| | | Surprisingly tiny little PCB. Maybe 1' custom USB charging cable. The charging plug for the kit is separate; you have to flip up a little plastic latch on one side of the PCB, slip the ~2 mm wide circuit membrane extending out of the charging plug into the revealed slit, and flip the latch back down to secure it--as detailed via diagram on a ~2 cm tall slip of paper included in the kit.
Order had said was shipping free from "CN" but USPS tracking showed up in Perth Amboy, NJ two days later, kit arrived at my eastern WA state USA mailbox a total of five days after ordering--beat out the PS Classic Controller I ordered same day from eBay that was shipping from NC, USA.
PCB has a micro USB port on it for updating firmware via 8bitdo's firmware updater https://support.8bitdo.com/firmware-updater.html ; micro USB cable not included. : P
Manual (printout included in kit):
https://download.8bitdo.com/Manual/Mod-Kit/Mod-kit-for-original-playstation-classic-controller.pdf
From FAQ:
https://support.8bitdo.com/faq/ps-classic-kit-and-ps-original-kit.html
Yes, you can map the buttons. This is what you can do if the buttons are incorrectly mapped:
LEFT + Select : set Dpad as left analogue stick
Up + Select : reset Dpad
Right + Select : set Dpad as right analogue stick
Down + Select : Swap A/B and X/Y mapping
*Press and hold any of the key combinations above for 5 seconds to map the buttons.
*LED will blink in red to indicate the success of each button mapping.
*You need to reset the buttons manually.
We suggest you use a phone power adapter to charge the battery.
It uses a 180mAh rechargeable battery. It takes about one and half an hour to fully and can last for about 10 hours.
~~~
The charger plug LED turns red when plugged in by the custom cable and (I think) charging. |
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| | | Download added: 02_updater.png (8280 bytes)
"The Updater's readout."
Connected for firmware update using my DS4 cable. : P LED cycled red / purple / blue. Updater said latest fw was 6.16 from 2021, and that my kit already had it--although it looked like it was ready to go ahead with "updating" it anyway. I closed the program. |
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| | | | After unplugging from the Updater session, the LED blinked blue steadily. Hadn't stopped after a bit so I plugged and unplugged the charging cable; that stopped the blinking. 'p' |
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| | | Kit ordered from:
https://shop.8bitdo.com/products/8bitdo-mod-kit-for-original-playstation-classic-controller |
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| | | | There are three clips holding the small original PCB in place in the controller; once you just pry these lightly apart with your fingers, and detach the VERY thin and fragile-feeling ribbon cable plugged into it, it's easy to lift the original board out. |
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| | | The kit comes with a tiny Phillips screwdriver that fits the eight(!) tiny screws on the back of the controller perfectly.
The new PCB clicks into place very firmly. That thin ribbon cable is a little tricky to place into the very narrow slot, but it gets in there okay with a little delicate wiggling.
The light / charge port sticks out slightly from the case; that's where it seemed to click in during assembly and it feels VERY solidly mounted so I don't think I got it wrong, just slightly surprised it doesn't sit flush; I suppose it's easier to see this way.
I pressed /\ + Start and the controller came on and blinked the light; went to Windows' Bluetooth panel, clicked Add, and there it was, "8BitDo P30 classic Modkit"--weird capitalization. ^ D^
There was a sticky pad on the back of the kit's battery with a peel-off strip, and then you gotta just glom it on to the inside of the left handgrip, which it rounded rather than flat so maybe not the solidest attachment, but once I sorta jammed it under the big plastic d-pad housing thing where it was somewhat less rounded it seemed to stick in place solidly enough.
Man these old-style PS controllers were so skinny! |
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| | | | The dpad + Select (hold 5 seconds) to set the dpad seems to work. Default seems to be as left analog (left+select); the documentation called up+select "Reset" but it sets it as PoV Hat, which it wasn't initially; right+select sets it as right analog apparently, and that's the one that moves the Z Axis and Z Rotation graphs in Windows' USB Game Controllers properties window; as left analog it just moves the cross in the "X Axis / Y Axis" window. So, a little wonky there, but hopefully it all maps correctly in actual games! |
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| | | Does NOT show up in DS4Windows, darn. ; )
Lists generically as "Bluetooth Wireless Controller" (I think DS4 does, too, when not running through DS4Windows) in Windows' USB Game Controllers window.
