Impromptu Xbox 360 Controller Battery Charger hack

Projects /  Mods  Original post date: 07/05/2017

I bought a 360 Controller from a Thrift store. It was not in a good shape and the battery was dead. While I am waiting for the RF dongle, charger cable and a new battery holder from China, hack happened...

I traced the battery outline with a pencil.

A bit of cutting with a box cutter, the battery fits.

I removed the sticker and glue with some solvent - BBQ lighter fluid (turpentine)

I have decided to make the battery contact from old ISA slot which has the same pin pitch.

I used my trusty Dremel with a cutting wheel. I offset the cut so that I don't destroy the contacts.

I wrap the connector with some cardboard to protect the contact while I trim off the excess PCB/connector bits with the cutting wheel. I pressed the contacts one at a time from the top to bow out the
contacts a bit.

While doing that, I came up with the idea of reusing the charger for my old electric screw driver. It was for trickle charging a two C cells (bout 1AHr NiCd) with an unregulator wall wart. The battery pack in the 360 controller is 2 AA NiMH (was 2.4AHr. Not sure how much capacity is left).

I drilled 2 holes with a 1/4" drill bit and tapped in a couple of 6-32 screws for electrical contacts. Not the greatest thing, but good enough for short term.

This is how it looks with the screws making electrical contact with some help from the heavy battery pack.

I screw in the wires on the other side. I use a piece of PCB scrap (flush to the battery pack) for mechanical support.

The connector is super glued to the PCB and the wires are soldered to the P+ and P- battery terminals (pinout here)

The battery is now charging in the cradle.

The battery only fits one way as it is too wide (just like the screw driver) when rotated.