PS3 [TUTORIAL] DualShock 3 Controller USB-C mod

[Gabriel2Silva]

Hey guys. Recently I asked here about the USB pinout on the DualShock 3 controller so I could mod a USB-C port on it, well, turns out I managed to do it. Here's a quick tutorial on how to do it:

I'd say this is a 4/10 difficulty mod, you'll need basic to moderate soldering skills. The worst part IMO by far is desoldering the old mini USB port.

Requirements:​

1. A DualShock 3 whose board have exposed pads on the USB port that you can solder to: this is important because some boards (VX6 onwards?) are multilayered, so even though it is technically possible to mod them, you'll have a much harder time doing so. You can check board types on the PS3DevWiki and you can check if your PS3 board is compatible with this mod by simply opening it
   
2. A female USB-C Breakout Board like this one:
   
   
   
3. A good soldering iron and some flux if you want the job to be 1000x easier
4. Wires, preferably colored (I used 28AWG)
5. Needle-nose pliers to remove unnecessary plastic
6. Desoldering braid/wick or, even better, a desoldering gun
7. Philips head screwdriver (#00 size)

With that out of the way, let's get to the tutorial:​

Disassemble your controller by removing the screws on the back. If you have never disassembled a DualShock 3 before, it can be kinda tricky because of the L2/R2 buttons, but it is not a hard job to do. Watch a YouTube video on the subject, it helps a lot.

Remove the battery from its socket. Desolder the two vibration motors from the board. They are connected by 2 wires, just desolder these two points and they're gone. This is not required, but it will make your life 1000x easier because the motors won't be there hanging while you do the mod. If you're unable to desolder the motors, then you probably don't have the soldering skills to do this mod.

Desolder the old mini-USB port. This is, in my opinion, by far the hardest part. De-soldering didn't work for me. I've tried applying new solder, using a desoldering wick, using a heat gun, using every tool at my disposal, NOTHING worked. So I resorted to destroying it with the nose-needle pliers. This is not the recommended way, mind you, 'cause you don't want to destroy a perfectly working port, but if it is already non-working or broken like mine was, then go for it. After desoldering it, clean the pads and remove all the excessive solder.

Solder four wires to the USB-C breakout board. Use a small amount, you don't need a lot of wiring for this mod, a couple centimeters will do. After that, you'll solder the other end of these wires to these points on the DualShock 3 board:

Use some electric tape to isolate the connections.

The USB-C port is slightly larger than the mini-USB port, so you'll need to remove some excess plastic on the DualShock 3 shell, the back side of it. With nose-needle pliers and being careful, you can make it look original. Handle it with care and it'll definitely not look destroyed. You can simply remove this part with the pliers and it'll come out pretty easily:

Find a way to fix/stick/mount the USB-C port to the board, on the other side of the USB port pins, exactly where the old port was. You don't have the mounting holes anymore, so you'll have to be creative. You can just tape it down in place with electric tape, but in my experience it was not strong enough for a USB port, so I just ended up using superglue. Super glue can be removed easily with acetone if someday you decide to replace the USB port again.

Connect the battery and then test the controller and its new USB port. If it is working, you're done! Just solder the vibration motors back in place and then reassemble the controller. That's it!

This is my final result:

Works wonderfully!

 

[ElGris]

Awesome. From all charging ports adaptations I made, this one is the coolest, good job!

 

[kity92]

I was looking for usb pinout and found that thread. Simply awesome. Now I have a modded controller. Thanks

 

[0s4X]

so I just ended up using superglue.

hi i know its not quite related but i recently soldered two old original sticks on a fake ds3 but the mount points had bit different locations (had to bend them a bit) and i had to remove the hocks that hold it in place(the ones that are just bent not soldered).

so i was wondering if i can safely use super glue to hold them in place.

nice mode btw i might give it a shoot
sorry if this is considered hijacking

 

[sandungas]

so i was wondering if i can safely use super glue to hold them in place.

I dont think is going to be strong enought, sooner or later you are going to unglue/break them
The biggest problem if this happens is you are going to rip off the other solder points from the pots and the button

I had a similar problem than you, and as far i remember i just bent 2 of the hocks to make them fit and i cutted the other 2, this way the "stick metal body" had at least 2 solders

Btw, another trick you should consider is to drill holes in the PCB, keep in mind the PCB is "dual layer". In other words, there are not circuit layers "hidden" internally, all the circuit is visible in the surfaces
And that area with the sticks doesnt have much traces (is pretty much like big GND planes).... so you can drill new holes to match the position of the 4 hocks of the new stick... and solder the hocks to the GND layer

 

[0s4X]

I dont think is going to be strong enought, sooner or later you are going to unglue/break them
The biggest problem if this happens is you are going to rip off the other solder points from the pots and the button

