Non-rotating stick shafts (disability/charity mod)

[spadgy]

I'm lucky enough to know the team from the wonderful gaming charity SpecialEffect. They help bring gaming (back) into the lives of those with disabilities and those who've had significant accidents. It's all about the right to have fun and escape, letting people enjoy time with – and be on a level playing field with – their able bodied friends etc. SpecialEffect do it through building controllers that combine modded traditional pads and arcade sticks with technology like eye-control and finger movement pads. They can help people with remarkably limited movement. A typical project might, for example, see buttons from a 360 positioned on and around a wheelchair, in the places where the player has movement, however tiny.

And I just got an email from their engineer. They are currently helping a guy who's had a motorbike accident and suffered a fairly significant brain injury. They've built a controller by adding a larger 'handgrip' to a traditional arcade stick, and this guy can capably handle and operate it, but as the thing keeps rotating (thanks to the stick mechanisms shaft rotating) it's still not giving game control level control.

So, can anybody name me a traditional arcade stick that doesn't rotate along its shaft, or a mod to prevent such rotation? I'm spoilt with Seimitsu and Sanwa-type sticks. Anything of that quality but non-rotating would be great. Or do baseball-style sticks ever not rotate?

Thanks! And helping will make you a hero!

[Ed Oscuro]

Wouldn't bodging on a guide rod to the stick / grooves north and south of the mounting plate / points allow sideslip to be reduced significantly?

Alternatively maybe it's possible to make some kind of octagonal bottom for the stick (the part that's usually circular and sits in a well, sorry for the horrible terminology) could work (then you'd just need to lock the other parts to that so it doesn't freely rotate).

[spadgy]

That does sound a reasonable mod. I'll actually try and get the engineer on here, as I make a terrible middleman!

[emphatic]

I have a SUZO 500 with a rubbet grommet instead of a spring for centering the shaft. The friction has the side effect of gripping the shaft. Maybe this can be of use? For pics of the stick, go to my site and search for SUZO,

[spadgy]

Thanks for the tip emphatic. Will do!