Oh thats neat, where can I get some of those?

Jayguy5000

The buttons you see in the attatched picture are from a xbox game controller. they aren't really buttons but when you press down the button on top of the controller it presses a rubber piece on a shaft onto the black part some how making a connection. there are two black halves of the black button the PCB and i guess they make a connection when the rubber shaft hits both of them when some one presses a button. Any way, Im just wandering if parrallax has anything like this I can buy or if not maybe some one can point me in a direction where i can get help on this topic!
Thanks
~Jeremy

Forrest

That's conductive carbon used to create those 'button pads' on the circuit board. You won't find Parallax or any other electronic component vendor selling the 'button pads' because they're fabricated as part of the circuit board.

Jayguy5000

well can i cut it out of the pcb its in and ghetto rig it to the pcb im using?
or what could i use to replace it in a game controller?

Forrest

Are you trying to fix an old controller or make a new one?

NewName007

make a new one!

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
If it doesn't fit dont force it, Just get a bigger hammer.

Jayguy5000

Actually yea, Im going to be building a new pcb to replace the current one, using the same controller housing.
~Jeremy

Forrest

I built an Atari compatable gamepad/joystick many years ago just using microswitches mounted on a wood base with a round piece of plexiglass over the microswitches. Search for microswitch on Google - you should be able to find one that will work for your application.

Jayguy5000

Do I need to put any power into the conductive carbon in oder for it to work? my latest brainstorm is to use the current pcb and just replace the IC already installed with my own.

Forrest

The carbon is just a conductive circuit. If it's damaged (open circuit) then you may be able to repair it with a rear window defogger repair kit (conductive paint) that you can buy at a auto repair store.