Help building my first stick

Tech Talk
1

Hey guys and gals,

I’m just now seriously getting into fighting games. My main game right now is Accent Core; I play Faust. I also play Arcana Heart quite a bit. I play Kira with Ohtsuchi as my arcana.

Anyway, I have one stick now. It’s a Guilty Gear XX fighter stick, but I’m not certain it works correctly all time. Plus, learning a skill such as building sticks seems fun. I’m sure I could handle it, but I’ll need some help along the way. Another problem is money, so for now I’m building up my information until I can get a hold of the parts.

For now I just have a few questions that I haven’t been able to find, and I want to confirm some things before I try and do anything.

1: What is the control panel? From what I can tell it is a metal sheet on the top of the case where the buttons and joystick are mounted; however, the joystick also has its own mounting plate.

  1. Since building the case is the first priority I want to see if my idea for building a case is correct, or will work at least. =]

Get four pieces of MDF, this what I plan to use for now, cut them to an appropriate size and saw the ends off at 45 degree angles.

Use wood glue and miter clamps to put these four pieces together.

This is where I’m not so sure. What do you use as a bottom piece? Wood or metal like the control panel? Also, is there wood on top?

To mount the bottom and top wouldn’t you need some sort of piece on the inside to lay the control panel on, artwork on top of that, and then lexan on the very top screwed into wood pieces on the inside. Otherwise, I don’t see how you could mount the top. You would do the same for the bottom? But with just wood or metal?

Most cases it seems they have wood on top and bottom because the blank cases are painted this way after the wholes are drilled…they layout of the case is my main worry now. I’m not going to worry about the PCB and wiring until I get to that stage, but I’ll probably need help there too.

I’ll post my progress here, so I can get help and others can read all the questions I have and hopefully learn from it.

Thank you immensely,
Morgan

2

There are a couple good builder logs in Tech Talk. They should give you a pretty good idea of what you need and what to do with it. Like these:

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=154996&highlight=builder's

http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=150998&highlight=builder's

3

You will find more info in this forum than you can handle, provided you take the time to look. Not saying you didn’t, just saying that all of it is here in pretty substantial posts. I honestly can not recall how much time I spent searching this forum before I began my journey on my first stick. I have folders of pictures of PCB’s, button layouts and measurements, joystick mounting measurements, box layouts and measurements, pictures of sticks and building logs, art work, wiring diagrams and God knows what else. Not to mention the 20+ bookmarks I have leading to even more information. It is amazing what is here.

As for methods, there are various ways. Make it your own, but whatever you do, have a blast doing it.

**Edit to say:
I just read through my reply, and it seems kind of harsh. We all start somewhere. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. I am by no means a top tier stick maker, but have built some, so have some experience, and a plethora of information.

Only stipulation is please, please, please try to research before asking every question under the sun, should you want to ask me. It gets annoying having to answer questions like “Is Sanwa good?!?!?!” type of questions.

4

Thank you both,

I have checked the forums quite extensively. I’m just making sure that I what read I have correct. Plus, I’m on dial-up, so the picture heavy posts are hard for me to look at. I do it. It just takes some time. I’m also building up a stock pile of reference photos when I can.

I’ll have a blast. That’s for sure. Hopefully I’ll be able to save up enough to get started on my stick. I’ll definitely post some pictures in progress and the finished piece when I can.

5

Ack! Dial up?! I’m sorry.

Well, like I said, feel free to PM with questions.

6
  1. the “control Panel” is whatever you mount your stick and buttons onto, yes it can be a metal sheet but mostly it’s just the plexi glass and wood (easier to work with).

2 the bottom is usually a thin (1/4") piece of mdf or particle board. yes the bottom is usually held in by corner pegs

here is a bit more of a basic build to go on…
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=150341&highlight=builder's

7

45 degrees is waaaaaaaaaaay too steep of an angle for a control panel.

8

^I think he meant 45 where the corners come together.

I’m sure you have already seen joystickvault.com. It has a good amount of reference pictures and it loads surprisingly quick on dial-up.
While the top can be metal, wood seems to be more commonly used.

9

I just got done with my first pad. The box i got from a friend (guess he decided he would never finesh it) but i never even thought to cut the box at anagle (so the buttons face you a little better…like in a real arcade) but i think thats something i will do when i make my own from scratch

10

Thank you everyone,

Imitrex, I’ll let you know if I come across any specific problems I can’t find. I’ve read quite a bit on here, and I’ve looked at many joysticks and the building logs on here. So, I think I have pretty much everything down excluding wiring and painting, but I have the sites bookmarked so I can use them when I get to that point.

I’ll make a builder’s log once I get to work on this.

Thanks again.

PS. Yes, I was refering to connecting the sides pieces at an angle. I’m going to make the top lay on flat. Net Driver, Byrdo has a blue print for a small sanwa stick that is at an angle if you want to try it. I might once I get more practice.