GH controller - circuit mapping? And a few questions.

[DizzyBum]

(Cross-posted to Guitar Freaks / Drummania board. Mods can delete if this is inappropriate.)

I'm looking to tinker around with my wireless Guitar Hero controller. Basically, I'd like to know what wires map to what equivalent DualShock buttons. My ultimate aim is to make a wireless controller that can switch between Guitar Hero "mode" and Guitar Freaks "mode" at the flick of a toggle switch that I install. (The toggle switch would, not surprisingly, be mapped to the Left key. Anyone that's tried to play GF with a GH controller knows why.)

The Start and Select button contacts are clearly labeled on the board. The fret buttons, however, are not, and I seem to recall that the number of wires coming from the frets to the board don't quite match up with the five fret buttons.

Obviously, the power for the board comes from the battery pack's wires, although I have no idea what wire is equivalent to what part of the actual circuit.

I also want to try converting the pick from the clicky-button style to a more Guitar-Freaks-arcade-style pick. Ideally, I would use one of the analog stick elements from a PS1 DualShock series-A controller, and then use a little bit of mechanical tinkering to "hook it up" to the underside of the pick. However, given that the clicky-button elements seem to be hotglued into the board, that probably wouldn't work the way I want. And that still leaves the issue of the board itself that has "pressing left" hardcoded into it.

I'd like to keep it wireless if I can help it, but that might be asking too much. I've seen it done with other controller mods, but on the other hand they had started out with wired controllers and modded them using wireless Dualshock boards.

Anyway, to summarize, this is what I want to do:
- Install a toggle switch for the Left button.
- Sub a DualShock controller board in place of the original board, and rewire all the keys.
- Move the pick onto one of the analog stick elements.

At the very least, I'll lose the wireless and end up with a wired controller that can still play both games. Any constructive comments or suggestions or links to do-it-yourself instructions from people that have already done this sort of thing would be most appreciative.


I may also be checking with Gamestop today on their return policy. I already opened the free battery pack that came with the wireless guitar, but I only played with it for about five minutes just to test it out and I saved all the other packaging (minus the tight plastic that wrapped the batteries). I've been able to return a used PS2 to a Gamestop and get my money back (brought it back a week later when I realized I needed the money for more important things), so this shouldn't be a problem, right? If I can't, it's really not the end of the world.