Building an arcade stick: And So Can You!

Improvolone

I'd say its basic, but you do need the tools, the plans, and some basic knowledge of cutting and finishing. It is not outside the hobbyists abilities.
Unless you ant a complicated design, a duh. If you hav never worked with wood before you should make some practice boxes.

langfor6

I took wood shop in 1990. I made a duck. That was probably my last project. Looking at Doc's photo, it doesn't look that hard. I'll poke around online and see what I come up with. Practice boxes are probably a good idea too. Thanks.

Daedalus

Yeah, I had like no woodworking experience and mine came out reasonably okay.

Houn

Aaaaawwww, yeah.



Somebody got a package from Japan today!

Folken Fanel

That stick looks like a lightbulb.

Houn

Folken Fanel wrote: »

That stick looks like a lightbulb.

Funny point, but I've seen a few mods where people buy a hollow shaft (or drill it out) and wire up an LCD to make the ball glow.

It's the clear Seimitsu bubble top, btw.

Folken Fanel

Houn wrote: »

Folken Fanel wrote: »

That stick looks like a lightbulb.

Funny point, but I've seen a few mods where people buy a hollow shaft (or drill it out) and wire up an LCD to make the ball glow.

It's the clear Seimitsu bubble top, btw.

:shock:

Awesome.

Houn

Folken Fanel wrote: »

Houn wrote: »

Folken Fanel wrote: »

That stick looks like a lightbulb.

Funny point, but I've seen a few mods where people buy a hollow shaft (or drill it out) and wire up an LCD to make the ball glow.

It's the clear Seimitsu bubble top, btw.

:shock:

Awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4WwXLUZYTI

shadydentist

God, making this stupid box is proving to be the most annoying hassle. So here I was thinking, 'Oh, I can just slip in to the university machine shop and drill a few holes in this box. Should take me ten minutes, tops'.

Instead, the stupid mechanical engineers are building air motors, and have booked the machine shop solid till the end of classes.


Grr.

Improvolone

Know any theatre folk? Their scene shop should have a plethora of tools.
Even if you don't, maybe you can talk to the guy (horribly sexist of me) in charge (probably the tech director) to get permission to use the shop.

shadydentist

I will try that. Also,I am dumb.

Somebody explain to me how to use quick disconnects before I break another one.

Improvolone

Do it real fast

Houn

Man.

I'm looking at this old edition 360 wireless pad.

This is going to be a pain in the ass.

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

Mmmm... Cocks...

Houn wrote: »

Man.

I'm looking at this old edition 360 wireless pad.

This is going to be a pain in the ass.

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

I'm color blind so that thing is crazy looking.

Houn

Whelp, I destroyed the pcb around the trigger contacts. Scratch one wireless 360 controller.

I think I'll go pick up a wired MadCats controller later today to try again. Still debating whether or not to attempt the triggers; if I leave them alone, I can only do a 6-button controller, instead of the 8 that I was planning.

shadydentist

Houn wrote: »

Whelp, I destroyed the pcb around the trigger contacts. Scratch one wireless 360 controller.

I think I'll go pick up a wired MadCats controller later today to try again. Still debating whether or not to attempt the triggers; if I leave them alone, I can only do a 6-button controller, instead of the 8 that I was planning.

Bad news about the Mad Catz controllers. You'll need some extra fancy soldering and a few NAND gates to get the triggers to be usable.

Houn

I'm aware. So long as the contacts are easier to solder to than the Microsoft pad...

Yellow Ranger

So I have no experience soldering things…what’s the reasoning behind putting glue on your solder points, like in the pictures that shadydentist posted?

Houn

Helps keep the solder point from getting ripped off; if you accidentally snag a wire or something, instead of pulling on the solder, you'll end up pulling on the glue first.

whitey9

shadydentist wrote: »

Houn wrote: »

Whelp, I destroyed the pcb around the trigger contacts. Scratch one wireless 360 controller.

I think I'll go pick up a wired MadCats controller later today to try again. Still debating whether or not to attempt the triggers; if I leave them alone, I can only do a 6-button controller, instead of the 8 that I was planning.

Bad news about the Mad Catz controllers. You'll need some extra fancy soldering and a few NAND gates to get the triggers to be usable.

Explain this.. I am planning on an 8 button using a MadCatz wired controller and I can't find anything about how to do the triggers. My parts get here in a week but I was going to start the soldering on the pcb now.

Daedalus

I'm pretty sure you can just use an NPN transistor for each trigger but I forget exactly how it needs to be wired.

Houn

whitey9 wrote: »

shadydentist wrote: »

Houn wrote: »

Whelp, I destroyed the pcb around the trigger contacts. Scratch one wireless 360 controller.

I think I'll go pick up a wired MadCats controller later today to try again. Still debating whether or not to attempt the triggers; if I leave them alone, I can only do a 6-button controller, instead of the 8 that I was planning.

