Talryyn Games

Too long ago I started to mod the dpad on my 360 controller to make it work better in Windows compared to the stock dpad rocker. I apologize to those who have been waiting for a tutorial, sometimes life gets the better of us, and projects get pushed aside. I do try to never leave a project unfinished, even if that mean coming back a year later and framing a picture in the house... I am not going to complete the tutorial today; however, here is some more information on what I did to start the project. I do have a new camera, so I need to take apart my controller and retake many images.

I used some thin lexan from my local hardware store, I think it was the smallest sheet size that they sold. Then I picked up some round pcb board from Radio Shack or is it "The Shack"? I also picked up eight tact switches with the 6mm nib on them from the shack, grabbed some thin gauge wire as well. The most important part were eight shotcky diodes, these are used to allow the flow of electrons to only go in one direction. They are setup in a way that works like an if then statement. If I push diagonal upper right, then it fires the top and right buttons only. There is really no contact pad for the diagonals on the 360 controller, when you push the current dpad you are hoping that both the top and right contacts hit the pcb board at the same time. If not you get one of the other, the major complaint with the current setup. On the PC this was really annoying, I could not map anything to the diagonal buttons.

Next I hit my old RC equipment stash, and searched through the screw sets and other bits to find something that would work. I ended up with a shock mount stay from an 1/8 scale buggy, this was threaded all the way through. A few washer and hex pan head screws to match were all that were left. I will measure all of this shortly, I do not remember if I used metric or not. Chances are very good that you can visit your local hobby store and find the same thing, the brand was OFNA on the shock stays. I also used two small pieces of carbon fiber, this prevents the assembly from rotating, in the same way that the stock dpad is held.

To make the lexan round I drilled a hole the same size as the screw on my dremel tool cutoff wheel chuck. I then took some rough sandpaper and gently started to work it down to the size I needed. Your controller may vary, but it was a touch under an inch in diameter. When I got close to what I needed I switched to a fine grit sand paper and beveled the edge slightly, using very light pressure now. If you use heavy pressure it will cause the finished project to not be round at all. Additionally, make sure you cut the lexan as close as you can to being round before you start (say an 1/8" away), you can start with a square but it takes much longer (it's bad for your tools, sandpaper, etc). I just used the normal cutoff discs to get the lexan as close to my marks as I could, and then I started to spin the lexan itself on the dremel. I did the same with the pcb boards, and again I will have to measure mine.

I needed a double layer setup, I could not fit all the tact switches on the same level and work out the buttons correctly. That is why you see a weird double layer board that looks like some sort of mutant robot.

Click on any image to enlarge.