Hacking 3ds XL d-pad pinout

[Akurosia]

Hi everyone,

currently im working on a pokemon automation "kit" combined with an arduino.
I want to solder some arduino pins to the 3ds to controll the 3ds (most important are the d-pad, a and b button)

can someone help me with it T__T ?
I was looking on google and on the board search but i didn't found anything,

Thanks in advance

Kamo

 

[FAST6191]

Are you looking for debug points you can fire signals into (or something effectively equivalent), the setup so you can do something like flash the positive side of the buttons to ground or the actual encoder chip that is fed into the heart of the 3ds (or I guess the circle pad encoding/operations method-- you have four nice wires to tap by the looks of things).

The flashing to ground method is probably the more common for most controller hacks and is arguably one of those "if you have to be told then you might want to rethink your plan" situations (if it is ground then it should be common to all on the dpad and/or other buttons). There are an awful lot of test points/pads on the 3ds motherboard though* and I have no listing of what they do, I would be curious to see something though.

* http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/n1CKAdbPrHyNPNuW.huge
^There look to be some fairly obvious candidates for test points to try there. The three in the middle of the dpad section and the one to the left hole for the buttons, TP's 85, 87, 91 and 90 being where I would look for the dpad. The circle pad I am not so sure about other than it is probably a resistance thing.

The XL looks harder (I lack a good picture right now) but the back side looks like it might have some nice points to tap which is even better.

 

[Akurosia]

ive attched screenshot of my actual 3ds xl and i cant find points which worked x.x

 

[Foxi4]

As you've probably noticed yourself, the actual touch points are covered with the white film and inaccessible. Since it's possibly a multi-layered PCB, drilling in it is probably a bad idea. Either have a close look at the surrounding area and follow the individual circuits (recommended, but time-consuming) or rip the white film off and access the pads themselves, but as you already know, this will irreversibly damage the motherboard - you won't put it back together the way it was, that's just how "clicky" buttons roll.

 

[gamesquest1]

if you can get it on while its disassembled you could possibly just try some of the test point around the button area's and see if they register the button presses when grounded

 

[chicodiesel]

Not sure if this helps, but if it does then you're welcomed

http://kotaku.com/woah-someone-built-a-machine-that-finds-shiny-pokemon-1458895118

 

[Akurosia]

Not sure if this helps, but if it does then you're welcomed

http://kotaku.com/woah-someone-built-a-machine-that-finds-shiny-pokemon-1458895118

i know this video ^^ but the user didn't answered to my question x.x

 

[gamesquest1]

Well in that video they soldered directly to the button pads, you could do that too if you wanted, but if you can find the test points it would be easier and neater

 

[Akurosia]

Well in that video they soldered directly to the button pads, you could do that too if you wanted, but if you can find the test points it would be easier and neater

ok i took the button pad appart and soldered them directly to the contects. with a little bit of cable management it was working now(both the buttons and the arduino signals)

 

[mocalacace]

Looking at the board I can only say for sure that Select, Home, Start are probably pins TP81, TP55, TP80. The up, down, left right on D pad could be pins TP48 TP49 TP50 TP51. Looking over at abxy, I have no idea there is just a jumble of pins everywhere.