I’d like to show some of my previous creations before I get onto my latest arcade stick.
First off, a joystick I made for a friend a little while ago. He’s known as Huzza on these forums. This was pretty much my first stick, I think it turned out alright and Huzza loves it, but there is room for improvement.
It looks different now than it did then (ball is different)
Next up is an arcade cabinet I made using an Xbox and a 63cm television. I call it the Ultra X Arcade.
A stick I made recently for my 360 using a wired controller. The cabling is a bit messy, but hey it works and you normally dont see inside the box. It was one I knocked up fairly quickly, made of plywood and uses a Sanwa JLW joystick and Happ buttons. The 360 controller I used was one of the old ones (without a common ground) so choosing a JLW over a JLF was probably the best idea. After using it for a bit (and seeing all the other awesome sticks on this website). I wanted to make a stick that used all Sanwa buttons and a JLF joystick seeing as the new 360 wireless controllers have a common ground, connecting a JLF is a piece of cake.
Now, onto my latest stick, I wanted to go even further with this one and include the guide button complete with LEDs. This stick is made entirely of plexi-glass (Perspex for us Aussies), and uses all Sanwa parts (JLF joystick and OBSN-30 and OBSF-24 push buttons) Not sure the reason to go with plexi, I guess to be different in a way, but its easy to work with and with a bit of care, the results speak for themselves.
Ok, first up, here is a picture of the new wireless board. It does seem a bit cheap (quality wise) in comparison to the originals PCB but at least its a common ground controller now which does help is wiring up the stick and buttons. As you can see Ive already removed the left and right triggers and soldered in a 10k resistor in each so I can use buttons.
I dremelled out the back piece of the controller…
…so theres a way I can fit in the battery pack
Thanks to the guide by llama Lighting the dome, the centre dome of the guide button was cut out a little and I hot glued in a red and a green LED (this is to indicate charging and finished charging for the P&C cable). Instead of using four LEDs, I only used two, green on top and red on bottom, that seemed to suffice, plus the P&C only has output for two LEDs.
The piece that contains the LEDs for the guide button was a little trickier to make. I had to line up the LEDs the best I could so they would shine up the guide button but nowhere else. Once this was done and had the guide switch installed, it was simply a matter of wiring up all the ground connections and then running a wire to their respective points.
Here is a picture of the modified play and charge cable (thanks to Sinister Slipknot for the tutorial), as you can see I chopped the end off and soldered on a USB socket which will make it flush with the case.
Just finished the box, those two pieces of plexi running down either side of the joystick hole are for two reasons, one to give it a bit more strength and two to provide a place to screw on the plate. I opted to get an S mounting plate (dont know why they call it an S plate, as its not really shaped like an S, but anyway…) that way I wouldnt have any ugly screws showing on the top.
The whole thing is held together using Acrifix 192 glue. Its amazing stuff and gives a really strong bond when using plexi. I got it a while back from a local supplier, cost me like $20AUD, but it lasts ages. Make sure you are well ventilated because this stuff will send you high if you arent careful :wgrin:
http://www.eglider.org/images/uploads/acrif.jpg
Now, all primed and ready for painting
Picture of the finished wired up controller PCB. I hot glued the connections as they can be easily torn off, especially the points for the D-pad.
All finished!
Inside, again, not too neat, but you dont see it :razz:
Shots from other angles, the side buttons are the L&R triggers and ones at the back are the Start and Back buttons.
USB port from behind- the other black hole is for the sync button.
Lastly, the guide button lit up, when connected…
…and when the battery is being charged.
Overall Im pretty happy with how it turned out. Let me know what everyone thinks!
