Rocking trigger for 360 controller

[rooket mooncher]

What if you put a rocking trigger on a xbox 360 controller. I thought it sounded like a great idea because I play paintball and I’m fairly fast with one. It would for sure make a great online experience. So I decided to take the challenge and I ventured off to my local GameStop. Sadly they didn’t have any used controllers that I could afford. So I had to settle with a cheap off brand.

So I decided to make a prototype. The pipe hits the plastic/metal piece which pushes it down into the other metal piece which makes the connection. This pic can explain better than I can-



Note: It is a prototype and I plan on makeing something more safe.

I cracked open the controller only to see that the trigger was a little bit different than I expected. When the trigger is pulled it pushes down into a pivot. From there it spins I don’t known where the connections are to attach the wires (hate wires). So that’s what’s preventing me from finishing this project.





Any suggestions…?

 

[TaSlAyEr]

i see on many paintball guns the dual trigger the kind with the to groves i say once the protype is done try and take one or two of those triggers and put them on the controller 

[rooket mooncher]

once the protype is done try and take one or two of those triggers and put them on the controller 

The prototype is done, its the putting it on the controller that i need help with. I dont know where to put the wires.

Help would be appreciated.

[TaSlAyEr]

lol i dont know how to wire controllers so im useless

[802Chives]

  great Idea for a mod here, wondering if you still need help.  there is a potentiometer in the trigger, but it can be done with thos micro switches as digital I believe.   On the top side to the controller there are 3 solder points where the potentiometer connects to the board.  One side of your switch needs to be on the middle pin, the other will go on either the above or below joint from the middle, depending on what version board you use.  just try it, most likely won't hurt the board, but I would recommend putting like a 1k resistor in line with your switch, so it doesn't create a dead short and maybe damaging the contollers trigger input.

Let me know if you need more help on this, I will find pics for you and draw a little schematic if you'd like.  Probably have already figured it out, if so would love to see how you mounted it. 

[rooket mooncher]

Thanks for the help ill give it a try! 

[rooket mooncher]

there is a potentiometer in the trigger, but it can be done with thos micro switches as digital I believe.   On the top side to the controller there are 3 solder points where the potentiometer connects to the board.  One side of your switch needs to be on the middle pin, the other will go on either the above or below joint from the middle, depending on what version board you use. 
Let me know if you need more help on this

I cant find the solder pins...

Here are some pics of the top of the board.

[TaSlAyEr]

man that controller insides look way different the the normal ones if you had a real xbox controller i could point the pins out but i cant see them on this board

[rooket mooncher]

I think it might have something to do with these three solder points...



What do you guys think?

[802Chives]

alright, if you have a digital multimeter (u should) with the controller powered hold your neg probe to negative battery contact, and see what the voltage each of those three pins are with the positive probe.   Then check voltages with trigger pulled, probably the middle one will change, You will need to know what the pressed and unpressed voltages are.

So hopefully one of the outside pins will be close to 0V or ground, and the other will be anywhere from 1.5 to 5V. You will need to connect one side of each of your switches together and then thru a resistor to the middle pin on controller. If the middle pin is ground when pressed then you will connect the other side of your two switches to ground, if it is high or whatever the pin with voltage is when pressed then hook them to that side.

As for the resistor, start big and work your way down until it works, maybe start with 10K, 1k, 500, 100, 50, 10.  might not need a resistor at all, but if cant afford to kill it then use a resistor.

Leads me to my next point, this can be hazardous, there are no sure things in modding.  That being said, I am not responsible if you end up frying this baby, goes with territory.  I wouldnt' worry tho, these things are pretty forgiving when it comes to modding.

What the heck kind of controller is that anyway?

[tnsmongoose]

sad thing is im in the paintball industry an the rocking trigger frame never took off so it dicontinued.

[ryan0]

I just wrote down a few notes/problem solving on this,here they are:

the trigger is analog,it has a potentiometer and the rocking trigger is digital
You will need to code an analog to digital converter for a microcontroller to solve this.
You will lose pressure sensitivity which will mean less control in driving games etc

I will code this for you if you like as it would be a very simple code,but I will also need your help in finding the resistance on the potentiometer at which the xbox thinks the controller is fully pressed.
add me on msn ryandardis@hotmail.com so we can talk about this
also i cannot flash the code to a microcontroller for you,you will ahve to build or buy a pic programmer and buy some pic's to do it with

[802Chives]

Ryan0: microcontroller is way over kill for this, you essentially only need to make the connection from either the high or low leg of the trigger potentiometer to the wiper depending on what controller type.  A straight connection (short) may damage the input that wiper is connected to, so that is why I told him to start with 50k resistor in series with the switch and work down from that until it works.

May work with just straight short too depending on what M$ did to limit the input if anything.  I suspect a 1k will work fine.

A micro will work, but an ADC is not nessecary either as you are essentially taking a digital input and trying to make an analog output,(ADC is input) but no need for analog cuz we already know RF uses digital in and out and works fine. (I have hit the wiper with 3V when it only goes to 1.5V in normal function and works fine)  If you were really worried about analog output you would have to use a DAC(which is output) which is not available in the 8pin pics we use around here.

[ryan0]

I've come up with a much bettwer way to do this that still keeps pressure senstivity and lets you use it as a normal trigger if you want to,i'm drawing up diagrams i'll post them in a few hours

*update* plans will take a few days,I can't get the mechanism right