I built a joystick today what did you do? - Modding Thread

[burgerkingdiamond]

The one near me used to have a huge selection of CRTs for cheap. They finally got rid of them though. Now it's all flat screens.

I got a nice 28" Phillips with S-video and component for like $35 and also a 28" Trinitron with S-video for about $70 (a little pricey but it's nice).

[shmuppyLove]

Starting wiring up the PCB for TinyStick.

Since the stick is really really small, I'm not going to use terminal strips, and I also can't use the 18AWG wire I picked up -- it's just too heavy.

So I scavenged some 26AWG stranded wire from a CAT5 ethernet cable I had with a broken connector.



I didn't finish because I didn't have proper tools with me and I was getting annoyed. I was stripping the wires with a utility knife, cutting them with a utility knife, and holding them in place with a utility knife.

I also appear to have forgotten which points are which for the shoulder buttons. Since it's only going to be a 6-button stick, I just want R1 and L1. I think I will wire up R2 and L2 and keep them tucked inside the stick with the quick connectors on them, so I can easily rewire things depending on the game.

[matrigs]

you might want to insulate those solder points with some hot glue. just in case.

[shmuppyLove]

you might want to insulate those solder points with some hot glue. just in case.

Meh they should be fine. The PCB will be secured inside the stick and will be attached to the buttons with QDs, so I'm not worried about tension on the wires.

Stopped at FedEx Office, got the overlay for BrawlStick printed:



79¢ to print and $2.99 for LamiLabel

Edit: Somebody asked me for the full res image, so I figured I might as well post it here so other people can grab it if they like:

http://hyperlame.com/uploads/BrawlstickTemplateFull.png

[shmuppyLove]

A bit more work on TinyStick



Didn't want to mount the PCB directly onto the metal panel (obviously), so I cut a small piece of corrugated cardboard and attached it to the panel with double-sided foam tape. Then I used two very short screws through the cardboard and into the foam tape to hold the PCB in place. Works very well!

I finished soldering the wires to the PCB -- all 8 buttons (10 if you count Start and Select), and the 4 joystick directions, and one ground. I've trimmed and crimped .110" quick connectors onto the 8 button signal wires, still have to do the same for Start and Select, and then the .187" connectors for the joystick.

Still have to figure out how to handle grounding everything. I'm strongly considering one long chain for all the buttons and joystick, but it will have to be really carefully planned. And then there is the box itself, which will need a bit of work in order to accomodate the acrylic top and bottom panels I want to install.

And I've just gotten some new inspiration for the artwork, here's a hint:

[rugdoctor]

I made a jamma interface for the uvc for a fellow forum member.



The setup:



For video, I have the R,G,B,Gnd and H-Sync (since the uvc can output H(C)-Sync via dipswitch) header and a loose V-Sync should he need it. For audio, a female phono jack which he can plug an amplified output signal to.



JAMMA end of business.



Hooked up to JAMMA harness and we have power (whew..)



Beautiful victory!



He is planning to run his uvc in 24KHz mode for his 360 in his new astro city. I think the combination will be smashing.

edit:

And here is the result:



Credit to Emphatic for his blog entry regarding his setup.

[shmuppyLove]

Started a page for the CiscoGun project

http://hyperlame.com/index.php?page=ciscogun

I do have some pics I'll have to put up there, later tonight I guess.

[opt2not]

Put together a quick and dirty joystick out of spare parts I had laying around from a few cabinet restorations. I figured I'd put together a stick for the purpose of having it permanently at the office for the shmuppin' need, as well as using up the spare parts I've been hoarding:



The stick consists of all silent running components: a Wico leaf-stick and IL buttons w/ groovygamegear's silent micro-switches. The leaf-stick is alright, though I still prefer my LS-58's, but hey this was built on the cheap! I had a hacked DC controller laying around, so I threw it in there and quickly wired it up (hence the ugly shanty-wiring).



The box was built a few years ago when I was going to put together a portable old-school (80's style) stick w/ Robotron-ability, but never got around to it. It's made out of MDF, with formica applied to the finish. I will eventually put a second leaf-stick in it, as well as a mini-pac for PC mame, but for now using it for a DC is pretty good.
Not bad for a few hours of work.

