Modding your Advance Fighter stick?

ChurchOfSolipsism · Post by **ChurchOfSolipsism** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 1:52 am

I still have the "Advance Fighter" joystick ("THE POWERFUL STICK FOR FIGHTING GAME"

) lying around here, and I have to say that it's complete shit. Yeah, what did I expect.

For reference:
http://www.goldenshop.com.hk/AI-trad/ps ... ighter.htm
http://www.hardcore-gamer.net/tienda/po ... p/pID/1712

Now, I was wondering if it makes sense/ whether it's possible at all to put a good Seimitsu or Sanwa stick into that thing? Has anyone ever tried? Can you recommend doing it? Lucky guesses are welcome... I want a good PS2 stick, but I don't feel like spending a lot of cash on one as I'm pretty broke right now. Slap a cool new faceplate on it and bam, I got myself a cool stick.

If you take this thing apart it's probably impossible to put it together again....

LuckyDay · Post by **LuckyDay** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 4:03 am

It's got to at least open up. I doubt it would be sealed for good.

But shit, for $23 bucks you might as well give it a shot.

Measure the holes, if you get 30mm (sanwa, seimitsu), or 28mm (Crown) you've got an easy fit for the buttons.

The stick is always the hard part, but again, for $23, just get your drill out and go start firing.

ChurchOfSolipsism · Post by **ChurchOfSolipsism** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 2:38 pm

Cheers man, I think I'm gonna try it. Thing is, I could live with the buttons - the stick, however, is a catastrophe. Ah well, nothing like an impossible task for my first joystick mod ey?

LuckyDay · Post by **LuckyDay** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 4:25 pm

It does also look like a pretty weird layout. Never seen the buttons have that rise to them.

ChurchOfSolipsism · Post by **ChurchOfSolipsism** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 5:49 pm

LuckyDay wrote:It does also look like a pretty weird layout. Never seen the buttons have that rise to them.

It even has TWO trackballs... hot damn....

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 7:50 pm

it's also known as the Saulabi (sp?). the parts and layout are korean. most people buy these and mod them with fanta sticks and crown buttons. i don't know too much about korean parts so i can't be of much help. the tekken community seem to like these parts alot though.

LuckyDay · Post by **LuckyDay** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:37 pm

There is a guy on the Shoryuken forums named Laugh that sells Korean parts.

So if the Fantas fit in them, you can get one over there for $20 plus shippin.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 11:52 pm

That reminds me...Szycag gave me a wireless version of the second one that I still need to mod. They accept Sanwa buttons readily and will accept a JLF.

ChurchOfSolipsism · Post by **ChurchOfSolipsism** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 11:10 am

Thanks people, but I'd already found that thread at SRK. After reading up on Korean sticks and buttons and finding out they're not supposed to be that good for shmups I went for a Seimitsu stick. I hope getting it in is not gonna be as difficult as getting the cheap stick out of the board. They glued the top to the stick so I had to take the stick apart - with a hammer.

Not sure if I should get new buttons; the old ones feel rather crappy, but they work fine for me. Also, the soldering looks complicated to me and because I'm a total noob I'm afraid if I take out the old buttons I'm not gonna be able to get the new ones in

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 1:58 pm

ChurchOfSolipsism wrote:Thanks people, but I'd already found that thread at SRK. After reading up on Korean sticks and buttons and finding out they're not supposed to be that good for shmups I went for a Seimitsu stick. I hope getting it in is not gonna be as difficult as getting the cheap stick out of the board. They glued the top to the stick so I had to take the stick apart - with a hammer.

Not sure if I should get new buttons; the old ones feel rather crappy, but they work fine for me. Also, the soldering looks complicated to me and because I'm a total noob I'm afraid if I take out the old buttons I'm not gonna be able to get the new ones in

post some pics of the insides and take some measurements of the button holes. if the buttons feel crappy theres no sense in keeping them.

