| This is the Superpad PSX 1000 Controller. I bought
this at Electronics Boutique, for $3. It is probably one of the worst
controllers around, but it works great for this kind of project. There are like a zillion
other controllers just like this for PSX, so probably any that you choose
will be very similiar to this one. There's some controllers that
this company makes that also feature auto-fire, you might want to stay
away from those. I've had trouble making them work correctly, and I'm not really
sure why. |
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| Start by removing these screws from the back: |
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| Disassemble it, Here is what you'll have now: |
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| Throw away all but the green circuit board.
Notice the large copper circular areas? Those are
what you'll be soldering to.
The four on the left are the Direction pad, the four on the right
are the buttons, the two near the top center are Select and Start, and the two separate
circuit boards are the shoulder buttons. Click on the image for a closer view. |
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| Here is a closeup of the D-pad connections and the
soldering points. Note the colored circles. Blue is Left, Yellow is Down, Green is Up, and Red is Right.
The Purple mark would be an excellent place
to wire a ground connection. What I like to do is drill small holes right through the copper,
to make it easier to hold the wires in place while I solder. Use a 1/16" bit for that. Click HERE for details Or you can solder directly onto the copper for the buttons, but take care not to get solder on
both sides of the connection. What I do is drill a hole right in the path of ground to prevent that.
You could also use a Dremel tool to
cut across the pathway so that they cannot complete a circuit if you spill a bit. |
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| This helps pay for the bandwidth ^_^ |
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| And here are the action button connections. These look different from the direction contacts, but
they work exactly the same. You'll have an easier time soldering on these if you drill or use a dremel. What I marked in the picture, are
some copper connections that are on the same path as the main ones, and they'd be much easier to attach wires to.
Green is Triangle,
Red is Circle, Blue is X, and purple is Square. |
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| Here are Start & Select. Red is Select, Blue is Start.
Same as before where I marked the places that'd be easiest to add wires at. On start here,
you should use a small razor to scrape off some of the green coating to expose the
copper underneath. Be very careful not to scrape the trace right off though, Or you're going
to have to do a lot more work. |
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| This part is tricky. These are the shoulder buttons, R1, and R2. I only took
a picture of the right hand set, the left trigger buttons look just like this.
You can either solder onto the copper connections, or follow the traces and add wires onto the existing
solder points that are on the main circuit board. Most of the time, I just do that.
If you do that you can just cut the shoulder CB's right off. Soldering the red spot would be the same
thing as soldering onto the point where that wire meets the board. Same with Blue. I actually forgot which
of these was which, but you can just test that when you're all finished. Might not be a bad idea to use
a marker to put a mark on the buttons while you're taking the controller apart so you can keep track. |
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