MPA (midi pro adapter) conversion hack for PS3/Wii
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As many of you already know, there are Rock Band accessories built for PS3 and Wii which share the same hardware. The basic controller functionalities (directional pad, navigation buttons and similar) of these controllers built for Wii work fine in PS3 and viceversa, but the Rock Band specific functionalities (such as the keyboard actual musical keys) do not work if you connect to your console the controller meant for the other system. A conversion however is possible and fairly quick and easy to do, which helps if you have difficulties finding an accessory for your own console.
Accessories which are confirmed to be convertible between PS3 and Wii are:
– Pro Keyboard
– MPA (Midi Pro Adapter)
In this thread I want to share my experience with converting an MPA for Wii into an MPA for PS3. Please be careful when doing any sort of hardware hack, and accept the risk you might damage your device permanently. I don’t take responsibilities if you do!
1) Opening the MPA.
The MPA can be opened by removing a few screws from the back of it, however some of these screws are hidden under the tiny circular rubber pads. These pads can be removed easily by hand, and the adhesive below should remain sticky enough to be able to put them back when closing the MPA again, as the process doesn’t take too long. You might have to apply some pressure to the side groove of the MPA to pop it open. Be careful not to pull or rip any electrical wire when doing so! Here is how the MPA looks from the inside.
2) Finding the key jumper.
All that separates a PS3 MPA from a Wii MPA is a single jumper or zero-Ohm resistor. Presumably, this connects the main board to an additional part of the circuitry. This jumper is present in the Wii version of the MPA and absent in the PS3 version. Notice the set of resistors at the centre-bottom of the circuit board, the key jumper is the one labelled as JP2 with “000” indicating it is a zero-Ohm resistor (or short-circuit).
3) Removing the key jumper.
All you need to do to convert a Wii MPA to a PS3 MPA is to remove the jumper. This can be done with a simple tweezers. The only difficulty is to actually grab it with the tweezers, because it is very tiny. Once you get a hold on it, twisting the tweezers with a small force should be enough to make the jumper come off, just be careful not to scratch other parts of the circuit board. Should you need the opposite i.e. to convert a PS3 MPA to a Wii MPA, the task will be more difficult and likely require a soldering iron in order to create a short circuit at the otherwise empty JP2 location. Here’s a picture of the board after removing the JP2 jumper.
4) Closing the MPA back and enjoy!
Here’s a bonus picture to give you an idea about how tiny the JP2 jumper really is
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Hmm ty for sharing this post. I just opened my broken my Xbox Midi adapter, and JP1 and JP2 are both solderer with jumpers. Think it would be as simple as to solderer the jumper(s) onto a PS3/Wii versions to work for xbox? I can provide pictures of it but cant atm.
Nope, as far as I understand xbox requires some special chip. Maybe you can convert an xbox MPA to PS3/Wii though, but I don’t remember the xbox jumper configuration for xbox.
Also, I can confirm that the mustang and the squier will work on any console using the MPA no matter the root console for the guitar.
3 hours ago, WarMarioDragon said:Hmm ty for sharing this post. I just opened my broken my Xbox Midi adapter, and JP1 and JP2 are both solderer with jumpers. Think it would be as simple as to solderer the jumper(s) onto a PS3/Wii versions to work for xbox? I can provide pictures of it but cant atm.
As Alternity already said, unfortunately xbox controllers are another matter, and I don’t know if a conversion is possible.
I am not sure exactly what wireless technology is used by these controllers to communicate with the console, but I think PS3/Wii controllers use Bluetooth (and need a USB dongle plugged into the console, but a Wii dongle would work for PS3 and viceversa), while xbox 360 controllers use a proprietary protocol (and don’t need a dongle). If that’s the case, then the two types of controllers have different wireless chips inside.
It is not completely impossible that MadCatz had put both wireless chips in every version of their controllers and used jumpers to activate either, just like they did to differentiate Wii/PS3 controllers. This sort of idea is chosen when having a single production line for 2 versions of the same printed board saves more money even if you end up with part of the printed board itself that is not needed in the final device. However, my guess is that MadCatz didn’t manufacture the wireless chip themselves but bought it from a specialized vendor, so it’s not printed on the board but attached to it, and it costs a few bucks per piece… meaning it would have been more economical to have only the single wireless chip required by the target console in each device and not both.
On 10/8/2020 at 2:42 AM, Shroud said:As many of you already know, there are Rock Band accessories built for PS3 and Wii which share the same hardware. The basic controller functionalities (directional pad, navigation buttons and similar) of these controllers built for Wii work fine in PS3 and viceversa, but the Rock Band specific functionalities (such as the keyboard actual musical keys) do not work if you connect to your console the controller meant for the other system. A conversion however is possible and fairly quick and easy to do, which helps if you have difficulties finding an accessory for your own console.
Accessories which are confirmed to be convertible between PS3 and Wii are:
– Pro Keyboard
– MPA (Midi Pro Adapter)
In this thread I want to share my experience with converting an MPA for Wii into an MPA for PS3. Please be careful when doing any sort of hardware hack, and accept the risk you might damage your device permanently. I don’t take responsibilities if you do!
1) Opening the MPA.
The MPA can be opened by removing a few screws from the back of it, however some of these screws are hidden under the tiny circular rubber pads. These pads can be removed easily by hand, and the adhesive below should remain sticky enough to be able to put them back when closing the MPA again, as the process doesn’t take too long. You might have to apply some pressure to the side groove of the MPA to pop it open. Be careful not to pull or rip any electrical wire when doing so! Here is how the MPA looks from the inside.
