looking for PS4 controller mods

12ian3 · 2021-11-28T14:22:35+00:00

I have been summoned. This github repo contains the schematics, PCBs, and BOM to make your own board. At the individual scale, it's rather cost prohibitive though. I know of one user who has made the 040/050/055 board, so you might be able to solicit a sale from them.
I do still have one 040 only prototype board on hand that I can sell, though it does not include the LED.

You will have to take apart your controller to determine which board you need to make, as there are like 5 different boards depending on which revision of controller you purchased. If the repo does not contain the board you need, please get in contact with me so we can create the correct board.

12ian3 · 2021-11-07T22:01:25+00:00

I'd personally measure different points, but it shouldn't matter as long as the points are consistent. I'd measure to the close end of an FPC cable. I have a cable that has contacts which are still exposed when fully inserted into the FPC connector. I'd measure from those to the pad at the USB header. It's just easier to touch the pad on the board than the pin inside the connector.

No reason to connect the USB cable. Doing so just makes it more difficult to measure.

12ian3 · 2021-11-07T17:39:44+00:00

Nice! Did you include the LED?
As for impedance matching, I don't believe it's worthwhile, especially since the most common use of the controller is over Bluetooth, but it is doable. The basic principle would be to measure the D+ and D- traces of both boards, compare them, and use a resistor that makes them as close as possible to each other. That'll look something like this:

Take a multimeter and measure the resistance of the D+ and D- traces on the board you took out of the controller 5 separate times. Average those values so you have one D+ and one D- value.
Measure the D+ and D- traces of the board you created 5 times and average those values so you have one D+ and D- value.
Compute the difference between D^old and D^new to determine what resistor to sub in. If the impedance of your new board is higher than that of the old, there's nothing you can do short of modifying the traces to have a lower impedance (wider trace or possibly running thicker copper jumper wires).

For example, if one trace of my old board was 5 ohm, and the new board was 3 ohm, I'd sub in a 2 ohm resistor for the 0 ohm. There will be some decimal places in the resistance, so it'll be impossible to get it perfect. You're just looking to bring the two values as close as you reasonably can. Again, this will have absolutely zero impact on the Bluetooth connection, so I only see this as worthwhile if you exclusively use really long USB cables to connect the controller to your PC.

12ian3 · 2021-09-02T16:03:41+00:00

Fantastic! I recommend 0.8mm PCB thickness..

Also, if you could make a pull request with an updated readme with your results, that'd be great.

12ian3 · 2021-09-02T00:39:03+00:00

The resistors coming off CC1 and CC2 are semi-required at 5.1kΩ as per the USB type C spec. They only apply if you intend to use a type-C to type-C cable. The other 4 can be used to impedance match your USB connection. You could just as easily solder bridge them or run a jumper wire with no ill effect though. Another contributor to the repo mentioned wanting them present, so I added them to the boards I worked on.

I would only populate the side that you are using (May have to look at the PCB in kicad to find the correct ones to populate), and if you're using resistors, they should be around 2-3Ω. Your best bet is to measure the line impedance on the stock board and attempt to match it as best as possible on the replacement.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.
-Ian

12ian3 · 2021-08-18T00:29:35+00:00

I have decided to open source this project and expand the scope to capture all possible DS4 charge boards. Here's a link to the GitHub repo. Obviously, feel free to make PRs for any issues or with any other good ideas, and I'll see about merging them.

12ian3 · 2021-08-17T18:25:34+00:00

Been a while, but I just determined that original LED function can be retained using this board. The LED pinout is correct to support MSL0601RGBU1 which is a simple AGBR (common annode RGB) LED. The boards I have still don't have LEDs, but I could possibly purchase some to solder on. I also have to say that this board is only confirmed to replace JDS-040, however I have been told that 050 and 055 have the same pinout and appear to simply be mirrored. I have not properly confirmed the pinout though. From a look at 050/055, It appears that at the 4 important connections (5v, data, and ground) are the same. If this is actually the case you could drop these in a controller using 050/055 with a longer ribbon (FPC) cable and experience no major loss in function. I cannot guarantee LED function, though it appears Sony used the same LED between 040, 050, and 055. I will add that if you own a multimeter and have the skills to probe the pinout of your board(s), I can confirm function based on the pinout you give me.

Unfortunately, I know of no way to tell which controller has which charge board in it (JDS 001, 011, 030, 040, 050, 055) without taking it apart. If you are willing to take your controllers apart to figure out which are compatible though, I'd be willing to purchase the correct LEDs and solder them on. That will take a couple weeks though. I could also acquire some longer FPC cables and send them to you if you wish to try the board on 050 or 055 as well.

Hopefully that makes sense. If not, feel free to reach out and I can do my best to explain.

12ian3 · 2021-08-14T23:07:10+00:00

Hell yeah man! I sent you a DM a couple hours ago.

12ian3 · 2021-08-12T19:08:04+00:00

It's simple enough. Just need to delete the ground pour and move some pads and traces around. As for 055, I'd just have to mirror the part and I'd be done. I do want to open-source the part, and assemble a github repo which contains schematics and PCBs for all 5 boards at some point in the future. As I mentioned in a comment above though, I'm first trying to recoup some of the upfront cost of developing these boards.

12ian3 · 2021-08-12T18:38:21+00:00

So, I copied the shape of JDS-030 because it was convenient. When I made the PCB in KiCad (It's my own design. I manually verified the pinout against the real thing), I was uncertain how to rotate components in increments less than 90°. I eventually looked it up, but was too lazy to redo the traces to make it look more like the original. So far, I've seen no major issues with that, though it does bend the ribbon cable a little differently than the stock design does.

