Pinball Controller for Pinball Hall of Fame: Williams Collection.
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/DSC04281.jpg
I will be editing the First post as a how to for setting up a analog plunger and how to hack analog sticks to PSP-1000 replacement analog sticks.
For now though I will just want an opportunity to share my Pinball Hall of Fame: Williams’s Collection Pinball controller. I know it may seem like a lot of effort to make a controller for 1 game, but if you think of it, it is mountain’s cheaper and more space conscience than buying and maintaining 12 pinball tables.
I hacked a PSP-1000 analog and a authentic Happ pinball plunger to a Madcatz 4716 pad. The controller is really big, it is a combination of having the approximate width of a pinball machine and the space needed to hack the plunger.
A few angles of the controller
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/DSC04292.jpg
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/DSC04293.jpg
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/DSC04289.jpg
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/DSC04293.jpg
My Wiring
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/DSC04286.jpg
On the left of the PCB the prototype board with screw terminals is just a terminal block I made because I didn’t want to go to radio shack to get a Eurostyle terminal strip. used to connect the PSP analog stick.
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/DSC04287.jpg
The left Analog is used in the game for nudging the table. In real pinball this tactic is used if so you can change the ball trajectory slight to try to avoid a drain. To mount the PSP analog I drilled a 3/4 in hole in the top panel and underneath I picked up I think a 1 1/8 forstner and went about 3/16 inch deep, then a smaller bit for 16th for the bottom of the analog that sits lower than the mounting holes that go off on the sides. I then drilled a 1/8 inch hole for the wires to feed through.
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/DSC04274.jpg
Hacking the Analog sticks. I hope these pictures are self explanitory. Just solder. The image with the stick shows the analog in correct orientation.
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/analogstick_pinout.png
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/HackingAnalog-forPSP.jpg
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/130a4cf5.jpg
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/aab9cbeb.jpg
Pictures of the Plunger Assembly
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/DSC04285.jpg
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/DSC04284.jpg
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/DSC04283.jpg
http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww301/rtdzign/PinballController/DSC04275.jpg
Here is a video:[media=youtube]nT_jNCvf_xc[/media]
[media=youtube]nT_jNCvf_xc[/media]
For those curious about the Joystick, I used a compact joystick available on arcadeshop.de, but it is a piece of crap and don’t recommend it you are better off using buttons. Put a Yellow Sanwa Balltop on it. I bought it out of curiosity and this is the only thing I think it is suitable for. the joystick body screws on like a Happ button and on the bottom the microswitches slide on to 2 upside down L shaped notches on the bottom of the plastic cylinder. The switches are mounted sort of wobbly so the engage distances constantly are inconsistent and diagonals cannot always be hit due to this. Works fine for menu navigation.
Originally I had the player 1 button on front mapped to start, but instead I mapped it to “A” because in PHF the games are actually started with the “A” button.
Edit:
Below is the original First post.
I recently got Williams Pinball hall of fame for the Xbox 360 and am loving it. Brings back memories since the bowling alley I went to as a kid had a few of these games.
I am wanting to make a pinball box just for this game, but am stumped on one problem. I want to use an authentic plunger for the stick.
Universal Ball Shooter Assembly
In the game the right analog stick is wired for the plunger. The amount you pull it back and let go controls the power.
I was wondering if anybody had any ideas to get this thing to work with a madcats controller. I need the plunger to go from 0 to 10k resistance based on how I pull the plunger. I know very little about optical sensors. I want to try to recreate this
NanoTech Entertainment, Inc. - Digital Pinball Plunger
But I want the output to be to a 10k variable resistor.
Any clues?