The TEasy Strike is the big brother of the TEasy Mod, giving the user all of what the TEasy Mod allowed, but with new and even better things to offer. The TEasy Strike is designed to interface to the Madcatz Xbox 360 Fightstick, both the SE and TE versions. It’s designed it to allow for near, and even fully solderless electrical mods for these arcade sticks.

The way I’ve accomplished this is through the use of some very special spring loaded pins, placed at the precise spots where you would normally have to solder to. The individual pins touch the solder joints underneath the board, making the connection to the 360 PCB so you don’t have to, and then the boards are clipped together for a solid connection.

As you can tell, there are actual components on the board this time around, and it’s no surprise that this design has integrated the Dual Strike. This effectively makes the TEasy Strike an out of box, 100% solderless dual mod board for your 360 Fightstick (e.g. TEasy Strike = TEasy Mod + Dual Strike).

However, one of the biggest upgrades is the front terminals. They’re no longer screw terminals, they’re IDC, or punch terminals. These allow the outgoing USB wire to be attached without stripping, twisting, folding, or anything else. Just clean the end of the 4 wires of any epoxy from the factory and insert the insulated wires into the terminals. From there you use a flat head screw driver, which fits in the head of the orange top nicely, and push down with a firm pressure and it will bite into the wire.

This turns a dual mod into an even simpler task, as now you don’t even need wire strippers. The TEasy Strike also accesses the LEFT STICK and RIGHT STICK points, so you can now use the LS/DP/RS switch to it’s full extent on the PS3 as well as the Xbox 360. Perfect for SHMUPS and side scroll beat-em-ups like Scott Pilgrim, where the left analog stick comes in handy. Follow the post install instructions for a full description on how to access this.

How do you install this board?

1. Before doing anything, after you sit down touch something grounded. The board has active components and the last thing you want to do is shock them with ESD.

2. Disconnect the original 360TE PCB and CUT THE USB cable away from it, remove as many of the ribbon cables as you want on it. If this is your first mod I’d suggest removing them all but that’s completely up to you. Unscrew the TE PCB and remove it from it’s spot.

3. Look at the front terminals and examine them, they’re punch terminals, and currently they’re in the down and locked position. Use a small flat head screw driver to pry them all up until they click. You can use the back fin as leverage, that’s what it’s there for. If they pop out don’t worry just press them back into the shrouding.

4. Unhinge the corner clips on the TEasy Strike, flay them out as much as possible. It helps a lot to have these open before you install the TS.

5. Install the included spacers, wide portion of the spacer facing down.

6. Screw down TEasy Strike in the same spot where the 360 PCB originally was, utilizing the stock screws already there. Don’t over-tighten them, it’s easy to strip the standoffs.

7. Tighten down the center screw until it basically touches the case… DO NOT OVER-TIGHTEN. Just giving it a finger tightening should be plenty.

8. I suggest first attaching the USB cable, so you’ll want to prep the USB cable by removing the shrink wrap that’s on it to expose about 1/2 to 3/4″ of wire, you might have to cut more of the jacket off. Just cut off the shield ground wire, that’s the fat black one, and trim down any stray bare ground wires. After that, cut the front of the wires to remove the epoxy that’s left on them from the factory, this leaves you with clean ends for easy insertion to the terminals. Leave the insulation on, do not strip the wires.

9. Once the cable is prepped, insert the 4 USB wires into the TS front terminals, when looking down at it after install, if you can’t see the silk screen labels it’s this arrangement from top to bottom:
(R) USBVCC
(W) D-
(G) D+
(B) GROUND

There will be a 5th thicker black wire, that’s the Shield Ground. You may clip that short, as it’s not needed, just the smaller black ground wire.

Take note that the spot in the terminal that cuts into the wires is about halfway into the terminal, so make sure that your wires are all the way in and touching the back. That’s why I suggested having 1/2 to 3/4″ of wire exposed.

10. Once they’re in, use your flat head screw driver to punch down the terminals on the wire. You don’t need to use herculean strength to do this, just a bit of constant firm pressure should do. Just be smart and don’t snap the board by pressing too hard.

11. When the terminals are locked into punched position, give the USB cable a tug to make sure they’re in tight. If one or more wires come out, just try again by prying the terminals up again and starting over.

12. Prep the 360TE PCB for install by trimming the through hole leads. You only have to trim the spots that the TEasy Mod will touch that involves a through hole header. i.e. every connection listed in the pinout except USBVCC, GND, D+, D-, only clip those if you feel they are extremely bent to one side or something.

  • You should also clip the LEFT STICK and RIGHT STICK points, as the TEasy Strike now includes connections for those to be used as well.

