well i havent seen it done yet

what sux is the controllers only output 2.8v, so i need to find sum 2.8v leds or juice up the power with a transistor or something.

they still look good but could be a little brighter.

i also noticed their was a pad labeled led5 under the ps button, i soldered an led in play but i could not get it to light up, so i grounded one end and the other end i put to the red wire right above it



Stock board


Board with 5th led


Final Product

Nice! You probably just have to find the unmounted resistor for that additional led you found and short it out. Then I think you can use those pads, and not have to do that (nicely done) franken-mod

/pablot

hmm i didnt think about that.

ill check into it sum more 2day, i was a bit tired last night and i figured it would work heheh

it would be great if you could snap some high-res photos of the pcb (both front and back) as I haven't seen any good high-res ones. That helps a lot when something needs to be traced.

/pablot

cool pics, looks nice. unfortunately, i haven't even seen the stock leds turn on, on mine

funny they put this on engadget, maxconsole (i posted in their forums) ps3.qj



http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/02/sixaxis...e-led-makeover/

congrats mate, being featured is cool.

I tried this mod with a normal 5mm blue LED @ 3.7v and it worked just as well but it's a lot brighter. In order to fit this in there though you need to do a little more modding. I had to melt down the cylinder under the PS button and cut the clear rubber insert in order for it to fit but it's pretty damn bright.

that is considerably brighter, wwould a 3mm have fit?

hmm.. a little too bright for me, but still nice.. why didn't they put a diode in there by default?

nice job but it looks a lil bright. like the light istn distributed right,

maybe a 3m will work better.

BUT YES SONY SHOLD HAVE INCLUDED THE MYSTIROUS 5TH LED

BTW how did you solder that LED? did you use the same points as i did? 2.8v? i couldnt find a 3.3v switchable source, the ones i tried the led always stayed on and didnt turn off witht he controller.

Its surprisingly not as bright as the pictures look. You would think youd be blinded by it in the dark but I cant get a great picture of it with my camera. Im sure a 3mm would fit in there much better than the 5mm, it was just all they had so I went with it. It is definitely noticable in all lighting situations though.

I used the same solder points as you did eb, the only thing I had to change was cut into a few parts on the controller for it to actually fit in there, it's pretty snug


Something I noticed when I went to walmart to buy a spare controller (aside from the PS3s that they couldnt get rid of) was a stock photo of a PS3 controller with a red lit PS button. Looks as though they originally planned on having that light up red just never got around to it for some reason

Had to throw one in of the whole family

heres my next gen family



(sorry current gen you get cut out this pic)

Nice setup, I like the blue consistency

thx thx

i just noticed Nice faceplate on the 360, i really wish they came out with a case that the pattern continues to the sides.

How do you like the HD-DVD player. im not a big movie fan so i havnt got one yet. plus now i got blue-ray so i dont kno if its worth it. maybe a bit down the road when i can get em a lil cheaper

Thx, it was always my favorite faceplate out there for the 360 so I had to get it. Im actually pretty impressed with the picture quality of HD-DVD. Every movie I have has had a noticibly sharper picture causing me to notice things in some movies (like texture on Johnny Depps shirt in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) that never stood out with a DVD. Im guessing it's because of the VC-1 codec used. On the other hand I have some blu-rays that are less than impressive, notably Memento, don't waste your time with this transfer as it looks pretty much identical to the DVD in terms of picture quality.

did i mention that i hate you both for having an amazing collection of consoles...btw, i like the blue, ebphondaprelude. does the vision camera usually have lights, or did you add them?

Got bored and decided to put a green 3mm in another controller to see how it compared. Not sure I like the color too much and its nowhere near as bright as the blue one.

instructions!! instructions!!! soldering stuff is fun! but poking my finger with a hot iron isn't fun if there isn't a set of instructions to follow!!!!! with a desired result (this case, Blue LED controller)

thx thx

nice lookin, the 3mm looks better i might try one their later
Now you gotta do the top SMD leds to match ;-)

yeah the green looks quite nice i think. good work.

parts needed:

PS3 controller
3mm LED (or 5mm if you want a really bright light, its a tight squeeze)
some wire
some solder
some patience


First you need to solder some short wires to the PCB board @ the "5" hole on the right side, and at the leg where the red wire plugs into the middle of the board. you will then solder an led to these 2 wires, do this while the controller is on so you can make sure it works. If you are using a 3mm or 5mm rather than the size eb used, you must melt or cut the black piece of plastic that is a cylinder under the PS button. It is the cylinder that the clear rubber piece slides into. This will allow the LED to sit in this cylinder directly under the PS button. you will also have to cut the part of the clear rubber piece that goes down into this cylinder. Leave enough to where it still sits in the rubber holster. After this is all done you should be able to just close it up and be done. BEFORE you put it all back together put the analog sticks back on the board and make sure they dont hit the wires to the LED (this happened to me and I had to make some adjustments.




