Fixing Up some Fight Stick Neos

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Mar 21, 2018
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I recently got two hori Fight Stick Neos in rough shape. They function, but most of the buttons and both sticks need replacing. I can’t seem to find a definitive answer as to what stick and what buttons best fit inside the shell. I’ve seen pictures and videos of people who have modded them, but I’m still in the dark. It was after a few days of looking that I remembered I had an account here(life got tough and I had to step away from all game stuff for a long while).
Does anyone know what would be best? I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for via the search function. But if it was hidden somewhere, I apologize for not being able to find it.
I also plan to hopefully buff out some of the cosmetic damage and have an MVS style overlay made to place on top. Does anybody have a template for the fight stick neo? If not, I could probably make one up
 

Atro

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Hi buddy
I ve modded mine ages ago, but I can tell you that I could fit right away a stick from a PS1 Ascii one. works wonders still today.
 
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Hi buddy
I ve modded mine ages ago, but I can tell you that I could fit right away a stick from a PS1 Ascii one. works wonders still today.

Thanks did the heads up, man. Did you mean one like this? It’s the first one I found on eBay. Is the quality good? ED67FAEA-55FF-413E-874C-98957374AF9D.jpeg


The current controllers I use are a stock base AES stick and the bean shaped one. So similar or better sticks would be nice for this mod/restore.
 

DanAdamKOF

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Sorry for the double-post but I cannot edit my posts.

Also wanted to say, 30mm snap-ins from Sanwa or Seimitsu should work, you may have to bend the legs outwards so they don't protrude against the bottom. Again that worked fine for a Fighting Stick PS.
 

Atro

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Thanks did the heads up, man. Did you mean one like this? It’s the first one I found on eBay. Is the quality good? View attachment 55514


The current controllers I use are a stock base AES stick and the bean shaped one. So similar or better sticks would be nice for this mod/restore.

Nope. it was a flater one.
 
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Interesting, I’ll order one and try it out. Worst case, I’ll repurpose it’s for something else down the line. I figured 30mm Sanwas would be the buttons, and my buddy has a fair amount lying around, so I’ll try those out as well.

In looking into one of those ASCII sticks Atro mentioned as well. If I can get one in the $20 range it might be worth it over ordering a new stick. I’ll do trial and error and post the results.
 
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STUPIDITY UPDATE

I never expected this to be the first update. I left one of the Fight Stick Bro’s at my buddy’s workshop while I was waiting for some of the parts to arrive. In my absence and without my consent, he took it upon himself to butcher my controller because he assumed a stick I was not going to use was the stick intended to go in. But it wouldn’t fit, so he dremeled the screw holes out.
6B1E81A5-1894-41A6-86B6-BFF0FEC3D7C2.jpeg
DB4EA470-E7F1-4D31-8178-BE93C846FAD6.jpeg

Now I have to figure out how to save this controller from not being a useless shell thanks to him. Anyone know what I could possibly do to fix this? I guess I need to measure new screw holes
 
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Neo Alec

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That looks awful. Good luck.

I have one of these sticks. I feature it in some of my videos, but mine's in bad shape too. It seems to have chemical or cigarette burns in addition to the scratches, but I cleaned it and it works great.
 

DanAdamKOF

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I took this approach when installing a LS56 into a Fighting Stick PS before:
Remove the mounting plate from the stick, lay down some masking tape, and use the plate to trace the holes onto the top of the inner plastic layer (measure and check a bunch to make sure you're tracing the holes on straight and not crooked, you want your stick to sit straight after all).
Drill out those holes to fit the screws for the mounting plate, and countersink them until the screws sit flush (doesn't need to be perfectly flush, but it should be close to flush).
Install the LS56 without the plate to the body of the stick.
Swap the Hori shaft and actuator into the LS56 since its shaft is too long. You can shave down the Seimitsu actuator to fit on the Hori shaft if you wish. You could also shorten the Seimitsu shaft but I haven't done this before.
 

