And I hate to say it B-boy Tekken’s design looks a little impractical due to it’s size.
It was for reference. Just helping out in case he needed another view. All criticism is welcome. It helps with the designing stages. No offense taken here.
I was interested in your many pointed star gate. Despite the ridicule that it received it could be a good idea. If the actuator was large enough in relation to the distance between each point it could feel good. I see it feeling similar to the LS-56 octo gate.
One thing I realize about this gate method is that one type of insert Isn’t going to work for every joystick. The measurements on switch placement between joysticks and the engagement of those switches can differ quite a bit. The beautiful thing about this design is that the piece that needs to change is very small. You could make your own insert and 3D print it to fit your specific application in theory. I’m sure Moon will consider this and make inserts for many popular applications.
While I would love to say I’m almost done, I’m not. But, I’m also almost done o.O
While I have most of the final design done, now comes all the tweaks and stuff I overlooked 
Still so much work left.
Update:
Here was the first mostly complete version
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34563876/Images/gate/mockup-old.png
Then it changed to this
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34563876/Images/gate/mockup-new.png
And these are the gate options.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34563876/Images/gate/mods-1.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34563876/Images/gate/mods-2.png
Lots of changes as the project went on. Many were for functionality. Some ideas (like the gates snapping in) had to be tossed out because with so much gate compatibility things had to change to keep one of the most important promises (universal and compatible) in tact and then functional and even other factors like costs and ease of manufacturing. As you can see, from the last image I posted, the hole patterns have changed a little bit to create less conflicting areas for cutting.
How it works: You buy a base plate, screw it into your joystick of choice. This helps keep microswitches in place and stuff like that. Then, you pick a gate solution of your choice and screw it into the base. Anytime you want to change it, unscrew the gate solution and put in a new one. Yeah, it’s not as convenient as snapping in and out a solution, but that would have caused costs to skyrocket and create a bunch of problems for gate compatibility in such a tightly confined space. Besides, if you have to unscrew the bottom of a stick or the top control panel, then you already have a screw in hand anyway, so what’s the extra step of unscrewing a small modular gate compared to snapping in? Besides, this design will last longer, as you don’t have to worry about tabs breaking when you’re un-snapping a modular gate.
The nice thing is, once the base plate is installed, you’ll never have to take it off unless you need to switch out a micro. So, if you’re on the go, you never have to worry about losing a micro or them falling out.
For the modular pieces, I came across a few walls in design. If you noticed, the edges have been smoothed round, rather than having an angle like stock gates. The reason is larger sticks will require a different slope vs smaller sticks as you increase or decrease the size of the gate. For compatibility, it would be a nightmare and each stick would need its own modular gate which defeats the purpose of the project. So, that leaves me with doing a straight instead of angled cut, but that means harsh edges. One of the whole reasons I started the project was to avoid a harsh edge that, over time, would cut into the actuator as it slides along the gate. With this design hurdle I decided to fillet the edges to create a nice, smooth edge. Each stick can hit it at a different angle of contact and the amount of surface hitting the actuator is much smaller, too. Less friction is good, so in theory, this should create a smoother operating gate without creating grooves in the actuator from harsh edges.
The modular square gates range from 20 mm to 16 mm. For a stick with a stock 20 mm gate, such as the JLW, LS-32, and LS-40, you can use the 3 largest for stock throw, short throw, and no throw. For the Hayabusa and JLF, you can use the middle three for the same options, and for the LS-56, you can use the last 3. As you can see, the last 3 can also be rotated 45 degrees to allow only cardinal directions.
The same applies to the circle gates, although they range from 21 mm to 17 mm to allow hitting the directions easier while maintaining a similar distance to square options.
Then, I’ve done a tweak to the octagonal gates. They’re designed different compared to normal octagonal gates in that you can actually hit corners a lot easier while maintaining the octagonal feel and hit all cardinal and diagonal directions with ease. So, if you really, really like octagonal gates, that is a huge incentive for you.
Basically, you have a ton of choice here. There are a lot of sticks out there with no options for this stuff, and now, this will solve that and give most sticks every option you can use.
And, as of writing this, I forgot a few simple things I needed to do. Anyway, the brunt of the work is done, I can finish this up soon and get the kickstarter going. It may run until EVO, and I should have at least 1 prototype to show off.
If anyone has any questions, let me know.
That looks damn good! Can’t wait to throw some cash at it.
Looks great, can’t wait to get a couple. Very interested in what you’ve done with the octagonal gates.
Shut up and take my money
I need this!!!
To clarify, you won’t be able to use loose micros on a JLF with this gate, right?
You can. It will keep them in place just like a normal JLF gate.
Ok. Cool. So it has the little positioning tabs on the bottom? Glad you solved that problem.
No, it simply doesn’t need them.
Ahh. The screws hold them, huh?
Kind of. I’ll illustrate later.
This looks very well thought out. Kudos.
Just another update. Some things might be changing. Trying to work out the rest of the kinks and I really hope to have a prototype or two by EVO.
I’ll be heading to EVO 2014 this year just after AX and before I go to SDCC.
Looking/Hoping to see the prototype Moon. (Friends tell me Square Gates are the way to go but my heart has always been loyal to the Octo)
Any Updates? I bought a Hayabusa at EVO from QS. Really interested in changing out the gate for a Octo.
Yeah there is a bug in FreeCAD that prevents me from doing 2D drawings but I found a workaround for it. I’m also waiting for some more measurements so I can call the project complete and start the kick starter.