Saturn stick

[juggernaut]

HI guys.
Been looking for a nice shmup stick for my Saturn. Already searched the forums but without any luck, so here goes.
I have seen the HSS-0136 which is a great looking stick. Been told that its a nightmare to modify, so what are my options to get a great stick? Purchase the 0136 and modify it, or are there any other sticks out there worth checking out?
I saw the HSS 0130 on SMJ. It was sold for 8500yen but the shipping is a killer i guess. But what about the hardware? Same as 0136?

Thanks.

[beatsgo]

May I suggest the Hori Fighting Stick SS? The stick itself is pretty balling; nice short throw distance plus the push buttons are replaceable with 30mm snap-in sanwa or seimitsu buttons though requires some cutting and soldering.

[juggernaut]

Thats a stick i haven't thought about. Simply because its so heavy = insane shipping prices. Unless i can find something in the UK or just inside the EU.
Does there exist some kind of stick comparison of these 2?

[moh]

i would recommend building your own stick!

all you gotta do is defile an old third party saturn controller, and buy the parts from your local arcade part retailer =]

[juggernaut]

Seriously? Never thought of that. But which stick is preferred for that kind of surgery? Will any stick to the trick?

Thanks.

[lrdr]

He means make your own from scratch.
Basically you'll need to take apart an old controller, solder the relevant bits to some wires, and then connect them to the joystick and buttons. Personally I use a Sanwa JLW (which I modded with a bit of rigid irrigation pipe for a shorter throw) joystick and Sanwa 30mm buttons, held together in a clip-together lunch box like this one - which was originally going to be a temporary housing but it's sturdy enough that I probably won't bother making the change.
It sounds complicated but if you've got a power drill, the right drill bits, a soldering iron and a couple hours to kill it's surprisingly easy. This tutorial will give you a good idea of what needs to be done.

[beatsgo]

Slagcoin has a very through guide and details on building a controller. From what I've seen on the PCB section, the Sega Saturn MK-80100 is an easy controller to solder onto.

[Aguilar]

I can vouch for everything beatsgo said. Whoever told you the 0136 is hard to mod is lying. Its just as easy to mod as a standard saturn controller. The only thing is you mess up the awesome stick art thats on there. I have a full seimitsu 0136 and after a little machine shop work on the top metal control panel, I had the thing working within an hour.

However, the hori IMO is a better quality stick. Sleek, low profile. Full of awesomeness. Its easy to mod as well.

[antime]

If you don't want to hack up a controller the Saturn's pad protocol is simple to implement yourself in a microcontroller. The connector can be taken from a joypad extension cord which are cheap and plentiful.

[beatsgo]

If you don't want to hack up a controller the Saturn's pad protocol is simple to implement yourself in a microcontroller. The connector can be taken from a joypad extension cord which are cheap and plentiful.

GameSX has the pinouts and truth table concerning the data spewed out of the data lines when certain switch lines are on/off. This schematic shows connections between two 74153 to buttons and the joystick to replicate a sega saturn controller. That or use a microcontroller to replicate the characteristics of a sega saturn controller.

[antime]

Just for reference that schematic is incorrect in that pin 4 is an I/O pin, not power. It's used in the more complex data protocols with eg. the analog pad.

[Androigynous]

I modded one of these http://www.amazon.com/Wii-Tatsunoko-Cap ... B0032ISZL8 for the saturn and it works really well. It's a good foundation if you're not looking to build from scratch. It's also very easy to replace the parts with a better brand like sanwa. I've been using all the original parts for a while, everything stock is actually good. Although for shmups I'd recommend replacing the joystick, which I'll probably do soon.

I'll also cosign what beatsgo said about the MK-80100. It has these wings that you can take off and it leaves you with this tiny pcb that you can stick into almost anything .

[beatsgo]

Just for reference that schematic is incorrect in that pin 4 is an I/O pin, not power. It's used in the more complex data protocols with eg. the analog pad.

Ah yeah, you're right about that. It took me awhile to figure out which pin you're talking about.

[beatsgo]

Double post....

Here's the corrected schematic for the "Make your own Sega Saturn PCB" Source

[antime]

It'd be better to name J1.6 something other than 5V, in case someone tries to apply the circuit to some other design. For reference, the official pin names from the Saturn hardware manuals are (top to bottom):
GND
L
R
TL
TR
TH
U
D
Vcc