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[shadow460]

Found out the hard way that the force feedback circuit might not be present in every Dual Analog pad made. It's obviously in the Japanese one. It consists of three resistors (values at 102 ohms, 472 ohms and something else...can't remember), two small transistors, a jumper (rated 000 ohms) and the small rumble motor. My second DAP had all this except the motor. I never opened the first one, but I bet it would have had the electronics since I got it pretty early in the pad's retail life. The third one doesn't have any of that. It threw me for a loop when I figured it out, so I started desoldering stuff from the poor Dual Shock that I'd purchased for the small motor. I broke Q1 trying to get it off. The desoldering braid didn't help. I guess this proves where Radio shack soldering tools just don't cut the mustard anymore. (See my rant in the Hardware forum). I did get the jumper and resistors soldered in but I might have burnt some of them. A Fluke will find the faulty ones for certain. As for Q1 and Q2, I don't even know where to begin trying to locate some. I expect that some PCB through hole mount switching transistors will work, and there's room for them in the pad.

I think I know how it works:
In a Dual Shock, Q1 controls the large motor and Q2 controls the small one. For a light impact, Q1 is biased and runs the large motor through a ~470 ohm resistor, producing the slow, light rumble from the pad. For a hard impact, Q2 is biased instead, running the small motor at a much faster RPM. It, too, runs through a resistor, but this one is about 102 ohms. The DAP, however, only has one motor. Q1 and Q2 form an OR gate to that motor. The output of each is run through a resistor, one at 470 ohms and the other at 100 ohms (approximately for both), providing variable power to the motor and enabling it to produce both high and low rumble from a single motor. The Dual Shock has the capability to run high and low rumble independently or even together. I don't know if the DAP can run high and low together. If it tried, I don't think you'd feel the difference between high and both. The motor would spin a tad faster, and that's it.

Now for the cool stuff. Someone mentioned attaching Dual Shock sticks to the DAP. It works. The problem is that Sony used different sticks in the DAP than they did in the Dual Shock 1 and 2. While the sticks are electrically compatible, they are not physically the same. This is where the incompatibility with FFX stems from. Lulu's Fury overdrive could break off the cheap plastic stick caps used in the DAP. The Dual Shock 2 ones, though, are obviously built to take some punishment. Since my third DAP looks rough anyway, I decided what the heck did I have to lose by swapping sticks?

I desoldered the sticks from the DAP and soldered in two Dual Shock 2 sticks that I got from busted pads. They worked! The concave stick caps no longer fit, but now the DAP has the rounded stick tops found on a Dual Shock. I guess the Dual Shock 2 caps are darker black than the Dual Shock 1 ones are. One of the old caps went into another DAP that had a busted cap. I fixed it, but it was dragging on the controller housing. Not anymore, and now the stick spins like a DAP stick supposed to. (Dual Shock stick do not spin.)

I offered before to mod the DAP with force feedback for anyone that wanted it done. I'll still do it if it only needs the motor, but I'm not getting into surface mount soldering. If it needs the whole circuit, I ain't modding it. The stick mod is far easier. Given a donor dual Shock 1 or 2 and a DAP, I can pull that off in about an hour. My honest suggestion is if the force feedback circuit is there, that a motor be added in to complete the package, but if it's not, mod the pad for playability which means swapping sticks.

I plan on typing up a guide to all this. I'm glad I got hold of a DAP that didn't have any of the circuit at all so that I didn't post a guide saying they could all be modded. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell if the circuit is present without opening the pad and looking for it. Once the pad is open, it's easy to spot.