Converting a Wired Xbox Controller for PC Use

guysensei

Staff member
Administrator
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
181
Reaction score
2
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.
 
Top