XCVG
ModRetro Legend
This was originally a Guitar Hero guitar for a PS2. I wanted to use it on my PC to play Frets on Fire (X). So I padhacked an XBOX controller I had lying around into it. It was originally supposed to be a short afternoon project. It got dragged on much longer because of the broken whammy bar.
A while back I discovered FoFiX. It's basically Rock Band/Guitar Hero, but free. I had fun playing it with my keyboard for a while (and no, I did not pick it up and hold it like a guitar). Then I saw this at a thrift store on sale for fifty cents.
It's a Guitar Hero guitar. Decent condition, seemed nice enough except for two fairly serious problems. The whammy bar was broken, and it was for Playstation 2. I could just live with the busted whammy bar and buy a PS2->USB adaptor, I suppose. But I don't roll that way, no siree.
This is what it looked like inside, sort of. I stitched two photos never meant to be stitched. In paint. Note the craptastic ribbon-ish cable and the integrated controller/strum switch board.
After cutting some traces and snipping all the wires, I test-fit the XBOX controller. I pulled it out of controller parts bin. Note the lack of analog sticks. I used them in YAP64, then one died so I replaced it with a PS1 stick. Ah, the memories....
I changed the wires on the button board to coloured ones cut from a PS1 controller cable. Why? Because they look nice, but also because they are easier to solder to the board and the old wire was too short.
All wired up, except for the whammy bar. The start/select, strum bar and buttons are all soldered to the XBOX controller. The sticks were neutralized with 4.7K resistors, except for the X axis which I saved for the whammy bar. The nearly-complete guitar sat for days while I mulled over the problem of repairing the whammy bar.
It's amazing that such a little piece of junk could be such a big problem. Two sprung arms provide the tension, with a small plastic tab that protrudes between them, engaging the arms when the bar is moved. The tab broke, and the whammy bar was loose. The first attempt was to simply reattach it with liquid ABS. That failed the first time I touched it. The second was to glue a nail on, first with liquid ABS then with epoxy. The epoxy ALMOST worked, but when I tried to realign it, it broke loose. It was obvious that a more durable, mechanical solution was necessary.
This is the solution I came up with. Two holes were drilled in the plastic whammy bar piece and a metal piece is bolted on with small (4-40) machine screws. A third screw goes through a third hole in the plate, in the place the plastic tab would be. The screw is a bit smaller than the tab was, and it had quite a bit of slop at first. I filed down the centering tab, and it's better now. It still doesn't center quite right and there is a bit of slop, but it's not bad. I apologize for the shakycam. If only the assholes behind SGU would... but that's another story for another time.
The guitar just before I closed it up. I cleaned up the wiring slightly with tape and air. After this photo was taken, and after the initial 3-screw test assembly, I added some more hotglue to keep the cord held in better. Since the cord wasn't long enough to use the original strain relief, I used the ferrite thing instead. Sneaky, huh? It's not dual-board switchable, because I never plan on using this with a PS2. It would have been extra work for nothing. The XBOX controller barely fits there, and wouldn't fit anywhere else.
The finished product. I'll take the stickers off eventually. Playing FoFiX with a guitar feels much nicer than playing with a keyboard. It's probably easier, too. The whammy bar doesn't work that well- I'll try fiddling with the settings and see if I can fix it. All the buttons are connected and work. Now all I gotta do is build some drums and another guitar. Then I can piss off everyone when they ask for "Guitar Hero" and get a laptop, VGA->video converter, and a few ghetto instruments.
All this work was totally worth it. Best of all, it cost me fifty cents, versus $80 for real Guitar Hero. An amazing value!
A while back I discovered FoFiX. It's basically Rock Band/Guitar Hero, but free. I had fun playing it with my keyboard for a while (and no, I did not pick it up and hold it like a guitar). Then I saw this at a thrift store on sale for fifty cents.
It's a Guitar Hero guitar. Decent condition, seemed nice enough except for two fairly serious problems. The whammy bar was broken, and it was for Playstation 2. I could just live with the busted whammy bar and buy a PS2->USB adaptor, I suppose. But I don't roll that way, no siree.
This is what it looked like inside, sort of. I stitched two photos never meant to be stitched. In paint. Note the craptastic ribbon-ish cable and the integrated controller/strum switch board.
After cutting some traces and snipping all the wires, I test-fit the XBOX controller. I pulled it out of controller parts bin. Note the lack of analog sticks. I used them in YAP64, then one died so I replaced it with a PS1 stick. Ah, the memories....
I changed the wires on the button board to coloured ones cut from a PS1 controller cable. Why? Because they look nice, but also because they are easier to solder to the board and the old wire was too short.
All wired up, except for the whammy bar. The start/select, strum bar and buttons are all soldered to the XBOX controller. The sticks were neutralized with 4.7K resistors, except for the X axis which I saved for the whammy bar. The nearly-complete guitar sat for days while I mulled over the problem of repairing the whammy bar.
It's amazing that such a little piece of junk could be such a big problem. Two sprung arms provide the tension, with a small plastic tab that protrudes between them, engaging the arms when the bar is moved. The tab broke, and the whammy bar was loose. The first attempt was to simply reattach it with liquid ABS. That failed the first time I touched it. The second was to glue a nail on, first with liquid ABS then with epoxy. The epoxy ALMOST worked, but when I tried to realign it, it broke loose. It was obvious that a more durable, mechanical solution was necessary.
This is the solution I came up with. Two holes were drilled in the plastic whammy bar piece and a metal piece is bolted on with small (4-40) machine screws. A third screw goes through a third hole in the plate, in the place the plastic tab would be. The screw is a bit smaller than the tab was, and it had quite a bit of slop at first. I filed down the centering tab, and it's better now. It still doesn't center quite right and there is a bit of slop, but it's not bad. I apologize for the shakycam. If only the assholes behind SGU would... but that's another story for another time.
The guitar just before I closed it up. I cleaned up the wiring slightly with tape and air. After this photo was taken, and after the initial 3-screw test assembly, I added some more hotglue to keep the cord held in better. Since the cord wasn't long enough to use the original strain relief, I used the ferrite thing instead. Sneaky, huh? It's not dual-board switchable, because I never plan on using this with a PS2. It would have been extra work for nothing. The XBOX controller barely fits there, and wouldn't fit anywhere else.
The finished product. I'll take the stickers off eventually. Playing FoFiX with a guitar feels much nicer than playing with a keyboard. It's probably easier, too. The whammy bar doesn't work that well- I'll try fiddling with the settings and see if I can fix it. All the buttons are connected and work. Now all I gotta do is build some drums and another guitar. Then I can piss off everyone when they ask for "Guitar Hero" and get a laptop, VGA->video converter, and a few ghetto instruments.
All this work was totally worth it. Best of all, it cost me fifty cents, versus $80 for real Guitar Hero. An amazing value!
(Plus, Wii GH3 controllers have detachable necks!)