ChurchOfSolipsism · Post by **ChurchOfSolipsism** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:02 am

Ok, I managed to put the new stick in. Had to drill holes, remove a couple of plastic dowels (?) and shorten a pcb's feet because it got in the way. Now, all that's left to do is somehow solder the stick's pins to the joyboard's pcb - apart from giving the joystick a new look about which I'm still undecided at this point: on the one hand, it would sure make a lot of sense to simply go to a copy shop and get a big-print out of a brilliant Ketsui wallpaper I found, glue it on top of the thing and get transparent buttons with parts of the print-out put in. On the other hand, I'd love to paint a pic on the stick myself, something like this: http://www.ardnut.co.uk/mslug/

Anyway, unfortunately, I've made a very stupid beginner's mistake: I didn't take any pictures of the insides of the board before starting to take it apart, so now I don't really know where each pin goes (or, as a matter of fact, which of the stick's pins does what). Here's what the pcb looks like:

The shitty built-in stick was connected to the pcb via a plastic plug, but I guess I can just as well solder the Seimitsu's pins to the top of the pcb. Question is, where does each pin go? (in case you can't read the signs next to the pins, they say AD, AR, AL, AU, and 3,5V)

Another stupid question: does anyone have any idea what this thing is supposed to do:

Initially, it rested right underneath the original stick/ was connected to it before it broke off; the wire went to one of the two (!) trackballs' pcbs. ?

As always, cheers to anybody who gives a fuck.

brokenhalo wrote: if the buttons feel crappy theres no sense in keeping them.

I hear ya, but right now I simply cannot afford even a meagre 30 Euros for new buttons. Still kinda on the dole...

oxoid · Post by **oxoid** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 4:05 am

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n105 ... ystick.jpg

The shitty built-in stick was connected to the pcb via a plastic plug, but I guess I can just as well solder the Seimitsu's pins to the top of the pcb. Question is, where does each pin go? (in case you can't read the signs next to the pins, they say AD, AR, AL, AU, and 3,5V)

I would assume that each letter after A is for direction, though there should also be a ground wire there. Do you have a bigger picture of the entire pcb?

Another stupid question: does anyone have any idea what this thing is supposed to do:

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n105 ... ckball.jpg

Initially, it rested right underneath the original stick/ was connected to it before it broke off; the wire went to one of the two (!) trackballs' pcbs. ?

As always, cheers to anybody who gives a fuck.

Looks like a rumble motor, you should be able to toss it without any problems.

ChurchOfSolipsism · Post by **ChurchOfSolipsism** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 4:20 am

[quote="oxoid"] Do you have a bigger picture of the entire pcb?
[quote]

Here you go:

oxoid · Post by **oxoid** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 8:42 pm

From that picture it looks like the 3.5V line is the common ground line.

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 11:32 pm

oxoid wrote:From that picture it looks like the 3.5V line is the common ground line.

i concur. best bet for soldering is to take a small piece of very fine sandpaper and use it rub the coating off the traces (they coat them in some sort of varnish to help isolate the boards) so that you are looking at nice shiny copper. now plug the pcb in and fire up your console. take a small piece of wire, strip each end and use the wire to jump between what we assume is the ground trace and the other directional traces. the direcions should be labeled correctly hopefully (AD=down, AL=left etc.) but better to test and make sure then to have to desolder later. after you have the directions and ground sorted, solder your joystick lines right to the shiny exposed traces.

ChurchOfSolipsism · Post by **ChurchOfSolipsism** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 1:41 pm

brokenhalo wrote:
oxoid wrote:From that picture it looks like the 3.5V line is the common ground line.
i concur. best bet for soldering is to take a small piece of very fine sandpaper and use it rub the coating off the traces (they coat them in some sort of varnish to help isolate the boards) so that you are looking at nice shiny copper. now plug the pcb in and fire up your console. take a small piece of wire, strip each end and use the wire to jump between what we assume is the ground trace and the other directional traces. the direcions should be labeled correctly hopefully (AD=down, AL=left etc.) but better to test and make sure then to have to desolder later. after you have the directions and ground sorted, solder your joystick lines right to the shiny exposed traces.

Cheers guys, I'll try it!

