Clone Controller Modification HowTo

Have you ever heard of the Uzebox Project? It's a cool open-source 8-bit game console project started back in 2008 that uses SNES controllers.

Seriously, you should go check it out.

So, what does the Uzebox Project have to do with this site? Well, apparently the latest run of clone SNES controllers to come out of China now use a microcontroller instead of a static shift register in their design. While this seems to work just fine on original SNES hardware, the Uzebox has compatibility issues related to its much higher controller polling rate. This caused one of the community members to explore other options, which is how my new friend Dan got in touch with me.

The Good News: My PCB design works flawlessly with the Uzebox.
The Bad News: My PCB design isn't a drop-in replacement for the shells that these clone controllers use.

What's a hardware hacker to do?

I'll tell you what he does: Dan works out how to modify the clone controller housing to use my replacement PCB. It works perfectly and, I might add, looks cool as hell too!

Very cool!

Given how cheap the circuit boards used in these clone controllers tend to be, I'm very much in favor of chucking them in the bin and replacing them with a more robust option. While I certainly advocate for using my own design for this, I feel like it's also worth pointing out that this method can be used to transplant circuit board from an original SNES controller into one of these clone controller shells, should the original shell be damaged beyond salvaging and one should happen to have one of these knockoffs laying around to use as a donor.

I have linked Dan's HowTo Wiki article in the sidebar for your convenience.