XBox controller modded for PC use

Recent I was given an original XBox controller, specifically the Contoller S for XBox.  This is the model 2 controller for the original XBox, the second model was slightly smaller and more ergonomic.  The thing is, I don't have an XBox nor do I know anyone with an XBox, so I wasn't sure what to do with it.  What's more, this controller lacked the other half of the breakaway cable, so it's not very useful even if I had an XBox.  But then I learned the original XBox controllers are basically a USB controller and it's really easy to mod the controller for use on a computer.  All you need to do is add a USB connector and load up a special driver.

To add the connector, there are several options.  You can cut the cable and solder in a new end.  You could solder in an entirely new cable.  You could get the breakaway cable and solder in a new connector on that end.  Looking in my box of spare parts I found a USB cable from an old keyboard, so I decided to solder in a completely new cable.  After opening the controller you'll find the connector on the circuit board from the cable.  The wires will be red, white, green, yellow, black (thin), and black (thick) in that order.  If you look at a standard USB cable it will have red, white, green, black, and black.  Literally you wire up the new connector color for color - i.e. red to red, white to white, and so on.  As for the yellow cable which is a part of the XBox cable but not in a USB cable, you leave that wire empty.  Lastly, not all USB cables will have two black wires, and that's alright.  The black wires are the ground wires.  If your USB cable doesn't have two black wires, just connect the one black wire you have to the controller.  It doesn't matter which of the two you connect to.

Here's a picture of the controller after I soldered in the new wire.  You can see the empty slot where the yellow wire was.

And here's a picture of the back side of the board, again note the empty hole where the yellow wire was.

Here's what the finished product looks like - an XBox controller with a USB plug.

In my next post I'll talk about loading the driver for Windows to recognize the controller.