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Wireless Controller Last-Minute Retro Mod


Monsterbox
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Title weird enough for you?

 

Anyway, I have a LAN party coming up this weekend where we're going to be playing Gears of War and Halo 2 pretty much all day. However, I don't have any mods around at the moment but I still want to "peddle my wares" to the fabulous public at the event. What's a modder to do?

 

No, not getting drunk and hoping people feel sorry for me. Its a last-minute controller mod of course! Not a whole lot of time to get things done (10pm Thursday night and the event starts at 10am on Saturday), so this is going to have to be quick and dirty.

 

What's on the menu?

Well, time to make a wireless XBox 360 controller look a little bit more retro. I don't have time to model-paint the triggers, so I'm going to leave the front-plate white for a 1950's two-tone look. Think of it like a Wireless contoller with Whitewalls.

 

Anyway, the tools of the trade are thus:

#8 Torx Security Driver

100 Grit (Medium) Sandpaper

Flat Black Spray Enamel

 

First, we use the Torx to take apart the controller, then sand her down with the 100 Grit to rough up the finish so it'll accept the paint better.

 

http://www.monsterb0x.com/images/mod/360con/360conSanded.jpg

 

Then we apply a few coats of the Flat Black.

 

http://www.monsterb0x.com/images/mod/360con/360conPaint01.jpg

 

Now to let it dry overnight and reassemble the whole thing tomorrow and see how she turns out. I will update tomorrow as soon as I re-assemble the controller.

 

Future mods to this controller will include lighted buttons (A,B,X,Y) as well as painting the triggers, bumpers and front panel Flat Red for a nice two-tone effect. I'm also toying with the idea of cutting out the area around that horrible d-pad and putting something a lot more responsive in there. I mean, bricks are more responsive, but I want NES controller style response out of it. (Sorry, the d-pad from an NES is too small, I already measured. ;))

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Slightly off topic question; how do you get the lights to work for the buttons? I was inspecting a partially demolished controller and there didn't look to be a way to fit an LED in there without it making the button useless.

Basically you have to wire the LED up into the button after you drill out the white plastic bits inside. Then, you fill the entire thing with glue from a Glue Gun (it won't interfere with the operation of the LED, it'll actually help since it will keep the poles separated) so that the glue tops off at the point where the white bits used to end. This way, it will depress the pads onto the circuit board properly as if the white bits were still in there. The real challenge is mashing all the wire into the controller and still having it all fit back together again. They didn't exactly leave a lot of extra room in these things. ;)

 

Primer coat has been added to the controller. I made a mind-change and decided to paint the bumpers and triggers XBox Green. I've only got a couple coats on the triggers and bumpers, so I need to allow some more drying before I'm ready to put the whole thing back together again.

 

http://www.monsterb0x.com/images/mod/360con/360conPaint02.jpg

 

Now all I need to do is sleep with my fingers crossed, hoping that it all dries in time to be reassembled for tomorrow...

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Update with a couple pictures of the whole thing together for use at the Winter WonderLAN today. Had a lot of fun. Lost in the first round of the Gears of War singles, won the Gears of War team and then came in third in Halo 2 tourney. Not bad for not playing H2 in over a year. ;)

 

Anyway, on to the piccies.

 

Top-down view

http://www.monsterb0x.com/images/mod/360con/360conTogether01.jpg

 

Front view with triggers and bumpers

http://www.monsterb0x.com/images/mod/360con/360conTogether02.jpg

 

Going to give it a once-over with the fine grit sandpaper, re-paint it black, then go over it again with clear Acrylic sealer. Then I think it will be finished in the painting department. After that I need to pick up some LEDs and a hot-glue gun so I can make the buttons light up. :)

 

:cool:

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How is the grip on the contollers after painting them?

Well, this one isn't finished yet, but the grip is actually better currently than it was before because there's a bit of tack to the primer. Not sticky like wet paint, but it grips your skin better. Probably sounds like it would be bad, but you don't have to hold the controller as tight while working the buttons which is pretty nice.

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He said he was putting a clear acrylic coat on =P

 

Do you think you could fit a 360 controller into a certain Xbox controller? There were these really good Xbox third party controllers, and having one for the 360 would kick rectum. The only problem is you would need to make some new holes for the bumpers and take out an LCD screen (unless that is a different controller).

 

Such wild dreams.

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If you have a link to what you're talking about I could take a look. I could plot out some possibilities, however I couldn't do it right now. I have another 360 Controller mod in mind and can't even afford the controller for that one, so hopefully what you're talking about is cheap? Or if you wanted to send parts I could build it for you and send it back. ;)

 

What is this LCD screen you speak of?

