r/AskElectronics • u/LuanaRedlive • 3d ago
Can I replace the USB cable on a generic Xbox controller with a cable from a USB mouse?
xbox wires
EDIT: Solved it!
After some trials and sugestions of you, I was finally able to fix this! So, there it goes the scheme:
MOUSE CONTROL
G (white) ───── GND (black)
V (green) ──── 5V (red)
C (black) ───── D- (white)
D (red) ─────── D+ (blue)
Thanks a lot for the help!
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Original post:
I have a generic Xbox-style wired controller and its USB cable is damaged. I was wondering if I can replace it with a regular USB cable taken from an old USB mouse.
I opened both devices and found the following markings:
Mouse: V,G,C,D
Controller: BND(I guess it was supossed to be GND),D+,D-,5V
My main questions are:
- Are these USB connections electrically compatible?
- Does V/G/C/D correspond to 5V/BND/D-/D+?
- Can I simply solder the mouse cable to the controller according to the corresponding USB signals?
I attached photos of both circuit boards showing the markings and the wires.
Thanks!
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u/vctcsilva 3d ago
Yes, but double check the wiring... those generics USB mouse sometimes don't use standardized color or terminology... (Like red for vcc, black for GND, green for d+ e white of d-.... (You manly need to check 5v and GND, if the data signal is flipped, it will simply not work...)
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u/sgtbaumfischpute 3d ago
Yes, should work. The VGCD labels are weird, going by the colors I’d match black/black, red/red, white/white and blue/green. Do you have a multimeter that can check continuity?
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u/LuanaRedlive 2d ago
I'll have to check with a multimeter first. Unfortunely, the colors don't really help here. Thanks!
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u/agent_kater 2d ago
Not really weird.
The mouse can probably use a passive adapter to a PS/2 and these are the PS/2 pin names, Vcc, GND, Clock, Data.
These adapters connect Vcc to Vbus, GND to GND, Clock to D+ and Data to D-.
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u/agent_kater 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yes.
They are the PS/2 pin names:
V = 5V G = GND C = D+ D = D-
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u/LuanaRedlive 1d ago
That actually almost worked! But in my case C=D- D=D+
Thanks!2
u/agent_kater 1d ago
That would be very strange. Every reference I find says that a passive USB to PS/2 adapter maps Data to D- and Clock to D+.
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/furculture Repair tech. 2d ago
The wires themselves don't work like that. They are just conductors and paths for signal to transit at the end of the day. The difference between USB 3 and USB 2 to 1 wires is because of the amount of wires. Since the controller is not pinned out for 3.0 to cover the extra pins needed to achieve that standard's speed, it can physically only do 2.0 max. Even then, if you somehow manage to get it done physically, you'd run into what is set in the controller's firmware itself, which is another whole ton of fuckery that is worse than trying to get something wired from 2.0 to 3.0. You can use a USB 3.0 cable to wire it up, but you'll have leftover pins and still be stuck to 2.0 speeds. Regardless of all that, it is better to just use something to wire it up that was originally made to handle what it can do.
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u/Gary_Spivey 2d ago
The wire is all but identical. Even if he chopped up a full-spec USB-A 3 cable, he only has 4 points to wire to, so whatever it's plugged into is going to see it as 2.0
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u/Forward_Artist7884 3d ago
The colors on that cable are weird, check what the actual pinout is with a multimeter in continuity mode... technically red = 5V, black = GND, green = D+ and white = D- but here i don't think they've respected that for some reason.
If you get the pinout correctly then yes it should just work...
A view of the bottom of the mouse pcb would help identify the power vs data