Another "Broken Pad" Question

[jennegurl]

I bought my BNS DX Xtreme pad awhile back based on rec's from this site so now that I've come to this fork in the road I thought I'd come back here to see if I could find some help.
When I press on the arrows the black box area lights up, but the signal isn't getting to the game.

Anyone know if it's possible to fix it?

Tanks!

[diddrstrait]

probably a broken pin in the plug for the pad. say that 10 times fast.

[jennegurl]

"probably a broken pin in the plug for the pad." say that 10 times fast.

OK - I tried that, but it didn't work.
Any other ideas?
Maybe I should've tried clicking my heels together while I said it?...

[diddrstrait]

um, typically when the plug for your pad wears out, you can't fix it. so I don't know what you "tried", but I know from personal experience that when your pad is missing a pin out, it'll receive power but not transmit any data. that's what I was saying. I have yet to find a method of fixing such a problem.

[jennegurl]

It was a joke; nevermind

Thanks for the info about the connector plug thingy tho! I hadn't thought to check that part.

[diddrstrait]

OH! I got it. sorry, I was really tired when I replied XD

[jennegurl]

Lord! I can't post a new question until tomorrow so I hope to GOD somebody see's this here.
OK, (the prongy thingy looks ok BTW. Some of the prongs are shorter than others; maybe that's bad?)
Anyway, I unscrewed the 'black box' and the only thing that looks amiss is a grey wire that isn't connected anywhere. Problem: I can't see where in the world it would've been connected in the first place.
There are seven colored wires connected to the panel, but the grey one is shorter than the others and is just sprouting there so I don't know if that's the problem or not.
Anybody know what else I could/should look for while I'm looking? Darn it! This is the older version of this pad (tho I haven't had it very long) and I need to play... I'm having withdrawls here!
I just know it's something to do with the cord connecting the pad to the PS2...

[FoxFireX]

I'm going to post this just as a reflection of personal experience. I can't know if you have the same sort of problem or not without seeing it firsthand, so bear that in mind. That said...

I have a RedOctane Ignition 2.0 pad, and it had symptoms similar to what you describe. Plug it in, lights up fine, but no signals. I looked at the pins in the plug (the part that actually is inserted into the PS) and noticed that one of them was significantly shorter than the others, presumably broken. The others came to, and I'm just guessing now, maybe a quarter of an inch from the actual end of the plug, but this one pin seemed to be a half or 3/4 of an inch from the top. I assumed (mistake) that the pin had broken, and embarked on a plug replacement surgery. In performing the replacement I describe shortly, I discovered that the pin had not actually broken; instead, it had just been pushed down. There's nothing holding those pins in place apart from friction. It may be possible, with sufficiently narrow pliers, to grip that pin (GENTLY!) and tug it lightly outward until it's as far out as the others. If your problem is the same as mine, this might just do the trick, no surgery required.

Now, if that didn't work, and you're mechanically inclined, you could go the surgery route. I have personally done this, and got it to work, but your experiences may vary. Here's the lowdown. You'll need a sacrificial controller, preferably a beat up and unusuable PS1, non-analog controller. Also preferably, the circuit board in the controller should identify each of the incoming pins by number on the board. Mine actually ID'ed each incoming line as P1, P2, P3, ... P9. If you look on the web, you should be able to find the standard pinout of the plug. I'd provide notes from my experiments, but I'm at work, so nyah.

Once you're at this point, it's the point of no return. If you are absolutely, positively convinced that there is simply no other way to get the pad working again, and you're ready to swallow your pride for potentially ruining a $100 pad, then you're ready to continue. See, if I'd explored every option (see mistake above) I wouldn't have come this far. But I did, and I came out the other side okay. Before cutting open the patient, you'll probably want some supplies. I'd recommend a barrier strip with at least 8 connections (see Radio Shack) and a project box large enough to hold the strip (RS again). You'll also want some electrical tape, a hacksaw, a drill, a screwdriver that matches the barrier strip, and something to strip your wires with. (Scared yet?)

If you really need to continue, take a deep breath, close your eyes, and clip the cable between your sacrificial controller and its plug, and between your dance pad and its plug. Next, take a hacksaw to the former dance pad plug, and (gently!) cut apart the plastic housing of the plug. You want to be able to remove the light gray portion to examine exactly which color wires go to which pins in the plug. At this point, you should be able to map which color wire in the old controller goes to which pin in the donor plug, and which color wire in the dance mat goes to which pin in the old plug.

Now, (gently!) strip off the outer sheath of the wire from the dance mat and from the donor plug. You'll probably want to expose about three or four inches of wire; enough to reach from the middle of the barrier strip to the end. Once the outer insulation is out of the way, strip off the last half inch or so of insulation on each individual wire. At this point, you'll want to drill holes in each end of your project box just large enough for the cords to fit through, one on each side. Feed the cords through, then begin conncting the wires to the barrier strip. Make sure you match the color from the donor plug that would be pin 1 to the color from the dance mat that should be pin 1, and so forth. You'll probably notice that there are nine pins, but only seven are connected. That's normal for non-analog controllers. Once all the wires are connected, plug in the pad and see if it works. If not, you probably have something not quite connected. If your PS starts smoking, you probably have something quite badly connected. Did I mention this is all at your own risk? Yeah, I'm not taking responsibility if you mess this up; I'm just telling you what I did, and that it worked for me.

At this point, if it didn't smoke your system, and didn't not work, take a few minutes to celebrate, do cartwheels, and so forth. It's worth it. Now you're ready to finish it off. Using your electrical tape, wrap several layers around each cord just inside the project box. You want to get a nice thick bump to keep the cords from being yanked out of the box. Then use your tape (or something else) to secure the strip inside the box, screw on the box cover, and enjoy.

Another note from experience: The donor controllers I used had an extra insulating sheath of foil. This doesn't need to be connected to anything; it's just there to try to reduce interference. They also had what I presume to be an additional ground line, which was a silver or gold wire with no insulating sheath. This also does not need to be connected to anything. You should have seven wires in, seven wires out.

I hope at least something in this will be helpful to you. Preferably the former part, since just tugging a pin back into position is a lot easier than major pad surgery. The latter steps are not for the faint of heart. I screwed it up the first time, and I was actually soldering the wires together at that point. When I realized I had a missed connection, I went to the barrier strip method. It makes it much easier to rectify mistakes, and is probably a stronger connection than trying to solder stranded wires. Finally, this is also coming from someone who did a complete foam-ectomy on another RO Ignition pad. Sliced into the pad to straighten out the contacts, and ended up replacing the flimsy, warpable foam between the contact sheets with something much sturdier. So I'm no stranger to significant operations on the hardware. Just be careful, be smart, and don't jump into something unless you're confident you can do it successfully, and okay with admitting defeat and loss of equipment if you can't.

[jennegurl]

Thanks for taking the time to help. I'll try the pin pulling route first (hoping, hoping, hoping it will do the trick); I'll let you know how it turns out. I don't think I'm ready to do the full surgery independently yet, but I don't have anything to loose and I know some electronically savvy friends I can probably bribe to help me (following your outline of course) with a good meal or some such thing.
Well, here I go...