

If you mean the other side of the board then that's just a flat out given, you'd end up with a hole in it. If you scrape too much you can remove enough of the trace around the Via so that the connection will not work anymore. The Via goes all the way through the board to the other side, the trace sits on the top/bottom and around the edge of the Via.

I'm ordering some of the buttons that jeremydamnit recommended from mouser.com
http://www.mouser.com/index.cfm?handler=di...e_pcodeid=68800 and i know i need 60/40 resin solder, anyone got a link on mouser.com which stuff i need? there's so much there

I use a .61mm diameter Rosin core (.024in) How much of it ya get is up to you really. I wouldn't get anything with a bigger daimeter than that, this size is pretty good for most jobs. If you want to get something a little smaller that's good too, you can always add more on, but soldering to a small joint with something like .125in is like using a welder to fix a necklace. There's nothing wrong with grabbing a roll of each either, you may need to lay the solder on something one day and wish you had a bigger diameter. Just make sure you have a good iron, keep it clean and know how to use it properly. After all those are taken care of just about any 60/40 Rosin core solder will do ya just fine.

I did my buttons in about March and it was great. Completely changes the way you play Halo and other shooters. I repositioned the A & B buttons to the underside of the controller so Jumping & "Whacking" would be possible without having to remove my thumb from the stick. I don't have the pictures on this computer but i will post them later today when i get back to work from lunch.

Here are a couple pictures of what my controller looks like now.

@gopokes7

What type of buttons are those and where did you pick them up? If ya don't mind me askin.

@RDC
My girlfriend got me the ColdHeat soldering iron for xmas and I havn't used it just yet. Would it do the job for this or should I use a friends soldering iron for something like this? Know anyone that's used these irons before and have they liked them?

@will042082 - Give her an A+ for at least getting something useful, the other one I know of was also a gift, but from his wife. I personally wouldn't use it, I only saw one used once and wasn't to impressed with it's results, and I only know of one other person that's used it and they said it was alright, but he's not into soldering really big. It seems like more of a "quick fix around the house" type of iron, I wouldn't lay it to something delicate like the 360 controllers board.

doesn't work for this small stuff....there was a discussion about them a long time ago. as rdc says...good for a quick fix around the house.

Also the big black buttons look just like the ones I used on old xbox when i first did this mod. You can get them at radio shack, but I recomend after you screw the plastic fitting on, melt the plastic so they will not come unsrewed and get loose from pounding buttons They are still on my kasumi controller to this day....never had any problems. They are far more comfortable than the small mouser flush mount buttons

So is it possible to put one of those buttons Jeremy uses about where the middle finger rests on the bottom without removing the rumbler?

Yeah you can install those type of Tact Switches without messing with the Rumble Motors, they're pretty small.

Cool. Any recommendations on where to put it? I'm just concerned I might stick it in a place where I'll either hit it accidentally or my hand won't be comfortable trying not to hit it, but still keep it where I can use it easily. Should I put it where my middle finger naturally sits or slightly above if I can? Anyone got any pics?

Well I guess after just playing with the button some its not really sensitive.. I think I'll go with the spot where my middle fingertip rests.

I got my buttons for A and B installed, but I haven't completed the soldering to the controller PCB. I tried and solder would not stick at all to the PCB. I take it I need to scrape the rings of the contacts with an exacto knife???

Are you doing this on a Wired or Wireless controller? If you want the solder to "stick" to any spot that has masking on it (the green stuff) then you'll have to scrape it off to get the copper exposed. Be VERY careful doing that so you don't end up scratching it so much the copper goes with it. Let me know which you're doing and I'll show ya the best spots to attach the wires to, there are a few places that don't need the masking scraped off and will make it a little easier to do.

Wireless.

These pics are with the Right Trigger removed, but you'll be able to hit the spots I mention without having to remove it from your board. You'll have to scrape down one Via to get this done. That beats having to do 4 of them, so long as you get the one done right I use 30AWG Kynar wire, since it's small enough to hit these spots and stays where you bend it.

WIRELESS


GREEN and DARK RED = A

RED and ORANGE = B

For the new A button, solder one wire to the GREEN trace where it connects to D10. Since it's already soldered there to that part, you have a pretty good place to attach a wire. For the other wire you'll have to scrape down a Via at the DARK RED spot, right beside where it says R23.

For the new B button, solder one wire to the RED trace where it connects to D10. Solder the other wire to the solder joit on the ORANGE trace, to the left of R47.



WIRED



GREEN and DARK RED = A

RED and WHITE/BLUE = B

For the new A button, solder one wire to the GREEN spot at D5. Solder the other wire at the joint that's on the DARK RED trace.

For the new B button, solder one wire to the RED spot where it connects at D11. For the other wire you'll have to scrape down a Via at the WHITE/BLUE spot (left middle of the pic) use either one, they're both connected on the top of the board so it makes no difference at all.

Cool. Thanks for the help man.

Also when scrapping do I just need to expose the copper around the circle? Not directly in the circle right?

You're welcome.

In the very center of the Via (the circle) is either going to be some masking, solder, or nothing at all. If you go digging any deeper or try to clean it out you'll end up with a bad Via and more than likely no connection there at all. Have a look here on how you should scrape down the Via and solder to it.

I have done many xbox/controller mods in the past but I am having some trouble with the triggers on the 360 wired controller. I would like to have extra buttons for the triggers but I run into problems when trying to wire momentary contact pushbuttons to the trigger. Does anyone know of a way to do this? I only want the triggers to be on/off with the extra buttons and not analog. Any help would be appreciated.

Just solder one of the new buttons wires to the Wiper (center lead of the Triggers POT) and the other wire to Ground.

It's explained in a little more detail here for an Arcade Stick mod, but it gets wired up the same way. You'll most likely be leaving the Triggers in, so just solder the wires to the correct spots on the other side of the baord and forget about the Resistor completely, it's only needed if the Trigger has been removed.

RDC, what you suggested is exactly what I originally attempted to do. I used that method when I modded the original XBOX controller and it worked fine. The XBOX S controllers did not allow me to add a momentary contact button on the triggers. I tested prior mods on the FBA emulators input test feature and no matter what I did with an S controller the triggers could not be used. The input test would read that multiple buttons are being press simultaneously when a trigger was connected to a pushbutton. It appears to be the same case when trying to wire pushbuttons on the triggers of a 360 controller. I have no input tester on the 360 so I use SFII HF for XBOX Arcade to test. When I test the method suggested my character will do several different moves. It is never consistent and to further test I tried to assign buttons in the controller config menu of SFII HF. When the pushbutton is pressed the cursor rapidly moves down and no command is assigned. I would like to know if you tested and confirmed your method. Every mod I see for a 360 controller has no confirmed method for wiring the triggers to pushbuttons. The triggers are usually bypassed and the bumpers are used instead. Thanks for your suggestion and any further information will be appreciated.

This isn't my first dance when it comes to controller mods either. I've swapped the Thumb Stick buttons with the Triggers for a guy that is handicapped and can play better that way, I know you can use a pushbutton in place of the Trigger and vice-vesa as well. In that thread I linked to in the previous post, gadgetman18i3 didn't have any issues with it at all getting it to work.

What happens when you pull the actual Trigger itself? Do you get the exact same outcome? or does pulling the Trigger work correctly? What are you wiring it up to and how are you doing it?