Spark/SparkCE Optical Joystick Sensor for JLF

Remember snip the red wire or the bomb will asplode, or that’s what I think it is.

Thanks again for all the cool shit you do for arcade stick lovers, Toodles.

I was wondering, considering how large the project costs might end up being, what about the possibility of a raffle? $5 donation buys you a “ticket”, and draw a couple of winners to send the first few Sparks to.

Obviously this isn’t quite as important as what they did for Chris Hu, but considering how much you’ve probably put upfront I’d imagine it might be something the board mods would approve.

Or hopefully some parts vendors kicked in on upfronts and it’s not even out-of-pocket for you.

Nah, no need to any tricks, I can cover the expenses this one is going to wrack up, and I feel a lot better about the odds of getting my money back from the investment thanks to the customer interest shown in this thread.

One of the housings from the second batch was dremeled so that it’d fit on one of the boards I made way back when. Threw it all together, and it mostly worked, but had a problem with one of the directions that it wouldn’t return to neutral after pressing down, but would if you pressed up afterwards. Exact same problem I had with those boards back when I first started way before the housing. The redesigned boards with the surface mount parts came in. I threw one together, and sadly it worked even less, with all directions activating regardless of where the stick was, even though it should have behaved identically as the earlier ones. Kinda frustrating. My next step is to remove the two resistors dealing with one of the directions on that surface mount board, and hook up two potentiometers in their place. I’m going to work on adjusting the resistances until it behaves, and then assemble another one of the surface mount boards using the values I find with the potentiometers.

Work continues, I’m just sorry to say it looks like I’ve taken a step backwards somewhere.

nah…just reminds me of that thomas edison thing about not failing, but figuring out how to not to make light bulbs.

i will say better to have found this now than later.

Well that’s pretty amazing stuff Toodles. I’ve used alot of your products, and they are all flawless. I’ve been wanting another flash for quite some time, so hearing about this is music to my ears. I can’t wait for more updates.

Most of us are going to wait…

The Flash PCB will revive interest in the JLF for a bunch of people.

Honestly, lately I haven’t been noticing the differences between the JLF and LS-32-01 as much. I’ve settled into either/or with the sticks and am comfortable with both.

I can think of 3 favorite joysticks with OEM JLF’s (HRAP 2 SA, Mad Catz TE, Tekken 5 mod) I’d definitely mod with a Flash PCB when those are working reliably…

The older pcbs that mostly worked had same components closest to each other; in one corner would be two transmistting LEDs, same as the opposite corner, and the other corners would each have a pair of the receivers. I changed it around so each corner had one LED and one receiver, and based on the testing I just did, that seems to be the problem. The nearby transmitter is still outputting enough light at an angle to activate the neighboring receiver. So, time for another board revision while I push the receivers further away from the center circle. Since the transmitters are focused on a narrow angle, this move should reduce the amount of light from the neighbor significantly, or so I hope. Time to layout a new board, and wait the two weeks for them to arrive. SLow? Yes. Progress? I definitely think so, especially since the moving of the receptors won’t require any change in the housing.

I am interested in 1-2. Man you do great work!!

Any update toward progression is awesome! Keep up the hard work!!

Bump for great justice!

How’s it coming along Toodles?

Waiting on new boards to be made and arrive.

Thanks for the update Toodles. You can put me down for two when they’re ready.

i’m definitely interested in getting 1-2. can’t believe this thread’s been around for 3 years-ish.

toodles if you don’t mind me asking, do you have a time frame in mind on when you think you’ll be ready for production? just curious 'cause i’m looking to build one of those arthong plexi cases sometime in the next 3-4 months.

The impression Toodles left me with is that the project possibly won’t be ready for production until early next year…

He said something about releasing a working prototype for sale sometime later this year.

I’m patient… I’ll definitely wait for the finished, production units…

He got the MC Cthulu working with the Saturn a lot earlier than I thought anyone would!!

Damnit FedEx. It made it all of the way across the country, finally gets to Boise, and now you want to send it back to Memphis instead of driving a couple of miles to hand it to me??? GIMME MAH BOARDS!
http://www.fedex.com/Tracking?action=track&tracknumbers=451410189045

Current progress: On FedEx vehicle for delivery! Must have been a mis-scan.

Keep your eye’s peeled Toodles.

My my fucking god Tood’s. I gotta get me this shit, looks mad fucking hype.

Here’s what imma do you for.

  1. I give you green back.

  2. You give me joystick.

  3. I throw that shit in TE

  4. Both of us are happy.

That’s how it’s gonna work [people.

Oh thank god. I’ll put one together and test it hope; I hope the tweaks did what I hope they will.
Of course even if it does, assuming the board itself that arrives works awesome, there’s still the next steps…

  1. Assemble board, test. If all is good, go to step 2, otherwise investigate, revise, order new proto, wait to weeks and repeat.
  2. Schedule time with the fab boys at the school. Sit down and draw up modified housing with tweaks for easier molding.
  3. Rapid prototype modified housing and test. If it doesn’t work right, go back to step 2.
  4. Investigate injection molding quotes with modified design.
  5. Investigate board assembly quotes.
  6. Order up, pay out the ass, and wait many weeks for the stuff to arrive.

Long road guys, but I’m walking it. I’ll post up how the new proto goes when it shows up.

Picked up the boards yesterday, assembled this morning. Popped it into the Astro City, and, well, it didn’t work too good. Left seemed good but the others were kinda unresponsive. Take the board in back, test it with the multimeter, and it still seemed like there was light from other LEDs interfering, even with the housing on. So, I took the housing and some of my girls black nail polish, and painted the walls so they’d be more opaque than the plastic of the housing. Four coats later, pop it on the board, put it into the astro city, and, well damn. It fucking works. I’m pulling SRKs off with no problem, no random activations, no problem activating what I wanted, nothing but a distinct lack of clickiness. Looks like my major problem for a while now has been the lack of opacity in the housing. Now that I know that, I get to move to step #2 of the list above.

That’s fantastic news man, glad to see you make some serious headway.