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Building an arcade stick: And So Can You!

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Posts

  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    Personally, I'd have probably re-cut that. But, if that's not an option, you can try using some wood filler; though that big of a gap might be hard to fill. And wood filler is hard to use with stain, in my experience, but if you're painting it's not big deal.

  • loschurrosloschurros IT Guy Orlando, FLRegistered User regular
    edited January 2014
    Houn wrote: »
    Personally, I'd have probably re-cut that

    I have extra of the wood. You'd just redo this side right?

    20140116_212722.jpg

    Though I was thinking that I could get a thin material on the sides, screw or glue,to cover or hide it. Sort of like a sticker or graphic.

    loschurros on
    76561197987255491.png
  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    What are you using to cut the wood?

    Because you should be using one of these:

    052802.jpg

    if by hand, or one of these:

    $T2eC16VHJHQFFhuYDyHWBRlumYsZqg~~60_35.JPG

    if you're plugging your tools in.

  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    Yeah, I was just about to ask, what did you use to cut that?

  • tsmvengytsmvengy Registered User regular
    You mean you're not supposed to use these?

    Civil-Scissors-with-5-3cm-long-Blade-22341650117.jpg

    steam_sig.png
  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    Basically, to prevent the corners of the wood splitting away when you cut it, you need to mark all the way around, then scribe along the line with something like a steel ruler and an old butter knife with a scoring edge ground onto it.

    Then, you cut about a third of the way through from one side, flip the piece, and cut the rest of the way through from the other side.

  • loschurrosloschurros IT Guy Orlando, FLRegistered User regular
    What are you using to cut the wood?

    One of those without the ruler, just the edge of a table.

    skillsaw.jpg

    After work I'm going to take the frame to home depot and see what someone there suggests, if I have to redo it or I can fill it.

    76561197987255491.png
  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    My wife looked at this thread and immediately sent me this link to give you:
    http://www.homedepot.com/p/Stanley-Deluxe-Miter-Box-with-Saw-20-600D/100034395#
    $15.

    I personally loathe the skillsaw; it's inelegant, hard to keep on a line, and tears the shit out of wood unless your blade is nearly new. In my experience, at least.

  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    Houn wrote: »
    My wife looked at this thread and immediately sent me this link to give you:
    http://www.homedepot.com/p/Stanley-Deluxe-Miter-Box-with-Saw-20-600D/100034395#
    $15.

    I personally loathe the skillsaw; it's inelegant, hard to keep on a line, and tears the shit out of wood unless your blade is nearly new. In my experience, at least.

    A mitre box will do the job.

    As will a circular saw. Do you have a wood blade in it? You must securely clamp the workpiece, and also clamp a guide rail for the saw baseplate to run along. If the pieces of wood are too small to allow for that, then break out the tenon saw or mitre box.

  • minor incidentminor incident expert in a dying field njRegistered User regular
    Follow Chris' advice about using the hand saw and you'll be golden. I'd do that before I tried to wrestle a circular saw into cooperating. You'll end up with nice perfect cuts and no splintering.

    Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
  • loschurrosloschurros IT Guy Orlando, FLRegistered User regular
    edited January 2014
    Houn wrote: »
    My wife looked at this thread and immediately sent me this link to give you:
    http://www.homedepot.com/p/Stanley-Deluxe-Miter-Box-with-Saw-20-600D/100034395#
    Follow Chris' advice about using the hand saw and you'll be golden.

    Thanks Again! OK then I guess I'm taking it apart then, I think the others are fine & fixed by sanding. I'll just redo the one really messed up piece. My dad probably has a miter box somewhere in his garage.



    loschurros on
    76561197987255491.png
  • minor incidentminor incident expert in a dying field njRegistered User regular
    I mean, honestly, if it's on the bottom and you aren't super picky about the looks, you can make it work with some wood filler alone. It'll look a little funky with the stain, but it'll hold, structurally. If you don't feel like taking it apart and redoing it, anyway.

    Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    I mean, honestly, if it's on the bottom and you aren't super picky about the looks, you can make it work with some wood filler alone. It'll look a little funky with the stain, but it'll hold, structurally. If you don't feel like taking it apart and redoing it, anyway.

    It's up to you, yeah. I mean, I'm a nitpicky perfectionist, so I'd recut that shit because compulsion. But maybe you're not like me, and are better suited to improvisation and adaptability.

  • hsuhsu Registered User regular
    All you've done so far is cut, screw, and sand in 4 small pieces of wood. The amount of time this should have taken is short enough that redoing it all should take less time than trying to fix the error.

    iTNdmYl.png
  • loschurrosloschurros IT Guy Orlando, FLRegistered User regular
    I've decided to use the wood filler, and make another frame later when I attempt this again, $$ not wasted.

    76561197987255491.png
  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    ARISE, THREAD!

    Transplanting from the holiday forums:

    I got this for Xmas:
    brook-ps3ps4-fighting-board.jpg

    Brook PS3/PS4 fight board. I'm hyped to finally use my fightstick on my PS4, since it's been collecting dust ever since I got rid of the 360. However, rather than just start soldering wires directly to the board, I kinda want to class it up and doing something like this (stolen from the SRK forums):
    2ngzf5f.jpg
    mhenp2.jpg

    How'd he do that? The fightboard is 4x4cm, so the PCB below it is probably 5x6 or so? How did he connect the two (there are no good shots), or how would you connect the two? What's a good place to get these kinds of components?

    ***

    Ok, the blank PCB is 5x7cm. I counted the pads.

