sudomod

Tools and materials you will need:
-drill
-1/16" (1.5mm) drill bit
-dremel
-dremel bit same size as drill bit
-small wood chisel (optional)
-small file (mine is 0.05x0.20" or 1.4x5.2mm)
-Xacto knife (scalpel)
-wire (anything 22awg-30awg)
-soldering supplies

In your kit, you will see:
-1 PCB (blue)
-2 Button sets
-2 Pogo assemblies

Starting with your battery cover, looking at the outside, the button sets are going to sit horizontally in two of the recessed ridges of the cover. The L1&R1 button set will be in the second recess from the top and the L2&R2 button set will be in the very last recess. Looking at the inside of your battery cover, you will see two horizontal supports. You will need to remove the top support (the one with the screwdriver aimed at it). My method was to grind down the support until it was close to being gone and then going over it with an 1/2" (13mm) wood chisel to make it look as if it was never there. It's a good idea to scuff the surface when done because you will be adding small amounts of epoxy adhesive which does not hold as well on glossy surfaces. When pressing your PCB inside the cover you want the bottom edge of the PCB to be resting on the bottom support of the battery cover (this is very important for the button alignment). DO NOT GLUE ANYTHING YET! You may notice that the PCB fits a little tight within the cover. [This was done intentionally with a dual purpose. 1) not all battery covers are identical and as i said before, we can always take some material away much easier than we can add more. 2) a tighter tolerance will aid in securing the PCB and hopefully add durability during gameplay.] If your PCB fits too tight you will notice a slight concave in your battery cover...like this. Do not worry. With a few strokes of a file or light scrapes of a razor blade, you can shave the side edges of your PCB to fit tightly inside the cover without a concave effect. The amount shaved off the PCB will be few thousandths of an inch (or hundredths of a mm). You will not damage your PCB by doing so and, as always, BE PATIENT. You can always remove more material, if it fits too loose the epoxy will hopefully compensate.

After you have your PCB and cover situated, you're ready to drill. The holes on the PCB are pilot holes for the buttons. The holes are at the absolute maximum width of the buttons. Make sure the bottom edge of the PCB is butted up to the bottom support of the battery cover and drill your holes. Remove the PCB from the cover and inspect the outside of your cover. It should look like this. Very carefully with your dremel or drill, connect the holes horizontally within the recessed part of the battery cover outside. (I used the dremel to roughly connect the holes and my file to fine tune the slot.) Be careful not to wander outside the recessed channel we are utilizing. The measurements allow for very little deviation. The button will fit perfectly if you stay in the lines!

Once your slots are cut, do another test fit with the PCB and verify the switches and pilot holes line up. Remove the PCB again and insert your buttons. Be sure they move freely within the cut slots. If necessary, use your file to carefully shape the opening so the buttons move freely in and out.
When installing the buttons, you'll notice the pieces on each side are offset from the centerline of each button. These pieces are there to keep the button from falling out. DO NOT CUT OR TRIM THEM! When setting the buttons in the holes, make sure these side pieces are closer to the top of the battery cover. (I have designed this to give the buttons a slight upturn when fully assembled. This makes a big difference in the ergonomic feel when pushing the buttons during gameplay.) Now that the buttons are set in the slots and moving freely, press your PCB back into the battery cover and give everything a test before gluing. The PCB should be sitting flush in the battery cover with everything fully assembled. All PCBs have been tested for continuity after soldering and before shipping. If there is an issue with a button not working, it is an alignment error.
Once everything is tested and you are confident in your install, you are ready for adhesive. I used a clear 5 minute epoxy. I know it holds better than hot glue and although it says "5 minute", i would let it sit overnight just to be safe.

When applying the epoxy or glue, focus on applying some on:
-the sides between the PCB and cover
-the bottom corners and overlap on to the PCB (I'm limited on post attachments so I'm recycling images)
use caution around the bottom edge of the PCB. You don't want to glue the button into the slot! note: no adhesive is necessary at the top of the battery cover, the DMG case will hold it in up there.

Now that we have the battery cover set up, we are ready to get the pogo connectors installed. This part can be a bit tedious as far as the actual cutting/carving is concerned but I made the alignment portion easy. As always, I am open to comments or suggestions on how to make this process any easier and user friendly (that is the whole point of the beta test batch). Disclaimer: This project started off as something for myself. That being said, I had a specific idea in mind for what I wanted. If anyone has an idea of how to simplify the actual circuit connections to the DMG shell, feel free to voice them.

In my Interest Gauging thread I posted a photo of the pogo pins alignment to the PCB. Nothing has changed there. The two middle pins are the common ground and the two outside pins are for each button on that side of the DMG. The contact points on the PCB are actually solder pads. If you do not wish to use the pogos, you can solder you wires directly (I have not done that, so i can't help you with that style of install). In the battery bay you will see a "ledge" directly above the stock openings on each side. That is where the pogo assembly will sit (outlined in white). For description purposes, i will refer to the "inside egde" of the battery bay (see yellow arrow). Do not get it confused withe the "outside edge" of the battery bay (see blue arrow). Take a minute and look at the photo below and be sure that you understand this. Using the incorrect edge for alignment will result in circuits connecting incorrectly or not at all. In the next photo, you'll see the pogo to your right is already installed, ignore that one for now. Take your uninstalled pogo and just let it sit on the ledge like the one to the left of the photo. While the pogo is sitting on the ledge, make sure the side is butted up against the inside edge of the battery bay (remember the yellow arrow?), and mark it. I used a knife. You can use whatever you want, pen, sharpie, etc. All we are doing is tracing the perimeter of the pogo assembly to make cutting and alignment easier. (do not worry if the pogo looks asymmetrical, the measurement are correct and they are not specific to either side of the DMG) Once that one line is marked, you can start cutting. Cut a thin slot from your mark to the inside edge of the battery bay. The hole should look like the next photo when you're done.... a slot just big enough for the bottom half of the pogo assembly to sit inside. Take your file and fine tune the slot so the pogo fits in and sits on the ledge again like so... With your pogo sitting in the slot, mark the top half perimeter of the pogo assembly and finish cutting the hole. On this step of cutting, you MUST remember what i said about being patient. You do not want to cut too deep. Cutting the hole too deep will prevent the pogos from making proper contact with the PCB. Take small bits at a time, TEST FIT OFTEN...and when it get close to being where you want it, USE YOUR FILE. The file will do a lot of work against this soft plastic. The file is your best friend here! The top edge of the pogo should sit flush against the top edge of the battery bay like in the outline Be careful not to cut too deep
The photo below is an example of a finished cut.
In that photo, the green arrow is pointing at the horizontal piece on the middle of the hole. This is your depth adjustment. A good strategy is to get the perimeter of the hole finished and, of course test fit to verify correct alignment with the PCB, then you can focus on getting the depth to where you want it. Too high, and it will flex the battery cover out in that corner (that drove me crazy). Too low and it will make little to no contact with the PCB. Good news is that with patience and the right file, getting the depth right is easy. The file I used fit perfectly in the hole that I accessed through the cartridge slot.