360 Controller mods (Not SF4 ones)

[InvaderGIR]

Have many people here done any mods to their controllers?

Reason I ask is yesterday I decided to do the LED mod on mine...with the use of a crap soldering iron, some noncey tweezers and me being slightly hamfisted I stuffed the controller (used a spare one that was worn and horrible to test out the mod on).

I managed to remove the contact patch that solders the LED onto the PCB, only way I know to redo that is to dip it in solution that applies it (what I had to do when I stuffed up my GCSE Electronics coursework )

I also received some black sticks and D-Pad today which I've fitted to my main controller and now it looks much better...

I will be spraying the grey bar black too when the weather isn't wet and horrible (can't do it inside really spray can fumes and paint will go everywhere ) as I really dislike the grey parts.

All the 'special' controllers...Resi, Halo etc. have black sticks and d-pad as well as the bar being black...but you can't buy the shell parts, so I have to spray mine...well, you can buy them, but at £10 for a nasty shell when I only want the bar section, I'd rather spray mine.

I will do the LED mod (changing from green to blue) at some point soon, but first I need to get a decent soldering iron (needle point rather than the normal angled one), some decent tweezers and a desk magnifying stand thing.

The LEDs are about 1.5mm long, .5mm wide and 1mm high, which makes it great fun when you drop one on the carpet.


Anyone else done any form of modifications to their controllers (bar SF4 ones)?

 

[InvaderGIR]

I have some plasti-kote stuff I'll try...simply because I found it in a shop and got it. I have one dead controller now, so will test out spraying on that one, then put the black part into the decent one if it works ok.

 

[InvaderGIR]

After a fresh coat of the paint...

...the top of the picture shows basically how it should end up looking when dry, the rest is obviously damp paint. I think I'll put 3 or 4 coats on...so a couple more and I think that'll be enough. Currently it looks like it has enough, but I want to put some more on to make sure.

 

[InvaderGIR]

The LED is in reference to the Green X on the main Xbox button?

Nah, the 4 light ring, green bores and annoys me. My PC screens both have blue for power, so does my PC tower, so I wanted to give my controller blue for connection/connecting...but I broke it (handy having a spare to break).

The black bar won't be as good as the ones you have on limited edition ones (Halo ODST, Resi etc.) but it should make the controller look a whole lot better. It's had 4 coats now, 5th will be just after 4pm then I'll leave it to dry over night and fit tomorrow.

 

[InvaderGIR]

Ah bummer.
I think the X doesnt light up green does it? (just the 4 quarter circle lines around the X right?)

How did you break it btw?

Yup, there is no light on the X itself, but if you get 4 LEDs and a resistor you can wire it up so it glows too. Although it's an 'always on' light.

Breaking it was easy.

The LEDs are tiny little things...

...D1 - D4 are the LEDs (although D1&D2 are currently not on the board).

Despite the burns, D4 worked.

D1, D2 and D3 I managed to remove the solder contact patch from the PCB for one leg of the LEDs, this means there was no way to connect the LED to the board on one leg...oops. Now it doesn't turn on.

 

[InvaderGIR]

That looks better than any simple part swapping mods I've seen!

It does look good...but I'm not a fan of the white consoles or controllers...or paying silly prices for one like that.

Where's that guy who did a 360 mod so it works as a PS3 pad?

You mean the one where he put the PS3 guts into a 360 controller? That mod is awesome, enjoyed reading that.

Thread is here.

 

[InvaderGIR]

Gone through the PCB? Nope, only the waxy coating (which is what the burns are)...but as I say, they didn't make it not work, the removal of the solder contacts is what killed it.

You can actually see where I removed one of them on D2 as it's a little square of brown instead of silver.

Basically you have to poke the ends of the LEDs...ideally you have a mate with an iron too, so you can both desolder an end to remove them.

I can't link to the site but google "Xbox 360 LED Lighted Controller Mod" and you'll find a guide with pics by a llama.

 

[InvaderGIR]

Oh yeah, D4 (bottom right) looks bad, but was working fine...till I broke the other LED connections.

I only have a soldering iron from the highstreet...was like £10, need to get one with a point \/ basically, rather than the |/ end I have.

 

[InvaderGIR]

5th coat done, I'll leave it to dry fully over night, but here are some shots of it whilst the paint is surface dry...