Do you know of a good source for those smaller LEDs? I couldnt find any in town where I am so I figure I'll have to order them online

Can you take some pics of the underside of the PCB? I'm not quite understanding what you are soldering to. So you just solder one wire, for the positive pole, to the red on that connector and then for the ground you solder to the "5" hole?

also, would THIS 1.8mm LED work? would i need to alter my controller in any way to make this fit?

awsome mod, thanks man!

That LED looks to be 2.5v max and I believe you'll be getting 2.8 from this remote, so it may be too much for that LED, im not for sure on that though. Id recommend going with a 3mm or using what eb originally posted with. That is a great price though, I paid nearly $5 for a 5mm blue LED at Radio Shack. Also you dont need to solder anything to the bottom of the pcb. There are a few pads for ground but you can just solder it to that hole that is labeled 5. Some of those other holes, or all of them, may be grounds I didnt test any of the other ones. Just went with what eb did.




Hey eb, what size SMDs are those? I see PLCC2, 1206, 0805, and 0603 available. Are they very difficult to solder? Ive never messed with LEDs like that

whew! That took longer than expected. I burned myself on the damn soldering iron, too!

but I finally finished doing this, though I didn't change the color
I couldn't find any surface mount LEDs (they aren't sold in my area).

I used a 3mm red LED, and it worked perfectly, albeit it's a bit dim, but it's fine. Pluse, with a little modification to that translucent column under the PS button (i.e. cutting a small portion off), you can fit it right into the cylinder.

here's a pic (crappy, I know ):

i used 0603 size leds

they are abuot the size of the letter E on the front of a dime

the wire that goes to the back goes to a PAD labeled GRD (ground) their are abuot 5 diffrent ones on the back to choose from.

Thx

<MikE>

well i followed the instructons n heres the outcome

this did take a while, i hate usin that iron thing

an someone make a tut with pictures step by step? Cause I haven't really done something like this before. Thanks.

ok guys, i went to RadioShack tonight and grabbed 2 types of leds....

20 Assorted LED's The only thing is they don't tell you what is what inside the pack.

I also bought a 1.7 volt becuase the guy told me it would work but it has a 2.4v max....so i guess that one is out also. I just may take these back and order some from that site i posted up there...unless you guys think these may work.

What size guage wire are you guys using also and what do you put under the led to keep the contacts from touching the PCB? Never really worked with LED's, soldered a good bit and modded a few xbox's, but never messed with LED's....

a step by step with pics would be nice also! Thanks guys!

***edit*** - I'm also having a tough time finding 2.8v LED's. everything is between 2-2.6V max. can i still use those? Also, how does this fare against battery drain?

Yeah, neither have I and I would really appreciate it if someone would post instructions with pictures...

PCB board? PCM? I have no idea what you guys are talking about, but I would love to learn

the picz in this thread n the instructions really show everything, I dont think its to hard, the only thing thats kinda hard is solderin the wires u really need a steady hand

So I took my controller apart to find the missing resistor's pads. I think I've managed pretty well, but it would be better if someone with a multimeter (one with exceedingly small probes) would go over my highlighting to ensure that I've followed the traces correctly.




If I'm right, that missing resistor is all that's stopping the empty LED 'socket' from working. Without it, the red trace is electrically isolated from the rest of the board. With it, the LED is tied to an IC of some nature, something I believe likely to maintain full functionality. (If they don't redesign the pads away, why change the IC out?) I'm assuming that the blue trace, as it was connected to many things other than just the LED, is fully functional without modification.

Now for a question of my own... removing the screws was easy enough. but there is a plastic catch that was difficult for me to open. I ended up using a screwdriver to push the pieces apart and the casing got some rather unpleasant-looking scratches. Is there an easy way to open the casing after the screws have been removed, or will I be scratching every controller I modify? I'm certainly hoping that sony designed it better than I think they did... I can see many controller casings being broken during battery replacement-attempts...

(the PCB photos I stole and highlighted were originally posted by ebphondaprelude and jeremydammit)

Just to double check, all you have to do is solder two wires, and an LED (the blue wires in the picture...) correct? and did you solder the (left) blue wire to the port across the red wire (the center of the controller)



Also, how do I go about changing the four red LEDs (that tell you the controller port). So I just break them off and solder blue ones (that are also 2.8v)?


