Posted by Tom on 27, 2001 at 12:46 PM:
Forgive these questions but I am a complete newbie when it comes to this. I have a little experience with soldering and wiring but those were fairly simple projects. I have seen the term "hacking" used and I am unclear as to what it means. It seems to me (and please correct me if I am wrong) that there are two ways to wire a joystick that you built and are using the "guts" from a PC joystick for. You can either solder directly to the spots where the buttons would normally complete the circuit, in which case you need two wires, and you wire those two wires to the microswitch in your new controller. Is that correct? The other way is to "hack" the joystick, in which case you only need one wire for each plus a ground. But in order to "hack" a joystick you need to know what each code represents like when it says "TP24" or some such thing as that. Am I correct? I would appreciate it if someone could clarify so that I am sure I understand. And please explain why "hacking" is different and exactly how it works. I am a little unclear as to why you would only need one wire connected to "TP24" and how exactly pressing your microswitch is telling the board that you pressed a button. It makes sense that having two wires connected to a button on the board and then connecting them to the microswitch would complete a circuit. But the "hacking" bit I dont really understand. Also, if you use the first method and connect two wires to the original joystick and then connect those two wires to your new microswitch, do you also need a ground? Where do you connect the two wires to the microswitch? To the "NO" and where else?
Thank you in advance for your advice to a newbie.