Anyone have any experience with gamepads/Joy Cons? Essentially I want to try to fit a single Switch controller in its vertical position to be horizontal in a regular gamepad configuration.
Is there any way to connect the two parts of the PCB if I cut it in half?
I have an album further explaining the project if that'd help at all.
> he recorded an album for his joypad project
>Is there any way to connect the two parts of the PCB if I cut it in half?
No
...
I'm don't know much about these things (got my multimeter just last week), but it looks like you're trying to run some copper wire from the socket to the connector. That's probably not going to work - I've tried to fix the flexible circuit of a DualShock 3 back in the day by soldering it - and of course, it just melted. Looks like you'll have to remove the flexible flat cable (the blue/orange connector) altogether and run the copper wire directly from point A to point B. But then again, I'm a brainlet when it comes to these things so take this post with a grain of salt. Ask on /diy/
You can't do that the the FFC cable is actually part of a large flex PCB that is inside the stick.
well fuck me sideways then
He's right about melting the FFC though, is there any easy solution to extending it?
While planning the project, I'd imagined just soldering each connection from the cable to its corresponding on the zif connector.
You do know the very gamepad you used for your example image is compatible with the Switch with no modification whatsoever, right?
I'm not even sure if the flex PCB even has copper traces. I think it's all just carbon.
Specifically, I'm trying to play Pokemon with it. For some dog shit reason, there's no full gamepad support, only single handed, which makes it so you're forced to play with the controller vertically- one thumb for face buttons and stick, leaving your other hand for... nothing, I guess.
A thought occurred to me, if I'm unable to directly solder onto the FFC, would it be easier to just desolder the zif connector from the board itself and just attach wires from it to the board, effectively making an extension?
>Muh gaymes
sounds good chief
make sure to let us know how it worked out
Traces are tiny so have fun.
Maybe there are test points on the board you can use.
Also remember you're working with an analog pot.
>Since the two games take a lot of Pokemon Go’s elements and incorporate them to make them more appealing to fans of the mobile game, it doesn’t control like a standard game.
>Instead, you use motion controls for catching creatures in Pokemon Let’s Go. If you’ve played the hit mobile game, you’ll be familiar with the colored circles and throwing mechanics.
Holy shit, that's some next level retardation. I'm so fucking glad I stopped giving a shit about Pokémon after Gen 3.
This might work, but I don't think you can just cut the PCB willy-nilly. There are probably traces in the internal layers that will get cut and make the thing stop working altogether. Your best option here might be fitting the original controller's board behind the new one and wiring them together.
>Also remember you're working with an analog pot
What do you mean by this? I understand this means variable resistance, but I'm not really connecting the dots, sorry I'm still learning basic electronics.
Well your added wire and soldering will change the resistance read by the ADC.
Probably insignificant though.
After some consultation in this thread and other electronics discords, I've decided it might just be too much trouble cutting the pcb.
Your solution might be best off, now in terms of extending the face buttons, how would I go about doing that? With the L/R triggers, it's a very obvious switch, but the face buttons are just kind of pads for lack of a better term, so I'm sure I can't just solder a wire from the pad to an external switch. Any advice?
Buy an extra zif socket, plug the flex pcb into it, then run copper wire from the extra zif socket into the zif socket on the PCB. Congrats, you've made an extender
The face buttons are just tactile domes, they should have two pads under the metal parts, which you can just peel off. They're simple switches too.
>Is there any way to connect the two parts of the PCB if I cut it in half?
no, most modern PCBs are multi layer. so you could reconnect the surface traces, but the inner traces are a bitch.
then there's the issue of timings, and the added resistance of the wiring, and a lot of other stuff. forget it.
This is a different controller, but I'm imagining this is essentially what you mean, after it's been peeled off. In this controller's case, there's two pretty distinctly marked areas, I'd imagine I could use as solder points.
That being said, I still don't really understand what part of this acts like a regular switch.
Yup, it's like that.
>That being said, I still don't really understand what part of this acts like a regular switch.
The metal part has a dome shape (Convex part towards the outside). When you press it it collapses, giving tactile feedback and electrically bridging the contacts on the board.
Makes perfect sense now, thanks for guiding me my guy.
I think I finally have a more clear cut vision of how the final version of this project will work.
Thanks for all the advice Jow Forumsents.
why don't you just take pictures of the goddamn thing opened up
I bought a used joy con on ebay because I'm not going to use my personal one for this project in case I fuck up big time.
I figured any visual aid I could find online would help get across the idea I'm trying to put together.
>he has down syndrome
Go drink some bleach, shit for brains.
>>>/reddit/