And my last question, does the center LED turn off when the controller is off? or does it continuously drain the battery? (I've heard from a different modder that his first attempt drained the battery even when its off...)

BTW great work guys...you make it seem so...easy!

NeoSHODAN awesome work, gives a few more things to test and play with. hopefully we can find out how to make the pads active and work so we dont have to use wire for the led.



FmanFORPS3 - yes 2 wires the positive to the red wire and the ground to a ground, BTW their is no 2,8v blue leds, blue leds are 3.3v (at least to my knowledge)

and the led will turn off with the controller if you power it with the red wire as in the picture, if you go strait off the battery then it will always be on,



numba107 - AGREED, i didnt think their would be so much a need for a tutorial otherwise i would have made one, but then again i didnt expect a small led mod to get so much publicity

ahh, good stuff NeoSHODAN!!

Thats perfect. So all you need to do is add a resistor to that empty resistor footprint and a led to the led footprint. If the voltage is low enough you probably don't need a resistor there, you can just short the resistor out with some solder. Wonder it the led has any functionallity in the firmware or if it will be solid off? Someone try it! =)

/pablot

This is all so confusing...WHats soldering and where can I buy it??

Can someone post step by step pictures and instructions? It'd be greatly appreciated.

aaquib2- If you have never soldered before...you don't want this to be your first attempt. I promise. Also, you cannot buy soldering- it involves solder, a soldering iron, and lots of patience.

one quick question, you guys using the 5mm leds...did you put the led in the black hole under the PS button? how snug was the fit and how much of the clear plastic did you have to remove? Thanks!

to anyone who is still confused (as was I), you pretty much have to just follow the picture. Solder one blue wire from the '5' hole to the LED, and one wire from the LED to the center of the board (the leg where the red LED plugs in). Thats it!


(yeah, I used paint )

BTW, I know I'm repeating all of this, but I'm sure some people will still be confused..

FmanFORPS3 - thx for the pic i hope that clears some things up



BTW i did not solder the negative to hole 5 (i forgot if hole 5 is a ground or not)

mine actually goes through the hole and to a pad on the back labled GND which is right on the other side of the hole.

i didnt want to fill the holes incase i used them for something else, but if it is a ground then it is all the same (or at least should be)

I would also like to know that myself.

I just finished mine. All in all it took me about 2 hours to tear the controller apart, solder it, and rebuild the controller. tearing the thing apart and rebuilding was the hardest part.



I used a 3v 5mm and it lights up nicely. not too bright and not too dim. my camera phone sucks but that all i have while at the location i'm currently at. i carved the black hole out enough to fit the entire led into, has anyone else done this? It helps alot. I then put a small strip of electical tape under the led on the pcb just incase it touches. worked without a hitch!

I guess the only thing i have a question about is how much faster will this drain the bettery? also, it's not killing the battery while the controller isn't in use right? Thanks guys for everything!

the wire sized i used was 30awg

as far as over the pad i used i lil peice of electrical tape but i guess anything non-metal would work

great work man, but yah with blue it is a little dim. As another user said the sodering is easy/fast, taking the god damn controller apart (specially for the first time) and putting it back to gether is a bitch. I really hope someone smarter than me (read: pablot) would figure out how to use the led 5 pad.

hey can someone write a step by step instructions on how to do this?
Thanks

The stuff provided in this thread is pretty step-by-step.

1)Take controller apaprt
2)Solder wire to LED
3)Solder wire to tilt-control power plug
4)Solder wire to #5 hole
6)Modify the black plastic piece and fit the LED inside (the black plastic piece is the plastic that the contoller buttons sit on)
7)Cut the white rubber cylinder that sits right under the PS button so that the LED will fit
8)Put the controller back together

That is pretty much step-by-step the way i did it. It's very simple once you get started. Like i said before, tearing the controller apart and rebuilding is the biggest time consumer.

well now im startin to think this was a bad idea, my controller dies much faster n the light has been actin wierd

what size led are you using that it dies that much faster,

i use an 0603 and notice no diffrence at all

Thx

<MikE>

i really wanna do this! You think if I go to home depot they'd do it for me?

or picture instructions please!

Damnit, someone beat me to it. I took pictures this morning and followed the traces. Anyway, I think it's a capacitor that's missing and not a resistor. I can't say for sure because the spot is not labeled, but almost everything else in the area is a capacitor.

I'm attaching my picture only because I wasted the time to make it. =P

Unfortunately, I don't have any surface mount LEDs and capacitors to try it yet.