Wouldn’t it be pretty trivial to design the PCB such that the voltage regulator circuit could be bypassed with a simple blob of solder? That way those who don’t need it wouldn’t have to pay for it.
so toodles, you are using a photo transistor? Okay, I guess I’ll try it with a photo transistor… just need the IR LEDs now.
Anyways, about the plastic top, I honestly don’t think that’s a good idea. The volume that you require to make the price cheaper is ridiculous and I think the benefits aren’t worth it. I’m sure you can find some place to stick standoffs and heck, you could hold the standoffs with hot glue if you can’t find rooms for screws.
Anyways, I’ll get back to you on how well this works out once I get my IR leds. One quick question, do you go (going in a circle): sensor sensor sensor sensor IR LED IR LED IR LED IR LED or do you go sensor IR LED sensor IR LED sensor IR LED sensor IR LED.
already designed that way. 
So, so far my tentative order may quite possibly set me back $600?
I won’t have any numbers of any kind until I shop around for quotes on the housing. To do that, I need to model it in an STL file. The whole point of this thread was to get an idea of expectations so once I have all of the numbers in front of me, I can make the call about getting X number made.
I’ll post back what we’re looking at as soon as I have all of the numbers in front of me.
You’re right, my bad. Sorry. 
Blinksale would let you take orders, and invoice out via paypal when everything is ready to go. Makes life a bit more simple keeping track, since well…you’re going to have many people interested if you get this to work.
I suggest you take up a pre-order pool to cover your early parts cost. $5 donation from each interested party would at least take a chunk out of that hurt.
I am not of much help in the CAD department, however if you hunted down a local ITT school, I’m sure you could find someone that would knock it out for you dirt cheap.
Im getting SolidWorks whipped into shape, so the STL file should be done by tomorrow, then comes some painful quoting and working with the fab to smooth, roundout, whatever modifications they need for easier molding.
He’s a shot meant to show off the view so far, but has measurements if anyone wants 'em. http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6263/sdrulesly7.png
To anyone who thinks this is easy to do: :arazz:
question about the dc-dc convertors you’re talking about. I have 2 flash sticks in agetecs that i customized myself for ps2 and i dont use the convertor. point is my sticks have been perfection for 2 years now. What is the actual benefit of having this convertor in there? Is it related to the type of controller pcb one is using cause im using a PS1 dual shock A-series.
Let me know cause im curious about this. oh btw i would buy your kits in a heartbeat if ur successful so good luck. I remember how much i paid for my flashs’ so putting down $50 for one of your kits is something i would do easily.
If they work fine for you, awesome. Some people have difficulty with p360’s and flashes on 3.3v, so the DC-DC converter makes sure it gets the 5v its expecting. If yours works with your setup, don’t sweat it.
2 prototype pcb’s ordered and should be here soon.
hey toodles, I’m probably going to take you up on that offer of the dc dc converter. I’ll let you know what I need/want happen on my 360 once the time comes.
Just a note to let y’all know where I’m at, and keep things ordered in my head.
The two proto pcb’s should be here sometime this week. I have all of the parts here to assemble, but the only thing to use for the housing is from my original flash. It’ll have to do, but that means I should know if the measurements for the pcb shape are accurate enough to go into a JLF as planned, and that the measurements for the placing of the receivers and transmitters is accurate enough for use.
The Max631 I had originally planned on using on the flash board itself hasn’t done too well on the tests I’ve put it through, so I’m going to go back to the max731 or max751. It requires a couple more components, but worked reliably last time I used it. Because of the extra components, I dont think I can get it on the flash pcb. I’ll try, but the DC-DC converter may have to be a separate part. I should be able to fit the DC-DC converter layout in the big ass hole in the middle of the flash so cutting out the hole gives me a DC-DC board ready to go, and at no cast than the flash by itself would be.
Getting the housing molded is pretty much out of the question. All of the fabrication houses I contacted quotes $7,000 for the machining of the initial mold, and $1.50-$3.50 per piece molded. Unless someone wants to order 1,000 pieces, it ain’t gonna happen. So instead I bought a CNC mill, and will try my hand at milling them out. The mill should arrive in about one month, and will take a little bit of time to figure out how to use properly. The upside is that I no longer have to worry about having a pcb fab shop mill out the odd shape; I can do that myself. The downside is I am now out am additional $1,000. But oh the fun I will have with that machine :nunchuck:
Adjustments to the pcb are planned, such as having both 2.54mm and 2.5mm spacing holes for the connectors, in case people want to use connectors other than the JST ones, or want an easy way to solder wires to the board.
Thanks for making the sacrifice Toodles on getting dat machine. Us as in we, can’t wait!!!
Toodles
You got PM buddy.
Really hope this works out cause I just borrowed a flash and it is simply a million times better than a switch based JLF. Flash on an octagonal gate registers properly unlike (for me at least) an octagonal gate on a switch PCB. The octagonal gate then gives the natural circular movement which makes the stick feel 100x better than square to me.
I can do things like half circle x 2 supers off of stand shorts in cvs2 and do 10+ pretzel raging storms in a row without screwing up, that’s all I ask for really, a stick that as long as I did the motion right and fast enough, registers properly. Absolutely no way I can do the same on my old switch based square gate jlf.
Make it work! Cause I can’t hold on to this flash forever :(.
Will do my best. I need those prototype PCB’s before I can go any further, and those are taking longer than I expected. I may not have those until the end of the month. sigh
At least it gives me time to work on the universal pcb
If there’s anything I can contribute, let me know. Electrical engineering isn’t my strong suit (I did go to the trouble of downloading “Rocky Boot” and was thinking of giving that a go. :)).
Heck, at this point I’d almost be happy to just have some sort of multiplexing switch to where I could press a button and switch input sets. I have 4 players on my control panel, each with 8 fire buttons, start button, and coin switch. That’s 14 inputs plus ground (should it need to be isolated…). I’m thinking there’s got to be a way I can multiplex that so that I could easily set up a pushbutton switch to go between inputs, but the logic escapes me.
I got to the point in my brain that perhaps I should ditch using my IPac4, use hacked psx pads across the board, and then I could just multiplex 5 conductors per player, perhaps using a hacked svideo switch, but that gets ugly (and expensive!) in a hurry. :\
man i told you flash is the best… with octagon too. man and yeah you can hold my shit forever… but i dont need it so for a good while.
The support is much appreciated guys.
Numbski, make a thread detailing what you have and what you’re trying to do and I’ll see if theres anything I can do to help.