Today I picked up this stick for $30 at BB. This is my first arcade stick ever, and my first post on the forum.
I see what people say about the buttons being “mushy”. I’d like to switch them out for better ones, but I’m going to play around with it for a while first. I’ve been a fighting game fan since I first played SFII on a demo SNES in EB. I got on here a while back and got pretty into reading up on building and mods, but I tend to get really into things for a while and eventually drift away (like I have in the past with obsessively playing fighting games) so it was really cool to find a stick this cheap to find out whether I want to spend more time and money on better equipment. This was literally the only stick I could find for any price in my town (at retail). I can see it’s going to take some practice before I’m better on a stick than a d-pad, and I know this isn’t the best stick to try with, but I like it already.
First I’m going to switch the buttons, then eventually I’m probably going to try the gate/springs/switches mod detailed in this thread (lots more research first, though).
After looking around some more, I’m thinking about doing archalien’s JLF install. His guide is very helpful and the thread leads off to more good info. This might be tricky for a mod virgin, but I’m pretty good at taking it slow and paying attention to instructions. I’ve seen how others are just gluing the base down, but with the odds that I’ll mess something up the first time around, that seems like a good way to render the whole thing useless. I’m interested in keeping the Hori shaft so that the height is closer to a normal JLF install, but I need to find more info on that (or just learn more about installing sticks in general so I can apply the info already in this thread and the guide).
Anyone else here done the JLF with Hori shaft? Advice? If possible, it would be great to get the real JLF “feel” in this stick, but since I’ve never actually used one, I’m not going to be able to put it together, see what’s wrong, and fiddle with it to get it right, so I’m going to be researching as much as possible to have the best idea how to do it right the first time. Though I’m getting into switching the stick, the buttons are certainly a higher priority. I know some have said that the stick is okay, I want and octo-gate and if I’m getting started on the stick, I figure I might as well go whole-hog.
I could bust out with a bunch of noob questions at this point, but you guys have better things to do, and obsessively pouring over endless forum posts is part of the fun.
They still have them at Best Buy? What city did you find one?
I’ve been looking for one for the past month. I have one that’s modified and it’s a nice light compact stick for casual play. The TE is a pain to lug out.
I’m in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It was an open box, but once I opened it, it was obvious that nothing had been opened inside.
What modifications have been done to your K6? Sorry if you’ve already said: it’s a big thread.
It occurred to me today that the problem of the stick being 10mm too high on archalien’s JLF mod with the sanwa shaft could be corrected by cutting a piece of 1/4 inch plexi to the shape of the K6’s metal plate, rout the edges round, then use 4-6 of the existing screw points for the plate to mount the plexi on top (with the art of my choice underneath). I’m guessing that screw-in buttons would be better with all that, but I’m not sure. I don’t know enough about the operation of the stick to know whether adding the plexi would create a new issue in terms of the fulcrum point of the stick being too far below the surface. As I said, I’m aiming for the true JLF “feel” in this cheap package, but there’s a lot I have to find out before I start. Luckily, my dad is a wiz at soldering and my father-in-law has about every wood cutting tool I can imagine (which is why I originally planned to just make a custom as my first stick).
Trying to put Sanwa 30mm buttons and JLF on this stick, but I’m still not sure what to do with the buttons. The only thing I’m avoiding is bending the prongs on it, and soldering the prongs directly to the PCB. What I want to accomplish is to have quick disconnects on each prong, and the quick disconnect is connected to the PCB properly.
I was thinking of removing the tabs first (#4) to make room for the Sanwa buttons, but after that I don’t know where to solder the wires into. Would I just solder it directly on the lines? I found some holes on top of the PCB, and I’m pretty sure they’re for the buttons, I’m just not sure which is which, I’ve followed some of the lines and it sorta leads to the same place (#1 on the front picture).
I was also thinking of just drilling a new hole directly on the button routes, and maybe put the wires in but I don’t know.
I’ve read some posts already and seen some pictures already for the PS3, but I still don’t know what to do, please help! There’s not enough room on this stick unless I bend the prongs, but I’m really trying to avoid that.
Front
Back
Once I’m done modding this, I’ll provide alot of pictures and how it would look like, along with the tools I used.
Definitely interested in finding one of these sticks because the x-arcade that I picked up recently isn’t really my style. One question though. Do these things drop inputs as much as some people say the do?
From what I’ve read, the PS3 version might drop inputs because it uses a USB adapter dongle, but the Xbox 360 version (which I own) uses officially licensed Xbox 360 wireless technology, and I’ve never had a problem with it.
I’ve read about it too, but I never experienced, and so does my friend. They probably damaged the PCB while playing maybe? Maybe too much button mashing. Everything is responsive so far, been going for a couple of months now.
I know what you mean. I’ve read around and ALOT of people are really complaining about this arcade stick, even if they don’t have it. It’s ridiculous. They just like to hate on things for some reason, claiming it breaks fast, there’s lag, etc. One of them said the buttons broke after a day of using it. Honestly I can’t believe that because my stick has been taking alot of abuse already and no problems so far.
I have one, and it sucks. Giant ass dead spot on the stick, buttons are not as responsive as my last custom stick, over all it’s garbage for the PS3. Unless you plan on partial mod, save your money and get something that’s proven to be more reliable.
