Converting a wired Xbox controller for PC use

[SweatyOgre]

I recently did this because I play Project Torque a lot, and driving with the keyboard sucks. It doesn't take long at all, and it can be done with stuff you have at home. Even if you don't have an Xbox controller, they aren't very expensive.

What you need:
-Wired Xbox controller (May work with wireless, but I haven't tried it)
-USB cable
-Wire strippers
-Electrical tape or heat shrink

Xbox controllers have a USB interface, so it's only a matter of splicing a male USB adapter on in place of the Xbox one.

Chop off a male end of the USB cable, leaving at least 4-5 inches of cable. It's important you cut off a male end, because you can't use a female end or the weird printer USB plug.

Next cut off the controller cord anywhere. I chose to do it before the detachable plug, but it would also work if you cut it right before the adapter that goes into the Xbox. If you cut it off here, make sure you leave enough room to splice the individual wires together.

Using your wire strippers, pull away the casing on each of the colored wires to expose the bare wire. Now you can proceed to actually splice the wires together.

Each wire of the USB cable should match up to a colored wire on the controller. The Xbox controller has one additional yellow wire, which you can just ignore. You can use either heatshrink casing or electrical tape to cover up the bare leads. Heatshrink is more permanent and professional looking, but I just used some electrical tape on each of the smaller wires, then wrapped up the entire thing tightly, making sure the bare leads did not cross.

It should look something like this when you're done. As you can see I left myself a lot of cord because I often hook my laptop into my TV and play from my recliner. If you're just playing at your PC a few feet would suffice.


Once you're done, the only thing left to do is download the drivers here.

An easier option is to buy an adapter plug like the one below, but the method I just laid out is free and doesn't take more than 10 minutes.

[TrOiK]

increible. never woulda thoguht. mmm HALO PC!

[SyCoMiDgEt]

And Connectors Between The Wires?

Or Is Is Bare Red To Bare Red With Ducktape Around It? And Then For Black And So On

And Then Duck Tape Around All?

[SweatyOgre]

I wouldn't recommend using duct tape, but yes, you just match up the colors and splice them together. You should use electrical tape instead of duct tape. Just twist the two wires together and wrap each spliced pair with electrical tape. Then to hold them all together wrap all 5 with electrical tape. It's very important that only bare red wires touch red and black touch black etc, otherwise you can short out the controller or USB port.

[Jenny]

Ummmmmmm. That's sure alot of work. My wired control plugs right into my USB slot. The drivers wouldnt work with Vista so I downloaded xpadder which allowed you to bind keys to buttons. I use this for my emulators. No rewiring or ductape..[

Edit: N/m I used a 360 control. Didn't know there was a diff.

[SweatyOgre]

Lulz at Jenny. I'm well aware that 360 wired controllers plug right in, but they're also $60. This is a much cheaper alternative.

What'd you think I did, looked at my controller one day and thought "DERP DERP I COULD PLUG THIS IN, BUT WHY NOT SPLICE ON THE SAME PLUG DERP DERP?!"

In after Jenny's edit, just being a ****tard.

[Jenny]

Originally Posted by SweatyOgre

\
What'd you think I did, looked at my controller one day and thought "DERP DERP I COULD PLUG THIS IN, BUT WHY NOT SPLICE ON THE SAME PLUG DERP DERP?!"

Yes .

[Patrick_A]

Originally Posted by TrOiK

increible. never woulda thoguht. mmm HALO PC!

And being a console gamer, you'd rape. Especially Halo 2 on pc with a controller. Can you swipe on the pc version, or better yet bxr?

[DwightSchrute]

whats fun is plugging the usb into ur pc and having the chopped in half wire sit on a metal rod. Then, you put ur ***** in the metal rod.

[Patrick_A]

So will these drivers run on Windows Vista?