Hello haven’t been on here in awhile however I would like to mod my MAS stick to be played on multiple systems (ps1234, Xbox 360, and xb1, and Dreamcast)
What parts would I need to get this done? And is there a new site I can visit for spare parts for my MAS?
Off-hand to get that sort of platform support, you’d need:
You could probably get all that, and more, from either https://arcadeshock.com/, https://focusattack.com/ or https://paradisearcadeshop.com/
I’d kinda agree with this, but how I would go about it would be a little bit different if the stick has a USB cord:
Edit: Op, please don’t cut into your MAS stick unless you are absolutely certain you know what you’re doing!
I definitely agree with avoiding cutting/drilling into a casing if you can avoid it!
Problem with that strategy here is that the base USB cord wouldn’t be able to get PS1/PS2 or Dreamcast support, unless you start going the route of external adapters instead then.
my logic was letting the Retro Board handle the older consoles, and the UFB handle 360/PS3/PS4/XB1. Only thing right now is that the only ones that would do the full stack are from Jasen’s shop, and traditional delivery services in Japan are closed because of the country’s declared state of emergency.
I’d rather not cut into my MAS i just would like to use it on other consoles with the MAS board.
Now what i would like to do if possible is make the “digital” button the PS/XB button as well.
Unless you willing to snake something like a cat 5 cable though and crimp or solder on a external connector on the cable.
WARNING: MASSIVE POST ALERT
Sideshow20
Post 1
Hello haven’t been on here in awhile however I would like to mod my MAS stick to be played on multiple systems (ps1234, Xbox 360, and xb1, and Dreamcast)
What parts would I need to get this done? And is there a new site I can visit for spare parts for my MAS?
Post 2
I’d rather not cut into my MAS i just would like to use it on other consoles with the MAS board.
Now what i would like to do if possible is make the “digital” button the PS/XB button as well.
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Items you need for modding a MAS Stick?
1] A Soldering Kit [Optional, but I deem it mandatory]
-Soldering iron, wet sponge, solder sucker, soldering iron holder, and tin+lead Solder.
-The male tabs on the micro-switches are soldered on to the wires [Shame on you MAS…,].
-If a micro-switch fails, you will have all kinds of problems swapping them. You might as well fix the issue now.
2] .187" or .47cm female quick disconnects. [2 per button x 15 buttons = 30 disconnects] If they aren’t insulated, you want heat shrink material or electrical tape to use as insulation.
-This is optional, but in the strongest ways recommended.
-You need to remove all the solder off the tabs on the micro-switches so you can attach the wire that was soldered to it to female quick disconnects. This will allow for easy swapping of defective micros-switches on buttons.
3] Wires to make the quick disconnects and wire strippers.
-This is an optional act that I also deem mandatory.
-You can just use the original wires if you want, but if you get in trouble or need more, just destroy either a USB or Ethernet chord [I recommend the latter].
4] A method of securing a USB and an Ethernet Cable inside the stick.
-It could be a dowel glued or screwed to the inside that you wrap and tie the internal cables to. That’s probably the best method.
-The cables are important because you don’t want if the stick falls or is pulled to damage or disrupt the PCBs. You also don’t want to be directly connected to the PCBs from the outside. You want to prevent wear and tear on the connectors to the PCBs.
5] Heat Shrink Tubing kit [optional], masking tape [optional]
6] The Brook Retro Board AND the Brook Universal Fighting Board.
-Both are MANDATORY
-I recommend Jasenscustoms.com stack version for the Universal Fighting Board. A narrow second is to go to Arcadeshock.com to get them. If it wasn’t for the massive amount of space inside the MAS stick, I’d be sending you to Arcadeshock. That’s actually where I got my setup from.
7] Ethernet Female Female joiner adapter, or a Ethernet Male Female chord.
-This is to prevent damage or internal disconnection from the PCB in the event of an unintended tug.
-This is also needed so you don’t have to drill into the case. This chord will hang outside the case and allow for wire swapping using the female port.
8] USB B Male to B Female cable, or USB B Male to A Male with a USB A Female to B Female adapter.
