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

[opt2not]

A while ago I bought these PCB bracket holders to help with quick-swapping of PCBs in cabinets so I finally screwed it onto the wood board that installs into my New Astro City's .

Then, I wired up a yoke-flip harness, for flipping the image upside-down for older PCBs that didn't have that as an option in the dip-switches (like Gyruss). I have two heavy duty switches that handle the horizontal and vertical signal flipping installed under the CP.

And THEN, I finally got around to installing that high-score save kit for my Gyruss board... And voila, Gyruss in a NAC! (Via a jamma adapter of course)



It's nice to have this game finally running in the right orientation on my cab, and having the high-scores saved now, makes it even better.

[klausien]

It's been years since I've posted on this forum (or any for that matter) even semi-regularly, but shmups have remained my favorite genre, and I still lurk as a result. I finally decided to build myself an arcade stick with real arcade parts and wanted to share. It was a rather expensive endeavor, but the finished product has truly exceeded my expectations.

I chose to modify a Hori PS2 Tekken 5 stick with a PSX Dual Shock PCB, Seimitsu LS-58, Seimitsu buttons, and an Art Hong 1/32 plexi. I went with an octo gate on the stick because I also use it for fighters, and a Sanwa bat top as a personal preference (I think it actually looks cooler than the smoke ball top on this particular stick). The only original parts are the cable and the case due to input lag with the Hori PCB on my converter for the original XBox, but that's totally fine with me. I chose the T5 because it was affordable, I intended to modify it from the beginning, it's black, and I love the shape & heft of the earlier HRAPs. Unmodified, it is a terrible stick. Sorry there's no shot of the internals, but I forgot and didn't want to take it apart again.

As you can see, the art is Darius-themed. I photoshopped the artwork using a cool painting of Jupiter's clouds from deviantart, pictures of a Silver Hawk garage kit, and the logos of course. It took some time (especially the rocket exhaust), but it came out awesome. I worked up a version with King Fossil in the button area, but it overed up too much of the background painting and made the artwork too busy. Darius is not my favorite shmup (that would be DoDonPachi or Mushihimesama), but the Silver Hawk is my favorite ship design, and I am a sucker for the psychedelic backgrounds and whacked out Zuntata soundtracks of the series as well. I also wanted to do something out of the ordinary since it was a substantial investment of time and money. The picture is a bit blurry because I took it with my phone, but the art is super sharp in person.

Now I can't wait until my semester is over so I can do some marathon shmupping!

[chempop]

klausien, absolutely love your stick! Welcome back, good to hear that you are still playing shooters.

[undamned]

I built this to be able to debug my UD-CPS2 controller drivers on the go. Rather than lugging around a UD-CPS2 + a TV + my laptop, all I need is this + my laptop:



Layer 1 (AC cell phone charger for 5V DC, RS232 transceiver for serial debug info, switches):



Layer 2 (hacked USB host, lots of wires, more hot glue):



Back (serial port, power switch, AC power jack):



Front (multi-use button, USB port, indicator LED):



In action:



-ud

[opt2not]

^ Handy! Nice job.

Can't wait to see you get those usb-discrete boards to production. I think you'd make a lot of supergun owners happy

[opt2not]

Nothing too fancy, but I'm really happy with my new stick (second Qanba RAF3) because of a few specific reasons, 1. 6-button config (thanks FrancoB for the custom plexi!), 2. made up of spare parts, 3...DAT MUDDAHFUCKIN BEAST BLANKA!



Did the art too. It was a quick clean-up of another drawing I made awhile ago.


I chose SF2T Blanka colours, cause it's the colours I've always played Blanka as, and SF2T was really when I started liking Blanka's game style. I love the 6-button layout, it's like playing on my cabinets. I never really liked the addition of the 7th and 8th button in newer arcade sticks.


It has a bunch of sanwa parts I had spares of, and a spare PS360+ I found sitting under a book on my desk. forgot I had a spare!

