How do I? Solder on to the pcb in a 360 controller?

[talryyn]

Hi all, I must admit I like to play LotRO (in moderation mind you)

So my project is to convert my Xbox 360 dpad into something that actually works, since it is an 8-way hat switch of sorts, I want to be able to not worry about the dpad missing.

I am almost done, and at this point I just used parts that I could find at local stores, so it is not a fancy build by any means, but it works.

Here is my question, in the following picture, what is the best method to solder to the switch on the PCB board? Please see the circle in the image.



Hmm not sure why the image is not displaying, but here is a link.

I will post more images, I must admit I was taking pictures as I was building, then I completely changed how I was building it and did not take new pictures.. So now I need to take it apart and take pictures

[XCVG]

Pretty cool mod. The diagonal buttons are pointless, however. They are unnecessary- the d-pad is designed to work with only four. You can get it to work, I think, with some clever electronics.

To solder to the board you scrape away the green stuff to get to the traces. Maybe it would work with the black as well. I've never done it before though- well not on purpose anyway

[talryyn]

Pretty cool mod. The diagonal buttons are pointless, however. They are unnecessary- the d-pad is designed to work with only four. You can get it to work, I think, with some clever electronics.

To solder to the board you scrape away the green stuff to get to the traces. Maybe it would work with the black as well. I've never done it before though- well not on purpose anyway

Thanks, actually I do have it working, all the buttons work as they should. It only took 8 diodes as well. But it only works now with me holding the wires in place... lol

I did scrape away the green stuff, but I cannot get 60/40 to stick. I am a complete novice (noob) when it comes to soldering.

EDIT: ---------

Well I feel dumb, but what is new. Since I was worried about messing up, I was sanding an area that did not even have a copper trace underneath, so when I sanded at the start of the pad near the trace, and I struck copper! So it is all soldered up and working, now I just need to finish making the button.

I thought about breaking out my Carvewright and doing something with some of the woods I have, but for now I guess lexan will work. I posted a few more pictures at the link above, and I will post some completed pictures in the morning.

Thanks all for the help, Ben for the inspiration to want to mod something in the first place, Vb_master for the soldering videos, and XCVG!