How possible is it to make a wireless 360 controller into a wired one for use on PC?

If you need only the conction from the controller to the pc you could use a receiver from microsoft (only works on windows) and for the batery problem just use a charger that you can play ate the same time.

http://www.microsoft.com/games/en-US/Hardware/Controllers/Pages/XboxWirelessGamingReceiverforWindows.aspx/

The goal of this would be to aviod having a battery pack and also not having to get the receiver.

I think you can use one of these cable to always charge the controler,the part hacking the controlor to add a usb cable i think that is very hard and in my opnion not worth the effort.

The only option is buying the receiver i think.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Charger-Cable-Wireless-Controller-Xbox/dp/B004K3N4VU/ref=pd_bxgy_vg_h__text_y

It would be very hard unless there is already a USB controller in there that is either not connected to anything or connected to the wirless module. If there is you would be able to just wire it to USB, but without looking in the controller there is no way to tell if that is the case, and it would have to be clearly labled, which is extremely unlikely.

Well, that's why I'm posting here. Maybe Ben can figure it out. I have plenty of charge cables that I wouldn't mind repurposing to make a wired controller out of a wireless one.

The hard way:

If you are comfortable with soldering and like to take the controller apart, then it is possible, for example, to open up the controller, solder wires from buttons, trigger and joystick potentiometers, coming out to where the battery pack used to be, and put a teensy there acting as a USB HID gamepad to the computer, wiring the power and ground from the teensy to the gamepad, to power it. (I would double check the voltages, but it's probably 3.3V on both)

Additionaly, it could be possible to still use it with the xbox 360, it would work wirelessly, but using the USB for power. If we are not interfaceing with a chip in the xbox gamepad, but reading the buttons and pots directly (easier programming, but 21 wires), then technically it could be used with both at the same time. We'd have to use pretty thin wires, to fit it all in there. I havn't modded a 360 controller, but when I did a N64 controller like this, it was interesting getting it back together. But in the end, I had a N64 controller that I made myself that showed up as a USB gamepad on the computer.

It's alot of work, but if interested, then it can be a fun and rewarding project

I'm good at soldering, so that wouldn't be a problem. I was thinking that there might be existing circuitry that can be used, because the pc recognizes a 360 controller plugged in when using the play and charge cable. Sadly, it does not operate like a wired controller when you have it plugged into the pc using the charge cable.

edit:

maybe these pcbs can help out, it's interesting that the sync button is labeled as "wire/wireless plug switch"

wired pcb

http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_diagrams/360_diagram6.jpg

http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_diagrams/360_diagram1.jpg

wireless pcb

http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_diagrams/360_diagram5.jpg

http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_diagrams/360_diagram7.jpg

Way to much work & it wouldn't really be cost efective. Just go to the store & buy a wired controller. It's easier & faster than setting everything to use a teensy.

I use the charge cable plugged in to charge my pack but what I did was take the receiver out of an old 360 and wired it to usb. It works plug and play with the microsoft xbox 360 drivers. Gotta sync the controller to the 360 first though and cant resync again unless you plug back to 360. Maybe a little unecessary work but I wanted a way to use my 360 controller with my pc and I didn't wanna buy anything.

Here is a picture.

Red: 5V+           Black: Ground

Green: Signal +  White: Signal -

Sorry I just reread your post and I'm guessing you have the wireless pc receiver already. If these points exist on the reciever though I'm pretty sure it would be easy to find them on the controller itself.