Hard wiring a SNES controller to DS Lite via GBA Slot

tysonDS · Post by **tysonDS** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 9:42 am

Hi guys,

I have almost finished my mod of internally wiring the controller points inside the DS lite to pins in the GBA slot. (This renders the GBA slot useless for gba games).

I have wired up my snes controller, and connected it to the pins via a dust cover circuit board.

It's not working, and I think it is because the one thing I am not sure of is the GND and the +v.

Could a kind person please tell me the correct place I should be wiring from the DS Lite mobo GND, to connect with the GND on the Snes Controller. Same goes for the + voltage.

The way I have wired it up is, (cut the connection of the chips timing chips inside the snes controller),
Then wired from for instance, P00 on the DS mobo to one side of the Y button on the controller, and wired the other GND connection of the Y button to the GND pin on the GBA slot. This hasn't worked, I think it's because I need to wire to the GND of the DS mobo.

Could someone please explain, do I even need to wire the Snes Controller to +voltage, or do I only need to wire to the GND.

blah.. I'm so lost -_-

any help greatly appreciated, thank you

tysonDS · Post by **tysonDS** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 10:02 am

HAHAHA! I had wired the GND wire to the wrong GBA Slot GND pin!!!! lol

Once I fixed this, it works perfectly!!

I'm so happy that I got a snes controller to work on my DS, I didn't think I could do it. ^_^

Valium · Post by **Valium** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 1:56 pm

Could you post pictures of it working, and some schematics? I'm pretty interested in this.

tysonDS · Post by **tysonDS** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 5:24 pm

Pics and Video tonight of the Snes controller setup when my gf bring over her digital camera.

I've already started on my next one, I found an *awesome* Saitek 6 button Arcade Stick for SNES with spring feedback on the stick - I'm hooking this up to a Gameboy Advance for some great Streetfighter II / Alpha gaming.

I'm actually going to dremel the case of the Arcade Stick so that you can't see the GBA, it will look like the screen is inbuilt to the stick.

tysonDS · Post by **tysonDS** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 7:34 am

hi guys, sorry the pics took so long, I was at a birthday party that had a $2500 bar tab (hehehe), still recovering.

The good news is, I managed to hookup a 6 button arcade stick to my DS as well. Had to pull myself away from Streetfighter 2 (SNESmulDS) to post these.

Haduken！

schmellyfart · Post by **schmellyfart** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 3:15 pm

Could you show some schematics or point us to a website with that information. This looks really interesting

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 3:53 pm

White wire in the middle of the GBA cart trace contacts pic is very close to making contact to the neighbouring trace. Might be worth removing the stray strand!

nitro2k01 · Post by **nitro2k01** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 10:29 pm

A "better", but much more difficult way of doing this is to hook the buttons to the pins in a similar way like the Guitar Hero cartridge and then hack the ROMs you want to play. That way you avoid destroying the GBA port, but in the other hand you need some assembly language skills and backup gear.

Super Cameraman · Post by **Super Cameraman** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:38 pm

Wow, that's a really need idea! I might do this for my Guitar Hero DS mod... Maybe even wire up an extension to make the touch pad (not the screen part, just the clear touch pad) farther from the DS...

Apparently the Guitar Grip is only 4 buttons and few resistors... Maybe it's possible to use that technique and wire more buttons and make the same kind of thing but without destroying the GBA slot...

tysonDS · Post by **tysonDS** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 12:12 am

Hi bacteria, thanks for noticing.

The pins surrounding each wire are actually dud pins, hence why I soldered on every 2nd pin - it allows for messy soldering.

Sorry it looks so messy, but I've actually soldered/resoldered to that dust cover about 10 times. (trying out all different input gamepads, joysticks)

At first I thought the idea was stupid, but after playing SNESmulDS with Streetfighter II and TMNT Turtles in Time - I have fallen in love with the Arcade Stick.

The best part about this mod is that you can reverse button orders if you don't like the way Nintendo laid them out.

cheers

Valium · Post by **Valium** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 4:55 am

Post schematics, gogogo

Negative_Creep · Post by **Negative_Creep** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 5:34 am

SNES Controller Grip for DS Mod?

dslitemodder · Post by **dslitemodder** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 8:41 pm

Valium wrote:Post schematics, gogogo

he got the schematics from me at Acidmods
http://www.acidmods.com/forum/index.php?topic=21933.0

eurddrue · Post by **eurddrue** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 8:47 pm

whoa, whoa whoa, change your avatar, dslitemodder, it is bigger than my old one!

dslitemodder · Post by **dslitemodder** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 9:12 pm

eurddrue wrote:whoa, whoa whoa, change your avatar, dslitemodder, it is bigger than my old one!

sorry about that, acidmods automatically resizes it for you, so I thought it would here too.