Attaching an analog to a saturn pad

[CubeIsMe]

the topic title says it all, but for an explanation

i came into a couple of saturn pads (white, real beautiful) with one downside, the D-pads were busted clean off

(so you can imagine, they came cheap)

while I plan on hacking one apart to make a pair of twinsticks, I want to add an analog in place of the d-pad for the second.

first off: is this possible, or does the analog pad have a special chip?

secondly: whereabouts (pictures preferred, but instructions accepted!) would I solder the leads to the analog?

any information on how the analog pad works would be appreciated!

[GZeus]

Considering there's a mode switch on the 3D controller, I'd say there's a fundamental difference in the controllers.
What that difference is, I have no idea.
Probably an IC you'd need to take from a broken 3D pad.

[NFG]

There's a HUGE difference in the controller protocol.  The Saturn analogue uses a complicated communications protocol (and just for fun, it uses Hall-effect sensors, which no other console manufacturer uses).  

As a general rule, and this applies for all consoles, if you don't know how to radically change a controller's function (such as digital -> analogue, or serial -> USB) then you can't do it.  

Also, as a follow-up rule, if you research all the protocols and you understand how incredibly hard it is, you won't want to do it.

[kendrick]

Just to add to this... On the Saturn, the 3D controller permits both analogue and digital control at the same time in that mode. Therefore, it's not practical to replace the digital pad with an analog stick because in many games you're going to require both pads. There's also the issue that the 3D controller has analogue shoulder buttons, which there really aren't any room for on the traditional digital Saturn pad.

If you want to just have a analogue stick there and produce digital d-pad output only, then you're talking about building a circuit with a PIC or other component that will alow you to do A-D conversion, so that the variable resistance produced by the analogue stick turns into an on/off signal that the controller encoder recognizes as up, down, left, or right. Programming of that variety is off topic for GamesX.

-KKC, doing fun things with VGA screens.

[CubeIsMe]

thanks for all the input, dudes. looks like i'll just shell out the fifteen bucks or so for an analog controller.