Thanks for this. Also, can I get a full shopping list of everything I need to setup the Kaimana with Uila S-Flash’s? I’m not good with all this wiring electrical jazz, so help is appreciated 
I would love to know what other animations have been coded besides hadoken / hurricane kick
Hey Guys,
Looking into this and it looks awesome. Tried to look on the forums but no avail. Maybe im just blind, but I was wondering how this LED board connects to a MCZ fight stick without the PS360+ board. Does it make it easier just to have the PS360+ board installed to your stick? Or should it be just drop in and work with just the MCZ Fight stick PCB
Any info helps! Id love to get my hands on this
The Kaimana acts as a pass through and can work with any PCB using a common ground. You don’t have to swap your PCB, just clip a few wires to route them through the Kaimana and then back to the PCB!
Having an issue with one of the Kaimana sticks that I built. Basically everything is fine until the idel animation starts. Once the idle animation starts it stops functioning. It gets a unknown usb device detected on PS3 and on a ps2 it will just stop working even though the idle will continue but you have to unplug and reconnect for it to stop working.
@michael_zerocade
How many LEDs do you have connected and what is the sequence?
Do all of the LEDs work individually before the animation starts or are a few animation only?
Are all of the LEDs from PAS for did you mix and match with something home brew?
I recently got two Kaimana boards, adaptor boards, Kaimana Js. The installation is pretty easy.
I also have an LED joystick with a 5v RGB LED and a Hoku balltop.
I read that wire twisting is an issue, so I bought a slip ring.
It’s going into a madcatz v2 (not a lot of clearance). Does anyone have any experience using these? I am going to try mounting it off to the side.
I can solder the RGB LED to an adaptor board right?
As for the example Arduino code, I want to be able to turn the lights off for tournaments. How do I add a command for that?
Lastly, is Wahoo’s old custom Kaimana/Marvel sketch still around? The links for it are broken.
@KnyghtFall
Never built out a madcatz v2 stick with a kaimana so I can’t comment on the clearance first hand but adding the kaimana led controller off to the side sounds like the way to do it.
When you say adapter board are you talking about the small white board with 3 plugs? If so, the led wires can be soldered directly to the middle plug (the only one on the back of the board). I’ve done this before and had no issues. It might save space over using the modular plug system but the plugs are just way to convenient to ignore.
Try pm’ing Wahoo and see if he has a new version.
Yes, the small white adaptor board. Thanks for the input.
I’ll pm him. Thanks.
Edit: sent pm. Noticed he hasn’t been on since March. ;_;
I’m not going to hold my breath. I hope he responds.
Found the link for the small white board. Apparently it is simply called “Paradise Kaimana Adapter”. I had thought it had a more PAS style name but I was mistaken. You can clearly see the center terminals where you can solder in your led connection. I removed the center terminal on the last one I did and fed my led wires through the board for a solid connection.
I need a couple of technically proficient alpha testers for a new Kaimana code project.
The testing will be challenging and more than just downloading and clicking upload. I do not have time for a lot of hand holding in the first round of alpha testing so PM me only if you have some time to dedicate to testing, are comfortable with wiring and know your way about command line on your PC.
Must have a working Kaimana installation complete with LEDs
Must have windows 7 or newer but both 32 bit and 64 bit versions are supported.
- ZP
I just wanted to let you know, @ZonbiPanda, @JasenHicks and @armi0024 that thanks to the incredible advice from @Moonchilde I bought a little terminal strip and am able to use that for my RGB LED. Now I don’t have to solder anything and can make changes to my stick so much easier. Jasen, I removed the spacer and got another RGB kit. I screwed the balltop down all the way and got a shaft cover cut to fit @ a local glass place. With the ball screwed all of the way down I don’t have to hot glue the light in place (it literally is too big to fall down the shaft and with the ball where it is the light is in the perfect spot) which allows the shaft to spin around the wire so I don’t have any wire twist. With this set up I can unscrew the balltop when I need to and I can remove the RGB cable when I need / want to make changes.
I just got home from work and tested it out. **This is what I got **from Radio Shack tonight. I also bought this barrier strip but its a lot bigger after I cut all but 4 little terminals off of the white strip. In addition, I can’t figure out how to get the wires in the barrier strip. I unscrewd the screw but the plate doesn’t come up at all. There’s no room for the wire to stick in.
Anyway, I’m super grateful to moon for the idea. I got home from work less than an hour ago so I haven’t had too much time to tinker. I’m going to test some things out but I’m pretty sure I’m just going to go from RGB cable to terminal to adapter cable to new adapter board. I don’t think I’ll use the slip ring but I won’t be sure until I do some more testing. I’ll take pictures when I’m done.
Also, @armi0024 Is there any way for you to make an RGB LED cable that has a little thicker insulation? It just comes off so easily.
In those types of terminal strips you just wrap the exposed wire around the screw and screw it in tight. That’s what makes the connection.
Thanks! I appreciate it. I have 2 RGB cables. One is an older one that had (before 5 minutes ago) a little bit of insulation breakage. Now one of the wires literally just came apart. The other one is the brand new one I intend to use. I don’t want to mess with it until I have 100% figured out how I’m going to do this. Its kind of weird but there’s some correct combination of taping the wire, how much it needs to be twisted and where to put the wire terminal that gets the shaft to properly spin around the wire. Its just difficult because these wires break SO easily. I understand it has to be very thin to fit through the shaft and maybe its just the best it can be, but the fact that it is just so delicate makes things a little tricky.
You can try using thicker wire from the terminal strip to the PCB to at least keep that part more durable. Not much you can do about the thin wires needed to go through the shaft.
From terminal to PCB that wire stays completely still so its not an issue. Thanks, though.
EDIT: I’d be very interested to know what other people have done to deal with the wire twisting.
I used a slip ring
No twisted wires with that.
I protected the wiring inside the joystick with electrical tape/Molycote grease.
The hollow shaft came with sharp, wire stripping edges. I had the file them down prior to use.
I installed it in my TE along with a Multiconsole Cthulhu, Imp V2, and a Flash 1. Fun stuff. Amazing product.
Is there a type of HUD for Arduino that will show us what the LEDS will do prior to programming the board?
Oh you guys have no idea some of the awesome coming your way.
Got any pics or maybe a video of you turning your stick? I think the slip ring would work much better if the wires went all the way into the LED, as opposed to having to splice it. Also, do you use a hoku? Did you screw the balltop all the way down or epoxy it above the shaft cover? This is my old setup. With that setup I had my hoku balltop epoxied. Basically, I couldn’t do any maintenance on the lever whatsoever. Not only that, in addition to some other issues, I wanted to change my setup so that I could add a kowal actuator to the mix, which I really like.
This is my new setup. I literally just finished it before writing this post. I’m using a terminal block now so that I can make changes to the stick extremely easily. Not only that but this time the balltop isn’t epoxied. Its screwed down all the way to my shaft cover which has been professionally cut to fit. The tape on the wire right @ the base prevents that local twisting that happens without it. I also have the wire taped to the case to keep it from dragging along the bottom and causing any resistance on the feel of my lever. It was much prettier the way @"Jasen Hicks" did it but this way its more functional.
The inside of my stick looks like a rats nest. Haha
I spliced the wiring together, and created a slip knot in the middle so it had a lil slack. I also put shrink tubing over it to protect it from rubbing against the bottom of the case.
I cut a bit off the shaft cover and threaded the balltop down.