360miniCL Controller PCB

[RDC]

This started off as another project to put a Wired 360 controller into the older PS1 SCPH-1180 shell. That's the Dual Analog, but before Rumble, PS1 controller.

The Wired CL version board can be cut down pretty small as it is, which I've done before to make the 3PS60 controller, but any smaller than around 36 x 56mm and there's a mess of traces to rebuild along with one of the Rumble motor circuits so it will all work, plus having to solder to a lot of traces to connect up wires, which is only fun up to a point.

I decided to design up another version of the CL board, about as compact as it can be without going 4 layers or more and still using most of the original components that is. Thus the 360miniCL came about, which is roughly 20 x 42mm and has TP spots for all of the buttons and such. Most are only 1mm wide, but that's like landing a paper airplane on the deck of an aircraft carrier by comparison to putting a 30awg wire on a trace that's 0.3mm wide.

Some might consider it far more work to remove the parts from the original board and solder them up to a new one, since a hot air setup is required for the MCU, but it's less of a headache in the log run, especially if you're trying to save as much space as possible. Right now I have the board design made up and some prototypes ordered, and when they show up I'll be swapping the core components over from a Wired CL controller to one of them and see what all I missed. I'm expecting some issue to crop up and need addressing as this was all done in a few days time, but we'll see how it goes.

These are renders of the PCB, which was all done in DipTrace. I'll get some pics of the actual blank PCBs when they show up, then after I've transferred the components over also.

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[3D0kassiah]

 

[Anonamous]

Hey RDC I just want to say thanks for this post because now I know of DipTrace lol. I was trying to design a board in eagle but my design required that I have components put diagonally on and angle and couldn't. I found you can do this in DipTrace, so thanks

[RDC]

Welcome, but that can be done in Eagle as well.  When you select the Rotate function, in the Parameters window is the Angle: Drop Down box that has 90, 180 and 270 in it. You can enter any amount you want in there, 45 for diagonal, press Enter, and then you have that as an option for rotating. Make sure the Parameters option is checked or you can't see it, just right click in any toolbar to see, by default it should be on though.

[Rodent]

here is the link incase anyone else is interested in reading about it or what not for DipTrace

Hope this helps members along with the program also
http://www.diptrace.com/index.php?en=1

[RDC]

Boards are in. Here are a couple pics of them nice and blank..

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..and one populated up for testing. The ick all over it is just solder flux, it can be cleaned up pretty after it's working and everything is where it should be, which probably isn't going to happen with this one since it's a prototype for testing and seeing what all I need to change around. This one only has one Rumble circuit soldered up for right now also..

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I figured some changes would need to be made, because no matter how much you plan something real world will always let you know you missed something or that sometimes 2+2 doesn't = exactly 4, and so far I've run across a couple of things I'm going to redo, but nothing really major. I have this one tested so far as the buttons and all of the Analog lines go, and they all work. The only thing left to test out are the Rumble motors, LEDs and the Headset connector.



Here's a pic of the 360miniCL compared to the actual CL controller board..




..and compared to one that is cut down to the size I used for making up a 3PS60 controller. It's also the one that's giving the components for the 360miniCL testing.

[Rodent]

^^^^ nice work RDC ... nice pics also

[hyper999]

This is just insane. haha nice work

[RDC]

New version of the 360miniCL board has been sent off to be made up. I changed a few things around and corrected some errors that were discovered the first go around.

These are the renders of the revised board, the bottom one is just the first run of a DS2mini, which is what will be going in the controller project that the 360miniCL was originally designed for.


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[snowcolt17]

very nice work rdc.

[RDC]

Thanks all.

Everything is tested out now and works like it's supposed too. Wired up a Headset connector and the mic/speaker are fine. Plugged up a chatpad and that's all good too. LEDs work, though ended up labeled wrong on this version of board, doh, but problems were expected on this one and it's been corrected on that new one as well as some other minor tweaks. Probably be a few weeks or so before they show up for a new test run, and when they do I'll be sure to post back with pics and results again.

[RDC]

If anyone would like to have a go at making one of these up feel free to PM me. I have a few of the older version boards (same revision I made up and tested) that are just going to sit around here doing nothing.





While the newer board has some fixes, the 'issues' with this version board are actually nill. A couple caps are missing, but they aren't needed. Then a couple have to be mounted on their sides. The footprint for U3 is too large, but the part still fits, and the LEDs ended up labeled wrong on this board, but if everything is swapped over correctly it all still works.







Granted transferring all of the parts over from the CL to this board isn't one of the more simple things to do. You'll need a hot air rework setup and have more than a few 0402 sized parts to deal with, but it could be worse.

[RDC]

New board revision showed up awhile back, but couldn't do any part swapping because the heating element in the hot air setup decide to nuke a few days before they arrived, figures.

That's all resolved now, so here's the pretty much 'final' version of it. The silk on these was a shade off compared to the last run, but it's nothing that ruins them.

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The very first one was installed in an Access controller to bring it back to life for use on the 360. The battery compartment is pretty useless now, but the power button was kept and is now used to turn the Rumble on/off, a feature the Access controller doesn't have, along with not working on the 360 anymore, but this one does.

