Modding 2 PS2 controllers

[Archies'bald]

I found this adaptor on Ebay which connects 2 x Playstation 2 controllers to one USB port. Apart from the fact that it can only be used up to Win XP, can anyone else see anything which would prevent me from using all the analogues and buttons on my old PS2 controllers?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-USB-Two-Po...item5191e4fffe

I'm counting 28 buttons and 8 analogues, am I right?

[MrSteve81]

I've got the same cable myself which I used to use for playing emulators. I want to do the same thing myself, but I could never get any HID-MIDI software working on the mac.
I think it'll be easier on Windows due to having more software to choose from, but I would advise making sure you can get it working before taking the pads apart and putting them in a more dj friendly box.

[Archies'bald]

Cool. At that price it's worth buying one to see if it works. I've got a computer that's still running on XP so that's not a problem. I will see if I can get it work on Vista too, but I'm no software genius.

For that amount of money you could have a serious bit of kit, I'm amazed I've not seen a thread on here about it before.

[Bassline Brine]

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-64-N64-2in1-Controller-Adapter/dp/8565000168/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3TZCKLHY4G9EK&colid =OYV7T6D5GXZQ[/ame]

There are a few different adapters out there. Personally I think the idea of the N64 controller could be a bit neater, but that's just my personal take on it all.

If you could get MIDI data out of it, it could be a really cool little project.

[kaleaf]

sup archie

**edit** I see you were counting 2 controllers so ya you were right .... could be interesting


you could also look into ps3 controllers maybe the analog triggers could be used for inputs, ps3 controllers work with windows execpt win 7 64bit (needs driver mod).

[Archies'bald]

Item arrived today and so far it looks promising. The drivers installed without a problem and both joysticks have shown up in my controller menu.

I've been able to get MIDI through Rejoice, but only one joystick at a time at the moment. I'm hoping to resolve this if I get a few hours to look at the software side of things in detail. I'm getting 12 buttons, 4 axis and 4 POV buttons on each controller, so double that and you are looking at a nifty controller through 1 USB port for next to nothing (if you have 2 PS2 unused controllers lying around).

If I do go ahead and strip the controllers down I will try and let people know how I get on, but I'm not sure how to go about it myself just yet.

[MrSteve81]

I opened 1 up a few weeks ago and they are actually really simple.
From what I could tell it would just be a case of cutting the links to the buttons that are already there and wiring in new buttons.

[Archies'bald]

Right, I got the soldering iron out tonight and here's what I've done.

I removed the back cover of the controller and it looks like this.



I then de-soldered the two vibration motors on either side of the controller (red & black cables in photo). These are the most obvious things to take out first as they are quite bulky and will restrict your movement on the inside of the joypad.



In the above picture you can see I've removed the two thumb joysticks. You have to remember to de-solder the analogues (3 connections each), the joystick switch and the posts which hold the joystick in position (there are 4 of these posts aligned in a square around the white circles on the pcb). Take care when prizing the joysticks out, make sure you have most of the solder off of all of the connections, if you try and push too hard you could break the pcb ruining your project.
You can also see on the top right of the pcb a connection for the green flexible paths which connect the buttons and the POV switch. This should be relatively easy to pull out. That should leave you with something like this.





I'm just logging this down as I go along. I don't even know if it's going to work with 2 controllers, so don't everyone start busting open their own ones without thinking about it first.

[kaleaf]

try glovepie, Its a little weird if have not used it but very powerfull. I use that and a midi loopback driver loopbe.

[Archies'bald]

try glovepie, Its a little weird if have not used it but very powerfull. I use that and a midi loopback driver loopbe.

I find Glovepie utterly confusing. I have messed around with it a few times but can't get any kind of Midi out of it at all. Do you have a link to a tutorial? That might be a big help.