[emphatic]

^^Not bad at all!

[shmuppyLove]

badass joystick

That's awesome dude, I love the look of the stick.

Finally got around to hacking on a 20-pin ATX connector I salvaged from a dead power supply for the CiscoGun.



Gonna test it out tomorrow, hopefully it works and doesn't blow anything up

[matrigs]

pretty ambitious evening :



not only finished an adapter so i can connect my 8pin psu to the 5pin din port on the extron super emotia but also made a bnc - scart cable.

scanlines galore. mushi and ketsui look absolutely fabulous on my old crt telly.

[shmuppyLove]

Gonna test it out tomorrow, hopefully it works and doesn't blow anything up

Hrmm ... it works perfectly with my Strider 2 board, but not with my MVS. So it's wired correctly, but maybe not enough current?

At least the picture quality looks quite a bit improved over the PC power supply I was using before.

[man9child]

What type of MVS? Is it a multislot? I believe those draw more power.

You should probably check the voltages on the 5 and 12 lines anyway.

[shmuppyLove]

What type of MVS? Is it a multislot? I believe those draw more power.

You should probably check the voltages on the 5 and 12 lines anyway.

Just a single, MV-1F.

I haven't got my multimeter with me, but I can check it tonight and see what's going on. I wish I had one or two more PCBs I could check it with, but as I say the ZN2-based Strider 2 works perfectly, sound and everything, so I think generally everything is fine.

I have a slightly larger PSU I pulled from an HP small form factor PC that I'm sure will work ok, but it's too large to mount internally in the CiscoGun so I might have to go with a picoPSU after all.

[matrigs]

yey. had a dead tv tuner lying around, thought i'd try to stuff the ebay-scaler into it and tidy up stuff a little.







just have to route component in and vga in.

also - the buttons at the front actually work with the scaler - the one on the left is the "menu" switch, the two
with the arrows are up and down. an additional input change button is behind the flap. there is also the on/off switch.
maybe i'll add another switch for adding scanlines. oh and a status led would be nice. of course it would be awesome
to use the lcd screen but that's pretty much impossible i guess.

the empty space in the top art is reserved for the psu power brick. fits in snuggly.

[RGB]

Hrmm ... it works perfectly with my Strider 2 board, but not with my MVS. So it's wired correctly, but maybe not enough current?

How do you connect pcbs to your supergun ? If you use a pre-made harness (off ebay or so) then make sure there are at least 4 quality (large diameter) wires for GND and 5V.

[shmuppyLove]

Hrmm ... it works perfectly with my Strider 2 board, but not with my MVS. So it's wired correctly, but maybe not enough current?

How do you connect pcbs to your supergun ? If you use a pre-made harness (off ebay or so) then make sure there are at least 4 quality (large diameter) wires for GND and 5V.

It's a Vogatek Mk II, so it plugs directly into the PCB (no harness).

I think the power supply is just a tiny bit too weak -- the MVS board is a lot larger, and then of course the carts have a lot of chips as well and another edge connector for the power to go through. The ZN-2 board is a bit simpler and I guess doesn't require as much current.

I'm mostly speculating, but seems logical given the results? The MVS works fine with two other supplies I have, both pulled from PCs and with much higher output.

[emphatic]

also - the buttons at the front actually work with the scaler - the one on the left is the "menu" switch, the two
with the arrows are up and down.

Care to explain (preferably with pictures) where to solder the wires onto the scaler?

[matrigs]

well sure but that's really very common-sense-ish:

if you look at the top:



you have the four buttons. now two legs of a button are connected to ground, two to the chip like so:



yellow ground, red chip.

a button press connects both and voila - something happens.

you flip that bugger over where you have better soldering points (you can solder wores from the top but you'll risk melting the switch with your iron)



now on the flipside the connections look like this



so as you can see you just take one yellow and one red to every of your switches. it doesn't matter which one you'll solder to which leg on your remote switch.

actually - i kinda overkilled it as the whole unit is common ground. so i could actually just take one of the red pins from every button, and wire the ground in serial over all buttons like in a arcade stick.

i hope i somehow covered it ?

[emphatic]

That's a stellar guide! THANKS!