-This is needed so that you don’t have to drill the case, and can access the Universal Fighting Board directly.
NOTE: DO NOT HAVE BOTH THE USB AND THE ETHERNET PORTS PLUGGED INTO ANY CONSOLES AT THE SAME TIME AS YOU WILL DESTROY BOTH BOARDS!!!
Conceptual Instructions.
NOTE: These are the concepts involved, not actual instructions. This is the line of thinking.
1] Decide where you want to place the PCBs. I recommend either where the previous one was, or close to the exit of the case.
-Secure them.
-I won’t go into details here, and assume you aren’t using universal modding kits, and are buying from Jasenscustoms. Although I used the Arcadeshock method, I think I can help here.
2] Optional, but in the strongest ways recommended,
-2a Make the ground harness using a spare Ethernet cable you cannibalize for parts. Measure between the links giving you 100-150% more space than necessary between buttons, and 50-75% more space to the PCBs. At the far end, and at every link [this is where the button is to be attached to the wire] a .187 quick disconnect is needed.
-2b Make the signal wires that need to go to the PCB from the Retro board 50-75% longer than necessary, and attach the .187 quick disconnects. I would attach masking tape to each and write where I was sending it to.
-2c Only doing this one button [or joystick point] at a time, remove ALL the solder off a .187 male tab on an arcade stick micro-switch. Start with the ones that are linked to everything. That’s the ground. Only clean that one side of each button at a time [for now…]. Every time you clean and remove a wire from a micro-switch, you swap it for the appropriate newly created .187 female quick disconnect immediately. This will prevent you from possibly getting confused while doing this mod job. Keep going until you have swapped ALL the ground wires.
-2d As above, only 1 button at a time, clean up all the solder off a button or joystick micro-switch side that you didn’t clean earlier. I recommend using masking tape to label every one of these wires as you go.
3] Hook up everything to the PCBs. I’d hook it up to the Retro Board.
1p=lp, 2p=mp, 3p=hp, 4p=ppp. 1k=lk, 2k=mk, 3k=hk, 4k=kkk gd=gnd.
Everything is labeled on the PCB so you shouldn’t have any issues.
Assuming you bought from Jasenscustoms, hook all the wires to the Retro Board and [if you haven’t already] secure it to the chosen location. Gently attach the UFB stack model on top of the Retro Board.
4] Attach the Ethernet Cable and USB cables to the PCBs. These are from sections 7 and 8 above. You want to tie them and secure them to the inside of the case, and have them just barely long enough to borrow the hole[s] that the MAS stick had before. This way if an accident happens it will not pull on the PCB.
NOTE: DO NOT HAVE BOTH THE USB AND THE ETHERNET PORTS PLUGGED INTO ANY CONSOLES AT THE SAME TIME AS YOU WILL DESTROY BOTH BOARDS!!!
5] Test everything.
6] You’re done.
If you plan to use a universal modding kit, or multiplier kits, or easy mod ribbon cables and the likes, you need .110" male quick disconnects, and .187 female quick disconnects. Happ buttons have bigger .187" sized tabs, and the Universal Modding kits are designed for tabs that are .110" in size. Otherwise you cannot connect them to the MAS stick [easily] thus prohibiting the mod.
EDIT: You can cut the top 2/3 off each .110" disconnect on the harness and crimp .187" disconnects on top of it. It’s risky as you might damage the harness to the point that you break the connection, but that’s what a paperclip, and a multi-meter are for. Same thing for the crimper in case you do just that.
You also want to remove all the solder from the button’s micro-switches so that if they start failing, you can swap out the micro-switch.
Using this method, you can make it easy to swap the micro-switches as everything is no longer soldered. You’ll also need either a Japanese stick to Hitbox or .187" conversion wire harness to separate the connections into the ground and their separate cardinals to do it because the joystick connection is different from Sanwa and Seimitsu.
