Congratulations. Is this going to work with the GT-8f, GT-Y and GT-C or just the last option?
It’ll work with any restrictor, the question I have to answer (that may not get answered until I get some production samples out of the mold) is how sensitive to make it.
It’s a really hard question, too. The TP-MA board has fuzzy areas. Like you may have to move it, say 8mm, from center to activate Left, but Left will remain activated until it goes back to the right 4mm. It’s easy to hear it in a stick so you can feel when it activates and when it deactivates. The Spark doesn’t have that grey area. There’s a very specific point, and any more than that and it’s activated, and any less than that and it’s deactivated. So do I make that point on the Spark match where the microswitch would engage? Where it would disengage? Right in the middle? It’s kind of a tough question. I’ll do my best to set the sensitivity in a way that works well with all three restrictors. We’ll just have to wait and see right now, but I expect my priority will be to make it work best with the square, followed by the circle, and lastly the GT-Y. If making it work well with the square restrictor screws over the GT-Y users, I will, but I’d like to make it work well with all of them.
This is the point where I start to kick myself for wiring sticks with JLF-TMs instead of JLF-TPs. It’d be super cool to see the terminals like the P360 on these 
This didnt happen yet did it? Cant wait to see how this all works out!
Nope. I should be picking up the three extra housings today. Im not sure yet if I have enough of the boards in a spacing that is comfortable to work with, but I’ll figure it out. I’ll definitely post up right here when it happens.
The three housings came in, boards are assembled and tested, and three prototypes are currently up for sale on ebay:
Spark! Optical Sensor Prototype for Sanwa JLF Joystick - eBay (item 290513819536 end time Dec-23-10 09:27:34 PST)
Spark! Optical Sensor Prototype for Sanwa JLF Joystick - eBay (item 290513820544 end time Dec-23-10 09:31:29 PST)
Spark! Optical Sensor Prototype for Sanwa JLF Joystick - eBay (item 290513820616 end time Dec-23-10 09:31:45 PST)
5 day auction, so if you want one, hop on it and win yourself a Merry Christmas!
Shit I better get on this!
Congratulations. I’m still undecided as to whether or not to jump on this.
Q: How hard would this be to install in a Namco stick? Said Namco stick already most of a JLF installed in it.
Depends entirely on how the JLF was mounted. If you did the ‘long screws through the microswitches’, I wouldn’t bother. Honestly, after having a JLF modded Namco for forever, most of the time with a Flash in it, meh, I dont think it would show the Spark in the best light. Namcos, IMHO, are best with the stock parts. I regret the JLF installation on mine.
Thanks you for your insight. The JLF mount is using the long screws and is more of an amalgamation of the JLF and the stock parts.
I wouldn’t worry about it then. The holes the bolts went through likely aren’t present on the Spark.
I wasn’t aware this PCB had a separate power supply prong!
Does the +5V out power supply (the 3-prong) have to be soldered to a PCB? Would it possibly work with a Tekken5 (American) PCB?
(It’s looking likely that I’ll install the replacement PCB in a JLF that I have in one of my T5 bases. I have the original PS2 PCB in that and it’s known for being fairly tolerant. This is probably going to be one of my last non-limited edition joysticks that keeps the JLF. I’m swapping out and selling most JLF’s I have in favor of the Seimitsu joysticks… especially LS-40-01 and LS-32-01.)
IF you didn’t have the PCB to solder it to for power supply I’m wondering if it would be possible to solder/wire this 3-prong line-out to a lithium battery supply… A small enclosure with 5 volts power that you could buy from Radio Shack or some other electronic parts vendor. I know about NOT soldering directly to batteries. Bad stuff happens when you do that… That much I understand!
P.S. – Good luck with sales of those Spark prototypes.
I think they’ll all sell above $30. The first one up for bid is already at $40!
- It has to be connected to a +5v source, yes. Soldering is the best, but not only, way to do that.