[shmuppyLove]

Trying to get my 360 working

I pulled the motherboard out and power it on with no fans or drives attached. Amazingly it POSTs with no red lights!

I let it run for a few minutes and get really hot. Now it seems to be ok lol.

Truly the worst console ever designed and built, if I had the money I would buy a new S model for sure, these old ones are obviously horribly unreliable.

Edit: so yeah I've been playing Halo 3 for about half and hour now, and everything seems to work fine.

However, the setup is not terribly practical:



I used to see this occasionally when I built and fixed PCs for a living -- seems like the motherboard is flexing when it's installed in the chassis and causing an issue.

I've read a couple of guides that suggest grinding down the two centre standoffs in the chassis to prevent this from happening. Seems a bit extreme, I think I might try not securing the motherboard directly to the chassis instead. With the whole thing assembled, it's not like it's going to shift anywhere anyway.

[shmuppyLove]

Woo woo got the 360 all sorted out thank god.

Had to completely rewire my home theatre setup, because I only had the component cable and my TV only has one component input. Also had a cut a new hole in the back of my stand because the 360 power connector is zomg huge!

So now I've got a 4-way component switch with the 360, my PS2 and DVD player, and I've got a 2-into-1 TOSLINK connector so I can do digital audio out of the PS2 and 360.

I'd love to get my Wii on component as well, right now it's 'only' s-video, but since my fianceé uses it, she'd freak out if I changed it around.

I'd also love to get the SNES, Gamecube and Dreamcast hooked up, I've got another 4-way s-video switch for them, but there's no space

[mrsmiley381]

I'd love to get my Wii on component as well, right now it's 'only' s-video, but since my fianceé uses it, she'd freak out if I changed it around.

Tell her to learn how to operate a television. Do you want to deal with what is effectively your parents for the rest of your life? I sometimes have nightmares about parents calling me because they can't get their cable working. Then I realize that I'm awake and it's actually happening.

I'd also love to get the SNES, Gamecube and Dreamcast hooked up, I've got another 4-way s-video switch for them, but there's no space

There is always space for more consoles. Slap a shelf on top of another shelf or something.

I'm still waiting for Smash TV to arrive. It needs a sound fix, for starters. It might need a ROM upgrade as well. Then, I'll have to wire my audio attenuation circuit in my supergun to be able to test said sound fix. If I'm lucky, and I mean really lucky, it will output fine using my VGA scaler. Smash TV runs at something like 54Hz so it tends to freak out on a number of monitors. Solving that problem ought to be fun.

After that I just need to build custom joysticks. I'm thinking Happ, just to keep things legit.

[shmuppyLove]

I'd also love to get the SNES, Gamecube and Dreamcast hooked up, I've got another 4-way s-video switch for them, but there's no space

There is always space for more consoles. Slap a shelf on top of another shelf or something.

The best I can do is leave the hookups hanging out for the odd time I want to fire them up, we have a really small stand:



I should take a pic with the doors open, it looks pretty good now since I've switched to a slim PS2 and gotten rid of the VCR.

I should be able to get the Wii in there without much difficulty (currently it sits on top of the stand beside the TV), but the problem with SNES, GC and DC is they're top-loading, so you can't stack 'em up at all.

And I definitely don't have space for my supergun setup. It's currently at work hooked up to the 42" LCD

[mrsmiley381]

So my parts came in the mail today from Akihabarashop, finally. Needed Seimitsu button screws for what I was doing, so I just got everything all at once. Sanwa buttons, JLF with octagonal gate, and aforementioned Seimitsu screws. My Green Goblin came pre-modded for JLF insertion (though it needs a little cleaning work), and the replacement thin plexi, dust cover, and art came from Art's Hobbies. Pretty pleased with the results. The worst part was cutting out the plastic surrounding the button underneath.

[matrigs]

Gamecube

Why when you have a wii ?

[shmuppyLove]

Gamecube

Why when you have a wii ?

That's very true ... I guess that's why it's not hooked up right now

[man9child]

GBA player? That's the only reason mine is still around.

[matrigs]

well it's still the sexiest console around so it looks nice on the shelve i guess.

[rugdoctor]

You should see its arcade counterpart (triforce)...its like a frankenstein version of the gc...