Bad news about the Mad Catz controllers. You'll need some extra fancy soldering and a few NAND gates to get the triggers to be usable.

Explain this.. I am planning on an 8 button using a MadCatz wired controller and I can't find anything about how to do the triggers. My parts get here in a week but I was going to start the soldering on the pcb now.

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=169203

Doc

I used a recent-make mad katz controller for my 8 button. I wired it all up like it says on that SRK link and it works great.

re: woodworking -
I cut the pieces to size at a friend's place (he has a table saw and miter saw), then did all the drilling/screwing/assembly in my apartment. I had to sweep up afterwards, but it wasn't a big deal. You certainly don't need a full workshop or anything.

Houn

Here's the PCB I ended up with today (not my pic):

Spoiler:

Gamestop Branded MadCatz 4716 2009. Looks to be common ground, so this should be a cinch. I also picked up a few npn transistors for the trigger hacks, and an actual working solder-sucker.

Wish me luck that I can pull everything off the PCB without damaging it this time.

*edit*

Just tested it, it's common ground all around. This will be way easier.

*edit again*

Holy shit. I just wired up the whole thing in one shot, with no errors, and only one minor burn.

*edit the last*

Pics!

Spoiler:

The front:


The back:


Closeup of the Triggers:

Doc

Nice work.

Houn

Thanks Doc. I might have this thing actually functional in a shoebox tonight. Then, it'll be time to build a box.

On that note, what's the minimum tools I'll need to build a box while working exclusively on the balcony of a small apartment?

Daedalus

Houn wrote: »

Thanks Doc. I might have this thing actually functional in a shoebox tonight. Then, it'll be time to build a box.

On that note, what's the minimum tools I'll need to build a box while working exclusively on the balcony of a small apartment?

A drill, a saw (get a powered saw, seriously), some clamps, glue, and screws, and a whole bunch of sandpaper.

Oh, and primers and paint, of course.

Things that are nice to have but not required include chisels, a router, a drill press, a table saw, a MIG welder, an industrial-strength cutting laser, etc. etc.

Improvolone

Cut and finish your pieces, maybe even to a test assembly, but absolutely paint/stain your pieces before you assemble.

Doc

Improvolone wrote: »

Cut and finish your pieces, maybe even to a test assembly, but absolutely paint/stain your pieces before you assemble.

I had pretty good results assembling it, then brushing on stain and using spray-on clearcoat. Paint is a different story, probably.

Improvolone

Doing it before hand prevents the paint/stain from building up in the seams and it gives you piece of mind that everything has a nice coat.
It's also just easier not having to rotate a piece to finish it.

Daedalus

Finishing after assembly, on the other hand, can give it a nice, unbroken, "seamless" look, especially if you putty up the cracks, and also makes it easier to hide screws. It is trickier to do right, though; I know mine came out sort of crappy.

Improvolone

Ah, good point!
Wood putty is easier to use with a finger tip in my experience.

Houn

Hmm. I don't really want to solder directly to the buttons, but Fry's didn't have any quick disconnects that small. Any ideas of where in the Seattle Area I might find 3/16" Female Quick Disconnects?

shadydentist

Is there a radio shack anywhere near you?

If you absolutely have to solder to the buttons, getting a european-style terminal block will mitigate that somewhat.

whitey9

To anybody that wants to do an 8 button stick with the common-ground Madcatz, the easiest way to do it is to remove the little thing that the trigger spins, bend up (or remove) the ground (the far outside pin on each side of the controller).

This leaves the signal (the middle one) and the 3.3v connection. Solder it back down in it's place, and then solder a wire to the signal. Once that's in, you can use a multimeter to find out when that thing registers 10 ohms (I was like ?) or use my method:

Plug the controller into your 360. Figure out which wire is A and start. Start Street Fighter 4, navigate to it using what's left of the thumbstick. Go into training mode, and turn on show attack input. Go back out by pushing start, and then bridge your connection between your common ground wire and the signal coming from LT or RT.

If data input shows anything but hard kick or 3 kicks, slowly spin the dial and test until it does. This doesn't seem to be as precise as I thought it would. Hot glue it in place and test it again once hot glued. Done.

Stolen pictures:




More information here. Traning mode thing is all me.

Houn

Stick Iteration One: Shoebox: Complete!

Spoiler:

Time to go test it out in Street Fighter.

Houn

Ok then. It works fine in Windows, and seems to work fine in the SF4 menus, but in-game, several buttons do not work; Notably A, B, and RT. Which is odd, because A and B work in the SF4 menus.

Hmm.

shadydentist

Do they work if you just touch the contacts to ground?

Houn

Testing in the art gallery, LT will zoom in, then upon letting go, it zooms itself back out (RT). I think RT is stuck "on", thus why the other kicks aren't working.

Need to figure out why.

shadydentist

Well, I didn't want to bother with my triggers, so I'm not too familiar with those. But if your RT turns off when you hit the button, then you wired up the contacts backward.