Steam recognized it by that generic name, click the Begin Setup or whatever button next to it and you go through a thing where you map the buttons to Xbox controller equivalents, using the first-assigned A button to skip any the controller doesn't have (analog sticks, etc). Went swimmingly!
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania let me roll right around as soon as I set the d-pad as Left Analog in Steam Input. Everything just worked in Victory Heat Rally, a non-Steam game I have set up in Steam, and Steam precision platformer LOVE 3 just worked.
This thing is so much lighter than a DS4, feels weightless by comparison. Very solid plastic though, no creaking at all UNLIKE Creaky McCreakerson Mr. DS4. |
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| | | The manual says, for Windows controls:
/\ + Start to turn on
Hold Select 3 seconds for pairing (it did this automatically for me) |
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| | | | There doesn't seem to be a way to put it to sleep. The FAQ https://support.8bitdo.com/faq/ps-classic-kit-and-ps-original-kit.html doesn't mention it. I *think* it went to sleep on me once when I hadn't used it for maybe ~5 minutes or so. |
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| | | | Really wish it had a longer, non-custom charging cable; being stuck with a 1-foot, irreplaceable cable is not ideal. : P |
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Real rough input lag comparison between the 8BitDo Mod Kit for PlayStation Classic Controller and a DualShock 4.
With both controllers, I counted VERY roughly an average of about 4 frames between the button being fully pressed down, and Lilith's jab starting to animate.
It was harder to tell exactly when the button was fully pressed with these small rounded buttons than it is with the big flat slappy buttons of the arcade stick I'm usually testing with. But yeah the two pads were roughly the same latency as each other far as I can tell. |
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| | | | So yeah, although I don't know about long term like battery life or how my body will end up loving the ergonomics or not vs the ol' DS4, it seems about as good as can be. I've ordered another "new"-from-eBay PlayStation Classic Controller to have as back-up for the kit, although the controllers do feel built like tanks. ; ) But you can't order them new direct from the manufacturer like you can the kits (trying to convince myself not to be paranoid and order another kit, haha...although hm maybe I'll have to do that if I'm still grooving with this in a few months, because at that point it would be a shame not to have it forever). |
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| | | | The USB port is inaccessible once the mod it encased in the PS Classic Controller so uh well fortunately it doesn't seem likely they'll need to update the firmware again. : P |
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| | | | I'm not sure about the manual on like wake up and stuff; when I took it off the charger and it didn't register as connected and showed no light I tried /\+Start like it said but that actually put the controller immediately into pairing mode. On the other hand, if I just press Start, the blue light goes on, it reconnects and everything's fine. So it's more like Start wakes it up, and /\+Start -- no holding necessary -- puts it in pairing mode. |
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| | | | It's easy to wiggle the charger socket a bit along the vertical angle when unplugging the charging cable. Opened up the controller to see if I could re-seat the socket more securely somehow but didn't find a way to do it, so I guess that's how it's gonna be--it doesn't really have much to brace itself against in there, but it does have a fairly wide vertical cross-brace inside the casing, so I don't think it's in too much danger of actually pulling out, it just feels like it is. : P |
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| | | | Ah, I think I'm probably gonna have to go back to the DS4; it does just feel more comfortable to hold and press, especially the d-pad and bumpers--and the added weight actually helps it sit more easily in the hand, besides the better-shaped grips. Played racing game session with the Classic and had a sore wrist afterwards. Will try the DS4 for the next racing game session and see if that's any better. |
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| | | | Wrist pain from a racing game session wasn't great. Probably keep this around for a bit as backup in case the DS4 ends up even worse on my ol' wrist for the racing games, but that seems unlikely. |
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| | | | Holding Select for ~5 seconds also seemed to put the thing in pairing mode, which wasn't great (I was trying to use it as a fast-forward hotkey ; D). Didn't try to re-test, possibly I was also holding a d-pad direction or something? |
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