Hey all,

Since I've done quite a few controller alterations, modifications and some would say abominations, I figured I may as well go ahead and cross this one off the list as well. Probably cheese off a few 360 fanboys in the process, but that's OK as just as many PS3 ones will probably like it, so ya see it all balances out and I welcome all types of feedback anyway.

I'm just working on the shell part of this now, haven't even started on the board level part and am not sure if I want to go Wired or Wireless just yet with it anyway, so that's still kind of up in the air and will present many challenges of it's own to get done.

Right now the shell is about as done as I care for it to be, with the exception of adding in a PS3 D-pad like I did on an earlier controller. The reason for that is 2 fold, first I didn't line the original D-pad section back up, so getting the original D-pad to work now is pretty much out of the question and second the PS3 D-pad does fair better IMHO for most game play. There's no reason this can't be done and still retain the original 360 D-pad if ya really wanted too, it just wasn't my intent from the start on this controller really.

The thing still needs quite a bit of glazing putty and sanding to get it to where it looks good and then it's going to need a good paint job, but last time i invested all that time and effort into something like this it ended up being flat out ruined by the painter, so the shell will most likely look this way for awhile unless i invest in the tools and learn to do that kind of thing myself or run across a painter with as much invested in his work as I put in mine.

Enough with the gabbing for now, here's some pics of the process as well as what stage the shell is at right now. Pay no attention to the board that's installed in there, it's only a place holder for the stick so I could get the shell parts all lined up and secured in the right place. This took 2 controller shells to do as well. The D-pad section is from this shell, while the part around the left stick now is from the right stick of another shell. This worked out much better as it's already shaped properly, just needed to be turned a little bit. Doing it all with Bondo and such would have just been way more work than necessary.

















More on it when I get more done.

I agree the 360 D-pad is crap but so is the PS3 D-pad. You should use a NES or SNES pad. The Genesis pad is pretty decent to.

For paint you can talk to CustomNESDude (is that his name?) He paints consoles and they pretty smashing.

Also here is the tutorial I used to learn to paint with cans.

http://case-mods.linear1.org/case-mod-1 ... se-part-2/

Good luck!

Thanks Rekarp, but I'm not after the 'rattle can' paint job on this thing when I get it all done. I'm not saying a good paint job can't be had from them, as I know it very well can be, but I really want this one done up right as the good parts of the Sinister controller I had done were really great. But after the last fiasco I went thru on my Sinister controller I'm very weary of sending off another one of a kind to it's death. That guy I sent mine to had the proper tools and came recommended, but what he did to the thing was just awful and flat out ruined it to the point I had to make another one, a lot of work right down the tubes and he pretty much trashed a first of it's kind 360 controller, D-pad and ABXY swapped. I had an awful feeling the day I sent it off and started in on Sinister II, suk of it was I turned out to be right. So I'm perfectly content to leave this one 'as is' if I have to and have no plans to send it off without having something else done to see the work first hand.

And no offense intended at all to any of you good painters out there, I know there are guys/gals that do some right amazing work, with cans or guns, but I also know crap when I see it and when I got that Sinister shell back I could have raged.

If/When I get a hold of some NES, SNES and Genesis pads that I can tear all up to no end I'll see about doing some 360 shells with them installed for sure to see how they fair.

The 360 one truly is right garbage, but the PS3 one i installed in my last 2 controllers is by far better for most things so far, one is going off to a hardcore DOA4 player, so it'll get fully broken in and and test out extensively there. I don't really care the most for it for diagonals or rolls, but if ya want to press up and only up it soars far above the 360 D-pad.

OK, here we go, for starters anyway. I've decided to go Wireless since I have a CG board for it. Thing was supposed to be a custom Halo 3 controller for some arse, hence why you'll see some traces cut that I don't have marked, but after it was all done he decided it would be more fun to stiff me on it instead of paying for it, so it's getting rebuilt and used for this now.

I'm not bothering with punching holes for the LSC, X/Y and ground/voltage lines for the stick as that would just create 10 more holes and a lot more of a mess to rebuild above and below the board than I already have. So far 10 traces on the bottom and 6 on the top will need to be rewired and that's just from the 4 holes for the mounting tabs of the thing, then another 5 wires will need to be run to the stick for it to work and another 5 for the D-pad.

Here's the stick installed, not secured yet as I have plenty to rebuild first.




And here is some of the 'fun' that will have to be rebuilt.

Little update on this thing, I have the left stick installed now and wired up, works too which is always nice. Still have the PS3 D-pad to install and then see about doing something to pretty it up some.

Why do you have 2 sets of blue and red wires from the pots?

Power and Ground, and it's really only one set. The other ones ya see are going to the other POT, no point in running 4 wires up to them when they both use the same power/ground, so I just run one set and then jumper them to the other POT.

