controller hacking

Calce · Post by **Calce** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 8:52 am

I was wondering if someone could solve this problem i'm having. I am adding four led lights to my controller but I am having trouble figuring out which leads are the +5V and ground.

I read in a book that this is the configuration in the controller.

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first to right is 5V, other is 0V

I tested with my voltmeter and it is indeed 5V. However, when I wire my leds to it, the voltage drops to 1.4V and the leds don't work. They flicker on for half a second and stop working. Am I draining too much current? I am using 220ohm for 3 colours of led and 100ohm for my blue one. Thanx in advance

DK · Post by DK » Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:36 am

Might help if you told us what controller this is.....

NOOBBZZZ

Calce · Post by **Calce** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:25 am

its the original large xbox controller

11up · Post by **11up** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:45 pm

You'd better put some resistors between the ground going to each led if you're going to put 4 leds in there. The controller may not get enough power to run itself otherwise, cause the LEDs you're using consumes lots of power. Believe me, when I added LEDs to a green PS2 controller using ground from the rumble motors, they used so much power, I could only add one to each motor or neither would work at all. (Even then they still take too much Power and I plan on finding some resistors to balance this out.

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Post some pics up when you're done, I'd like to see this thing in action.

Calce · Post by **Calce** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 8:56 pm

so I should have resistors from the 5V source AND the ground? That doesn't make sense O.o

11up · Post by **11up** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:48 am

As we all know, ground will supply the power that the LEDs need when the controller is on. You can solder both legs going to ground as LEDs are pretty much like diodes, they take current one way and stop at the other. The reason you may want to put resistors on the legs of the LEDs before you solder them to the 5v source you found, is the 5v might be too much for the LEDs and could be blowing them out. Soldering resistors will bring down the voltage so the LEDs can tolerate it and at the same time, makes sure the LEDs aren't drawing too much power away from the controller to prevent it from working properly. Test out the LEDs with something else to make sure they'll still work and give this another go. I don't know what kind of ohm resistors you'll need, but see what voltage, amperage and ohm ratings are on your LEDs and you can find what resistors you need. I hope that helped.

Here's where I got my info encase you're curious: http://devcast.dcemulation.com/mods/nig ... tlight.php .