Picture of what I mean in step 12.

13. Align the pins in the back row with the cup tips of the pogos, and as I instruct in the video for the TEasy Mod (It’s the same process), clam shell the board down onto the rest of the TS. After that, press down evenly and clip it into place.

14. Once your’e done, put the stock ribbon cables back in place and plug it into your PC. Take a moment to double and triple check the ribbon cables and make sure they’re in the correct original spots or you run the risk of harming and even burning out your 360 PCB and TEasy Strike.

For the first time plugging it into your PC do this:

Open up the Controllers applet in Windows, then hold these buttons on the fightstick before plugging it in, then unplug and try the next button before plugging in. ONE AT A TIME, not a combination.

  • Hold HK – Should bring up Dual Strike PC mode
  • Hold MP – Should bring up 360TE (Be sure you have the Microsoft controller drivers installed first)

If these modes come up fine (and they should), you’re good to go!

Post Installation

The TEasy Strike’s PS3 controller, the Dual Strike, is always being updated with new features and firmware. All firmware updates, documentation, and links to the Strike Devices support mailing list are hosted on  At This Location.

  • Firmware

If the installation is sucessful, but you don’t seem to have the latest firmware. I suggest going to the above link, grabbing the latest FW release and updating by holding Start when you plug your Fightstick into your PC and run the update_firmware_168.bat file. Exact directions are in the documentation if you’re unclear on something.

Note, do NOT update to the latest (3.3.0) firmware. If you have 3.2.0 (the firmware I ship with, it should come up in the above tests) leave it be and just use the 3.2.0 configuration editor for the below operation. There is a bug in the latest firmware I’m having Mephisto look into, sorry for the inconvenience.

  • LS/RS Control

After you update the firmware, you should get familiar with the awesome configuration editor. This will allow you to set your device to your liking, as well as activate LS/RS capabilities.

Grab the configuration editor (you must have Java installed), and run the configuration_editor_atmega168.bat file. Hold Select and plug in your stick, the little icon in the bottom right will turn green to show that you’re connected.

In the top left click the button to “download the current configuration of the device”, then go to the “Hardware” tab and set this:

http://www.phreakmods.com/wp-content…9102552594.png

Then in the top left again click on the button to “upload the current configuration to the device”

When you’re done, press start and the little icon will turn red again, indicating that you’ve disconnected and it’s OK to unplug.

You should now be able to switch between control modes.

Advanced Section

You may also go a step further and utilize the 20 position unshrouded header for more advanced modifications. Simply use a single ended ribbon cable, peel and strip the leads, and connect them to whatever other PCB or mod you wish to utilize. The TEasy Strike breaks out all necessary lines for many kinds of modifications.

  • Please note that although I have given easy access to these lines, support will not be given for advanced modifications.

Here’s the pinout of the end header, PIN 1 is indicated with a small solid triangle on the silk screen of the board.

Ordering and package information

Currently there are two versions, the TEasy Strike and the TEasy Strike S.

The difference in the boards:

*I’ve added links to pictures of the specific Fightsticks for easy reference if you aren’t sure.

Note 1: After some usage on friend’s SE and Round 1 TE sticks, it has come to my attention that there is one style of SE/TE ROUND 1 PCB that the TEasy Strike will NOT work with, please see below:

The board I’m referring to is “Rev. A,” the LAUNCH board that came with some SE and Round 1 TE sticks before they fixed it very quickly and updated to “Rev. B” which is the standard for 95% of the SE/TE sticks I’ve worked with and seen. Below are pictures of how you can tell if you have a “Rev. A” board.

This board is easily distinguishable by the crystal oscillator (the silver oblong part) being populated on the under side of the board. You can also tell by the little capacitors that have been added by hand by the factory people. That’s why it looks terrible, and why they revisioned it so quickly.

Please make sure you do not have this style of board before ordering the TEasy Strike. If you do, you can try and find a newer Round 1/2 style of PCB and swap it out into your stick, they are identical in electrical function but the measurements are different. You’re going to want to try and find a “Rev. B” or higher revision which is in 95% of the Round 1/2 sticks in circulation. 

When you purchase a TEasy Strike, you will receive the following:

  • 1 x TEasy Strike assembled board
  • 4 x Flanged spacers

For more information, as well as tutorial videos and  examples of these guys installed and used in various ways, please visit My Thread on Shoryuken.com.

Install videos, done by PurpleArms (removed the embedding to speed up load times):

TEasy Mod install videos, the method for prep and clipping in is identical in both the TEasy Mod and the TEasy Strike.

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Updated video with explanation of the TEasy Strike and how to familiarize yourself with the new features (punch terminals, etc.).

New Video!

 

 

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