I had a similar problem than you, and as far i remember i just bent 2 of the hocks to make them fit and i cutted the other 2, this way the "stick metal body" had at least 2 solders

Btw, another trick you should consider is to drill holes in the PCB, keep in mind the PCB is "dual layer". In other words, there are not circuit layers "hidden" internally, all the circuit is visible in the surfaces
And that area with the sticks doesnt have much traces (is pretty much like big GND planes).... so you can drill new holes to match the position of the 4 hocks of the new stick... and solder the hocks to the GND layer

thanks for the indepth info man. unfortuntly i had already done it before i even asked.. but i have an extra pair so i will try your way on the next 3rd party one that breaks.

btw the one i did seems to be holding itself togther even had a couple of falls.

 

[EnduringGuerila]

I love this, but my concern is with the different USB-C charging standards. I've had devices that won't charge or can even be fried if they're plugged into the wrong USB C charger. It seems most 'dumb' devices work find if the chargers are USB-A to USB-C and problems arise when the charger is USB-C to C (and 'PD' Power Delivery) standard (like the original Miyoo Mini). I have found cheap and small USB-C boards (like the Jacobs for 3.7v lipos) that don't support data transfer. Have you tested a large variety of chargers on your modded controller?

not allowed to post links

update:
Just looked it up and the PS3 controller actually uses 3.7v lithium ions anyway. So it depends on the built in circuitry

JacobsParts:
SKU: CPNT-E
UPC: 845832035123

 

[EnduringGuerila]

After further research, the USB-C board you are using is actually capable of taking PD standardized charging but you have to solder on a 5.1 kOhm resistor to tell the PD charger to send 5v for legacy devices.

Reference:
Youtube: "I mod my PS4 Controller to USB-C with Power Delivery!"
by Fix it, Markus
time 7:43

 

[olv889]

So i tried to get a little creative with this exact mod and did an attached usb-c cable additional to the mini original from the controller. i checked the connections and everything is just fine but can't get the controller to be detected with any device. Am i missing some component?

 

[StanNB]

..but why? It's not hard to get a cable for charging.

 

[olv889]

i want to do a fixed playset with a raspberry

 

[Kopono]

So i tried to get a little creative with this exact mod and did an attached usb-c cable additional to the mini original from the controller. i checked the connections and everything is just fine but can't get the controller to be detected with any device. Am i missing some component?

Man... same here, but I managed to get everything working... sort-of.

Anyways... I'm using my PS3 controller to pair with my Gameboy Zero, so it's more convenient to be able to use a USB-C cable which is lying around everywhere, than to search high and low for this uncommon mini-USB nowadays.

I found this thread specifically which had the pinouts and also the guy recommending the items and with the other guy recommending the other item. So here's what I found...

Using what was suggested by the OP does not work with PS3 original controllers. It will be a dead weight, literally... no charging, no data. So unless that guy is using some clone which happens to work with that mod... it does not work for original PS3 controllers, I have 3 models...

CECHZC2J
CECHZC2U
CECHZC2U(A2)

The OP's mod does not work for these controllers for sure. It just makes it a super dead weight.

----

Now for the other guy who suggested the USB-C charging board... it doesn't work either. It doesn't even charge the battery unless you solder directly to the battery. But then at that point, you cannot even pair the controller via USB... so what is the point of having a flashing light deadweight.

----

These people got me spending on experiments they say "works", or "think it works"... but in reality, it doesn't even work. Here are my purchases so that you know I'm not bullshitting everyone...

The first one was straight BS, it's super troll. The second one got me somewhere with actual charging. The third one which I did some research and testing... actually works like how it was originally.

In order to fit it into the PS3 controller, I literally cut the whole CC2 thing on the PCB out - cause you don't need CC2 for this to work. You need 5 pins, power/ground/data+/data-/"ID". So for this "ID" pinout is the 5th pin which was not color-coded on the PS3 controller pinout image. Solder CC1 to that "ID" pinout... now you got an actual USB-C PS3 controller which works as intended.

It will charge if you connect to a PS3, computer, or a power brick using USB-C to USB-A cable. If you're trying to use like Apple's USB-C to USB-C cables... you need a computer, there will be no reaction when connecting to a power brick.

I'll post my controller pics later.

Here's the pics...

This is how it looks like. I used enamel 30AWG magnet wire to make the connections, and I cut off the whole CC2 portion. I put kapton tape on the underside of the USB-C pcb and also on the PS3 controller board itself then just used some crazy super glue to piece it onto the board - to remove, it's just removing the kapton tape and it's strong enough to withstand pulling and pushing the USB-C in and out.

Here are 3 different PS3 controllers, all original not clones. All 3 have slightly different internals, but this mod works for these models.

