Disabling Gamecube Analog Sticks

[RedmagnusX]

Well, from the looks of it this will be a first. I am looking for a way to cancel out the Analog Sticks for a gamecube controller. My reason for wanting to do this is that I am planning to wire up a trimmed GC controller board into the shell of a SNES controller for use with the Gameboy Player. I need to disable the analog signals somehow, otherwise they will continue to auto input without a potentiometer wired in between them. One option was to just wire the pots directly to their corresponding points on the IC of the controller, but if there's a way to disable them without doing that it would be best for the sake of neatness.

Would lifting the pins on the IC do the trick? Maybe soldering resistors directly to it? If anyone knows what the best way to do this is, I'd appreciate the input. Thank you

 

[Prog]

I'm not positive about this, but if I recall correctly, the Gamecube analog sticks use linear 0-10KΩ potentiometers, and if this is so then theoretically replacing them with pairs of fixed 5KΩ should register an always-centered stick.
Another idea that I'm not positive would work would just be leaving them off, as I think that as soon as the GameCube boots it determines the center of the joystick as where it is on boot.

 

[RedmagnusX]

I'm not positive about this, but if I recall correctly, the Gamecube analog sticks use linear 0-10KΩ potentiometers, and if this is so then theoretically replacing them with pairs of fixed 5KΩ should register an always-centered stick.

That sounds about right. I was asking on here because I wasn't exactly sure myself, but I agree that 5k ohm resistors should do the trick.

Another idea that I'm not positive would work would just be leaving them off, as I think that as soon as the GameCube boots it determines the center of the joystick as where it is on boot.

See, I've experienced it differently. I've had it happen on a few occasions, when testing partly finished portables, where the controller would automatically input a direction when the analogs weren't wired up.

 

[Blargaman91]

I have found that if you leave any of the GC controller's analog inputs floating (not connected to anything), they'll do unpredictable things. I once had the L trigger going crazy because the R trigger was pulled up.
The GC controller does determine the neutral state of the joysticks/triggers on boot, but you can reset the controller (i.e. set a new neutral state) at any time by holding X, Y, and Start for 3 seconds.

 

[RedmagnusX]

I have found that if you leave any of the GC controller's analog inputs floating (not connected to anything), they'll do unpredictable things. I once had the L trigger going crazy because the R trigger was pulled up.
The GC controller does determine the neutral state of the joysticks/triggers on boot, but you can reset the controller (i.e. set a new neutral state) at any time by holding X, Y, and Start for 3 seconds.

Hmm. It would be annoying to have to do that every single time you use the controller unfortunately. Tomorrow, I think I'm gonna just try wiring a resistor between the X and Y and 3.3v for both sticks and see how it reacts. I appreciate the input from you guys. I just refuse to dish out the cash that people are asking for a Hori controller.

You're definitely right about the floating connections too. That's what I've experienced as well. It makes it more of an unnecessary pain to do this type of mod.

 

[dark_samus]

As Blargman91 pointed out the GameCube takes the initial value that the controllers are at on startup and assumes that it's center (take a stick, turn the cube off, hold a the stick in any direction and while holding turn the cube on... Once booted let go of the stick, you'll now have the cube thinking you're pressing some random direction) so what you could probably end up doing (since the sticks technically go down to zero) is just connect the X and Y directly to 3.3v or maybe even ground and it should completely disable them