You can replace the spring with a tighter one, and replace the pivot with a JLF one to cut down on the dead zone. I think the joystick itsself is fine. The buttons felt kinda squishy and would miss inputs every now and then, so I changed those to Seimitsus. Not everybody has $150 to throw around on an arcade stick. For as cheap as the Tekken 6 stick is, its fantastic. Did I put pics of mine in here yet?
Has anyone tried to bypass some of the connection issues by making it wired? Is that even possible?
I picked up one of the PS3 models at a garage sale for $5 and would love to get it playable. All my friends have 360 sticks and I have a modded SE (360, sanwa stick/buttons), but I’m the only one with a PS3 stick (TE round 2). I’d love to make this one playable so my friends can borrow it at tournaments, but the fear of input disconnect or issues with wifi in general are bothering. Don’t have the $$$ to dual mod my SE, otherwise I’d go that route. Doesn’t help that I’m the only one that likes a square gate.
I would just mod it completely. Take out the pcb and fit it with a p360. I’ve read another tutorial to use the original hori shaft and replace it with the jlf one.
I’m not sure of there are tabs, but hori sure does love them a lot.
@lock buy a chimp SMD. Basically you can dual mod your se with wire cutters, wire and shinjin solderless method. All you really need to do is do research on the forums. All the information is there for people.
Also in general learn how to solder. It makes sticks cheaper to purchase because without pcb and buttons; cases are cheap.
Have you replaced the pivot and spring on a Hori with JLF ones or do you just know that it should work? I recently got one of these and have been doing a lot of research, but have had a tough time finding info on using JLF parts that actually fit on the shaft. Ima noob so I want to know a little more before buying (or buying buttons, not getting the spring and pivot and later having to pay shipping again).
Recently mine has gotten where the stick not only has dead zone, but the stick wobbles at neutral like the spring isn’t making contact until the stick is bent. I’m thinking of adding washer(s) under or over the spring when I go in to do a heat-shrink mod for dead zone. Should this work?
Also, I’ve seen talk about replacing the switches on the stick, but other Hori sticks have Omron (haven’t seen about T6). Any reason I should even be thinking about the switches, given that I’m a noob and don’t have a preference for a particular kind?
I had planned to put in an octagate, but I want to try square after I work on the deadzone. That many Japanese can’t just be crazy.
Thats my stick up there with the MK select button and orange bubble top. This is everything I did to it.
Original Hori joystick base and shaft
LS-32 spring
JLF switches, pivot piece, and octogate
Seimitsu screw in buttons and orange bubble top
The dead zone still isn’t perfectly solid, theres a very slight jiggle to it at the center, but its a lot better than stock, at least cut down by half. It plays great, its small, and i can put it in my laptop backback. The only one downside that I have with this stick is that its really light, so it moves around when things get really intense. I’ve mastered the lightness by now though, so its not really a problem for me. I think I’m gonna put some velcro on the bottom of it and stick it to a table.
Oh yeah, and you’re gonna want to get a tri wing screwdriver to open the bottom. But actually I don’t have one, and I use a 2mm flathead screwdriver. And you’ll need a dremel to shave off the metal tabs in the button holes, theres 16 of them.
Ever think about putting on art? I had the idea that if I took out the buttons and stick, I could put the whole thing on my scanner. Print 1=1, cut out the art part, then lay that on a lami-labe of my art and cut it out. If that wouldn’t work, I’d love to know before I go through the trouble.
I’ll try the flatheads I have. I have a tri-wing on the way from Dealextreme, but I’m getting impatient. When I can get it open, I’m going to try the heat-shrink on the actuator and put washers under the spring. Then I’ll decide about ordering a spring and switches. I’ll go ahead and order a gate, but I want to master the square if I can. I’m really curious to see what a JLF pivot will do for performance. The big thing now is saving money for the buttons. Once I have that, I’ll add on any little bits so I don’t pay shipping twice. I wish DealExtreme sold all this stuff.
About it sliding, just last night I asked my wife “we got any of that puffy foam sheeting you put on shelves to keep stuff from sliding?” She had a 3x6" (aprox) piece she uses for opening jars. Throw that under the T6, and it’s like the thing is glued to the table as far as side to side pushing goes.
Sorry, I edited this into my previous post later, after you read it. The dead zone still isn’t perfectly solid, theres a very slight jiggle to it at the center, but its a lot better than stock, at least cut down by half. Its really not a problem for me whatsoever, the engage distance feels good enough, I never have any problems with movement accuracy, other than maybe sucking at a game, lol.
And I’ve thought about putting art on it, but I can’t decide what I want, and I don’t know how well I’d be able to cut it. And that non slip shelf liner stuff sounds like a great idea, wouldn’t slip on my pants either.
I haven’t actually attached the shelf liner at all. Just sitting it under helps a lot.
I tried some flatheads and it worked fine, though I don’t think my cheap 3mm is going to do that job too many times. My first time getting into a stick and I’ve got it back together and actually working! Once I actually laid hands on the innards of the stick itself, I saw that my washer idea was obviously not going to work. Just didn’t make sense, actually. The switches aren’t omron, but I was pleased to see they aren’t the riveted kind. So I opened them up and did the post-it trick from the JLF “ultimate” mod. It’s interesting (for a noob at least), seems the deadzone is smaller, but of course the throw is unchanged, so there’s a lot of room between engage and max angle. Gonna heat shrink the actuator tomorrow and see how that feels.
Really wish I had new buttons to put in this thing now.