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I'll have a look for it, it was a few years ago when I last encountered one and I don't remember who made them. The LCD screen was (if I'm thinking of the right one) used to show the setting you had for the controller. You could change the sensitivity and rearrange the buttons/sticks, one of the amazing things I liked about it.

 

I did find this though:

 

http://www.hackaday.com/media/2006/12/ben-heck-1hand.jpg

 

That's right, one handed 360 controller!

 

I FOUND IT, GLORIOUS DAY!

 

http://www.darkplanets.co.uk/product_info.asp?pid=1344&ref=frg&utm_source=Froogle&utm_medium=PPC

 

Only £24 too, that is 31.1 M&Ms brownies! If you are willing to accept the task I could ship the holy controller out and cover any parts (I'd send the host case and a regular controller). But don't take on the job just for the hell of it, only if you have the time =D

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Ben Heckendorn made that 1-handed controller. Amazing job. Too bad they'd be expensive to produce, the thing is wild. He designed it for a vet who lost his arm during combat in Iraq.

 

Are you saying you want the controller redesigned to work with the 360? I could probably convert it from XBox plug to USB pretty easily, but not sure about the rest. Would have to do some more research on it. Unless you simply want a 360 controller in that thing's shell. In which case, that's zero problem.

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Watch out Monster. LED buttons are a bitch to do. You have to be VERY careful when drilling the buttons out because you have to go RIGHT through the white plastic, but not into the colored plastic.

 

Also, make sure to mark how high the white plastic goes inside of the button before you fill it with glue. Too much glue and your buttons will be rocks, too little and they'll never make contact. (trust me, when I first started messing with 360 stuff a controller was the first thing I fucked up)

 

Good luck though!

 

Side note: I don't understand how putting a 360 controller into a third-party shell will be easy. I mean, if it's the same dimensions awesome. But if they're not you're going to have to break the PCB board and solder wires to keep each of the traces complete. A LOT of work IMO.

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Side note: I don't understand how putting a 360 controller into a third-party shell will be easy. I mean, if it's the same dimensions awesome. But if they're not you're going to have to break the PCB board and solder wires to keep each of the traces complete. A LOT of work IMO.

You're absolutely right, it would be quite a bit of work to do it that way, but it looks like the dimensions of the controller he linked to are larger than the PCB of the 360 controller. Which means that you could point-to-point from the existing buttons to the new board without too much difficulty. (I hope. lol)

 

The really difficult part will be moving the left analog. I don't think I can simply wire the old one into the 360 board, but I should be able to put the 360 one in the same housing and then solder wires to the Analog's leads and point-to-point into where it was on the 360 PCB.

 

It'll certainly be complicated and not exactly an easy job, but I think it might be fun and worth a shot. Who knows, depending on how "easy" it is to get the buttons connected to the new board, it might even be able to keep the programmed button functionality. After all, the bumpers are just the Black and White buttons from the original XBox, so it may be possible...

 

PS - Zef, here is a link to the Revision 2 of the one-handed controller.

 

http://www.benheck.com/Games/Xbox360/controls/1handright/standing.jpg

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I don't remember exactly how big the shell would be, I've used the controller before but that was way back when the 360 was in nappies.

 

I'm not all that fussed about keeping the LCD screen and buttons if they need sacrificing to put the battery/wireless stuff in. It would be a good spot for some messing around and adding pointless stuff in =D Do you think you could get a cup holder onto it? Pull that off and I will construct a statue in your honour.

 

The one hand thing is amazing. Opens up the whole gaming world to anyone with one hand or just lazy people.

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Do you think you could get a cup holder onto it? Pull that off and I will construct a statue in your honour.

What size cup-holder? The jumbo Slurpee or your typical bottle of Guinness? I'll drop it right in where the LCD used to be so you can Sip-n-Shoot. ;)

 

Yeah, I love that he made the One-handed controller for a vet who lost his arm in Iraq. The dude loved to play games and was looking at not being able to play the rest of his life, but now he can because of that mod by Ben. Something extraordinary about helping people to hold on to their quality of life. If only I could do something half as beneficial one day.

 

-EDIT-

I've decided that if you actually have me do this, that's exactly what I'm going to call this thing. The Sip-N-Shoot. Complete with dual-analogs, custom triggers, gun-metal finish and cupholders. Bucket seats sold seperately, some assembly required, batteries not included.

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