I think for people using the PS3 controller to play on other devices, having USB-C is a must. Mini USB is so uncommon nowadays, who wants to be specifically carrying a cable that only your controller uses? No one.

 

[Gabriel2Silva]

what was suggested by the OP does not work with PS3 original controllers. It will be a dead weight, literally... no charging, no data. So unless that guy is using some clone which happens to work with that mod... it does not work for original PS3 controllers, I have 3 models...

CECHZC2J
CECHZC2U
CECHZC2U(A2)

The OP's mod does not work for these controllers for sure. It just makes it a super dead weight.

I'm sorry you had to go through all the hassle you mentioned, but this is incorrect. I have modded multiple (10+) DualShock 3 controllers, including the original CECH-ZC1J SIXAXIS, and one of those even had a dual-layered board with no exposed pads — every single one worked perfectly fine. I bought most of these controllers in Japanese auctions (Yahoo Auctions Japan) for my personal collection, and I'm 100% (not 99, a 100%!) sure they're all genuine pads. It's easy to detect fake DS3s nowadays and there are numerous softwares that can do it for you.

Even in its original unmodified state, the DualShock 3 can't be charged by a wall charger or random AC adapter. It needs a USB handshake, you can charge it in a PS3, PS4, PC etc but it will never charge if you hook it into a "dumb" AC adapter. This mod never intended to change this aspect of the controller, it's a simple form factor mod from a obsolete USB form factor to a modern one.

I don't know why it didn't work for you. As I said, I've modded countless controllers and almost every single DS3 revision, even the og SIXAXIS. Never had a single problem. The fact that you're the first one complaining in this thread, where everyone else posted pictures and said it worked for them, makes me think it's an user error on your end.

 

[mathieulh]

Man... same here, but I managed to get everything working... sort-of.

Anyways... I'm using my PS3 controller to pair with my Gameboy Zero, so it's more convenient to be able to use a USB-C cable which is lying around everywhere, than to search high and low for this uncommon mini-USB nowadays.

I found this thread specifically which had the pinouts and also the guy recommending the items and with the other guy recommending the other item. So here's what I found...

Using what was suggested by the OP does not work with PS3 original controllers. It will be a dead weight, literally... no charging, no data. So unless that guy is using some clone which happens to work with that mod... it does not work for original PS3 controllers, I have 3 models...

CECHZC2J
CECHZC2U
CECHZC2U(A2)

The OP's mod does not work for these controllers for sure. It just makes it a super dead weight.

----

Now for the other guy who suggested the USB-C charging board... it doesn't work either. It doesn't even charge the battery unless you solder directly to the battery. But then at that point, you cannot even pair the controller via USB... so what is the point of having a flashing light deadweight.

----

These people got me spending on experiments they say "works", or "think it works"... but in reality, it doesn't even work. Here are my purchases so that you know I'm not bullshitting everyone...

The first one was straight BS, it's super troll. The second one got me somewhere with actual charging. The third one which I did some research and testing... actually works like how it was originally.

In order to fit it into the PS3 controller, I literally cut the whole CC2 thing on the PCB out - cause you don't need CC2 for this to work. You need 5 pins, power/ground/data+/data-/"ID". So for this "ID" pinout is the 5th pin which was not color-coded on the PS3 controller pinout image. Solder CC1 to that "ID" pinout... now you got an actual USB-C PS3 controller which works as intended.

It will charge if you connect to a PS3, computer, or a power brick using USB-C to USB-A cable. If you're trying to use like Apple's USB-C to USB-C cables... you need a computer, there will be no reaction when connecting to a power brick.

I'll post my controller pics later.

Here's the pics...

This is how it looks like. I used enamel 30AWG magnet wire to make the connections, and I cut off the whole CC2 portion. I put kapton tape on the underside of the USB-C pcb and also on the PS3 controller board itself then just used some crazy super glue to piece it onto the board - to remove, it's just removing the kapton tape and it's strong enough to withstand pulling and pushing the USB-C in and out.

Here are 3 different PS3 controllers, all original not clones. All 3 have slightly different internals, but this mod works for these models.

I think for people using the PS3 controller to play on other devices, having USB-C is a must. Mini USB is so uncommon nowadays, who wants to be specifically carrying a cable that only your controller uses? No one.

I have modded one of my Sixaxis 3 controllers just fine using the blue usb-c board referenced by the OP and I have had no issues, charging works (from PS3 or PC USB-C to USB-C port, oddly it doesn't want to charge from USB-A to USB-C on PC even though data works).

Data works fine, I have tested it on ps3 and PC, I also used the sixaxis pairing tool. I am not sure why you claim to need the ID pin when it's only used for usb host features (which the sixaxis doesn't support as far as I am aware).