DualSense 5 Controller PCB Scans

[ANAS]

Two blinks i think indicate a battery issue
3 blinks hardware issue e.g. a cut trace (was the case for me)

Possibly try a different battery/check the connection/connector on the pcb

Tried different battery & double checked connection to battery, same issue resides.

[RDC]

@ ANAS - What is the Resistor on the R1/R2 Trigger board for? You still have the small blue FPC plugged in there, so there is no need for any modification.

Do not wire both of those boards up together without using some kind of isolation between them.

What happens when the USB cable is plugged in?

[ANAS]

@ ANAS - What is the Resistor on the R1/R2 Trigger board for? You still have the small blue FPC plugged in there, so there is no need for any modification.

Do not wire both of those boards up together without using some kind of isolation between them.

What happens when the USB cable is plugged in?

@RDC - 1k resistors are connected to both L2 & R2, all rest of the buttons go stright to gnd (L3/R3/Mute unused). I thought blue FPC necessary to avoid floating values isn't it?

Connecting usb cable with or without battery always double blink orange, strangely however, when following this sequence gets it works & gets it recognized on windows & can actually test buttons, (battery in -> cable in -> battery out -> cable out -> cable in).

Before I remove the 2nd pcb of dual pcb mod, the button signals & gnd of both PCBs were wired together without isolation, however only DualSense was powered & turned on to test, not sure if that could've damaged any chip.

[RDC]

Gotcha. Yes the FPC keeps the L2/R2 from floating.

As John_1222 mentioned, if there is no battery present, you will get 2 blinks, also 2 blinks when pressing the PS button, so there is some kind of battery or power issue there.

Plug the battery in, then hit the Reset button, then connect the USB cable up. You should get a slow flashing Orange LED to indicate charging, or just 1 slow flash to indicate the battery is full. If it still does the 2 blinks, then it's not detecting the battery and I'd check around that battery connector for any missing parts.

EDIT: I pulled the middle (white) wire out of the battery connector, it's for the Temp, and I can recreate your issue here. Since you have tried another battery already, that middle pin on the battery connector and it's trace is where I'd look for an issue on that board.

[VectorOfInt]

Hello guys! My first post here. Thanks for everything, this is just wonderful.

I managed to destroy both sides of `X` via (BDM-010). Is there an alternative soldering spot?

EDIT: It was tricky but the via is still functional. But the question still holds - are there any alternative spots?

[RDC]

Last chance for X.

[RexxLifeVari]

With the new BDM-030 board it put a stop to my custom builds. I can?t figure out what to do for my mouse click triggers for the new trigger board. Is it still possible? If so, could you label L1/L2 spots?

[RDC]

Everything still works the same, it's just been rearranged on the -030. Give the second page of the thread a peruse.

[tushiwarashi]

I accidentally lifted a bdm 010 right analog pot pad... it was all drifting all the way to left... is there an alternative solder spot for this? I tried bridging the nearest visible line but its still not working.. i stil have 1.8v running on this area cant but cant find alt spot on multimeter... and also i used a 2.3k pot will this work? I believe it was 2.1 but cant seem to find anywhere

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I7VCZ3V5dVdI-iN5IN_JrS8twwccTcSa/view?usp=drivesdk

[RDC]

That is the Left side, not Right. All of the POTs are 10k. The closest via for that LSX line is there in your image. If it's going full left, and you have 1.8v going to the POT, then you have the LSX line shorted to ground somewhere.

[marciolima]

RDC,

First of all, I congratulate the maintainers of this website. The content is incredible!

Regarding the dualsense pcb mod, I have difficulty understanding some things, even though I have a basic knowledge of electronics. In fact, I'd like to have a general understanding of how it works so I won't be lost on the forum, rsrs.

Can you hook me up with some cool resources to learn about it?

For example:

In the case of the 'Left side FFC Pinout', what is the function of 'M+', 'M-', '1.8VE' (why voltage E?), WP2, L2 feedback... I imagine SCL2 and SDA2 are for transmitting some serial information, but why is that necessary?