THANKS! I do have a soldering iron i will just have to see how much i have left to do this…Ive modded my SFAC stick in the past but with the MAS i want to be able to play on all systems with the original board in tact but thanks for this info
Although I connected a Brook UFB and a Retro Board inside my Hitbox, that doesn’t qualify me to hook up a UFB to a Cthulhu. I plan to do this in the future to someone’s MAS stick. What are the blueprints and schematics that you’d recommend?
Thanks in advance.
You also want a multi-meter. Otherwise when something goes wrong while making your ground loop or other wires [and it likely will since this is likely your first time…], a multimeter would be a godsend in finding what’s wrong. You also need [yes need] it for your rj45 to console cable making. Unless of course you plan to purchase them from Arcadeshock, Paradisearcade, focusattack, or wherever. If you have a multimeter and can get the information, you can buy cheap console cable extension chords, break them, and modify them into console cables for dirt cheap.
Okay, I modded my friend’s MAS stick as a hyper-belated birthday present. It was much harder than I thought, but it’s done. This is the first time I’ve ever worked on a MAS stick, and the third time that I’ve modified an arcade stick. The first time I modded a stick, I did a wire for wire swap of an Akishop PS360 for a Brook Retro Board. The second one was me installing a multiplier kit and in the absence of the returned Retro Board, the Brook Universal Fighting board. Afterwards, I installed the Retro Board for a dual-pcb Hitbox Arcade controller with 6 buttons on the front with 2 Neutrik Ports [1 RJ-45 and one USB].
My workmanship on the MAS Stick was very sloppy by my standards, but the job is done. Later I plan to take out the Cthulhu and give it to someone else [Jiggabry], and replace it with a Retro Board. I’m not soldering to try to get the Cthulhu and the Universal Fighting Board to work together.
How I did it, was as follows…
=Day 1
1] I first removed every micro-switch except for 2. It was easy; they were all soldered together. no soldering to remove them. I only spared the 2 I cut.
2] I made a new ground harness by measuring wires between the connectors, and cutting/stripping the wires using a nail clipper. I measured double the length to the next connection, or directly to the connection after the one I wanted to make, so that if I screwed up I had more leeway. I left the wire attached as I went, so that the second the ground harness was done the stick was already wired.
=Day 2-3
Day 2 I attached the signal wires. On Day 3 I found some buttons didn’t work.
=Day 4
I tested the ground harness and found that there were defective points on them, so I fixed them and retested them today. The whole thing now works. I did everything as above with certain tweaks. For example, I only used the Cthulhu. Now I can say that I’m qualified to talk about modifications to the MAS stick.
Here are things I’d do differently with the RJ-45 mod if I were to work with the Cthulhu again. Basically, I’d experiment with using a female Ethernet black and green 8 point screw terminal.
Here’s the gist of the experimental strategy as I’ve never tried this using this method.
1] Create equal length 1.5-2 inch wires.
2] Use one of the black and green RJ-45 to 8 point 1 up by 8 across screw terminals.
3] Solder the wires to G, A, B, C, D, E, F, and U. Left to right treating them as 1-8 respectively [a would be 2 for example…] using the ones closest to the USB port.
-The method will be to push the wire through the hole and solder to the bottom making sure there are no solder bridges or weak soldering points.
4] Screw them in numerical / number line order [G=1, A=2, B=3 C=3, “…” U=8] making sure that there are no crossed, missed, loose, or poorly soldered wires making sure the female port is up, and the Cthulhu’s USB port.
-This ensures that if I do something wrong I can fix it with a screw driver instead of a soldering Iron.
Now, all I need to do is insert an Ethernet cable into the Ethernet port that ends in a usb and goes to a Coupler, or Neutrik port, and from there it’s cable swapping.
The way everyone else does it puts themselves at risk of accidentally soldering a wire to the wrong point on the Cthulhu, and having to de-solder it to remove it. I ended up accidentally destroying a solder point on one of my 2 Cthulhu PCBs because of that exact mistake.
I plan to attempt to fix the damaged Cthulhu, so this would make an excellent guinea pig.
I’m also going to be modding another 1-2 MAS sticks, so this is how I plan to do it this time.
