Tutorial written by : rondcrasher
Last edited: December 22, 2003

What's so special about one of these controllers?

Parts and Tools

Phillips Screwdriver #1
Soldering Iron
Solder
Dremel Tool
Wire (Thinner the better, hair thin, is too thin)
Resistors 1/8W (preferred) or 1/4W 100ohm and 220ohm
LED's 3mm
Electrical Tape

This tutorial is written for using different color LED's.
BLUE, RED, AMBER, GREEN
If you wish to use white for all the buttons you will
only need one resistor 100ohm.

 

Disassemble your controller

Remove the 7 screws on the back (1 is under the sticker)
Unplug the motors
Lift out the board

 

The second hardest part

Putting the LED's in the buttons

Most new LED's are all clear so it's easy to confuse them.
These are all a different color.

Use the Dremel and make a hole in the center so the LED fits snug.
Not too deep or you'll cut into the white part that's the letter or all the way through the button. Make it deep enough so when the LED is in and the leads bent over it's flush or just below those 4 little posts.

Then make two more small holes on the side so the leads can poke through.

Putting the LED in the button is a pain, you'll need to pre-bend the leads.....then put them through the little holes first and just finagle it in there. DON'T FORGET WHICH IS THE ANODE AND WHICH IS THE CATHODE.
Put a dab of solder or use a marker on the ANODE to tell them apart.The ANODE is the long lead, that's the + side.
The CATHODE is GND.

Trim the leads and bend as necessary.

 

Hacking up the controller

Use the Dremel and remove just enough plastic so the LED leads don't bind the movement of the button.

 

The HARDEST part

After wiring all of the buttons...place them in the controller.

This is the hardest to do because the wires will want to pull on the buttons. There's no real "easy" way to put all those wires in the little space available.

Just experiment till you get a good spot where the wire does not hinder the movement of the button too much. Keep the wire pushed as far down in between the button shafts as possible.
After there all in place solder all of the CATHODE wires to GND and the ANODES of the BLUE and GREEN to the 100ohm resistor, the RED and YELLOW solder to the 220ohm resistor.
Then solder both resistors to5 volt line in the controller.

*NOTE If you are using all white LED's you solder all four wires to the 100ohm resistor.

Putting it all back together is not really a picnic either.
Keep a long skinny screwdriver handy when putting it back together. It will help in shoving the little wires back in that want to keep getting in-between the controller halves.

Any questions or comments email me at
rondcrasher@yahoo.com

Tutorial written by : rondcrasher