I’ve been browsing the Tech Talk forum quite avidly for the past month or so, and the time investment has already paid for itself. I managed to snag a 360 BlazBlue Continuum Shift TE-S stick off of Amazon for less than what most SE sticks are going for, and it’s been working great so far. So great, in fact, that I wanted to put my personal stamp on it…and here’s where the problem comes in:
I’ve been working up a custom art template to go with an upcoming plexi order from Arthong, and I’ve hit a snag: in order for the template to work, I need to remove the guide/turbo section from the top plate. Doing this will mean that either I have to do without the guide button, or have to bring a hex key with me and open up the top every time i want to plug the stick into a different console. Obviously, neither one of these options is terribly appealing.
So, my question: is it possible to mount the guide panel in a different location, such as the cord storage compartment; will I be forced to solder an extension onto the guide button to attach to a surface mounted button, or is there some other solution I’m overlooking? I’m going to be dual-modding the stick with a TE Kitty once Toodles puts them up for order again, but other than that I’d like to keep the electrical work to a minimum, at least for this first stick.
I could, but I kinda want to take it out anyway, to clean up the look of the stick. May end up doing as you suggest though, and saving the template I’ve got for a planned custom-build later on.
I dont see why you couldn’t cut and crimp .110 QDs onto the XGUILD and GND wires of the ribbon and run those to a new button drilled in the case.
I dont know how I feel about doing that with a Kitty involved (You’d lose the awesome LEDs, couldnt force 360 mode, couldnt leave DP mode) but to make a new guide button should be possible without soldering as long as the ribbon cables are long enough.
Ack, I thought as much. Well, I have some other ideas for a template that will work with the guide area intact. Thanks for clearing up this issue, even if it wasn’t the answer I was looking for. I’ll be saving my first adventure into soldering for a custom build, where things are somewhat more straightforward.
I could, but the extra features are why I’ve been waiting on a Kitty in the first place, rather than just grabbing a Chimp. I’m less afraid of soldering itself than I am of putzing around with the strange circuitry layout MadCatz settled on for the TE-S.
Then keep the LED panel and make room for it in your artwork. You just have better control over everything with it.
If it helps any, its not hard for a tech with average soldering skills to replace the LEDs in the LED panel to whatever color you might like. Blue Guide lights, white button lights, whatever. If you’re worried about the aesthetics, that could make it easier for you to swallow
It’s less about the esthetics of the piece and more about its position…with the layout I have, it would cut off the top half of a character’s head! :arazz:
Still, as I said, I’ve got other ideas; I’ll save this layout for project #2.
With the chimp it’s possible to remove the turbo panel all together…using the start + select = guide feature you can add one line to the guide spot on the te pcb and cut the guide line going to the turbo panel… Your all set… Arthongs plexi covers can have the option to not have the turbo window… Just move it inside the te and secure it…
I saw a TE with the turbo panel cut out and in the side. I think if you kept it close to the original spot, you wouldn’t need to solder, just basically transplanting it. But maybe I don’t understand what you’re trying to do.
True, but then I’d be missing out on several of the Kitty’s extra features (on the fly LS/DP switching, turbo, legacy console support). At that point I could just as easily rip out the TE guts entirely and replace them with a MC Cthulhu + Imp, and that’s way more work than I wanted to do on this stick.
That’s actually fairly close to the idea I had, which was to transplant the guide section to the cable storage compartment and mount a Neutrik RJ-45 plug alongside. Will probably do the Neutrik plug either way; I really want the MC support for my PS2 games, but haven’t been keen on removing & possibly destroying the back button to do so.
I was speaking about installing chimp not a kitty…i don’t really know the functions of a kitty since I dont use them for mods…just thinking of some quick mods that would work for you…
Oh, i will…I just don’t want to trash my one good stick doing it. I’ll practice on some old PSX pads first, and work up to a custom build. For now, Kitty’s in the mail, and PC/PS3 goodness not far behind.
Great video, I’ll be taking those suggestions to heart when I start practicing!
One hitch though, I don’t know if it’s just me, but for some reason the 480p version of that video simply won’t work. It’ll get about 15-20 seconds in and then just quit. The 360p version plays through well enough, but 360p looks like ass on youtube. :arazz: You might want to check it out, maybe reupload the video if it does that for you as well.
Just watched the first few minutes of it in 480p without trouble. I know my camera is kind of terrible, regardless. I’ll be working on that in the future