Wiring is nothing too fancy, just kept it clean. Didn't bother wiring the Turbo buttons side, 'cause on my other stick I never use them.

[enjirube]

Here is something I have been working on recently. Broken SSIV stick given new life with a PS360+ and some DDP:SDOJ.

[emphatic]

^^Nice!

[Kasbe]

I recently finished modding my arcade stick with Sanwa parts. I chose Sanwa because I also like fighting games and I liked how they feel when a friend let me use his stick a while back. I didn't take any pictures of the insides but I may re-open it soon to grind the base a bit more.

[matrigs]

Made myself some cables so i can finally use my Extron RGB 202 Rxi



D-SUB 15 int D-SUB 9 converter + D-SUB 15 into 3xRCA for SOG Component



5xRCA RGBHV into D-SUB 15 as i have BNC to RCA converter on my Extron ports.

Works like a charm. I just couldn't find some other-coloured RCAs so i have to make myself some small labels which one is which.

[Trevor spencer]

Really like the SDOJ stick

[system11]

Really like the SDOJ stick

Yeah, that one looks beautiful to be honest, and I don't even go for arcade sticks.

[Drachenherz]

After "only" 9 Months, I finally modded my selfmade arcadestick to play on my lovely RGB-supergun. And while soldering the connections, I also finally installed an additional seimitsu ls32 spring on top of the jlf spring. The stick is now super tight and perfect for my shmupping needs.

YESPRADE!







Jippieh, I *am* stoked!

Now on to finally conquering this bitch garra...

[Aubrey123]

I gutted this WWE stick I found used on ebay and swapped in Seimitsu parts. As I was removing sticky residue left behind by The Rock and HHH I scuffed the paint a bit, so I decided to polish the faceplate to see what it looked like although I'll probably end up sticking art on it anyway





Tested it with a Street Fighter II cart I had lying around on the Mega Drive, and B and C were both inputting X. After considerable time checking absolutely everything for shorts, wires in the wrong place both in the stick and the adaptor box I tested the SVGA lead I was using to connect them and found those 3 pins are all connected... The first lead I tried had a pin missing and two unwired, so I bought this one because the listing said "ALL 15 Pins Connected..... Guaranteed!" Well, he didn't lie... but some of them are connected to eachother
I would have seen this coming if I'd read a little about SVGA leads before choosing DE-15 sockets. Does anyone know where I can purchase a suitable cable (preferably male to male)? Or should I just make my own?

[shmuppyLove]

I gutted this WWE stick I found used on ebay and swapped in Seimitsu parts. As I was removing sticky residue left behind by The Rock and HHH I scuffed the paint a bit, so I decided to polish the faceplate to see what it looked like although I'll probably end up sticking art on it anyway

Removing that artwork is a massive massive pain in the ass. Mad Catz made sure it would take some abuse and wouldn't come off accidentally, that's for sure.

I would have seen this coming if I'd read a little about SVGA leads before choosing DE-15 sockets. Does anyone know where I can purchase a suitable cable (preferably male to male)? Or should I just make my own?

I ran into similar problems with HD-15 cables. A lot of them are not wired as you'd expect.

I was finally able to find inexpensive DB-15 leads at 123inkcartridges.ca. They have 6' and 10' lengths in either M/M or M/F flavours
and they're very cheap.

In Canada at least, if you can cobble together a $50 order, they'll even ship for free

[Trevor spencer]

How have you connected the red terminals to the chocolate boxes ? are they ring terminals ?

Thanks

[shmuppyLove]

Huh, I never though of using ring connectors like that on a terminal strip.

I guess it depends on the terminal strip -- I've seen some where the screw is actually recessed when you tighten it, so that wouldn't work too well.

