One More Dpad On A Gp : The Nes Cross!

[nik166]

don't rush in taking commands, it's just a 0.1 version yet,

i just played some sonic, it works, yes and fine ; yes
better than the original stick, even with my little rubber mod? yes !

but it's not perfect yet, i'm exploring ways to make it better , for now the touch is not totally homogenous, mostly because of the little smd resistors under the additional PCB,and also because of the rubber's position on the PCB ; it works, but gotta push a little bit harder than i want especially on the DOWN way, mostly because of the 2-cells graphite contact on the PCB

i have some experiments to make to find what's best to put between the gp's PCB and the additional one, and try to replace the rubber if i can remove it once glued

and by the way if someone can make PCBs, a custom one would be the best possible thing, i can work on a typon if someone is interested?


(still have to fix my "blank screen on battery" issue too <_< )

 

[bacteria]

i have some experiments to make to find what's best to put between the gp's PCB and the additional one

Sticky foam pads (like I used?) - double sided, good adhesion, good insulator...

 

[grahf]

Nik, I used two strips of 3M double sided tape to both raise and attach my gamecube pcb. It raises it enough to clear the smd resistors. Its been fine for months now, its strong stuff.

 

[nik166]

i'm not sure i wanna raise too much over the resistors (i dug a bit into the PCB at the resistor's place to clear the way )

maybe one strip would be fine?


i'll find anyway

 

[grahf]

Well i didnt stack them, i just used two strips side by side. Its raised just barely over the resistors. If you cut out your pcb, they do sell double sided adhesive tape thats similar in strength and paper thin.

 

[Jarska333]

So, how difficult would this be, on the soldering side of things? I've installed an afterburner on my GBA, so that's about the level of skill I posses... Nevermind the shoddy job actually installing the light dinghy, or that the potentiometer-wheel was counterclockwisely installed... But it works...

Would this be much more difficult?

 

[PokeParadox]

I'd reckon this would be easier than installing an afterburner...
But on the other hand there is more for you to do.

I installed an Afterburner kit on my GBA... unfortunately I didn't have all the right tools, so a lot of things were improvised:
e.g. The potentiometer dial was heated on the metal with a soldering iron as I pushed it throug the GBA case (it melted the plastic on the GBA and sank through) That worked quite well actually... maybe better than drilling holes as was suggested.

 

[bacteria]

I put in an AfterBurner on my original GBA too a while back. Worked fine, but everything was very pixilated, and the light shone out of the sides of the GBA screen, which was annoying. Still, it was a mod, and mods are not as good as having the real thing in the first place. I got the GBA SP then, so much better!

 

[Jarska333]

I'd reckon this would be easier than installing an afterburner...
But on the other hand there is more for you to do.

I installed an Afterburner kit on my GBA... unfortunately I didn't have all the right tools, so a lot of things were improvised:
e.g. The potentiometer dial was heated on the metal with a soldering iron as I pushed it throug the GBA case (it melted the plastic on the GBA and sank through) That worked quite well actually... maybe better than drilling holes as was suggested.

I chickened out and got a ready-made front cover with potentiometer...


(When will those be available for 2X? And I wonder, if one could, instead of dremeling, melt the cross-shape onto the cover... Scary thought. h34r: )

 

[PokeParadox]

I wouldn't like to try it with a big shape like a cross...
It worked with the potentiometer thinggy because it had pointy pins. It was east to sink them through the plastic and solder the wires on the inside of the case.

 

[nik166]

okay, today i closed the box, tried bomberman, puyopuyo etc, it works perfectly fine

tomorrow i'll be on the go, so i'll do some further testing in real situation

 

[PokeParadox]

Photos?

 

[nik166]

isn't my beautiful prose enough ?





hmm ?







ok i see <_<

so HERE IT IS !

...as you can see, i don't really know where to put the center button yet
so it's making a WIP touch hanging out

thickness ...


and a lil closeup :

everything is quite fine until now
the only problem is the gp is a bit more tricky to close
but it's because of the home made quality, with a custom pcb with pins (like davec's? ) it would be much better

 

[iignotus]

Yes, I want this :wub:

 

[Alter Ego]

@nik166: First of all, congratulations for your mod, not only looks far better than the original but also the look of the gp2x with the new pad is anyways nice.....really good job you've done there....

I'd like to abuse of your technical skills: I was just wondering in a post I started today (http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=31861) if it would be possible to replace the gp stick with one coming from a NeoGeo Pocket...and I was just thinking of the same you've done, desolder the gp stick first and then solder back the NG pocket stick on its place....

Do you know if that same proceeding you've followed would be also useful for any other pad or stick out there, such as the NG Pocket one? On the same post there is one link to a site with an opened NGP in case you might want to take a look at it.....any help with it would be much appreciated.....

 

[Epicenter]

It's too bad it is such a pain to get such a thing mounted. The soldering job is very easy; it's just 5 wires soldered, 7 if you want to add a button for 'stick push'. But physically getting the height exactly right to match the bezel in the GP2X can prove to be a real nightmare ... I'm figuring that out the hard way with the Madcatz XBox PCB/DPad I am currently installing. It is in fact so difficult to get the height and sensitivity correct, I'll probably just put the damn thing on the surface of the unit...

Regardless, excellent work there-- it looks almost like it came from the factory that way.

 

[nik166]

@nik166: First of all, congratulations for your mod, not only looks far better than the original but also the look of the gp2x with the new pad is anyways nice.....really good job you've done there....

I'd like to abuse of your technical skills: I was just wondering in a post I started today (http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=31861) if it would be possible to replace the gp stick with one coming from a NeoGeo Pocket...and I was just thinking of the same you've done, desolder the gp stick first and then solder back the NG pocket stick on its place....

i'll post in your topic but you won't like what i'll say


Epicenter: the height is not really a problem with a nes cross, or with any other thing who is slimmer than the original gap, then you just have to add a dummy layer in the nes case, you can do it "on the fly" with the 2 layers of the gp's case (mounted without the middle plastic )

the real problem is having a flat surface , the additional PCB being added over resistors , but if you get over that, then the thickness is not really a problem, just a bother at most

 

[bacteria]

@nik166 - Nice job. Logical places for the centre-push would be: 1) in the centre of the GP2x logo (who needs this really?), to the left of the SD card slot, or on the rear of the unit by the left shoulder button between the screw hole and the GP2x label (where I put mine).

 

[nik166]

i want my beautiful logo
keeps the "stock look" , that's my tuning style

another place is between the cross and the volume button

but i think the best place i found is behind the L button, making some kind of L2 on the top of the rear panel, probably tricky to fit but i think i'll put it there :]

 

[PokeParadox]

Looks nice dude, thanks for the pics!
I still would like to know if you would mod a GP2X for me ^__^ ha ha.