Dude, I'm a noob and I can only see the dualsense as press a button and it's done kkkk.

But I eager to level up my knowledge and understand how the dualsense works.

If you could kindly point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it.


Thanks!

[RDC]

M+/- and M-/+ are the lines for the little force feedback motor. Since it is a DC motor, the voltage might be +/- or -/+ when you measure it, depending on which direction the motor is being moved.

1.8vE was named as such becasue at the time of tracing the board out it was going to the EEPROM chips on the Trigger boards, so 1.8vE so I could keep track of it. There is also another 1.8v source on the board, as well as another 1.8v source for the Standby voltage, which I named 1.8vSb, and they are not all the same, just the same voltage. So when you have situations like that, they need to be named a little differently so you know which 1.8v it really is.

L2 Feedback is a voltage value from the POT on the board there. It's just so the controller 'knows' where the motor has moved to.

WP2 is the Write Protect line for the EEPROM on there, to keep the chip from being accidentally written to. Likewise the SDA/SCL lines are for that chip, and I still have no idea why they needed them on those Trigger modules like that, aside from maybe trying to make them proprietary in some way, which was a massive waste of resources as the -030 version eliminated all of that mess and only the Feedback POT is on there.

[marciolima]

RDC, thank you so much for your explanations!

My intention is to build a hitbox, using the dualsense.

I've seen in some adaptations for "arcade stick/hitbox" when using the dualshock4, the insertion of a 10k resistor between L2 and L1 and R2 and R1. Why is this resistor necessary? Is it to cancel out the signal, probably PWM, from these buttons, since they are analog?

Should I also put one 10k resistor in the dualsense?

Wich point I'd solder it?

[RDC]

The DS4 and DS5 are not the same animal.

L1 and R1 don't need anything done to them.

You only need to mess with Resistors on the L2/R2 lines if you unplug the small FPC for the L1/L2 and R1/R2 on the Trigger modules. If you leave all of that stuff plugged in, and there's no reason not to as you're not trying to cram it into a matchbox, then you don't need to go adding or modifying anything.

[marciolima]

Thank you so much!

It helps me a lot.

[John_1222]

Hi. Is there away to run the ds5 without a battery attached?

[RDC]

Better question is, the thing being a wireless controller and all, why do that?

I've never tried it, but a couple of ways that could probably be done are to keep the PCB from the battery pack connected, so the Temp line circuit stays intact. Alternately, try putting a 10k on the Temp line, center pin, to ground in the controller. That way it will 'think' the Thermistor in the battery pack is still there. May or may not work alone with just that done, as it could also be looking at the actual pack voltage and need a Cap tossed across the battery leads, but the Temp line is the one that will for sure cause it to not power up with no battery installed, even if the battery is in there.

[John_1222]

Thank you for the response. True. The only reason I ask is that I?m going to be using a pad hacked ds5 in an arcade machine with a ps5 in there. I intend to leave a usb cable attached to the pcb at all times, plus I damaged the battery somehow so now it doesn?t even work- another battery works fine.
I?ll just buy another battery for ease. It? interesting to know how it works though so many thanks.

[wirPL]

 hi, 3 orange flashes on ds5 does mean something more than hardware fail??

[marciolima]

Hello again, RDC.

As I mentioned before, I'm building a hitbox with a dualsense. In fact, I have plenty of space in the box, but I still want to keep only the main board to avoid using the trigger PCBs and FPCs. To do that, I mapped the R1/L1 and R2/L2 lines of the BWL-010 to the FPC connectors. Regarding R1/L1, everything is fine (1.8V), and when I connect them to ground, they are activated.

However, I'm having difficulties with R2/L2. The voltage is at 0.74V, but when I jump it to ground, nothing happens. Where would the voltage divider come into play here, since it already has the expected voltage?

Could you please guide me on this issue? Thank you.

[RDC]

Could have been done and using it by now if all that mess was left in there.

Put a 10k from the L2 line to 1.8v, same for the R2 line.