ChurchOfSolipsism · Post by **ChurchOfSolipsism** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 7:23 pm

Oh Jesus Christ. Seems like I am destined to make an ass out of myself forever.

Tried to find out which of the pins of the Seimitsu LS-32-01 does what. It has 5 pins of which one is the ground line (the yellow wire in mine), at least I'm quite sure it is. Now I was sure each of the remaining four ones is connected to one of the four direction micro-switches, so every single one is one direction (up, down, left, right). Turns out I was wrong: when I connect the yellow wire (the uppermost pin if you look at the Seimitsu from below and the pins face right) to the ground of the joyboard's PCB and the orange one (the lowermost) to the "up"-pin of the PCB, I get Metal Slug's Marco to look up when I move the joystick up. So far, so good, but I have no idea how the rest of the pins are wired:

If I connect the yellow wire/ uppermost pin to the ground of the PCB and touch the different direction pins of the PCB with the Seimitsu's black wire (the third pin from the top), I get left/ right/ up/ down responses, depending on which of the pins I touch - but only if the joystick points in the upper-right direction?! Same for the green wire/ 4th from the top pin, only I have to move the stick up-left. I don't get any reaction out of the red wire/ second from the top pin at all.

I would be grateful if anybody could point me towards a website or thread, maybe on another forum, with lots of pictures, where it is explained how you wire a Seimitsu LS-32-01 to a PCB or tell me how it works. Searched Shoryuken as well and different other messageboards, but to no avail. Thanks...

LuckyDay · Post by **LuckyDay** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:01 pm

You need to rotate the PCB on the stick.

Take the restrictor plate off, slide the PCB off, and rotate that so that when you put the stick in your case the directions correspond correctly.

The directions of the switches are based off which direction the 5 pin is facing.

LuckyDay · Post by **LuckyDay** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:09 pm

Here is a diagram.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a141/ ... 31b058.jpg

ChurchOfSolipsism · Post by **ChurchOfSolipsism** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:10 pm

LuckyDay wrote:You need to rotate the PCB on the stick.

Take the restrictor plate off, slide the PCB off, and rotate that so that when you put the stick in your case the directions correspond correctly.

The directions of the switches are based off which direction the 5 pin is facing.

I'm not sure if that's the problem. If I connect the uppermost and the lowermost pins of the stick to the joyboard's PCB, I get a clear signal if I press up on the joystick. However, for two of the other pins I only get a response if I press up-left and up-right, and correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this mean that two of the stick's micro-switches get activated instead of just one? And why is it that one pin apparently doesn't do anything?

LuckyDay · Post by **LuckyDay** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:14 pm

Well I believe you have to have all pins connected for each switch to work as the ground is common among all four switches. But I'm not sure on that.

Are you just testing a few directions at a time, or have you clipped all of the wires on and then tested it?

ChurchOfSolipsism · Post by **ChurchOfSolipsism** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:24 pm

LuckyDay wrote:Well I believe you have to have all pins connected for each switch to work as the ground is common among all four switches. But I'm not sure on that.

Are you just testing a few directions at a time, or have you clipped all of the wires on and then tested it?

Haven't clipped all of them on, just testing them individually/ one at a time. I'd hate to intrude upon your time even further, but you really think this makes a difference? because if you do I'll simply try soldering all of them on.

LuckyDay · Post by **LuckyDay** » Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:31 pm

I'm not entirely sure if it will work, that's just the feeling I get. It is curious that you're getting diagonals.

Instead of soldering it would be easy to use a twist connector to connect the wires in a way that's not permanent.

You can also bypass the harness completely and just wrap the wires around the pins on the PCB itself if you're using a wire that's small enough. Just for testing purposes of course

To be honest you might have a better response on the SRK boards by posting the question in there. There are a lot more custom stick builders over there compared to here.

ChurchOfSolipsism · Post by **ChurchOfSolipsism** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 9:57 pm

Just for the record, I clipped all of the wires on but the stick/ pins behave in exactly the same way....

Posted the problem at other forums, but no answers yet.