So I’ve been tossing around the idea of building a fightstick for several years now (Mostly due to never having the money or never having the time during the day to get in the damn garage), and after finally getting the money together to buy what I need for a custom stick, I can now make the investments.
The idea is that I want to build a stick with all white transparent buttons, but a different color LED for each one, making them all light up every color of the rainbow.
So far, I only have two problems: #1: Could this design work (Given that the LEDs come from a different site than the other parts)?
And #2: Where do I look to learn how to wire LEDs into a USB PCB so the LEDs can be powered (Again, first-timer)?
hi. your idea will work fine but you will need a separate LED controller pcb to handle the colors. the kaimana board is very popular here, you can find guides on how to wire it up by searching TT.
After actually looking at FA and PA’s PCB listings (After close to 8 months later), it appears the one I was looking for no longer exists there. Any recommendations for a different (Or better) PCB?
Originally, I was looking for the Tootles Cthulu PCB for legacy support, but honestly, I just want a stick for PC and hopefully Wii-U gaming (Tekken Tag and Pokken come to mind). Although I have doubts on the latter.
If you need an LED controller and are aware that it’s a lot of work, I can either send you an FG Widget controller and KNserts or install them myself if you send the stick here. I don’t have a Remora or anything newer that’s nice and plug and play but Toodles old LED stuff still had great results after the hassle of installation.
Something else I was curious about (I know, it’s been almost two weeks since I posted): Will I need both the LED controller and the PCB for this to work, or can all of this work with one control interface?
If you plan to do it all yourself, I’d suggest the PS360+ if you wanted it for legacy support if you havn’t decided on a PCB. And as for LEDs and a controller for them I’d suggest Kaimana stuff. Those things are pretty newcomer friendly compared to several other options. You will need the Kaimana controller and the PS360+. They also have a fairly good amount of support so finding info on them isn’t hard.
Alrite, I’ve got the PS360+ along with the Kaimina Mini Breakout and the adjustable “Tropical Mood” 5V LEDs. All that’s really left is putting it all together.
It’s a shame I can’t randomize the color of the balltop (Also, it’s a shame those bi-color balltops are sold out).
If you have a hollow shaft the hard part is done already. It’s not too difficult to make your own LED balltop out of any clear one. Drill about 2mm past the brass insert, sand the exterior, insert RGB LED and wire.
You could always program your own controller for the LEDs too. Depends on how proficient you are with coding, or how much you are willing to learn. Once you get a LED blinking, you don’t have far to go.
All the remaining parts have been ordered, and hopefully all that’s left is to build the housing for the joystick, and learning and understanding how wires work between the components, the lights and the PCBs.