It’d be nice if Arcadeshock had a .187" compatible quick connect harness that could be bought from their site. This way people trying to mod an American style stick like the MAS stick [in my case] doesn’t have to cut the .110" connectors and crimp .187" disconnects onto them, or make .110" male to .187" female adapters. Also, it appears that Jasenscustoms website is gone, If that’s the case, can you import the Retro Board and UFB Stack models, and maybe the Panzer Fight Sticks to your site?
A little back-story. I’ve already talked about the Toodles redo earlier, so I deleted it from this. This is an edited copy of the email I gave to Arcadeshock.
Ivan asked if there was a way to make the Toodles Cthulhu work with the Universal Fighting Board. I told him that there is a way, but I’m too lazy to try to figure it out, and risk damaging another PCB, so I decided to buy the Retro Board like I had originally planned to do anyways. The only reason I used the Cthulhu was because ParadiseArcade duplicated my order making me purchase 2 instead of one, so I decided to use it.
Day 1
I first cut off the top 2/3 of every .110" female connection on the 20 pin harness, pulled off all the protective sleeves, replaced them with .187" sleeves, and crimped over them with .187" female connects. I kept the .110" sleeves since I knew at some point they’d come in handy.
Day 2
I used the modified harness to connect everything. Unfortunately, the lk and lp were too far apart while hooking up the grounds, and I couldn’t rotate the buttons well enough to compensate [no wrench…,] so. I skipped it while wiring, and made the .187" male to .187" female adapter to compensate for the skip. Also, there was a need for a .110 connection for the home button, and it was too far away, so I made an adapter to accomplish that. I popped opened my Hitbox that had both the Retro Board and the UFB, and copied what I saw making the new wiring job easier.Everything was hooked up via the ribbon Cables, the multiplier kit, and the harness
Day 2 [continued]
I hooked up the Mas Stick to the PS4, and was wondering why it didn’t work. Then I felt like an idiot. I quickly grabbed a Brook PS3/PS4 to PS3/PS4 Super converter and Street Fighter 5. I noticed that the Up and Down were inverted. I inverted them correcting the mistake, and everything I tested worked.
Now, whenever he gets his Retro Board we can pop it onto the Ribbon cable, bridge the USB connections, and it’s done. I’ll probably jumper the board so that the Brook UFB is the default later.
What took me days creating my own wiring harness and hooking it all up properly with the Cthulhu took hours when I used the items purchased from ArcadeShock.
A few days ago I set the jumpers and used sticky feet to secure the multiplier PCB and the UFB.
USB based systems [PC, PS4, PS3, X360, XB1, SW]
-These are consoles were USB A Male cables are used to connect the controllers to the system.
-Jumper is set to bypass mode on the Retro Board [Signals go to the Retro Board and are Bridged so the UFB reads them instead
Non-USB Controller connection based systems [DC, XB, SNES, PS1-2, GC, etc…]
-Hold Start+Select to prevent Bridging to the Retro Board. While holding these 2 buttons plug the console into the running system. That or plug them in while holding Start+Select down and turn on the system. Wait a few seconds before releasing your hold on the buttons in this case just to be safe.
Testing as follows…
Materials:
USB A Male to RJ-45 Male Cable, USB A Male A Female Cable, Brook Yellow Super Converter, PlayStation 4 Game Console with Street Fighter V Champion Edition [Practice Mode].
4 Tests. Test 1: [Pass is pass] Test 2[Pass is pass], Test 3[Fail is Pass -Report as Intentional Fail], Test 4[Pass is pass]
Test 1: Converter In, no Intercept [Start+Select] Command
=Pass [System detected the stick and commands through the converter]
Test 2: Converter Out, no Intercept [Start+Select] Command
=Pass [System detected the commands in the absence of the Converter
Test 3: Converter Out, Intercept Command [Start + Select] Used
=Intentional Fail. The System didn’t see any commands from the stick.
-The Retro Board isn’t compatible with the PS4
-A fail means that the Retro Board is in use
Test 4: Converter In, Intercept Command [Start+Select] Used
=Pass. The System detected the stick and commands through the converter.
-This means that the Retro Board is functioning properly.