It's ALIVE!

It's a beautiful baby... uh... well joystick. But hey, it works! It took a few trips back and forth from the workshop to get the solder points just right though...

First I had to grab some extra HAPP buttons for my Start/Select/Guide (pictured here in that order). With the case built it was time to wire up this bad boy. I went with a cheapo brand Madcatz wired controller for this build, which I read is one of the ideal ways to go in this scenario. Basically what I had to do was rip away the circuit board and solder wires to all the correct contacts (using a diagram from the web) and connect them to my stick/buttons).

Well, it's been about 8 years since I last did anything remotely close to soldering so you can imagine how... intimidated... I was. Sure enough, I applied way too much solder on my first run through so that I accidentally connected a terminal and a ground. I knew I messed up with every single button activated UP.


I also messed up the guide button on my first run through. There must've been a short or something because the xbox dashboard kept coming up randomly. Some spirited scratching of the contact with a knife fixed that little snafu.

This project took a little longer than I originally thought, but the results look fantastic. I'm someone who has no REAL wood working OR electronics experience, and I was able to make a perfectly working product that I'm incredibly happy with. Honestly, I think anyone can do this with a little time and effort and it's so rewarding.

Now to go pwn some n00bz!