Possible Arcade stick mod.

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LeeMan00
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Possible Arcade stick mod.

Post by LeeMan00 »

Do you guys think its possible to mod
Image with good parts (Sanwa, etc)?

Edit: Figured I'd add more information. I already have a TE, but having two good Arcade sticks would be great for offline play, and I genuinely like the layout that the Virtua Stick has.
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Killer French Bread
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Post by Killer French Bread »

Those buttons look tiny compared to standard 28 ml Sanwas and because of how close they are together it would make widening the holes difficult. It also loks like it is curved, which would make putting most buttons, like Sanwas 30s with a lip round the edge, even harder. Dunno about the joystick part, strip everything out and it might be possible to just screw through the plastic or superglue one on if you're really determined, but as the body of the unit in general looks quite shallow it might not be deep enough to put a stick in.

This is all speculation, I had the japanese virtua stick which looks like this:

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t95/ ... S-0136.jpg

Don't have any pictures of the one I modded anymore, but I made it into a dreamcast stick with seimitsu parts, only really hard part was filing the button holes to widen them.
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Post by LeeMan00 »

Yeah, a Dreamcast stick mod is what inspired me to ask. I've never actually done a mode like this, so that's why I was wondering if it could be one/had been.

I wish I already had the parts to see if I could do something, though, to be honestly, I never thought about the fact that its curved being a problem when it comes to putting buttons in, though I thought the shape might make it hard/impossible at all.

I'd still like to give it a try, though if it isn't' meant to be, I"d be more than willing to get a Japanese Virtua stick, which looks a lot better, familiar, and mod friendly.

Edit: Though that may be a while to get a Japanese one due to finding one (not sure where to look) and the price I'd assume.
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Post by Killer French Bread »

You just want to lok for something with roughly arcade standard size buttons, which is just under 3cm, some cheaper sticks use slightly smaller buttons but you can widen the holes with a file or dremel so that's not such a problem.

The other main things to look for are a flat surface and deep body. I remember 4 or 5 years ago whern I used to go on the shoryuken forums people would make sticks out of cardboard boxes and fold up chess sets because they had those qualities.

Which also reminds me, the japanese virtua stick is also a bit shallow, and I had to put loads of washers in to raise the height by a few millimetres to stop the stick scraping. I remember a good stick for modding being the nubytech Street fighter anniversary stick, mainly because it's an absolute hulk. I wnent and bought one, stripped all the innards out then couldn't be bothered to put anything back in, so in effect I paid fifty quid for a chipboard box! I mght finish it one day. The dreamcast agetec stick is also good for modding if you have a dremel tool that can cut out the plastic moulding that keeps the original stick in place and widen the button holes, which isn't too bad as you don't have to hack a DC pad circuit board with that stick to compensate.
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Post by LeeMan00 »

Your words are wise, and I thank you (but am not really done asking questions :x).

So if I started with Saturn pad, could I had its circuit board, and say, a shoe box, and make an arcade stick? Its an idea, though I might need a more practical sort of "box" to use. I've seen an arcade stick inside a Xbox 360 shell.
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Post by Killer French Bread »

You could technically use a shoe box, but I'm not sure if it would stand up to the rigours of long term use very well. The ones I've seen were more of a fun idea. Perhaps if you reinforced the lid it would work. If you got some really thick card to put under the buttons and stick that would help a lot. You could make a box if you got some cheap chipbard from a DIY store and glued it together with some wood glue. Doesn't have to be fancy: four sides, a lid and a bit you could unscrew underneath.

I've not hacked a saturn pad myself but I have hacked dreamcast pads and that was quite straight foward, you just scrape a bit of the black paint away from the contacts and solder from the pad to the buttons you want. I think I daisy chained the other contacts on the buttons up and wired them to earth (which was any part of the pad's circuit not connected to a button). The soldering itself can be tricky, but the theory is simple once you figure it out.

Remember if you made a stick out of a shoebox you could always easily reharvest the pieces from it once you get a better box type thing and you'd have the knowledge of how to mod too.
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Post by LeeMan00 »

I'll keep those things in mind, once I get some funds, I'll have pics of my process (though this could be next month or later, but hopefully this year).

Thanks Bread.
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Post by Kaito-kun »

I genuinely enjoyed reading through this thread.

Even though my knowledge of electronics meant that I had no idea what you were talking about at times it was still a nice read.
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Post by LeeMan00 »

I don't really know much either, so it'll end out amazing or end out a terrible waste of time and money. Either way, I wanna try!!
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Post by Killer French Bread »

May as well. You can't really break the parts you buy unless you're really cack handed and can always unsolder everything and start again. I have fried a PCB before for a 360 pad, but it's not hard to find more of them.

You could probably get much better help from another site that is dedicated to this kind of thing, but if you have a go I'll try and help you if I can.
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