Argh! Trying To Fix A Broken Xbox Controller Cord

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I got my girlfriend a used original xbox as she loves to play snes and nes. Softmodded it and set it all up to be perfect but now one of the gamepads turns out to have a ripped cord. I know exactly where the cord is broken as I can intermittently get it to work when I wiggle the cable around a little at that point.

Now I really don't like the idea of resoldering the wire outside of the controller and then duct taping the cord because that is just going to be ugly and most likely will break again at the solder points. I'd rather disconnect the wires from the little white clip on the gamepads pcb and reconnect the working part of the cable to it without having to solder.

Is there a way to do that? They must have gotten the wires into that clip on assembly, so how do I get them out now? If I can't manage to do that, I might try to cut the wires inside the pad and connect them to the good part of the cable so that nothing ugly sticks out. Would be nice if I could do it more elegantly though.

Has anyone successfully done this before?

 

[Orion4874]

I got my girlfriend a used original xbox as she loves to play snes and nes. Softmodded it and set it all up to be perfect but now one of the gamepads turns out to have a ripped cord. I know exactly where the cord is broken as I can intermittently get it to work when I wiggle the cable around a little at that point.

Now I really don't like the idea of resoldering the wire outside of the controller and then duct taping the cord because that is just going to be ugly and most likely will break again at the solder points. I'd rather disconnect the wires from the little white clip on the gamepads pcb and reconnect the working part of the cable to it without having to solder.

Is there a way to do that? They must have gotten the wires into that clip on assembly, so how do I get them out now? If I can't manage to do that, I might try to cut the wires inside the pad and connect them to the good part of the cable so that nothing ugly sticks out. Would be nice if I could do it more elegantly though.

Has anyone successfully done this before?

It depends on where it's broken. If it's the cord itself and not at the connectors you should be able to strip the wires and just butt splice them together, then wrap it in electrical tape. If the problem's at the connector then yeah, there's probably some soldering involved.

 

[dnlgreenwood]

I have done this before on an Xbox controller. The problem was that one of the wires (in my case the black ground wire) was burned to the extent that it disconnected in two places. I just cut that section off the whole cord (all the other wires as well and that included the white connector.) I soldered the wires directly onto the circuit board, and it worked. The cord was prone to strain because I removed that thingy that held it in along with the cord, so it broke again. I have to fix it.

If you splice the wires, you can use shrinkwrap instead of electrical tape. It looks nice, it looks more professional, and doesn't stand out that much. You would have to heat it though. You can get a cheap imported soldering iron. I bought one from an electronic store ($15 CDN) and they are great for small jobs like these. Solder isn't really expensive. I used it to replace capacitors on my Game Gear.

 

[gruso]

Softmodded Xboxes 4 life.

Fixing it at the PCB connector will probably require some fancy crimping, I'm not sure you'll be able to do that without the right tool & lugs (or new connector). Someone might prove me wrong here though. I'd be inclined to do the cable join inside the controller, soldering to wires hanging off the existing PCB connector, and securing the cord as best I could so it can't get ripped out. Cable ties or a good old fashioned knot are your friend - this is how millions of products do it in the factory anyway.

There's also a method I like to use for exposed cable joins. Ferrite beads: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_bead

Rip one of those off an old cable, ditch the ferrite core, and the plastic cylinder left over is the perfect inline junction box. Solder & tape up the join, fold the cable over itself in an S shape so there's no pressure on the actual joint, secure the S with more tape or a baby cable tie, then clip the plastic shell over the top. It ends up looking like it came out of the factory.

 

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It depends on where it's broken. If it's the cord itself and not at the connectors you should be able to strip the wires and just butt splice them together, then wrap it in electrical tape. If the problem's at the connector then yeah, there's probably some soldering involved.

It is not on the connector, it is right in front of where the cable goes into the controller. I really do not want to resolder outside because it will look crappy.

If you splice the wires, you can use shrinkwrap instead of electrical tape. It looks nice, it looks more professional, and doesn't stand out that much. You would have to heat it though.