[Trevor spencer]

yeah looks good

[Aubrey123]

Yeah, they're rings. The terminal strips are actually the type with holes in the side where you're supposed to put the wire/terminal in and tighten the screw to hold it, but I cut off the plastic around the screws so I could attach the ring terminals on the top instead

Thanks for the link. These cables look good and they sure are cheap, but they don't offer shipping to the UK. Probably should have mentioned my location before

EDIT: Made my own cable which solved the problem

[shmuppyLove]

Wow I hadn't noticed you used a DE-15 connector ... you must be a masochist

Yaaaay I finally kludged together the parts I'd been gathering for a custom supergun.

- Power is via LP4 molex connector to an ATX power supply
- Video is via GBS-8220
- Controls are DB-15 to a dual-modded Namco PS1 stick
- Sound ... no sound yet, looks like MVS board needs recapping? Also my edge connector is missing one of the sound pins anyway.

So even though I actually have a fully-wired JAMMA harness I purchased, I went the "hard way" and did everything from scratch. The edge connector was free from brendz, I think it was an adapter for something, it had some odd wiring on it. I removed all the original wires and soldered up all my power connections first. Then I did a quickie DB-15 connector with just credit and start (and ground), and then the video RGBS+ground and the +5V and ground to power the GBS-8220. When you go slowly and take each component one at a time like this, it's incredibly easy to do.









It certainly won't win any beauty contests, but it worked perfectly on the first try! And the output from the GBS-8220 is really amazing.





Excuse the poor cell-phone pics, and the video settings need a bit of adjustment as well of course.

Just need to finish wiring up the controls so I can actually play

[undamned]

GET YOUR PCBS OFF TEH CARPET!!!

Serious. It's like an electrostatic fiesta going on and you just laid your sensitive electronics right on top of it.
-ud

[Trevor spencer]

could be anti static carpet

[emphatic]

Maybe it's on a glass table above the carpet.

[undamned]

could be anti static carpet

Maybe it's on a glass table above the carpet.

LIES!!!
-ud

[opt2not]

Today I added an RJ-45 jack to my Qanba Q3 (for use with the PS360+). Now I gotta make a bunch of adapter cables for my old systems.

I had to re-create the port panel, 'cause I didn't want to destroy the original metal one. Using black acrylic, and some dremel work, it turned out like this:





If I had a torch, I could make those cut edges glossy, but oh well...

[nesrulz]

Hi,

This arcade stick I made together with my friend, a few years ago...
A great thing for all arcade games.



http://www.podmornice.com/stick/stick_nesrulz.html

Here's a promo video.
I apologize for the rookie game-playing skill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=treGjcGXi-Q

RGDS,
Miroslav

[shmuppyLove]

Painting the metal shielding on newly-acquired MV-2F

BEFORE:


It was already fairly clean before, but there turned out to be a thin layer of oxidization on top. A slightly wetted Scotch-Brite pad and some elbow grease cleaned it up very nicely.

AFTER:




This is Tremclad's "Fire Red" Rust Paint spray. 2 coats was all it took. Did it outside because spray paint gets everywhere of course, and even though it was quite calm today and I was in a sheltered area, there's still some particles that got stuck, but nothing too bad. After it fully cures in about 48 hours, I might do a very light wet sanding with a high-grit sandpaper to get rid of it, but probably not.

Next step is designing some art or logos for the top. There's always standard Neo Geo/SNK/MVS logos, though I also thought about something more artsy like diagonal white stripes and the 4-colour button layout to match the standard MVS control panel. We'll see I guess.

[emphatic]

Nice paint job, shmuppylove!

[moh]

That turned out really nicely now help me paint my astro

[EllertMichael]

Painting the metal shielding on newly-acquired MV-2F

Next step is designing some art or logos for the top. There's always standard Neo Geo/SNK/MVS logos, though I also thought about something more artsy like diagonal white stripes and the 4-colour button layout to match the standard MVS control panel. We'll see I guess.

Looks great already

just to give you an idea, here's what I did to my shielding: