Also worth tinning the wires before making the connection. And maybe adding solder to the contacts before making the connection. Using new pads or third party pads like you have done here is the way to go! Not worth destroying an official pad from back in the day. Good on you for promoting this DIY way of thinking!
Multimeter as required tool would be darn useful. That’s to check for any shorts and find what the common grounds are. You don’t need to solder all the common grounds pads. just need one. That way saves you a lot of time and your cable management would have been better. Because you would have more room to work with you could let the soldered wires “face” the same direction, so you could bundle them and fixate them with your own preferred method. A header/connector would be ideal. On the fightstick side you can daisy chain the common grounds. Please use heat resistance tape, or use some form of clamps. The gaming footage at the left took too much space. The DIY footage was way too small on my phone. You still have some way to go, but keep going! Edit: forgot to tell: you can actually use modern controllers to do “pad hacking” too. remove the black conductive material to reveal the metal pad underneath. although I prefer soldering on the chip, but that’s more of advanced soldering skills.
Shmup master? 🤣 certainly not worthy. But I’ve heard worse including shmup jesus on a couple occasions 🤦♂️ That pad reminded me of a scene from Akira by the time you were done lol. Awesome you got it working. I need to play with my Retrobit a bit more and see if my pad bottoms out too or if it was just that design. Mine was the clear blue one. The plastic housing and layout seems to differ a bit between them. Curious what performance numbers you get if you ever test it on your end, but I’m quite certain it’s better than using a pro controller. Probably much easier to pad hack too 😁. Great video I’ve never done this but it would be a fun project.
Yeah my bad ha, I didn t realize I said shmup master till I put the card in ha. I said it right the first time at least. Yeah I wonder how interested people will be in trying this out, but I m glad to have made a padhack vid at least ha. DEFINETLY better than padhacking the damn pro controller!
@@ShmupJunkie ha shmup master is another TH-camr I collaborate with on the gamefellas podcast, so I said it without realizing. I d go back and fix it but I am not rendering it again ha. I suppose I could just cut the misspeak completely and use the card
@@TheElectricUnderground lol no I don’t care I was just being funny. But now I’ve inadvertently insulted his handle 🤦♂️ so I’m apologizing here in advance 😅
this is what i did to get my MASSYSTEMS 2 player neogeo arcade stick to work with my 3do panasonic game system to play street fighter on it. i soldered everything exactly as you did here to the junky 3do controllers so that i could finally have good controls.
I've done this hack with my original saturn pad I regret sacrificing my original saturn controller to do it but at the time I needed an arcade stick for my Dreamcast and all I had were saturn pad converters for my Dreamcast As for wires I find old RJ45 cables and I cut them and use the thin wires within They're solid and easy to work with
First stick I ever build was with a pad hack for the PSX, then followed up with saturn and dreamcast. The model 1 saturn pads are the best for hacking as they have daughter boards where the D-pad and action buttons are placed, leaving the main board untouched except for hard traces, bare solid wires if you will, just desoldered them and solder your wires to the holes, makes for a much cleaner look. Also, when scraping pad contacts I used to drill tiny holes with a dremel and tiny drill bits to make solid solder points that make for a cleaner look. All my first pad hacks were surface soldered though, nothing worng with that but I like the cleaner look of the drilled method better. Once Brook, kthulu and PS360 came into the picture I stopped, but not before I made a bunch of different pad hacks for NES, SNES, MD and so on. Have yet to do a PC Engine, alwasy wanted to do one, also wannna make it with rock switches for turbo, just the simple 2 button one will do. Wanted to add that if you ever do one for neo, you do not need a PCB at all, just wires from the buttons and lever to a DB 15 and you're good to go.
If you're making an arcade stick, a good way to use the rumble would be to wire them to lights so that every time the rumble activates, the lights go off. It's just eye candy, but that might be interesting.
I recommend using a reflow technique for soldering rather than placing the wire then adding solder. That is, you place the solder on the pad, then reheat it and insert the wire
Okay, I'm halfway through this video where you explain the tape to hold everything in place. Why are you torturing yourself? Just use a wooden clamp, the ones used for drying clothes and with a small spring in the middle. Maybe attach it to your table with a wire as some kind of "third hand". It worked back when I had to deal with Radio and TV electronics and I'm very optimistic that it will work here too. ;) Nice tutorial btw.
Sorry for bothering you. But i just wanted to note: 1. There are pretty much gold circle test points all over the board to solder to so you dont have to tap into the switches (Like Home and select) 2. You can share ground with all the buttons. However NOT with UP and LEFT pad. For some reason they are linked together on the board isolated from ground. 3. The rumble motors are in some cases used to rumble when the controller is connected or to verify input changes. 4. Never solder directly to the switches / button. You risk deforming / break the switch inside. (Or if you have to do it. Do it really quick) Try to use connectors as much as possible. (Dont think it was in here. But i personally had issues with it.)
I should try making this with the Vita at some point, I'm considering using a DualShock 3/SixAxis because, it will work on PC, PS4 and of course, the PS3 (Alongside a multitude of things). I'm into the Vita Scene, and I would like to have a portable Vita station with the Stick for fighters and my Shooties', so this is awesome dude! Also, never expected the RetroBit controller to be THIS good (Is both a replica of a controller no one had at a good price (USB version) and it's faster? That's cool!) Also, I'm into padhacking, you can either buy a controller that "doesn't work properly" or just bypass it and buy a third party chinese controller that sucks in the outside (But because the PCB is very good for soldering, it's the STRONGEST point for them, that's how I made a 360 stick). Thanks for the video!
glad you liked it! Yes I have a modded vita myself as well :-) so I'm part of the via crew ha. This is supposed to work on the ps3 so it should potentially connect to the vita as well I would think. It's hard to know for sure though
@@TheElectricUnderground Yes! I forgot the controller works on the PS3, I should get one myself (So sad it doesn't work on the 360 :( haha). So, let me see if I can get one soon and get you some message! Thanks! (just hope they ain't overpriced in Mexico)
Hmm idk about the switch not liking 1 ground for the microswitches. I have an 8bitdo arcade stick for the switch. And I changed the stock stick to a sanwa jlf. The stock stick has a ground for each microswitch..but the jlf doesn't. So I'm using q ground for all 4 switches and it works find..idk. I'm thinking of doing this for my Saturn.
Use flux first on wire ends and soldering points then tin wire ends and all solder points before soldering wire to pad…Much much easier. Good tutorial though.
so you can do this with 3rd party controllers, like the hori fighting commander, but not the official ones because they are basically impossible to solder to. I'm sure there is a way, but it's beyond me.
Whenever you say "flux", you just mean "solder". Flux is a cleaning/ flowing/ purifying agent (usually a paste) that can help make better solder joints. Good video otherwise.
yeah I get those two mixed up all the time. I used to call it solder but then some dude corrected me a few years back but I looked it up and get confused all the time.
How good is ethernet wire for pad-hacking? This is what I used for the MAS Systems joystick when installing the Toodles Cthulhu and it turned out great. Note that later I changed the internals to a Brook Retro Board, UFB union via a Multiplier kit.
I've been thinking of doing exactly this but didn't know the Retro-bit BT controller were the one "most" suitable for it. A few questions, doesn't putting the PCB in a arcade controller chassi with metal and thick plastic add some lag? Feels like the signal would have a harder time to reach the console, I know by use that controllers can work great and then suddenly they got some interference (or something, no clue) and miss button presses or delay them way too much. Doesn't the controller have a common ground? Seems to be A LOT of cables that a common ground would definitely help... guess I could use my multimeter and find out if it does have a common ground. EDIT... watched til the end where you explain that it doesn't. Too bad. :)
@@TheElectricUnderground great to know, thx. Also, did you use the Retro-Bit Saturn controller? When looking at Shmup Junkies test he do says he use the Retro-Bit Saturn BT controller but it actually looks like he is using the Retro-Bit Mega Drive BT controller... confusing.
Im doing a SNES pad hack but for some reason i cant have more than one input at a time. I feel like my ground is messed up. I tried playing street fighter and all the buttons are wired correctly but if i try to move and punch or kick it doesnt register it. Did you individually ground each bottom from the stick? Is this my problem?
Do you think i can use this process to makeshift my own Project Diva arcade controller? I’m not spending over $400 for a new one hahaha nor do i want to buy a PD controller for ps3 and ALSO buy a Bluetooth adapter from ps3/4 to switch lol.
Damn I really just watched this until the end when you said it wouldn't work on a PS4 controller and here I was trying to see if I could learn how to do it on a PS5 controller which would be even harder.
I can't listen to the audio now, but the pcb buttons are not common ground? Would be possible a dual mod to have this PCB together with a 360 hori stick PCB?
No they are not, they get mad it you try and share grounds, gotta separate them. You know, this controller has x input, so let me test to see if it will work on a 360. I 'll report back, but yes you could dual mod this with a brooks board no problem
@@TheElectricUnderground thanks for your reply. I’ll wait for you to check the x360 compatibility, though I don’t expect much, seem it to need license to run. I have a Fighting Stick VX ready to dual mod, but the retrobit pcb not having common ground is a handicap.. and Brooks Universal Fighting Board is almost as expensive as a new arcade stick. If joy-con are the fastest control, why I can’t find any padhack? it is so dificult or imposible?
That's a cold solder joint. Either you didn't heat it enough and the solder didn't melt properly, or you've heat it too much and the flux evaporated before it could help the solder flow. I usually solder at 350°C (~660F) and haven't had a problem with cold joints yet.
just wanted to note that if you got hacked switch, a homebrew named sys-con gives the switch support for wired ps3/ps4/xbox360, for wireless connections u need another homebrew named mission control which allows to connect the most common bluetooth controllers.
nice tut! been padhacking stuff since highschool and its really nice to see comprehensive tutorials for people with less soldering experience!
Also worth tinning the wires before making the connection. And maybe adding solder to the contacts before making the connection.
Using new pads or third party pads like you have done here is the way to go! Not worth destroying an official pad from back in the day. Good on you for promoting this DIY way of thinking!
Multimeter as required tool would be darn useful. That’s to check for any shorts and find what the common grounds are.
You don’t need to solder all the common grounds pads. just need one. That way saves you a lot of time and your cable management would have been better. Because you would have more room to work with you could let the soldered wires “face” the same direction, so you could bundle them and fixate them with your own preferred method. A header/connector would be ideal.
On the fightstick side you can daisy chain the common grounds.
Please use heat resistance tape, or use some form of clamps.
The gaming footage at the left took too much space. The DIY footage was way too small on my phone.
You still have some way to go, but keep going!
Edit: forgot to tell: you can actually use modern controllers to do “pad hacking” too. remove the black conductive material to reveal the metal pad underneath. although I prefer soldering on the chip, but that’s more of advanced soldering skills.
would be much easier if you tinned both the wire and contact before you solder them together and use plenty of flux.
Good on you for repurposing the wires in the arcade stick thus keeping the quick disconnects.
Shmup master? 🤣 certainly not worthy. But I’ve heard worse including shmup jesus on a couple occasions 🤦♂️ That pad reminded me of a scene from Akira by the time you were done lol. Awesome you got it working. I need to play with my Retrobit a bit more and see if my pad bottoms out too or if it was just that design. Mine was the clear blue one. The plastic housing and layout seems to differ a bit between them. Curious what performance numbers you get if you ever test it on your end, but I’m quite certain it’s better than using a pro controller. Probably much easier to pad hack too 😁. Great video I’ve never done this but it would be a fun project.
Yeah my bad ha, I didn t realize I said shmup master till I put the card in ha. I said it right the first time at least. Yeah I wonder how interested people will be in trying this out, but I m glad to have made a padhack vid at least ha. DEFINETLY better than padhacking the damn pro controller!
@@TheElectricUnderground first thing that came to my mind was
shmupmaster B if you ever watched that old married with children sitcom 😆
@@ShmupJunkie ha shmup master is another TH-camr I collaborate with on the gamefellas podcast, so I said it without realizing. I d go back and fix it but I am not rendering it again ha. I suppose I could just cut the misspeak completely and use the card
@@TheElectricUnderground lol no I don’t care I was just being funny. But now I’ve inadvertently insulted his handle 🤦♂️ so I’m apologizing here in advance 😅
this is what i did to get my MASSYSTEMS 2 player neogeo arcade stick to work with my 3do panasonic game system to play street fighter on it. i soldered everything exactly as you did here to the junky 3do controllers so that i could finally have good controls.
I've done this hack with my original saturn pad
I regret sacrificing my original saturn controller to do it but at the time I needed an arcade stick for my Dreamcast and all I had were saturn pad converters for my Dreamcast
As for wires I find old RJ45 cables and I cut them and use the thin wires within
They're solid and easy to work with
First stick I ever build was with a pad hack for the PSX, then followed up with saturn and dreamcast. The model 1 saturn pads are the best for hacking as they have daughter boards where the D-pad and action buttons are placed, leaving the main board untouched except for hard traces, bare solid wires if you will, just desoldered them and solder your wires to the holes, makes for a much cleaner look. Also, when scraping pad contacts I used to drill tiny holes with a dremel and tiny drill bits to make solid solder points that make for a cleaner look. All my first pad hacks were surface soldered though, nothing worng with that but I like the cleaner look of the drilled method better. Once Brook, kthulu and PS360 came into the picture I stopped, but not before I made a bunch of different pad hacks for NES, SNES, MD and so on. Have yet to do a PC Engine, alwasy wanted to do one, also wannna make it with rock switches for turbo, just the simple 2 button one will do. Wanted to add that if you ever do one for neo, you do not need a PCB at all, just wires from the buttons and lever to a DB 15 and you're good to go.
If you're making an arcade stick, a good way to use the rumble would be to wire them to lights so that every time the rumble activates, the lights go off. It's just eye candy, but that might be interesting.
I recommend using a reflow technique for soldering rather than placing the wire then adding solder. That is, you place the solder on the pad, then reheat it and insert the wire
yep, 100% this is the way to go. You can tin the shit out of the wires too first.
Started off like yeah i got some basic sodering skills i could do this. By the end I'm like, Nah I'll just buy an arcade stick 😄
Ha I know what you mean. There is also the brooks board that is much easier to install than this padhack
Okay, I'm halfway through this video where you explain the tape to hold everything in place. Why are you torturing yourself? Just use a wooden clamp, the ones used for drying clothes and with a small spring in the middle. Maybe attach it to your table with a wire as some kind of "third hand". It worked back when I had to deal with Radio and TV electronics and I'm very optimistic that it will work here too. ;) Nice tutorial btw.
Sorry for bothering you. But i just wanted to note:
1. There are pretty much gold circle test points all over the board to solder to so you dont have to tap into the switches (Like Home and select)
2. You can share ground with all the buttons. However NOT with UP and LEFT pad. For some reason they are linked together on the board isolated from ground.
3. The rumble motors are in some cases used to rumble when the controller is connected or to verify input changes.
4. Never solder directly to the switches / button. You risk deforming / break the switch inside. (Or if you have to do it. Do it really quick) Try to use connectors as much as possible. (Dont think it was in here. But i personally had issues with it.)
all i saw was terrorism for this arcade stick
I should try making this with the Vita at some point, I'm considering using a DualShock 3/SixAxis because, it will work on PC, PS4 and of course, the PS3 (Alongside a multitude of things).
I'm into the Vita Scene, and I would like to have a portable Vita station with the Stick for fighters and my Shooties', so this is awesome dude! Also, never expected the RetroBit controller to be THIS good (Is both a replica of a controller no one had at a good price (USB version) and it's faster? That's cool!)
Also, I'm into padhacking, you can either buy a controller that "doesn't work properly" or just bypass it and buy a third party chinese controller that sucks in the outside (But because the PCB is very good for soldering, it's the STRONGEST point for them, that's how I made a 360 stick).
Thanks for the video!
glad you liked it! Yes I have a modded vita myself as well :-) so I'm part of the via crew ha. This is supposed to work on the ps3 so it should potentially connect to the vita as well I would think. It's hard to know for sure though
@@TheElectricUnderground
Yes! I forgot the controller works on the PS3, I should get one myself (So sad it doesn't work on the 360 :( haha).
So, let me see if I can get one soon and get you some message! Thanks! (just hope they ain't overpriced in Mexico)
Hmm idk about the switch not liking 1 ground for the microswitches. I have an 8bitdo arcade stick for the switch. And I changed the stock stick to a sanwa jlf. The stock stick has a ground for each microswitch..but the jlf doesn't. So I'm using q ground for all 4 switches and it works find..idk. I'm thinking of doing this for my Saturn.
Use flux first on wire ends and soldering points then tin wire ends and all solder points before soldering wire to pad…Much much easier. Good tutorial though.
I’m very interested in doing this to make a good Genesis or Saturn stick. Seems like a good way to practice my solder skills too.
Definetly worth it!
i made a saturn pad hack from the pads you can get on aliexpress , it works perfect and was common ground.
@ I already have... :)
Hey Mark great vid.have you ever don't this with the newer consoles like the Xbox one or PS4.
so you can do this with 3rd party controllers, like the hori fighting commander, but not the official ones because they are basically impossible to solder to. I'm sure there is a way, but it's beyond me.
Whenever you say "flux", you just mean "solder". Flux is a cleaning/ flowing/ purifying agent (usually a paste) that can help make better solder joints. Good video otherwise.
yeah I get those two mixed up all the time. I used to call it solder but then some dude corrected me a few years back but I looked it up and get confused all the time.
Hey you are the STG Preservation project guy... got your drive featured on a few places, thanks for that!
O,o is that a sanjuks v6 lever? awesome!
It is the crown crazydong pal ha (what a glorious name)
@@TheElectricUnderground it's a great lever though, that blue bottom mislead me xD ( www.istmall.co.kr/us/goods/goods_view.php?goodsNo=1009992937 )
What game are you playing and for what system?
Esp. Ra. De. Psi for PS4!
Great video I actually am going to do a reverse of this with a Saturn pad to use on ps4 and ps5 wish me luck going to be doing a lot of soldering 🥲
What did you do about charging etc?
How good is ethernet wire for pad-hacking?
This is what I used for the MAS Systems joystick when installing the Toodles Cthulhu and it turned out great.
Note that later I changed the internals to a Brook Retro Board, UFB union via a Multiplier kit.
this could also be useful for Guitar Hero controllers
Bruh the Neo Geo sticks just pas everything on directly to the console, it's literally just wire everything to the connector.
fantactic vid thanks a bunch
I've been thinking of doing exactly this but didn't know the Retro-bit BT controller were the one "most" suitable for it. A few questions, doesn't putting the PCB in a arcade controller chassi with metal and thick plastic add some lag? Feels like the signal would have a harder time to reach the console, I know by use that controllers can work great and then suddenly they got some interference (or something, no clue) and miss button presses or delay them way too much.