Just finished installing the shell section of the D-pad, it's from a PS3 controller as mentioned earlier in the thread. I'll get to the 'gut's of it all later on sometime. This one I'll need to do up a little differently than the previous ones I did, as this one will have to come completely back apart for painting and such later on.

Here we go, functionally it's all done. I have the D-pad guts installed and all wired up. The sticks are actually about 1/4" closer together than on a PS3 controller, but ya really can't tell it from just holding the thing compared to holding a PS3 controller because of the difference in the rest of the shell.



I may get around to making it all neat looking one day. Since I don't like painting, half I'll admit because I just don't have the patience for it (yet I spend days tracing out boards and wiring this to that) and half because I don't have the proper setup and tools to do it, if I did I might really get into it more, so I'll probably end up sending it off to have that done by someone that takes as much pride in it as I did on the parts I've done. The last controller I spent a ton of time and put a lot into (Sinister) was ruined by the painter, so I'm content to let it look the way it is instead of having it covered with some crap paint job that ruins it for me. For me the challenge of this thing is all over with for now and I'm off to find something new to do who knows what to.

Hmm...where do you live? I'd be willing to paint it up...Though I'll show you references of the GBA SP I'm painting first when it's done....I honestly don't want to kill awesome controllers...especially like that one guy did...I might of even cried in your place...

I'm in the US, Va. As soon as I sent off Sinister I had this nasty gut feeling something crappy was going to happen, so I started working on a second one the same day I sent the first one off, too bad I was right.

If this ones getting painted by anyone I'm sending them another shell first to paint up and send back so I can see their work first hand, that other guy had pics of his work too, but pics can cover up crap work and make it look good just as well as show it for what it really looks like good or bad, just depends on who's taking them. The other guy had refs too, so that means just as much as a good pic to me also. No offense intended at all to you Dark-Aries, so don't take my reasoning personally, but after that last one I'm really hesitant to even think of sending something like this off to have I don't know what kind of paint job done to it without having some solid proof of the painters ability first. I'd rather drop the hundreds of dollars and spend the time learning to do it myself and mess it up than send it off and have it messed up, plus get charged to boot.

If ya want to do up a test controller PM me for the details, I can send it to ya for sure and it'll have the epoxy on it and all just like this one does so ya can see if there are any issues there with painting it. You're not planning on tossing some 'rattle can' job on it are ya? Not that a decent paint job can't be gotten from one, but compared to a paint job with a proper setup by a professional painter the differences are night and day. Other guy had a good painting setup as well, but apparently didn't have a clue how to use it.

Well I have a apint gun...but untill I can get money to buy paints for it I'm stuck with rattles sadly...It bums me out really...I have a compressor and everything...but I can't find a place with awesome paints around here in the paint "cans"...There's Canadian Tire but...I mostly see rattle there now..There's Micheals but I don't know the quality of there paints yet..

But you live to far for me anyways...Shipping it over to Ontario Canada isn't a happy trip..you got those damn brokerage fees, then me having to paint it, send it back with more brokerage fees, then make sure you are happy...


Maybe around september I'll give one a try...Hopefully I'll have a huge stack of sandpaper and paint "cans" on my shelf....


(Hopefully..I really want to help you make awesome controllers...)

Shipping a whole controller to CN from here costs about $10 or so, shouldn't be any fees on top of that if it's value is under $50. I have no idea what they stick ya guys with there, but it's not bad sending one from here.

I'm sure it'll be like this for awhile, I don't have painters lining up and I'm not looking for any either really, so it could stay looking like this for a long while.

Well I checked Canadian Tire's website...they have a huge paint can of Dupli Color Car paint for 30 bucks...like a huge paint can size you get at home depot...hopefully anyways..I have yet to find the can at my local store..even though the site should only show what's in stock for my area... I'll keep looking though...And I can't belive the toothpick logo on that controller though...He could of atleast made a great stencil out of some free font on the internet and then paint it...


But ya near september If you need a painter I'll be ready...I'm stenciling my GBASP and then clearcoating it, selling it for profit and then uying some good quality paint for my gun...

Yeah that crap toothpick job really did a number on my blood pressure as well, it wasn't eve supposed to be there in the first place, it was supposed to be on the 'tail' piece there in the middle of the controller, where the headset connector is, off to the left there in nice cursive or whatever looked good, guess he though spelling it wrong then redoing it on the battery pack was a much better idea, not to mention doing the buttons all wrong as well after being told more than once how they should have been done, painted them wrong and used the wrong color as well, man I still can't believe he ruined that thing like that, it's been almost 2 years now and I can still get pissed just thinking about it, let alone looking at the pics of it.

On the spots that were good, the very few spots, it was really good, how I'd have loved for the whole controller to be and thought it was gonna turn out. Nice even thin coats, ya know like a painter is supposed to know how to do, but the vast majority of that thing was just crap, like he used some paintgun/sandblaster combination on it and had his eyes closed on top of that.