Guide: Rapid Fire Gear Lite Installation - Revision 1

[TeamXCM]

After doing a full install of the XCM Rapid Fire Gear Lite just last night i decided there were a few things that needed to be addressed about the installation so other wouldn't have quite as much of a headache as i did. The first thing to note is the order of which things are done needs to be changed, it should go as follows:

1. Disassemble the controller and strip it down to the pcb, taking off the motors, analog sticks etc. You should now be left with just a bare pcb with a few things that cannot be removed still intact.

2. Remove the enamel insulation from the points illustrated in the manual, there are 7 not 6, the last point is the RB0 which is not noted until the very end of the original installation manual. Be sure to remove the enamel insulation on this point and then cut the trace BEFORE installing the yellow wafer.

3. Cut all 4 traces (3 are left because one of them was cut in step 2 above).

4. Solder the needed wires to the yellow wafer first, before installing the yellow wafer on the pcb, this is common sense but i have decided to mention it anyways.

5. Install the yellow wafer board, besure to also solder the RB0 point as well even though it is not shown on the original set of instructions.

6. Solder the wires to their respective points on the pcb and you are done. Then its just a matter of getting this back into the controller case and testing it out. If everything went well it should work just fine.

I have included some pictures of how the pcb looks before and after you scrape the points needed to secure the yellow wafer to the controller pcb. You will notice that several points aren't actual soldering joints but just areas that need the enamel insulation scraped off of so you can put a dab of solder there to hold the yellow wafer in place.

Notice: Before and After pictures have been attached to the bottom of this thread. Please check those images to see how to create the points to solder the yellow wafer pcb to the controllers pcb.

Tips:

1. **** IMPORTANT **** Get a 50x-100x microscope to view the traces, do this before cutting the traces as some traces are right next to others and you need to make sure you only sever the one you are intending on severing.

2. Remove the small piece of plastic just under the fire buttons so the yellow wafer will lay flat on the controllers pcb. Use a razor blade or some snips to get it flush with the pcb.

3. Do NOT drink any caffine prior to attempting this installation. Having jittery hands is not going to help and being impatient will only add to your frustration. In fact if you have anything that will calm your nerves down, it is highly recommended. (we aren't condoning illegal drug use)

Recommended Tools:

1. Soldering Iron with a very sharp tip. The sharper the better. 0.5mm or less is recommended.

2. Thin Solder - Grab the thinnest solder you can find. 60/40 should be fine and will be easy to work with. Lead-free solder can also be used but is not recommended for this installation.

3. Exacto Knife - These usually come in kits with multiple blades, you need one with an extremely sharp tip. Also try to get one with a very thin blade so you'll have a better view of what you are cutting, the smaller the better is the key with the exacto knife in this case.

4. 60x-100x Microscope - These can be found at Radio Shack for about $12-15 and will be used quite a bit, to examine the solder points and to make sure the traces you cut are properly severed. This tool is important and in this installation is just as important as the soldering iron or exacto knife.

5. Magnifying Glass with LEDs - This will be very important to solder to the small points on the controllers pcb, it might sound wierd if you bought a microscope but theres just some times when the microscope is too much magnification so in this case a good magnifying glass with its own light source will help tremendously.

6. Sharp Tweezers - These come in handy when trying to solder the small wires in place, expecially because you need to cut the wires just long enough to reach where they need to go but you don't want too much excess wire as they will block other keys such as the d-pad, back, guide and start buttons.

7. Extra Wire - The kit includes some extra wire so you may not need anymore, but if you have some laying around it can come in handy expecially when attaching the point on the yellow wafer to the left side of the small resistor(or whatever it is) because the yellow pcb does not quite reach it, or at least on my previous installation attempts this was the case. By using a small piece of wire you can easily bridge the connection to get it working properly with no problems, again the tweezers come in handy when doing this.

8. Wire Strippers - This will help you get the wire stripped once its in place and cut to the length you need it. Its not required but it will make your life that much easier and ease the overall frustration when attempting the installation.