- The board is expecting +5v power, so it may or may not work reliably with the 3.3v power coming from a playstation. It’s untested. You CAN use a DC-DC step up converter to up the voltage to 5 volts, like this one:
Power Supplies « Circuits@Home
(aw crap, they dont have any assembled ones for sale as of this writing)
to up the voltage to 5v and it’d work fine on PSX. - Possible, sure, but not as solid a solution as the DC-DC step up converter.
Okay… Gotcha!
Thanks for the quick response!
What you said in Point #2 sounds/feels right to me. I can understand that I want consistent power to the optical PCB!
This wouldn’t discourage me. When I can, I’ll buy the Step-Up converter AND the Flash PCB after you’ve gotten it to more perfected stage. The T5 PCB is well-documented so I’m sure I can locate the right spot to solder for the +Voltage or ask somebody else more familiar with the PCB… I’ve only do straight up mods for Quick Disconnect button lines on that PCB. Nothing more involved than that.
Even if I’m NOT JLF-crazy at this point in time, I wouldn’t mind owning at least 1 piece of this Flash gear!
I bid you adieu, thanks once again for helpful advice to myself and others whom I’m sure may have been wondering the same things,
and IF I figure this in the near future,
Merry Christmas and have a Safe New Year’s!
- GeorgeC.
Damn. When I saw this at work earlier. I was going o bid $65 on it when I get home. I then proceed to check it out and they are at $66. Nice (well nice for the current winner)
I was wondering if you had any plans to just order the circuits@home pcbs and smd components and offer to sell them assembled or as a kit as an option?
I also wanna ask if there will be any way for the final product PCBs to work at 3.3v with a form of DC-DC converter on the PCB, and not needed separately, as the prototypes do. I’m prolly going to sit this one out. As much as I wanna grab one, the project I’d be buying it for probably won’t be finished for a while into 2011, anyways.
Also, I second the question about kits.
oohhh they are all up to $66 in the first day! lol holy shit guys there will be more comin these arent the final three! (cant say shit I bid also haha)
Just imagine what would happen if they were the final three.
Toodles… dont die…
Wouldn’t worry about it… They’re just working prototypes.
Plenty of production models coming hopefully by June 2011. I’m sure not putting pressure on Toodles. I’d rather he gets the Flash PCB near 100% perfected before his factory contact starts mass-producing them. I think he’ll easily sell through his first run – perhaps 50, maybe 100 individuals depending on pre-sales. My guess is that it will be considerably more since both Lizard Lick and Akihabarashop will almost certainly carry this PCB. Their largest joystick sales are still JLF even though many of us (myself included) consider the JLF a less-than-perfect joystick.
I also asked Toodles the same question about +3.3V PCB’s – basically the PS2 stuff and earlier.
I don’t expect the Step-Up converter to be hard to install at all. If it makes mass-production of the Flash PCB cheaper, I really don’t mind buying another component for the mod on my own dime. As long as said component is within reason – hopefully $20 or less although I’d go up to $35 to get this mod done right!
I can deal with it! An HRAP astrocade case certainly has enough space for the gear to spare. I don’t think the Step-Up will be a huge item and the point to solder for the +3.3V shouldn’t be difficult to find. I’m sure it’s diagrammed in the Tekken 5 tutorial. It’s probably just a matter of heating up the existing solder material and just letting the wiring from the step-up sink into and harden at the contact point. Probably don’t have to bother with a soldering braid!
Yep, I’m installing this baby in one of my three T5 joysticks! I’m sticking to Seimitsus in the other two T5’s. Keeping the JLF in the one joystick solely for sentimental. It was my first mod job and the first one I installed arcade-quality parts which included a JLF at the time. I just recently re-installed JLF in that base after months of having an empty joystick pit in its faceplate.
UPDATE: Just got done looking at the Step-Up on the link Toodles provided me.
That thing isn’t even the size of a quarter!
I wonder about the solder points, though, and exactly how you connect this thing. Since it’s a step up, I would think it’s connected between the PCB in-question and the wiring leading from the 3-prong on the Flash PCB. Not difficult to position but it looks like a point-size soldering job! Wiring will definitely have to be cut to connect to the PCB from the Step-Up.
Damn, this thing is cheap, too! $3.00 + shipping.