[ManApe]

Hi RDC i've been looking for you on the net since i saw your 3PS60 mod the other day on the benheck forum which is closed for registration, i love the 360miniCL pcb i just wish i had one the skills and equipment to populate it.

iv started up this thread again because i can't pm you and and my mod http://www.xim3.com/community/index.php?topic=29881.0, ignore most of it as its mostly based off incorrect information that i have had the misfortune to find on the net lol, at the time of looking the infor up i had not all the donor parts to test.

My mod is similar in to the 3PS60 in the fact i want to put a wired xbox 360 PCB in a smaller home and i need some advice from you on cutting one down, ie what equipment you prefer to use to cut PCB and where is safe to cut i can probably work that out but would like your insight and knowledge  i don't need such a small PCB as the one you cut down and id would like to use the headphone jack and have the option of using the too rumble motors. so can you advise me on how much i can cut away so that i can keep all that.

This is my PCB
the new type wired controller.

This is what iv come up with id need to find another place to connect LB and RB

any help will be much appreciated as i don't want to kill the controller PCB as i cant really just throw money at this project.

and sry for the use of slagcoin.com's pics.

[RDC]

The most you can cut down the CL version board without making a huge mess is this..



Then it takes 2 wires to rebuild the board..






The only thing you lose cutting it that small is the Light Rumble Motor circuit, but that's just an NPN Transistor and Diode away from being rebuilt, or hacking off and using that part of the PCB.

The least you can cut it down is up to you and how much room you have to work with.

I use a Dremel and fiber reinforced discs for cutting a populated PCB, but most of the cutting type discs will do the job.


The Extreme 3D's POTs don't need changed from 100k to 10k, they're just voltage dividers. The 2 main issue you'll have there is Stick drift and slow down. Depending on how well that thing centers up when released, if it's off center too much the thing will want to slowly move, or drift, in whatever direction(s) it's off. Then the minimum/maximum voltages you'll get on them when moved to the extremes versus what the original stick did. If they're off much fro the original Stick then it will be 'slow' in that direction.

If you're wanting to make the Triggers Analog and Digital, then all you need to do is wire up the POT and then the button from the Trigger line to Ground. There's no need to get that technical with the exact voltages, and if you compared 2 or more controllers they would all be different anyway. If you want to stick a 360ohm Resistor on there that's fine, but it's not necessary at all, you can drive the Trigger line of the CL down to 0v an it will not hurt a thing.

[ManApe]

Thanks so much for the quick reply you have helped a lot and confirmed what i already thought about the 100k pots being just used a voltage divider, i don't need it that small but that is very use full information to know, im hoping to keep as many TP spots as i can for less work on my part, also i don't really want to be trying to following traces and making new solder points much. as slagcoin.com have done the work for me.

The stick center well, only the twist can be off but thats if it not plugged in when flat but thats to do more with the original pcb calibrating it everytime its plugged in, like the sticks on the 360 controller its 50 degrees so they should match pretty well, the only one that doesn't is the throttle as that is 70 degrees and has a gearing to the gears may be 1 to 1 ratio tho so might not matter, i took it apart and wish i hadn't, as i may have broken the throttle at most and at least it will be hard to get it calibrated again, i may just replace it with a 10k 50 degree pot that i got before i realised i didn't need to change them, but that won't be easy either and it will have to be easily centered or it will be in pushing in one direction all the time. The best bet for me i think is replace the throttle with one of the thumb sticks either that or use both and have a switch to swap between them, or even get 2 identical resistors to center it and switch over to the throttle when i'm in the :censored:pit.

I want the finished product to look like it was always that way so dont like to mess with the outer part of the case to much, it would not look to good if i hacked a thumb stick onto it, others may do a better job at that than me. i have some 4 Pole 3 Position switches from an unfinished project that i may use to swap some buttons around for different game layouts, so with each Position i can swap 4 button around. they are easy to mount on the case as the hole won't show. i can also use one to swap from the centering resistors to the throttle.

Thanks again for all your help.

[RDC]

The degree of the POT has nothing to do with how well it centers or it's maximum 'useful' movement. While a 70 degree has to move more than a 50 degree for the same voltage to be obtained, that's not where the issue comes from. The problems are both determined by the mechanics of the device. With the 360 controller it's the opening in the shell that limits the amount maximum the Stick can move, and the internals of it that determine how well it centers. The same things apply to the 3D stick there.


If you're wanting some of the buttons to be this or that, or duplicates, you might want to do something like the miniM4pper. https://www.acidmods.com/forum/index.php/topic,43205.0.html

[ManApe]

Yes i see now what you are saying now i still think that with this stick there will be no problem as this mod has been done before

i know it looks ugly lol, he has removed the spring and is using a third party controller and has changed the pots, all in all it looks a mess, it has the same amount of movement like that as without it all cut up like that as its the white plastic the restricts the movement if need be i can shave it down if its slower, iv seen it in action too on BF3 and it didn't look slower, but we will see. i have also noticed he cut a mark to center the throttle by the looks of it.

I dont know if all joysticks work the same but The spring in this one works by applying force on the bottom of the stick so it is always trying to keep the bottom of the stick parallel to the base, as i'm using the pots that come with it they are held in place and there is now slack in their movement, the only one that might be a problem is the twist grip.

Something like the miniM4pper or a miniM4pper would be good but maybe too much for what is needed as im only planning on playing BF games with it and maybe GTA 5, i wouldn't make one myself for just a one off project but it would be good.