Wow, that’s the best complement yet, thanks :bgrin:
Initially I will transfer over the PSX PCB that I have inside of my old stick, I have it plugged into a Logic3 converter into my PS3 and it works great. The only problem is that I didn’t use L2 or R2 in my last stick and being rather short sighted I snipped the wires right down to the PCB so time for a bit surgery to remedy that :rolleyes: I’m going to buy a Cthulu when they’re back in stock somewhere as it will provide a much neater solution in the long run.
The two button holes on the back are for the Start + Select buttons. Why I didn’t drill another hole for the Home button I don’t know, starting to regret that now! I suppose with the Cthulu PCB at least I don’t need it.
Tool / equipment list that I used:
[LIST]
[]Black & Decker workbench (absolutely invaluable for holding things whilst sawing and drilling).
[]Adjustable clamps to hold things down whilst sawing / drilling etc
[]Tape measure
[]90 degree set square
[]Pencil!
[]Table-top Mitre saw (essential if you want mitred corners, forget using a mitre box). They’re cheap (linked above, about 15).
[]Makita Power drill (doesn’t need to be Makita but, Mmmmmm :bgrin:)
[]24mm hole saw
[]30mm hole saw
[]Hole saw arbor for above
[]4mm and 6mm “wood” drillbits
[]Small “plastic” drillbit to drill pilot holes for holesaw in the plexi (not strictly necessary but recommended)
[]Stanley knife & metal ruler (to score and snap Plexi if not already cut to size).
[]Wood glue
[]Various tacks, screws and bolts (as required)
[]Sanding block
[]Fine grit sandpaper to finish paint inbetween coats
[]Satinwood paint
[*]Paintbrushes and brush cleaner
[/LIST]
nice work! I’m also going to start my box building this weekend. I’m hoping to document as much as I can for us other noobs as well.
I was curious about your experience with the acrylic glass? I’ve read many methods on cutting it to size and also for the holes? What method did you use? I’m thinking about going with a hole saw for the top, and router for the edges.
The acrylic was a right pig I scored and snapped it to size which worked well, just a little sanding to tidy up the snapped edge. I smashed the first sheet to pieces when my drill lifted it as the holesaw arbor bit in when I hadn’t clamped it down properly. After placing wood either side of the hole I wanted to drill and clamping that down on to the acrylic it stopped it lifting and I was able to drill the other holes without a problem.
whoa, really really nice man… shocked at how good it looks!
how much and where did you get those female quick disconnects from?! (looked on ebay and found the 8 set ((4 male/4female)) just wondering where you picked yours up from) i was actually going to just solder everything but i would proffer to get some of these at a reasonable price (you can seem to get a bag of 100 in America for very little but they charge through the roof here in the uk)
also i have stumbled upon 3 8ft sheets of 9mm mdf (thanks to my dad), so i am planning to use them for my box, just wondering if your happy with the height of your box (after making a paper box i am considering 6cm or trying to push it down to 5cm) also how is the surface space feel with the a4 size and 8 buttons? (been looking at maybe having 6 on the front and the size of an a4)
haha, lots of questions… i get overexcited looking at this thread lol
ok, i posted a reply a few hours ago and its not here
once again lol, great link to the connectors, when you think they are called female quick disconnects you tend not to get many answers lol online another question lol, what size did you get?
its funny how informative your build has been i am now awaiting my parts and am sizing up my box! its all very exiting lol
I used some 4.8mm ones because I already had them from the last stick I bodged together, they’re fine for the Sanwa microswitches. I had to gentle close the contacts a little to make them snug but no problems.
Glad my post has been helpful to someone, enjoy your build :tup:
Looks really good, thinkin about starting my own build soon as I have the arcade stick bug. Bought several types now but dont own a custom.
Did you just drill 30mm holes thru the mdf and then the sanwas clipped thru?? also was it just a case of screwing the jlf into the top board or did you do any routering??
It looks like he has cut bits away to accommodate the tabs on the snap ins. They will only grab onto quite thin bits of metal or wood. If you just wanted to drill 30mm holes then buy the screw in Sanwa’s (OSBN instead of OSBF). They’re exactly the same apart from the way they are fitted. Just pop them in then screw on the nut.
i believe they are 30mm and the buttons clip to the perspex and there is no routing, its bottom mounted to the mdf as it just has a 24mm hole cut in it (its in the earlier posts)
i was looking at maplins online today… there prices have always been shocking to the point that it angers me!
As mentioned by djbailey I notched out the edges of the MDF for all 8 button holes and then the OBSFs clip to the plexi and rest in the notches in the MDF which stops them turning as an added bonus.
The JLF is bottom mounted as mentioned above, I just drilled four mounting holes and countersunk them to stop the screws interfering with the plexi.
Bloody good idea! Will do that today
Ouch, Maplin seem to mark up for people who might not know where else to get parts, shame :sad: Interesting idea about the screw-caps, I’ll investigate that thanks.
Yep you could do that, I thought that OBSNs might be tricky to get tightened when they’re so close together though?
Im not quite sure. I’ve got 8 of them but just using them in my cardboard stick at the minute. Didnt follow a specific layout just threw them in so I could get it wired up and I’ve left too much of a gap between buttons. I could see it being a slight problem but you should just be able to place a nut on a button on the left side and then work your way inwards I guess, since the nuts obviously only go on one way. A lot of stick’s I have seen on here the builder has actually routed away a space for the nut to sit as well.
Its one of them problems im yet to encounter but will deal with when I get there I guess
Cool, good luck, just take your time and you’ll be fine :tup:
There are a few tweaks I’d make if I did another one so you never know, I might do another to fix my minor niggles with this design
If doing it again I’d switch to 9mm MDF instead of 6mm as that would reduce flex slightly and probably remove the need for the centre supports leaving just the corner blocks. I’d also change to 3mm plexi instead of 2mm as the buttons aren’t snapped in quite as tightly as I’d like. You can lift them up a tiny which isn’t a problem for play but is annoying me :bgrin:
You might need to route out the MDF at this point though as you’ll have increased the CP thickness from 8-9mm to 12-13mm which isn’t a huge amount but would only leave about 22-23mm of shaft for the stick.
I’ve also ordered a Cthulu to replace the PSX PCB and Logic3 adapter, I’m not convinced I’m not getting a tiny amount of lag with the current combo which is bugging me.
I scored and snapped it to size which worked well, just a little sanding to tidy up the snapped edge. I smashed the first sheet to pieces when my drill lifted it as the holesaw arbor bit in when I hadn’t clamped it down properly. After placing wood either side of the hole I wanted to drill and clamping that down on to the acrylic it stopped it lifting and I was able to drill the other holes without a problem.