Yeah I have worked with shrink tubes before. It is still very visible eventhough it works better than electrical tape. I would like to avoid having to buy another soldering set. I have all the stuff at home, a good iron, a station, solder and flux. I do not want to take everything home for the weekend though, rather like to get it done on the spot, you know?

Softmodded Xboxes 4 life.

Fixing it at the PCB connector will probably require some fancy crimping, I'm not sure you'll be able to do that without the right tool & lugs (or new connector). Someone might prove me wrong here though. I'd be inclined to do the cable join inside the controller, soldering to wires hanging off the existing PCB connector, and securing the cord as best I could so it can't get ripped out. Cable ties or a good old fashioned knot are your friend - this is how millions of products do it in the factory anyway.

There's also a method I like to use for exposed cable joins. Ferrite beads: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_bead

Rip one of those off an old cable, ditch the ferrite core, and the plastic cylinder left over is the perfect inline junction box. Solder & tape up the join, fold the cable over itself in an S shape so there's no pressure on the actual joint, secure the S with more tape or a baby cable tie, then clip the plastic shell over the top. It ends up looking like it came out of the factory.

I think this is what I am going to do then. I think instead of using an old ferrite core I will just make a knot. I have actually seen that in a couple of devices before. Simple measure but it works. Soldering to the wires hanging off of the connector seems to be the best option out of all. It will be protected and it will not be visible.

Thanks for all your ideas guys. I thought the first place to ask for advice on such things is gp32x if google can't even help. Sweet! Maybe if I have to get a soldering iron and supplies, I'll try to make a snes controller conversion while I am at it.

 

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I've fixed the control pad yesterday. Borrowed a soldering iron from a buddy and got it done right away. Works like a charm now!!!

That snes conversion is something I will need more time to do though as it turns out it is fairly complicated. For anyone who is interested, I found a very nice tutorial on this:

xbox controller mod

 

[Ravnos]

I saw that ages ago and wanted to do it but never got around to it. The XBox's controller is the biggest stumbling block to using it for emulation, it's just a really really shitty controller for old games. But since I have an HTPC with decent USB controllers and a softmodded Wii, I have no real use for this mod. It will be sweet if you get a lot of use out of your XBox, though.

 

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Yeah my girlfriend uses it to play snes and my own xbox at home is used for emulation as well. The controllers are crap but as long as you don't play fighting games on it it's fine. I could get an arcade stick for that but the mod sounds fun to do. I need to get one of those fatboy controllers to do it though.

 

[b1ueskycomp1ex]

I saw that ages ago and wanted to do it but never got around to it. The XBox's controller is the biggest stumbling block to using it for emulation, it's just a really really shitty controller for old games. But since I have an HTPC with decent USB controllers and a softmodded Wii, I have no real use for this mod. It will be sweet if you get a lot of use out of your XBox, though.

I disagree. For a while I used the giant original DUKE xbox controller and I loved it for playing classic games. It's not as good as a SNES controller, but it works pretty well. I had a fully loaded xbox that was softmodded. It had EVERY SINGLE EMULATOR that existed for the xbox as well as being loaded up with just about every game you could think of. I think the XBOX is the best Classic Gaming console you can get. It even ran PSX and N64 games very well, which is pretty amazing. I got through a lot of Ocarina of Time on it and found it enjoyable to play. I'm selling it to a friend for 70 dollars, even though it's definitely worth more. I was considering getting a 300GB harddrive and swapping them out so I'd have more space, but it's really pretty much set the way it is. All this combined with a USB port modded on the front for use with a mouse/keyboard/hub? Awesome. I think the best part is being able to bring your xbox over to a friend's house in a backpack, unpack it all and start playing games. Plus you get 4 controllers and you can play multitap games for the PSX/N64/SNES/Arcade.


And don't even get me started on the multimedia capabilities.

But yeah, the Duke is my favorite controller of all time. OF ALL TIME!