[Manavie]

Quick question, I have a new BDM-030 board I'm going to be using for a hitbox controller as my old BDM-010 ran into some issues. All I've done so far is remove the joysticks and solder in new pots to zero out the analog sticks. Was working fine last night, and all I've done since then is just scrape off the black coating right above where all the vias are for the buttons so I can solder the new buttons. However, now when I plug it into my computer, the orange light just slowly pulses on/off. Both the gamepad tester website and the DSX application I was using are not detecting the controller. I've tried 3 different batteries and they all do the same. Any idea what could be causing this issue?

[Portu40]

Good morning. I have changed several charging ports in the dualsense. but without any success. Could it be failures of the spare parts? Maybe they are not original.
Has anyone changed them without any problem?

[RDC]

@Manavie - Slow Orange fading usually means the battery is charging. The Flex has 2 Resistors built into it that need to be duplicated on the motherboard now that it is no longer being used. Use a couple of 10k and solder one between pads 7 and 8, the other between pads 8 and 9 on the motherboard.

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@Port40U - No idea what you mean by 'charging port' there.

[Manavie]

Thank you for all the help so far!
I have a couple more questions. First a dumb question- I'm going to have the wires for the new buttons soldered to those pads, I can have the resistors soldered to the same pads right on top of the wires, right? 
Second, if I'm going to keep the 2 small side trigger BWL-030L/R PCBs connected, would I still need to solder the 10k resistor from the L2/R2 pads to 1.8v so that it becomes digital, making a total of 4 resistors, or do I need just the 2 between 7-8 and 8-9? On that note, where are good 1.8v spots to connect to for the L2/R2 pads and also the two 74LVC00 chips you recommended a while ago? I'm assuming those can also be connected to the same 1.8v spot. Thanks again.

[RDC]

You can solder them to the same place as long as you're able.

The -030 is a little different animal compared to the -010 and -020. All those side boards do now on the -030 is have the POT on them for the Force Feedback position, no idea if unplugging them will cause any issues, so best to leave them plugged in. They have nothing to do with the L1/L2 and R1/R2, that is all on the large FPC (flex) board now. The only 2 Resistors that you need to solder to are at the motherboard pads 7, 8 and 9, for the L2/R2 to keep them in the off state.

The top 2 solder joints for L3 or R3 are is the easiest place to get 1.8v from.

[Manavie]

Thank you! Where is the most accessible spot to solder the TP button on the 030?
Also is there a key for where each of those 16 pads connects to? I was assuming just the reverse order of the image on page 2 at first, but there are only 13 labeled on that one so I'm guessing there are some differences.

[RDC]

I have not traced all of the -030 or it's Touchpad out, but if it's held the same pinout as before, then it's in roughly the same place as the -010 on a via all by it's lonesome.

[Manavie]

Sounds good!
Also I'm not sure if this is the place to ask but I am having some trouble with the function of my SOCD cleaner chips with the DS5. I'm using the 74LVC00 instead of 74LS00 as you mentioned and have the wiring setup exactly for both U + D = UP and L + R = NEUTRAL as shown on this website: https://archive.supercombo.gg/t/guide-preventing-socd-on-any-common-ground-pcb-by-using-7400-chips/135312.
However, when I have the filtered outputs connected to the pads on the DS5, I run into some issues. Both the cleaners filter the inputs properly (when L/R are pressed, it goes to NEUTRAL, and when U/D are pressed it goes to UP), and when I press each button on its own it works properly and will show a pressed state. However, when the controller is untouched both the Down and Left buttons constantly flicker between pressed/unpressed. When I press them, they will show pressed but when I let go, it will go back to constantly flickering between on/off. This doesn't happen for the Up or Right inputs and those work normally. Also- when I press the Up or Right inputs, the flickering of the opposing input, Down or Left ceases.

Is there any reason you may know as to why this is happening? I can provide any other details if needed and I greatly appreciate any help. Thanks again!

[RDC]

I'll wager you have no pull-up Resistors on your SOCD inputs, thus they are floating and will do all manner of weirdness.