Doesn't the controller have a common ground? Seems to be A LOT of cables that a common ground would definitely help... guess I could use my multimeter and find out if it does have a common ground. EDIT... watched til the end where you explain that it doesn't. Too bad. :)
I actually haven't noticed too much trouble caused by the case! The controller has felt responsive which is a relief
@@TheElectricUnderground great to know, thx. Also, did you use the Retro-Bit Saturn controller? When looking at Shmup Junkies test he do says he use the Retro-Bit Saturn BT controller but it actually looks like he is using the Retro-Bit Mega Drive BT controller... confusing.
@@GillPinball they look almost the same. But is the Saturn one.
I made a megadrive stick this way :-D
awesome! Yeah I think you basically have to on the megadrive for some reason
Im doing a SNES pad hack but for some reason i cant have more than one input at a time. I feel like my ground is messed up. I tried playing street fighter and all the buttons are wired correctly but if i try to move and punch or kick it doesnt register it. Did you individually ground each bottom from the stick? Is this my problem?
Do you think i can use this process to makeshift my own Project Diva arcade controller?
I’m not spending over $400 for a new one hahaha nor do i want to buy a PD controller for ps3 and ALSO buy a Bluetooth adapter from ps3/4 to switch lol.
Yes as long as you can access the button contacts and solder to them it will work :-)
I love all your videos but your "squid" gave me so much anxiety o.O lol
I am thinking of doing this with an 8bitdo controller would that be possible?
Yes it should be! Just check to see how accessible the contacts of the buttons are
I want to a pad hack to my PS3 wireless controller into a arcade stick. Any tips?
Sorry no PS3 padhacks are really hard!!! It s beyond me
Off subject, but Crimzon Clover is coming to Switch. Looks pretty awesome in previews, any thoughts?
I m hyped! Gonna get it and review it 100%
@@TheElectricUnderground Awesome, looking forward to that!
Damn I really just watched this until the end when you said it wouldn't work on a PS4 controller and here I was trying to see if I could learn how to do it on a PS5 controller which would be even harder.
Keep an eye out though, I think we ll see some 3rd party controllers for PS5 soon!
I can't listen to the audio now, but the pcb buttons are not common ground?
Would be possible a dual mod to have this PCB together with a 360 hori stick PCB?
No they are not, they get mad it you try and share grounds, gotta separate them. You know, this controller has x input, so let me test to see if it will work on a 360. I 'll report back, but yes you could dual mod this with a brooks board no problem
@@TheElectricUnderground thanks for your reply. I’ll wait for you to check the x360 compatibility, though I don’t expect much, seem it to need license to run. I have a Fighting Stick VX ready to dual mod, but the retrobit pcb not having common ground is a handicap.. and Brooks Universal Fighting Board is almost as expensive as a new arcade stick. If joy-con are the fastest control, why I can’t find any padhack? it is so dificult or imposible?
What controller could you do it to that wakes up the Switch when you press the home button?
I think this controller might be able to, I 'll have to try it out and see
What do you do of the contacts don't look shiny, and look more rusted and the solder doesn't stick?
That's a cold solder joint. Either you didn't heat it enough and the solder didn't melt properly, or you've heat it too much and the flux evaporated before it could help the solder flow. I usually solder at 350°C (~660F) and haven't had a problem with cold joints yet.
just wanted to note that if you got hacked switch, a homebrew named sys-con gives the switch support for wired ps3/ps4/xbox360, for wireless connections u need another homebrew named mission control which allows to connect the most common bluetooth controllers.
Yes! That's really cool I use it with my ps4 controller sometimes.
Hi, does the Retro-Bit Official Sega Genesis Bluetooth have the same performance as the retro bit sega saturn ? thank you
I wish I knew, I m not sure! Would assume though
Trying to watch you hack a controller on a tiny portion of the screen because you taken most of it up showing off your game for some reason
I wouldn't say hack but modified for arcade control panel
Can a person padhack a PS5 controller like this??
JFC, just buy a damn Bluetooth fightstick. This is insane.🤣🤣🤣😳😳😳😭😭😭
I have a project for you. I will pay you