Would you kindly assist me with my portable controller issue

[perfectmf]

So it's been a while since I've updated my portable Retro Duo worklog, months ago when I had initially posted I was actually pretty close to completion. Everything was running on batteries, cartridge slot was relocated and mounted on the case, things were mostly good until it came time to work on the controls. I'm going to try to make this as short as possible while remaining descriptive. In all I've gone through 3 SNES controllers. All wiring was connected the same way as per the Retro Duo sticky up top. The game I used to test the controllers was Super Punch-Out!!

Controller 1: This Controller was an older 3rd party controller that I purchased about 15 years ago, named the Super Pad. Its pretty much an average pad. So I removed the board from it casing and cut the board up so that I could use it all (contact, buttons) in my portable. After cutting up the board I reconnected it with itself by scrapping the traces and soldering wires to the respective location. I then connected all the needed wires directly to the console. I quadruple checked each connection and fired up the game. I tried to get into a match but I had no luck, no function from the controller. I would go on to turn the console on and off and test the controls out each time. Four out of the five times I did this I got no response from the controlls. The other times I would actually be able to get into a match but the d-pad would not work and it seemed as if only the B button was being pressed, but when that would happen it would throw a punch but at the same time pause the game, weird. Eventually I got frustrated and said F-it.

Controller 2: I used the Retro Duo controller this time. All I did was cut off the end connecter that goes into the controller port so that I could just hardwire the control directly to the console, the board was still in its casing. Fired up Super Punch-Out!! and it worked perfectly like it normally does. The only issue I was having is that I had choped up the case of controller 1 and attached it to my case, so that the board, buttons, etc. would sit flush. This wasn't going to work witht the retro duo controller. So I said f-it.

Controller 3: This was an official Nintendo controller with the 520bIC. Since chopping up the board and mounting it flush with the case was out of the question I did what most people on this site do and wired tact switches to the 520b. I mounted all the switches on a piece of PCB board, did all the wiring, fired up the Retro Duo and then nothing. I was pissed. F-it.

Back to controller 2: Back to the retro duo controller. All I did was take the board out of its case fired up the console and just pressed the buttons using the contacts and surprisingly this only worked about half the time. So since I had all the tact switches on a piece of PCB board ready to go I wired just 4 to act as the dpad directly on the RD controller board. Fired up SPO, and it worked, great! Turned off the console to test it again and it didn't work, wtf? Turned it off then on, dpad works. Went forward and wired up 4 more switches to act as the face buttons, fired it up it doesn't work. Turned off then on again and it works! Tried it again and it didn't worked but the reverted back to the syptoms with the board of controler 1, I could get to a match but only hit the B button where a punch would be thrown and pause the game as well.

I've just about had it with this bloody thing and I'm contemplating just litterally breaking my portable in half. If anybody could help me out I would greatly appreciate it.

[themadhacker]

add a controller port and just plug your controllers in to see if they work without any modifications done to them. If they still don't work and they work on other systems, then your retro duo is at fault.