36X Controller PCB

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ttsgeb
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Re: 36X Controller PCB

Post by ttsgeb » Wed Jun 27, 2012 11:03 pm

Between this, the CGnome, and the MiniCL... I'm thinking you have a lot of what you need to get some pretty amazing boards built up.
I'm imagining a kit for a re-mappable controller where "all" you have to do is take the chip from a wired360 controller, solder it on, and connect the controller cable.

The question is if it would be potentially profitable to have the populated board made and sold as a kit, or even for you to take the time to build the controllers and sell them at a higher cost.
Thinking about numbers for this, I'm thinking to have the mostly populated boards made would run you around $50 a pop. If this is the case, I'd imagine you'd want to sell at around $65-75 for the kit, and $120 or so fully assembled. Seems like a tough sell to me, but you never know. Maybe there are more people than I think out there that REALLY want a re-mappable controller.

This is some pretty cool stuff you're doing here. You should keep it up.

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RDC
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Re: 36X Controller PCB

Post by RDC » Wed Jun 27, 2012 11:51 pm

Thanks, though the reason why some people do this kind of thing, myself included, is mainly for the challenge, not the profit. I also don't post everything I'm working on online either, so I have a bit more than a lot of what's needed to make up some pretty amazing boards. ;)

The 2 people that did the CGnome are already working on the Mark-II for repaving that remap road also, 8 lanes both ways, instead of a dirt road like last time.

Board costs like that are only feasible if you have hundreds made up at a time, otherwise you're looking at a good bit more than that per board, plus components and labor spent making them or having them made. Just the wired 360 controller alone is around $30 so you can get the 2 ICs from it you need, then waste the rest. There's no way you're going to make a remap chip, board and the rest of the components for $20, plus have to swap the parts from the CL over to it, unless you already own the machines that can do that type of work and have money to burn on top of it. It's part of the reason the CGn was so expensive, as there's only a handful of them around and that thing was a witch to install. The project was also a money pit, but we didn't make it for selling, it was made for the sake of doing it. I personally wouldn't want to do another one of those things the way it was, and the new MII project idea takes all of the good from it and tosses the bad, so we'll see how it all goes sooner or later.

Your idea would also make it a remappable wired controller, which wouldn't fly in a lot of people's book as they have already 'cut the cord' and wouldn't like going back, even for that feature, and having to solder a 56 pin QFN correctly for someone that would like it, that's more of a challenge than doing the rest of the components, plus takes the right tool for that job.

I'm not shooting down your idea or anything, like to hear all kinds of them, good, bad, simple or insane, cause just about everything has something in it that can be used some place or another, and you're not too far off the mark with your idea.

The 36X board I have partially wired up right now is for an N128 controller project I'm working on, mainly just to see if I can do it, then once it's completed it'll be on it's own board to wire up to the 36X, or outright on it's own 360 style board.

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I've also been kicking around a DuXe board as well.

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ttsgeb
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Re: 36X Controller PCB

Post by ttsgeb » Thu Jun 28, 2012 12:24 am

Of course. I've been watching this here and on SceneX, and figured some feedback was better than none; so I figured I'd post what I'm thinking.

I was looking at the idea as "You provide the chips from the controller" for the kit, giving about $5 for the board, $35 for the remap related ICs, and the other $10 to have it populated sans the ICs from the donor controller.
The reason that the pre-built price is so much higher is because of the extra labor and the $30 controller.

As far as the DuXe project, I'm sure there are a good few hardcore duke fans that would love to be able to use that shell with their 360. It would be pretty awesome to see that happen.

Also, I like the whole idea of making up custom boards for all of this. It adds a lot of polish to these mods when you can open up the controller and it looks legit.

Basically, I approve of your doings. :D

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Re: 36X Controller PCB

Post by RDC » Thu Jun 28, 2012 12:43 am

It's all good.

At $5 per board that's a lot of boards to get to that price. Even if $35 covered just the remap related ICs, you have to also consider the vast amount of time and effort it's going to take to code that up, it's not just floating around the web for any chip you pick out, plus the Dev boards that need to made up so it can all be tested, as well as the PC side app so it can be remapped easily. Trust me, I've been down the remap road and it's a beast no matter which way you look at it, especially the time and money angles. Then if it's made for the 'average' end user where they have to do anything with a soldering iron, you have to add a whole bunch more mess onto all of that. As far as straight Hardware, if you get enough of that stuff it's fairly cheap, but like coding, placing all of those components on the board and getting the mechanics of it right, while not forking up any of the electrical side, is also a pretty time consuming portion of it.

Most people just see the end product, but if you think about all of the time that had to go into that before some machine could crank out 1000 and hour at $50 a pop, it's pretty crazy, and then you have to know you're going to sell X amount to recoup all of that time spent as well as the materials. It's just a mess, more fun to do it just to see if you can do it sometimes, then if people are interested in it go from there.
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Re: 36X Controller PCB

Post by Diminuendo » Thu Jun 28, 2012 2:09 am

the double 64 controller looks like it's going along great

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Re: 36X Controller PCB

Post by RDC » Tue Jul 03, 2012 7:09 am

ttsgeb wrote:As far as the DuXe project, I'm sure there are a good few hardcore duke fans that would love to be able to use that shell with their 360. It would be pretty awesome to see that happen.
Here ya go. ;)

http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=52823" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Screwing up is one of the best learning tools, so long as the only thing you're not learning is how to screw up.
Re-mappable Wireless 360 Controller - The CGnome

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