The Official Fight Stick Modding Discussion

TerryMasters

New member
I thought it would be good to have one thread dedicated to modding the TE stick, since I didn't see one after a quick search. I've been attempting to mod mine since the day I got it, but I can't believe how hard it is to modify something that should've been so simple, taken two seconds to do and I've done in the past. Here's my situation.

I was making a tutorial to show everyone how to not only make their sticks wireless, but compatible with both consoles. I accidentally messed up my Sixaxis pcb, so I went wireless 360/wired PS3 to finish the video and just showed how to do the mod with the Sixaxis so all wouldn't be lost. But between the PDP PS3 board and the official 360 controller, whatever I'm doing, I'm grounding something out and I can't understand why.

Right now I have a UMK3/MK4 cabinet with the common grounds and the inputs between the two boards wired to each cherry. It works fine. But doing that here caused both controllers to freak out even with power to one of them turned off, so YourMameMan suggested throwing diodes on the wires. Since I don't have any here and Radioshack was closed, I decided to make a swappable common ground that would disconnect one controller while connecting the other. Somehow, only the PS3 side of things is working and the 360 side is still acting weird. Here's a quick video and description of where I'm at now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_tzgw-p6uE

"Since I didn't have any diodes, I decided to remove the grounds from both controllers - no common grounds from the 360 controller OR the PS3 are attached to the cherrys - and I replaced them with what I call a "Master Common Ground". This way, the grounds from the two controllers couldn't touch and whichever one you wanted to use you'd plug in to the respective controller. Like this:


360 CG {} PS3 CG {} Master CG {} (Key: {} is disconnected, {|} is connected)

Using the 360 Controller-
360 CG {|} PS3 CG {} Master CG {|}

Using the PS3 Controller-
360 CG {} PS3 CG {|} Master CG {|}


Upon connecting the appropriate controller, the MCG would act as it's common ground while removing the ground from the other. This, had it not been me doing the mod, would have resolved any loop issues between the two because it's impossible to have a ground loop with something that isn't connected. After checking the continuity in every possible way, and only having the inputs wired to the open on the microswitches, the 360 controller still seems like it's grounding out. Pushing button #4 on the controller registers 1,2,3,4 and 5, along with some of the D-Pad contacts as well, and the clincher is that holding it for 2 or 3 seconds will eventually make the others disappear and only register holding the original #4. If you press the button really fast it registers correctly, but leaving it alone for a second will register the whole lot again. How it's grounding out on a time release is so far beyond me I can't even put it into words.

There is one ground on the 360 pcb that is not common, and was removed so that problem no longer exists. I just have to switch two wires instead of one to solve that problem, so the uncommon ground isn't a big deal. The PS3 side of things is working fine, it's only the 360 side that's borked. This isn't even with both controllers on at the same time, on or off it's behaving the same way.

So to summarize the situation, it can't ground loop to the other board because the other board's grounds have been disconnected. And it's not looping itself because if it were, something would be closed, but everything is open until I push a button and releasing it returns everything to it's open state. I can't figure out what's going on here, and the worst part is that this started out as a simple MK TE stick mod tutorial that I was making to help everyone. One of my few tutorials that I actually thought was turning out to be really helpful, and had everything gone the way it normally does, would've taken two seconds. That was 5 nights ago, all of which involved going to bed at 5am. Tonight seems no different"
 
Sucks to hear about your problems. So are you using your PS3 stick as a base and then adding in a 360 pad? I'm not 100% sure the PDP PCBs are common ground, some tests on my 360 PCB say they are not actually common ground which makes dual modding them difficult. Sure you'll find someone that can help ya though, I'm not that good with specifics of what you are seeing and the causes.

Plus adding in that the top area uses special buttons on their own PCB makes using Start/Guide/Select/Back for dual consoles a PITA.


That all said I just added a iL stick into my TE tonight. So far so good, much tighter than the old cheap knock off sticks PDP used (hard to say they are even Happ as they look different).
 
Terry I saw your post to the other thread, and I felt this reply of mine deserved to be here as well.

Actually I kept the old Happ base, because of the nuts not coming off problem (which is kinda silly but whatever). I found the iL and Happ bases identical so this other base should be no issue. The rest of the parts I replaced with iL and Cherry parts. My next mod is Cherry switches for the rest of the buttons.

Then I look into various ways to dual mod it, I got a few plans of action but need more time.

Any luck on your investigations?
 
