General Controler Mod Troubleshooting

[Blaine]

Okay. I did a dumb thing. I got lazy. Instead of hooking up my Saturn to make double-damned sure that the controller I was going to hack was working.... I just started soldering.

Now, I suck at soldering, but I did manage to stumble my way into some passable solders (by my standard).

I have one wire running to one of the pcb pads and another wire running to the opposite pad. I was very careful and sure not to solder the pads together or get solder anywhere else.

Never the less... When I cross those two wires I get nothing (I started with the up button).

Now, I didn't abuse the pcb. I didn't give it a nice rinse in the dishwasher - though I've heard of people doing that with arcade pcbs - so it's possible it never worked.

But, is there any... any well known problem people have with saturn controllers? Is there a particularly sensative component? What I'm asking is is there a common sorta "duh" issue when it comes to these controllers?

[NFG]

Typically no, when you've connected a wire to both sides of the pad you should be good to go.  What I'd suggest is verifying first of all that you've soldered to the metal properly.  A gold solder joint will be solid, shiny, and round.  If your solder joint is kinda misshapen, frosty in appearance or loose it's possible it's attached but not connected.  Use a multimeter to be sure.  Check to see that one wire can be traced all the way back to the chip, and one to ground somewhere else on the PCB.  also make sure they're not shorted.

I prefer to attach my wires to the chip itself, rather than the PCB contacts 'cause that will usually make it difficult to put the rubber pads back on the PCB in the controller properly (Assuming you want to do such a thing).  Also remember you can tap GND from anywhere, you don't have to use both sides of a switch.  

[Blaine]

Enough people have told me I should have a multimeter that I think I will get one. This is twice in a row I could have used it (also could have used it to check the pins on the DS power cable...or would you not use it on that?).

Is there anything I should look for in a multimeter? I've heard that digital are easier to use but analog are better value in the long run.

Radioshack would probably be my spot.

http://www.radioshack.com/category.asp?cat...02%5F000&Page=1

Any thoughts on any unit?

Thanks.

[NFG]

You get what you pay for.  A cheap one will work just fine, but you will either outgrow it or break it, unless you keep your modding needs pretty simple.  I bought a nice low-end Fluke, and it's served me for about ten years without any more trouble than changing the battery once.

Stick with digital, and get the best you can afford.  =)

[phreak97]

you can get something good for a decent price. for about AU$25 i got an auto ranging digitech digital meter which on top of the regular, supports frequency and capacitance measurements. theres a couple of features i do not yet understand, and i use the thing several times a week. so i am yet to grow into this one:P
theres no way youll need more than something like this for a very long time.

autoranging multimeters are much easyer to use all round. if you can get one, i recommend one of these.