2) Finding the key jumper.
All that separates a PS3 MPA from a Wii MPA is a single jumper or zero-Ohm resistor. Presumably, this connects the main board to an additional part of the circuitry. This jumper is present in the Wii version of the MPA and absent in the PS3 version. Notice the set of resistors at the centre-bottom of the circuit board, the key jumper is the one labelled as JP2 with “000” indicating it is a zero-Ohm resistor (or short-circuit).
3) Removing the key jumper.
All you need to do to convert a Wii MPA to a PS3 MPA is to remove the jumper. This can be done with a simple tweezers. The only difficulty is to actually grab it with the tweezers, because it is very tiny. Once you get a hold on it, twisting the tweezers with a small force should be enough to make the jumper come off, just be careful not to scratch other parts of the circuit board. Should you need the opposite i.e. to convert a PS3 MPA to a Wii MPA, the task will be more difficult and likely require a soldering iron in order to create a short circuit at the otherwise empty JP2 location. Here’s a picture of the board after removing the JP2 jumper.
4) Closing the MPA back and enjoy!
Here’s a bonus picture to give you an idea about how tiny the JP2 jumper really is
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Hi Shroud,
on your main post you mention that converting Pro Keyboards is also possible.
how do you do it? there is no JP resistor on the main circuit board on the keyboard or the dongle.
on a reddit forum I read that you should remove resistor R24 on both the keyboard and the dongle. I did it but had no luck getting the Wii keyboard to work on my PS3.
thanks
2 hours ago, pacod said:Hi Shroud,
on your main post you mention that converting Pro Keyboards is also possible.
how do you do it? there is no JP resistor on the main circuit board on the keyboard or the dongle.
on a reddit forum I read that you should remove resistor R24 on both the keyboard and the dongle. I did it but had no luck getting the Wii keyboard to work on my PS3.
thanks
I am afraid I don’t know the specifics of the Pro Keyboard, as I have only ever tried converting the MPA, but I’ve heard many times that people have managed to do it.
On 10/26/2020 at 12:40 PM, Shroud said:I am afraid I don’t know the specifics of the Pro Keyboard, as I have only ever tried converting the MPA, but I’ve heard many times that people have managed to do it.
I opened up my wii Keyboard but there are no JP1 or JP2 resistor.. THeres is a 0 (zero resistor labeled R24 and (reading other posts on reddit) I went ahead and removed te resistor both on the keyboard and on the dongle, but still cant manage to get them workin on my ps3.
If you have anny idea where could I find such info, id appreciate it. I-ve searched on these forums and on reddit and cant find any additional info.
Thanks
Sadly all the old info about Rock Band hardware died with the rockbanddocsmods website and the official Rock Band leaderboards. Some of it is still in the ScoreHero forums, so maybe you are lucky enough to find information related to the keyboard.
On 11/16/2020 at 9:28 PM, pacod said:I opened up my wii Keyboard but there are no JP1 or JP2 resistor.. THeres is a 0 (zero resistor labeled R24 and (reading other posts on reddit) I went ahead and removed te resistor both on the keyboard and on the dongle, but still cant manage to get them workin on my ps3.
I’ve only found this Reddit post, which might be the same you have read.
However, this post doesn’t mention removing anything from the dongle, only from the keyboard.
When I tried to connect a Wii keyboard to the PS3, it worked fine as a generic game controller (4-direction pad, select/start, and main gaming buttons) but it wasn’t recognized as a keyboard (the RB3 game assumed it was a normal gamepad and activated the microphone player). To me this sounds like the dongle might be fine as-is, and it might be completely identical to the PS3 dongle after all.
Can you still at least connect the keyboard to the PS3 as a generic game controller? Do you have the possibility to put the resistor back on the dongle?
Re-uploading pictures as links because the new forums do not allow to embed them in posts:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jXHHMHlKM6-7M5OWxXvazoyzRamrRpeb
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xCHUEfSLYI9boIXfz5zOJ1pmBjbI4yQV
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JAFo-E6GlTnkQTPjjAf3uQGRxXo4dv3J
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iLUMgEUohX3CcIp1AIAZ0FeoiWKcNXt4YES THIS IS A TRIPLICATE POST, BECAUSE THE NEW FORUMS SUCKS BIG TIME: YOU CAN’T EMBED PICTURES TO POSTS ANYMORE, YOU CAN’T EDIT POSTS BECAUSE THEY GO UNDER MODERATION AND STAY THERE INDEFINITELY UNTIL SOMEONE NOTICES, AND IF YOU TRY TO POST AGAIN THE SAME TEXT THEY GIVE YOU AN ERROR THAT IT’S A DUPLICATE, SO THIS LONG HORRIBLE COMMENT OF MINE IS HERE TO TRY AND BYPASS THE DUPLICATE-CHECKER WITHOUT HAVING TO ASK AGAIN A MODERATOR TO FIX THE PROBLEM WITH MAKING A VERY SIMPLE POST LIKE YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO DO ON A FORUM IN 2021.
Re-uploading pictures as links because the new forums do not allow to embed them in posts:
1) Opening the MPA.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jXHHMHlKM6-7M5OWxXvazoyzRamrRpeb
2) Finding the key jumper.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xCHUEfSLYI9boIXfz5zOJ1pmBjbI4yQV
3) Removing the key jumper.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JAFo-E6GlTnkQTPjjAf3uQGRxXo4dv3J
4) Closing the MPA back and enjoy!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iLUMgEUohX3CcIp1AIAZ0FeoiWKcNXt4
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