    I suppose if I wanted to get fancy, I could use pin connectors so that the fightboard could be removed from the breakout later. I like that idea, actually.

    ***

    Ugh, I have a shopping list now, but actually finding what I want is difficult. I wonder if it'd be worth it to make a trip to Frys on the off chance that I can pick up and hold a few of these things in my hand to ensure what I'm getting is all the right sizes and stuff.

  • hsuhsu Registered User regular
    edited December 2016
    I looked up the Brook fight board specs, and it looks like an all-in-one solution. Why do you want to wire another PCB board to it? I don't know what your old fight stick wiring looks like, but I would remove your old fight stick's PCB board and replace it with the Brook board. Aka, the Brook board looks like a direct replacement.

    Edit: I see what he did. He soldered in male to male header pins (essential a stiff wire with a hard plastic sheath in the middle, using the sheath as a standoff) to connect up the 2 boards. Then he soldered wires from the bottom of the header pins to the green connectors, and flush cut the excess afterwards to keep it neat.

    Edit2: On second look, he didn't even use header pins as standoffs to connect the 2 boards. He wired directly from the IO pins of the Brook board directly to the pins of the green screw terminals of the blank PCB. You can see the bare wires running from the Brook to the PCB without any standoffs in view. My guess, he's attached rubber standoffs to the 3 Brook mount points, but didn't attach them to the PCB, instead relying on wire tension & solid wire (instead of stranded wire, visible at the screw terminals) to keep the board connected.

    hsu on
    iTNdmYl.png
  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    So, I think this is my shopping list:

    7x5cm blank PCB/breadboard
    pin headers, male and female
    - 1x16
    - 1x5
    - 1x9
    - 1x7
    screw terminals
    - 19 (20)
    USB Type-B Jack socket connector
    22x .110 quick disconnects
    Wire (24AWG for running to buttons)
    - Black
    - Blue
    Wire (30AWG for the pcb)
    - Black
    - <Whatever not black>
    Cable Sleeving

    Just need to figure out where to buy it all. Yes, I can (probably) order it all, but I'm one of those guys that really wants to hold things in his hand when he buys them, just to be certain that I got sizes right and things like that.

  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    hsu wrote: »
    Edit2: On second look, he didn't even use header pins as standoffs to connect the 2 boards. He wired directly from the IO pins of the Brook board directly to the pins of the green screw terminals of the blank PCB. You can see the bare wires running from the Brook to the PCB without any standoffs in view. My guess, he's attached rubber standoffs to the 3 Brook mount points, but didn't attach them to the PCB, instead relying on wire tension & solid wire (instead of stranded wire, visible at the screw terminals) to keep the board connected.

    Ah, yeah, I see that now. And I suppose I'll have to do the same; the pitch on the Brooks is 2mm, but all the PCBs and components I can find online are 2.54mm (.1in), so there's no way to build a "socket" using pin headers, not easily.

  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    Hrm, if I'm not building a socket (I'm not), how do I keep the PCBs from touching?

    Actually, does it even matter?

    Stick some electrical tape between them, I guess.

  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    A wild USB port appears!

    ndbpnrcmw6k2.jpg

    Connected it to my PC, confirmed via ground tapping that everything works so far!

  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    Got the whole thing put together!

    7kkbq0toh7zg.jpg

    503kxhh2oco2.jpg

    Still need to do some cleanup on the underside, but it works!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW_s8j9DU78

    Houn on
  • hsuhsu Registered User regular
    I would suggest using a bit of hot glue for any largish components (anything that might move when you shake it) and to use rubber grommets when mounting to the case. A common problem you tend to have in electronics is vibrations causing solder joints to break, which is why you use rubber grommets to dampen vibrations and hot glue to lessen movement of larger components. It makes everything look messier (although when done well, it can still be pretty tidy), but after you've repaired broken solder points for the umpteenth time, you give into the hot glue.

    iTNdmYl.png
  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    So, rather than being "done", I ripped the entire top out and re-did it so it'd be flush this time.

    It's not super-exciting, but:
    436ba8s6wgxk.jpg
    New base layer. Joystick plate is mounted to the bottom of it; last time, I'd mounted it to the top. This will make the stick sit lower.
    1y35a4mnww22.jpg
    Top layer. Last time, I used 1/4" plywood, and the acrylic on top wasn't flush, so I'm using a slightly thinner piece of pressed hardboard this time.
    z7pvpi94lh9k.jpg
    I also didn't use any fasteners last time, and the acrylic has started to warp over time and stick up at the corners, so now I've got brass bolts.
    bn85g1fkune4.jpg
    Just a pic of the underside.

    Mostly looks the same as before, but after some sanding tomorrow, everything should be flush and aligned a bit better than last time. Then, just mounting components and cutting some new wires.

  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    edited January 2017
    STICK REBUILD COMPLETE!
    l2qr1pctm0pi.jpg
    Improved, Clean Wiring!
    j7fjwzg9evs2.jpg
    No more see-through bottom, but this should hold up without cracking as easy!
    0gy728qrzegw.jpg
    Lower Profile Stick, same throw range and sensitivity! (It's just mounted lower.)
    fz1clnzn14q5.jpg
    Not much different here, but c'mon, as long as I'm taking pics...

    Now, gotta figure out what to play with it, hehe.

    Houn on
  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    Gran Turismo, obviously!

  • HounHoun Registered User regular
    After playing SF5 for an hour or so this morning, I hate the lower profile on the stick, so I bought a new, flat mounting plate so I can raise it back up again. Also a white dust washer, because why not?

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