Modding an Ikan/Naki arcade stick. Is this everything I need?

Tech Talk
101

Just when I thought it was over.

I tested the joystick using motioninjoy software. While the buttons works fine, the joystick isn’t.

this is the input I’m getting.

down = left
left = up
up = down
right = right

All I did was connect the Ikan’s stock harness directly to JLF’s PCB :

I know I gotta rewire them, but Its impossible for me to know which is which.

That or I can reuse the stock joystick, but I don’t want my Sanwa JLF to go to waste.

Please help, a lot of effort has gone into this, I can’t stop here.

102

That was the first thing I tested actually.

Look here:

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/6485/pa211561.th.jpg

For the Ikan joystick PCB, the order from top-down is: down left right up ground

http://www.akihabarashop.jp/images/TPMAandJLFH.jpg

For Sanwa joystick PCB, the order from top-down is: up down right left ground

That is with the orientation of the harness facing the main PCB.

Just review both PCB’s and resolder the old harness.

103

Here, wire them according to the orientation of your JLF. Also, you should’ve removed the white areas layers in photoshop before printing. Nice clean art by the way :slight_smile:

104

I was about to ask if the template fits the stick actually.

Also, I am planning to have someone make me a laser-cut top plate, but I am not very sure about the holes for screw areas. Are plexiglass safe to drill, or are they fragile and I’m better off having the holes laser’d too?

105

Haven’t done some actual drilling but as far as i know plexiglass is safe to drill using a hole saw rather than a spade bit.

106

shiiiiiit. One bad move and now the whole stock PCB is rendered useless!!! D:

while desoldering the gnd connection the braid got stuck, tried reheat and pull but didn’t work, so i gave it a little tug and off comes that little piece of the PCB!

…now I need to get a PS3 PCB.

107

You can use other Ground points.
See where the Trace of the Ground goes?
Just follow the lines, and you can use any part that it goes to.

Use Ground of Buttons if you want.

108

For the most part, yes. Lol.

109

God you’re a genius!
I almost lost hope there, thanks!

EDIT : hmm still doesn’t work. Buttons are all messed up now some presses 2 buttons at once and and moves the joystick. I’m gonna post how I connected the wires, need you guys to correct it if I’m wrong.

this is what I’ve done :

If its wrong please draw the correct way below.

110

Doesn’t it go like this? I didn’t use my ikan pcb and I removed the USB cable so I can’t check right now.

111

nah, if it were like that I wouldn’t get wrongs signals in the first place. The wires connecting to the main PCB was arranged that way.

112

Your wiring from PCB to Sanwa JLF is correct.

If you are getting weird Signals like that, then the point doesn’t seem like Ground.
Pictures are small, so I can’t see where Grounds would be.

Use this, since it is known:

It is the white ribbon.

113

Not being able to help is driving me insane so I’ll go wire up my Ikan PCB right now. Be back in like 30 mins :smiley:

Edit: I just double checked and it turns out your wiring is correct BUT the directions uses its OWN GROUND. So the Ikan PCB is NOT common ground. What you can do is this:

Edit 2: Yep, its official. The Ikan PCB is NOT common ground. It uses a weird independent grounding system thing. L2 and L1 have common ground. R2 and R1 have common ground. Square X Tri O have common ground. The directions have common ground and the auxiliary buttons have common ground.

114

/is confused

Does that mean that the PCB part I’ve damaged might not be a ground slot but a input slot?

I’ll try out as you said once I reach home.
Modding this joystick is way more difficult than I thought. But I can’t back out now, not at this stage.

115

That is what I felt.
The PCB not being Common Ground.

You damaged Ground for Directions.
But you soldered to a point that was not Ground for Directions, instead for something else.

It is like that because as xheezy04 said, PCB is not Common Ground.
So solder to where pointed in picture xheezy04 post.

I’m not sure why you did make that other point though.
I did say to solder where the Ground point you messed up leads to.
And if follow where the Trace goes from point you messed, it does go to where xheezy04 point.

I only mentioned Buttons because I did not see a clear picture of PCB.
So I could not tell if Common Ground or not.
Sorry that.

116

Well it is an “input slot” as well as the trace for the direction’s ground. Just solder the ground where I pointed (inside the little black circle). Anyway, just hang in there and you’ll be playing with your stick in no time :slight_smile:

117

Well you wouldn’t have known if it was common ground or not even if you had a high res picture of the PCB. I was led to believe that the ikan PCB is common ground and almost used it for my dual mod project.

118

Just to confirm if I soldered it correctly.

But alas, no changes. The joystick now completely refused to function and the button keys are still messed up.

On a do-or-die decision I’ve decided the resolder the harness wires back to its original state, no improvement at all. The damage seems to be permenant.

So, now…ahem

xheezy04, what are the chances that you can send me your working Ikan PCB board, and how much? :slight_smile:

119

Er… Do you also live in the Philippines? Well you could also wire up a generic USB joystick and i’m sure the PS3 would recognize it as a controller

120

I live in Malaysia actually.

Well I figured it would be much simpler if I used back the same PCB. rather then starting anew on a different PCB.