Worklog GameCube Fight Pad Adapter using GC+2

[TheyAreChris]

Hey! I am doing a very simple project to familiarize myself with the GC+2 board and microelectronic soldering projects in general. I'm just going to be taking a custom Hitbox style arcade controller I have and mapping it to the GC+ inputs so that my Hitbox can be used as a controller for a GameCube. I use a Hitbox when speedrunning certain Game Boy games with lots of menuing and button mashing as I find it more precise and easier on my hands than a traditional controller, so making my hitbox plug-and-play with a GameCube would be useful to me when running these games on console.

There's really not much to the first draft of this project - the only thing I am doing here is attaching buttons to a circuit. The only vaguely "complex" part of this is that I'll be making Y-cables for all my buttons, so that they can simultaneously be plugged into my existing PC/PS3 control board as well as the GC+2. I will only ever use one of these interfaces at a time, but that way I won't have to unplug and replug a bunch of buttons every time I switch from PC to console. So really, all I'm doing is splicing a bunch of wire with some lever nuts, and soldering on female 2-pin connector wire whips to the GC+2.

I am doing this project as kind of a practice run / prep for a future project. Eventually, I will be creating a Game Boy Player controller that recreates the button-feel and tactile sensations of the GBA SP D-Pad and face buttons, while being housed in a controller that is actually comfortable to hold for extended periods. This project is just to familiarize myself with the chip, and to brush up on my soldering a little. Once I start that project in earnest it will be its own (much more substantial) thread.

That said, if this project goes well, I may also take this concept itself to the next level. If this works, then I'd like to design a PCB to make using a custom Hitbox with a GameCube much easier. This would give me practice designing PCBs, which I will also need to learn. The board would simply have some interconnects on it (to solder a GC+2 board in place) and traces leading to a bunch of female 2-pin leads that match the connector used on most fight stick button cables. As far as I know, this doesn't exist yet. But before I go and design / make a PCB for that extremely specific purpose, let's just try soldering wires to the GC+2 and see if I know anything about what I'm doing at all right now.

I should get the GC+2 board next week sometime; in the meantime I have ordered a bunch of Baby's First Electronics Supplies to start me off. I've soldered in school / work settings before but never had my own equipment. Should be fun, I hope?

Wait, but this isn't a portable or console mod at all! Why are you posting here?
IDK, y'all seem cool and you all have a bunch of extremely relevant information here on custom button pads and housings, which is all a controller really is. Plus the GC+2 came from y'all folks, right? This is the closest community I can find that relates to the kind of projects I'm about to try to do. And also someday I want to do some GBA modding and maybe even console portabilizing.

 

[TheyAreChris]

Hey, remember this post? I sure didn't! But I did finally, finally get around to doing most of this easy project yesterday, I'm about 70% done.

I had already built my little knockoff button box, so I'm adding a GC+2 to that. I started by making a bunch of Y-cables for the 2-pin connectors that I use for the buttons. These Y-cables are so that I can internally have both the GC+2 and the existing Arcade stick board wired at the same time. I will make sure to only plug the fight stick into one device at a time to avoid any weird signal crossover.

Then I took some 2 pin connector leads and soldered the positive wire of each of them to 12 positions on the GC+2, for each of the 12 buttons. I just threaded each wire through the little holes on the contacts and then flowed some solder over everything. My soldering skills are pretty bad but this seems to work OK.

finally, I cut up a Gamecube extension cord and soldered the appropriate leads onto the GC+2. I had quite the time figuring out which color corresponded to which pin on this extension cable. The color coding this controller used does not match the GameCube's standard color coding, and my multimeter's stubby little tips couldn't get a good bite on the contacts in the cable. I ended up cutting open the socket end of the cable (which I had cut off and discarded) to figure that one out.

next up, I have to figure out how to hook all of those buttons up to a common ground. I have some 5 pin Wagos, I'll probably just jam like 3 of the wires into each Wago hole. Is it good practice, definitely not. Will it work? I mean, probably.

obviously once this goes back into the button box this will be an absolute mess of wiring. I do intend to clean it up juuuust a little by strain relieving all the GC+ connections, taping stuff down, etc, but it'll be a nightmare rats nest in there, especially without any ties or sheathing for all the 2 wire cables. Maybe if this works I'll make another iteration that uses a custom PCB to attach the GC+2 directly to it. I probably should have started with that...