Should look something like so...

It's come out surprisingly well and fits with the black of the controller originally which is nice. How well it wears/lasts time will tell though...I have a feeling it won't last too well, but we'll see.


As for the soldering iron...it can wait till I have a few more spare controllers and a fair bit of spare cash.

 

[InvaderGIR]

Vinyl dye next time!

I file my cheap soldering irons to get a fine point.

Why dye? This has worked well enough...so far.

I may buy some dye too and once this one is fitted, use it on the other grey one and see which I prefer.

Is the dye matt, satin or gloss? I'd want matt or satin, ideally matt.

 

[InvaderGIR]

Done.

I'll be doing this to all future controllers (although next one I'll probably use vinyl dye as suggested above), black or white, they will be all one colour for sure just looks so much better!

I'll also do the light mod at some point in a few months...and once the 360 is out of warranty...make that matt black and give that blue lights too.

 

[InvaderGIR]

Cool, so it'll be satinish then, that's fine. One thing I don't like about the limited edition ones is that this section is normally gloss, which is a bit naff, would rather it was similar to the colour/finish of the main body.

I'll get a can soon and test it on the spare part.

 

[InvaderGIR]

Good luck finding something decent in the UK.

?

The dye can be bought in the UK, that's all I'm on about. I'll be making all my black ones black now, and if I get a white one then I'll see about making it completely white.

It's a multilayer PCB. Chances are you've broken one of the tracks that sits *underneath* the area that the LEDs are in. Removal of the solder pads wouldn't kill it in and of itself. You really need to learn to desolder, it's almost as important as soldering itself

Considering the size of the end of my soldering iron, I did well to get the old ones off (well, the ones I didn't break the solder pads when removing) and to get the new ones back on.

I've done loads of clean sodlering and desoldering, I just need to get a decent iron that isn't 20x the size of the area I'm trying to work on.


EDIT: AHAHAHAHA I'm a tard...I was using a flat battery in the controller...it does work.

Although I only have D4 working due to D1 and D2 not being on the board and D3 not being connected properly.

 

[InvaderGIR]

Proof I didn't kill it...

Mind you, I stopped it from being able to be noticed as controller 1-3.

I think when I perform this mod on another one I'll also see if I can get a new dome some how...as I'm not a fan of the green one with the light being blue.

 

[InvaderGIR]

controllers looking good

i still wonder why they didnt just come in all black or all white from new !

This is why I'm playing with mine.

I've been using it all afternoon and there has been no paint coming off...but it is a very rarely touched surface of the pad.

 

[InvaderGIR]

UPDATE!!


I was bored, realised I still had paint left in my can and have a spare controller that was stock, bar the blue LED I'd done previously (still normal colours).

I decided to see how well the paint would take to any part that wasn't black that I thought should be black...

Dismantle...

Put in 'spray booth'...

I don't have shots of some of the other parts in there, but this is the result...

Now a line up of untouched, ebay sticks + home sprayed bar, and home sprayed bar + home sprayed sticks + home sprayed connections...

I'm not sure if you can tell, but the Sticks have a sheen to them and the D-Pad is matt. Just how well the painted parts will stand up to abuse I'll find out over the next few days. Certainly shows to me how the controllers should have come.

 

[InvaderGIR]

I think dye would indeed be better, especially for the sticks. I expect that the paint will come off after a short amount of use but figured I'd try it out as I still had some and had spare sticks and D-Pad and have no dye yet.

The ones I got off ebay whilst being black and awesome are much softer than the original ones and so the bumps have worn down, they did in fact wear down after a couple days of use.

What does annoy me is the fact the Elite is grey rather than black. Once my 3 years for RROD are up I'll either wrap mine in true black or vinyl dye it to make it properly awesome...and will change the green LEDs on the front to blue.

 

[InvaderGIR]

Yeah, I'll be modding all my controllers to be completely black (using dye for the next one I think) and changing the LEDs to blue ones when I can be bothered to get hold of both the dye and a decent soldering iron.

The LEDs on the console are the same as the pads, so it is a better idea to do the pad before the console, at least if you do break it, it's only ~£30 down the pan.

I have the same view on the LEDs, most things these days are Blue/Red LED for power, normally blue, plus black + blue = awesome black + green = pants.