Dead Dreamcast controller + Weird 5V behaviour

tl;dr: My picoPSU should have more than enough juice to power up the DC and a vga2hdmi converter, but the later doesn't work. My controller is dead but it's not the F1 fuse, I can't figure it out.

Long story:

I recently changed my DC PSU for a picoPSU and I added a samtech connector to provide 5V to USB connector, for powering a VGA2HDMI converter (Sewell Hammerhead clone) automatically when the DC boots. To my surprise, the 5V seemed not to provide enough power to the converter (no sound and the converter kinda reboots if you mess with the audio cable). The picoPSU can deliver 6A on the 5V line so it shouldn't be a problem in theory. Here's a picture of the setup:


So I went back to the lab this weekend to try and troubleshoot the issue and frankly I'm baffled. The picoPSU outputs a steady 5.035 ± 0.02 Volts with the adapter connected or not. I tried to measure the current on the 5V line but the DC refused to boot with the fluke multimeter installed (correct installation, in DC amperemeter mode on the A scale). That's where it gets more interesting.

After that my controller stopped working. The VMU still got power, but the controller is unresponsive. So I though I had blown the F1 fuse, but other controllers work fine. And I can't find the issue with my pad.

Any help to troubleshoot those issues is welcome.

Cheers!

FG

 

Atreyu mentioned on the isozone that the SMD capacitor on the Dreamcast Controller were crappy. I wonder if that's true. But I'm not sure about your situation. Maybe you broke that particular controller with this mod.

 

Any idea on what to check for on the controller PCB? I can't see anything that's obviously broken/roasted. There's some components labelled FB#, taht could be fuses but the ones I found, #1,2,4 all seem fine...

 

Try with more amps

 

I too want to know how the Dreamcast controller works. I got in two today that don't register the button presses at all. What can cause that? The PCB looks fine. Were there any broken fuses?