New to Electronics

[Loken]

Hey guys. I've never really done any kind of electronics before so I'd like to know where to start.

My recent interest has come from an attempt to make simple box of buttons to use as extra controls with my g25 steering wheel, for my PC. So I had an old xbox controller kicking around that i used to use on my PC, and decided to take that apart, and just use that as a starting point, only to find that the contact points on the switches they used, don't like being soldered

So i was then led on to wondering how to go about making a usb controller from scratch, and seeing as I have no knowledge at all, I thought it should probably start from the beginning.

If anyone has any links to beginner projects that would be great, also some theory about how parts work etc.

But if anyone has had any experience making usb controllers then your input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[LTX71CM]

Use a knife or razor to scrape the black conductive coating from the button locations on the Xbox controller PCB. Underneath the button coating is solderable copper. Since you've already attempted it and have all of the needed parts on hand, it's the best way to go.

 

[Loken]

Awesome, thanks for the info Saves me a bit of money at the moment, but would still like to know more about electronics for the future ^^

 

[BrownOut]

Making a USB controller from scratch is a big project, even for experienced people. Most just buy a small USB module and driver to connect to their project.

 

[EN0]

Or I suppose you could make it compatible with RS232, then buy a RS232 to USB converter. You will get higher latency, if you want to cope with that.