Well according to YourMameMan, when something keeps grounding out like that you need diodes and after picking up a couple myself I can confirm that this trick works. I still for the life of me can't figure out why the input signals are grounding out with the grounds themselves removed, but at least we know how to fix it.

The whole reason I was trying to solder directly to the Sixaxis PCB was because I believed the AxisAdapter boards were no longer in production. Sure enough I found them on Lizardlick, lol. So I bought a bunch of them, and once they come in I'll finish up the video and show everyone how to mod the PDP board to work with both controllers :)
 
Ok, so unfortunately for me I've run into a road block. What worked yesterday seems to have stopped as I can't do anything with the diode trick. It's 5am, maybe I'm just cloud-headed right now but for the life of me I can't figure out how I'm wiring this wrong:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C5jYC85TgY

From what I understand it's supposed to be signal wire to diode, striped end of the diode to the open on the microswitch. Grounds from what I understand do not need diodes, so I'm not getting what's wrong and I even experimented - putting diodes on the grounds, reversing them... the works and everytime something is wrong. This stuff can be aggravating.

I won't give up. I am going to make this stick the best stick ever.
 
Bah. I hate replying to my own threads, but I thought this video might come in handy - it shows what's underneath the control panel for those who want to mod things like artwork, button location, or anything else: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwFfmTX5tmQ

I think I figured out what the deal is with my current wiring problem. In the research that I've done I'd read that the Sixaxis pcb was a common ground board. Testing a couple contacts here and there on my own I thought I had confirmed that. Unfortunately it's something called, "common high", which is brackets of common grounds and not actually one solid common ground. From what I understand this is somehow preventing my wiring methods from working, and I need to replace my Axisdapter boards with Leo v2's.
 
I've stuck this thread like I meant to earlier to hopefully get more posts going in it as it'll be higher exposure.

Awesome that it seems you don't totally destroy the artwork by removing it which I may want to do to replace the default buttons they use to make it cross platform.

My plans for dual console are to use a Chimp PCB and then have that wired into the USB output port on the stick so that I can just plug it into either system and it''ll work. The hardest part will be top buttons as I mentioned before. Can you take me a picture of the PS3 PCB front and back for me? My PS3 stick is still in a box at the moment.
 
Rotendo thanks for posting, I was actually going to add your link to your modding article from ktownbrawlers: http://ktownbrawlers.com/?p=155

So far I've replaced the stick with a iL stick as I found just like you that the stock one is weak, and the buttons are too just not sure exactly what I want to do with that yet still debating.
 
Plus adding in that the top area uses special buttons on their own PCB makes using Start/Guide/Select/Back for dual consoles a PITA.


That all said I just added a iL stick into my TE tonight. So far so good, much tighter than the old cheap knock off sticks PDP used (hard to say they are even Happ as they look different).

I can tell you from experience since IL stopped contracts with HAPP and HAPP acquired SUZO the quality of their molds has gone downhill. Even the newer mold buttons I purchased are trash and don't thread properly. Also they are different and don't even have HAPP marked on them at all and every new switch I have is not even from Cherry.
 
I'm not really pleased with the detection of the joystick on the TE stick. It's not sensitive enough for me, any way at all to increase it? Thanks
 
Does anyone have a YouTube Video that shows step by step how to replace the stick and buttons. I modded my SF4 stick and had no problems, but I have never worked on this type of set up before. Do the iL sticks use the same connectors as the stock PDP stick? That is, can I get the iL stick and just swap it in no problem without changing the quick disconnects? Also, do iL buttons fit in no problem with the same quick disconnects?
 
You can also get iL parts from Paradise Arcade Shop, they seem to have a lot of stuff in stock and ready to go out. Heard great things from them so far, waiting to hear back about a lighted button setup for my TE stick. ;)

http://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/

Do you mean these ones?

http://www.paradisearcadeshop.com/27-led-buttons

I was thinking about these to, but I've never modded a controller or stick before. Would you need an additional power supply to make the led's light up? Do the connections just swap out and plug in?
 
Does anyone have a list of exact model sticks that would work (or even be better than) for the TE stick? I am having the same problem (lack of sensitivity) and have finally convinced myself that I won't break it after two flawlessly done SSF4 SE mods..Even though it's hardly "modding" that stick because of how plug-and-play it is.
 
Can anyone upload a scan of the artwork in a high res format tiff, PSD I wanted to make some custom artwork but i'd rather get the artwork from someone that has already dissembled the stick instead of taking mine apart
 
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