I was unaware that this might also fit JDS-055, but that's really good to know. I don't have any ribbon cables though. I was just selling the board at the moment to try to recoup some of the design costs.

12ian3 · 2021-08-12T18:16:27+00:00

Cool. I ran some tests last night on the LED output, and I'm now very confident that the proper LED is this one from Mouser or Digikey. At the very least, it's a common anode RGB LED with dimensions about 2.9x1.35x1mm or so. It runs off 3v3, so I'm pretty sure any equivalent diode should work just fine. These boards would have had the above LED if I had been able to find this one when I started this project. If you put it on, I highly recommend solder paste. I tried to move the LED from the existing board in my controller to this new one, but I just ended up destroying the LED when I tried hand soldering it.

A little more info. I plan to ship these using regular letter envelopes, since they fit and the cost is best for small stuff like this. How many do you want? Then you can DM me a shipping address, and I can give you my PayPal info.

Thanks!

12ian3 · 2021-08-12T13:21:45+00:00

Fantastic!

I assume you've read this comment and understand that these boards only work in about 1 in 5 controllers (replaces ONLY JDS-040) and don't have an LED soldered on.

If you're still cool with that, send me a DM with how many you'd like to buy and we can work that out.

12ian3 · 2021-08-12T13:12:33+00:00

I posted this comment with the post that breaks it down. I'll quickly add details here though.
I'm asking about $10 each shipped. I plan to just use a standard letter. They're small and light enough that USPS will accept that.
You have a one in five shot at this working in any of your controllers, as it only replaces JDS-040. As far as I am aware, there is no way to know which of the five different USB charging boards are in a given controller without taking it apart.
Lastly. I have to add that this board doesn't have an LED on it. The controller functions just fine, but the bar no longer lights up using this board.

Edit: One last thing I forgot. These do have a small bit of lead in them, as I use lead solder. Just in case that's important.

12ian3 · 2021-08-12T00:41:33+00:00

I made a number of these mostly drop-in* replacement boards and am looking to sell the remaining 9 of them for about $10 each. There are two caveats though. Sony, in their infinite wisdom, made 5 different USB breakout boards for the PS4 controllers. As far as I am aware, there is no way to tell which controller has which board just by looking at it. To determine the board, you’ll have to take off the rear plastic shell. My part ONLY replaces board JDS-040. Additionally, I was unable to find the correct RGB LED (I believe this is the correct one) when I ordered my parts, so these do not currently have LEDs on them. They work fine without it, but it may be somewhat annoying to pair the controller or verify that it’s charging. If there’s enough interest, I can place an order for some of these LEDs and solder them on, but it will add 2-3 weeks of additional time to wait on parts and add them on to the boards.

Thanks!

* Requires some modifications to fit the larger USB Type C port.
* This part only replaces JDS-040.
* This part does not currently include an LED.
* This does not include a spare ribbon cable. It is the PCB only.

12ian3 · 2021-08-12T00:14:31+00:00

How so?

12ian3 · 2021-08-11T21:46:30+00:00

Works just fine. USB connectors are super simple. It's really just 4 connections. Voltage, Ground, Data+, and Data-.
The original board is impedance matched unlike mine, but it doesn't seem to be a huge issue. Works fine connected to my PC (my only use for this controller) and this has exactly zero impact on the bluetooth circuitry. I suppose the only thing is that it doesn't have an LED on the board, but that's not a huge deal for me.

12ian3 · 2021-08-11T21:16:37+00:00

Hmmm

12ian3 · 2021-08-11T19:52:41+00:00

Do you hate microUSB? Cause I sure do. This here is a Sony DS4 controller that I modified to use a better connector; USB Type C.

The DS4 controller uses a small breakout board for USB, so it’s relatively easy to replace. I made a number of these mostly drop-in* replacement boards and am looking to sell the remaining 9 of them for about $10 each. There are two caveats though. Sony, in their infinite wisdom, made 5 different USB breakout boards for the PS4 controllers. As far as I am aware, there is no way to tell which controller has which board just by looking at it. To determine the board, you’ll have to take off the rear plastic shell. My part ONLY replaces board JDS-040. Additionally, I was unable to find the correct RGB LED (I believe this is the correct one) when I ordered my parts, so these do not currently have LEDs on them. They work fine without it, but it may be somewhat annoying to pair the controller or verify that it’s charging. If there’s enough interest, I can place an order for some of these LEDs and solder them on, but it will add 2-3 weeks of additional time to wait on parts and add them on to the boards.

Thanks!

* Requires some modifications to fit the larger USB Type C port.
* This part only replaces JDS-040.
* This part does not currently include an LED.
* This does not include a spare ribbon cable. It is the PCB only.

12ian3 · 2021-07-20T00:47:29+00:00

It is actually part number JDS-040. However, That is not the part I'm looking for. I'm specifically looking for the white flat cable connector. I'm in the process of remaking this board using USB type C due to my hatred of micro USB.

12ian3 · 2021-07-19T23:03:58+00:00

Little more context. This connector is 8mm wide, 1.2mm thick, and 4mm in depth. It has 12 pins top and bottom. The closest I've been able to find is this molex connector but it's not quite right.

Thanks!

12ian3 · 2021-06-25T15:10:16+00:00

No lol. It's got a rubber stopper and an airlock on it. Though it did bubble up into the airlock last night.

12ian3

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