Hey Toodles,
I’ve been given a brand new Spark to install by a customer, however when opening the packet I found that the black plastic shell had come away from the PCB. It doesn’t seem to snap back into place so how does it stay on?
The gate keeps it in place. It does not snap on.
Thanks dude.
Still love my SPARK! Thanks again Toodle’s for saving me hundreds of dollars on the alternative solution.
Hi Toodles, Congrats on completing this rather arduous project! Feel free to laugh if any of my questions are nonsensical; reading this 20-page, five-year-long thread in a single day is relatively confusing.
I was under the impression you would be selling the Flash through LizardLick, etc., but I haven’t seen them anywhere… Is this due to having your own webstore now? I’m worried about when you might stop selling these due to the amount of manual labour needed. I don’t want to miss out on getting one, but as I understand it you’re offering them with a 30-day warranty, so I’d have to test it out as soon as I received it regardless of whether I felt ready. 
At one point you mentioned a “well-known issue” with XBox 360 compatibility. Is it an issue with 360 consoles (the same one that necessitates dual-mods), or a problem with 360 controllers themselves?
What’s the status re: PS1/PS2, I notice the welcome sheet states they’re not supported. Battery pack/extra power cable still viable/untested options?
Thanks!
- No retailers have expressed any interest in carrying the Spark. By all means, let them know you’d like to see it. As for worrying that I might stop selling them (warning: proof of Toodles’ lack of marketing skills incoming) that isn’t going to happen. There is a lot more labor involved with these to make sure they’re perfect, but I have no intention of stopping. (See? no ‘you must buy now, quantities are limited’. Man I suck at this.
- I’m not sure I understand, could you link me to the discussion about that? There is a problem with using a Spark specifically on BrawlSticks, that can be worked around, and using one on Xbox360 matrixed boards also requires workarounds, but for your normal TE sticks and others, it works quite well.
- PS1/PS2 doesn’t run at 5v, and as of right now, I don’t have any supported workaround.
I mean, I didn’t expect you’d suddenly drop them, but not knowing the quantities involved I could certainly understand phasing them out if it takes too long to start making a profit on them.
As for my 360 question, it took several searches, but I think I found the posts I was referring to:
There’s also this one mentioning Brawlsticks specifically, but as the post/PM you were replying to wasn’t included I can’t infer the complete context:
The last time I thought about buying a new arcade controller it was an NES Advantage. :lol: I recently ordered the 360 WWE Brawlstick and I plan to swap the mechanical bits out. It hasn’t been delivered yet, so I’m still not 101% sure what I’m getting with regards to case feel/ground setup/board revision/etc.
And it’s too bad about the current incompatibility (bad pun?) of Spark + PlayStation 1/2, but I guess I can also pop a Kitty into this stick and run the PS1 games on a PS3, right?
Ah, the ps360 does have a problem in xbox360 mode if the directional inputs are pulled up to 5v; the same thing happened with folks using LED controller boards, Perfect360 sticks, or dualmodded with 5v pcbs. Maybe it’s a weird perspective, but to me that was a ps360 flaw, not a Spark flaw. Either way, yes, there is incompatability with a ps360 + Spark combination that can be fixed a few diodes. Ditto for the Spark+Brawlstick, but Spark+(any other TE board) doesn’t have any problems.
If you ordered a Brawlstick and are looking to install a Spark with it, well, I don’t know if I’d recommend it for a first time modder. To make it work, you’d have to add diodes to the four signal lines between the Spark and the main board. It may well be better for you to get a modder to do it for you. Worse news, the TE Kitty is incompatible with a Brawl stick as well. The electronics in the Brawl stick are a very different from the electronics in the other SE/TE models.
Luckily, my expectations weren’t very high for the Brawlstick - it was “cheap”, had free shipping, and was reputed to be a decent starting point. I guess the “What stick should I buy” thread should be clarified, it says:
Unfortunately I only read the sticky’d post, so I must have missed the ones that said the PCB was also “special”.
No worries about the installation, I’ve been soldering random things together for [S]about[/S] over a decade. 
Any necessary specs for the diodes? I seem to recall you were just using LEDs at one point when you were prototyping.
Anyway, I wasn’t set on the Kitty, I just haven’t read up on many such devices yet - it seemed to be the most suited/recent/fun. Over in the relevant thread you mentioned Kitty could be used as a standalone board. I’m sure I know the answer to this (since it’s built to complement a 360-based controller to begin with), but would it be possible to completely rewire the Brawlstick so a Kitty is the main board and the Brawlstick PCB acts as a typical “dual-mod”? 
If not, would you recommend something that will work? I will mainly use it on a PC so I don’t need it to work with a real Xbox360 - but I assume that functionality is necessary for it to be recognized as a 360 controller in Windows… And for worse or for terrible, Games for Windows is the standard now. To summarise, I would need “Win360”, want PS3, and like PS1-2/GC compatibility. Apologies that this has strayed away from the Spark discussion somewhat!
Nothing really special required for the diodes since the wont have to handle barely any current at all. Any cheap N4148 signal diodes would work. I prefer using N5817 diodes. They’re beefier in size, but they have a sick low Vforward about 0.1v compared to the 4148’s Vforward of about 0.7v. Plus, I have tons on hand, and can easily throw a bunch in with a Spark order if you’ll make a note of it on the order. Wiring is pretty simple; for each of the four signals, connect the cathode (banded) end to the Spark side, and the anode (unbanded) end to the Brawlstick side.
I’m pretty sure a Kitty could be hacked to work with a Brawlstick, there’s no way I could support it or even guide it along. If you’re starting with a Brawlstick base, it’d probably be easiest to just use a ChimpSMD. If you really wanted the older consoles and it was worth the additional wiring, the MC Cthulhu+Imp combo is also an option.
If all it would take to get a Kitty running is a good trace-mapping or changing solder points to match a different chipset, I’m confident I could do that. If it’s a matter of chip logic and the Kitty code would need significant re-programming, not so much.
I’m gearing up to sift through the 401 page, 20026 post Official MadCatz FightStick/Pad thread… 
But any technical discussion you can point me to regarding SE vs. BS boards would be much appreciated. And thanks for the diode info, I’ll let you know about the Spark as soon things come together. Have a nice Tuesday!
Will the Spark work with my old sanwa modded Agetec stick?
Depends on the stick. Probably.
I can go on an answer that right now and say no, it does not work. Trust me I tried.
Any particular reason? The DC board is powered by 5v, so you’re in the clear there. The only part that’s iffy is how the joystick was mounted.
It works with the one I installed it into last week.
Got any pics?
it also worked in the agetec I modded last month… maybe the vcc wasnt connected?
Did it use the ‘four screws through the restrictor plate’ type mounting method? I think you could drill through the Spark PCB and go that route if you were hardcore, but I could see why folks wouldn’t want to do that with the mounting method.
oh hell no I didnt go through the pcb I used the two crews through the jlf base… the spark fit pefect and didnt have any issues… dremel is fix-all…
now that you say that tho… i can see it working…if I get small enough screws to work…
Can anyone point me to a work around for using the Spark with a TE-S Kitty and not have it lose it’s 5v when pluged into older consoles?