DanAdamKOF

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Sorry for the double-post but I cannot edit my posts. Meant to mention, the steps I listed are preceded by Dremeling that inner area of the stick flat (as yours has been), and the holes you trace onto the stick from the plate are the 4 holes that join the plate to the LS56.
 

Bratwurst

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I never expected this to be the first update. I left one of the Fight Stick Bro’s at my buddy’s workshop while I was waiting for some of the parts to arrive. In my absence and without my consent, he took it upon himself to butcher my controller because he assumed a stick I was not going to use was the stick intended to go in. But it wouldn’t fit, so he dremeled the screw holes out.

Kill him.

Now I have to figure out how to save this controller from not being a useless shell thanks to him. Anyone know what I could possibly do to fix this? I guess I need to measure new screw holes

Best guess, replicate the original mounting points with a 3D printed bracket. Alternatively, measure the height of the posts in your unaltered stick housing, and epoxy a few blocks of wood, cut to fit, with holes drilled to take over in the shell that's missing them.
 
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I took this approach when installing a LS56 into a Fighting Stick PS before:
Remove the mounting plate from the stick, lay down some masking tape, and use the plate to trace the holes onto the top of the inner plastic layer (measure and check a bunch to make sure you're tracing the holes on straight and not crooked, you want your stick to sit straight after all).
Drill out those holes to fit the screws for the mounting plate, and countersink them until the screws sit flush (doesn't need to be perfectly flush, but it should be close to flush).
Install the LS56 without the plate to the body of the stick.
Swap the Hori shaft and actuator into the LS56 since its shaft is too long. You can shave down the Seimitsu actuator to fit on the Hori shaft if you wish. You could also shorten the Seimitsu shaft but I haven't done this before.
Thanks for the idea.

I used the plate from the other stick and an unused mailing label to crate this crude stencil. It worked and I got perfectly measured holes drilled into the shell.(picture is crooked because it’s after I drilled the holes and removed it once. The holes themselves are straight)

D5E3129F-7939-4752-AED3-D97F5ED3B75B.jpeg

The problem? The screws are too short to reach the stick now, and the only specialty store in my area that might carry these screws is closed until Monday
 
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Joined
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It’s been over a month, but the saga continues.
A mixture of being busy with life and shipping delays halted work, but I finally got the correct screws (m3 screws if you were curious) and I drilled holes in the plastic shell.

A97DD7BF-D77A-49A4-B9BF-03F2B5FC91C4.jpeg
914138C1-737B-4A9D-B87D-A3BCD16854E0.jpeg

So far it’s looking nice and feeling nice, but I forgot to get an attachment to help me sodder the stick connection; so I’m going to do that on Tuesday hopefully.
So far, thanks to the headache of my friend, and my own trial and error, I’ve wasted about $130 in getting parts, equipment and other mistakes on top of the cost for the stick and buttons. Thankfully I only paid $30 for the non working controller itself.

Hopefully it’ll turn out good when it’s finally usable.

Here is what it currently looks like fully assembled, but non functioning

A27A9495-DE7F-4FCE-A124-3DC5344301D4.jpeg

Here is what it looks like besides the other stick, which is currently stock, but also not in the best working condition

CE208CD7-73C9-48A7-827F-DA30A8018D9C.jpeg
 
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McColbo

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Mar 3, 2016
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Good save on that one!

What was your parts list when all was said and done? Did you end up using the LS56?

I have a wore out Hori as well i'd love to fix up.
 

Bratwurst

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A sheet of black adhesive vinyl would dress up that worn metal plate, but regarding the joystick and button work, great job.
 
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Good save on that one!

What was your parts list when all was said and done? Did you end up using the LS56?

I have a wore out Hori as well i'd love to fix up.

My part list was this:
Ball top-Sanwa LB-35-XX
Stick- sanwa JLF-TP-8YT-SK
Buttons - sanwa OBSF30
Then for the screws to attach the sanwa stick to the case, I used 14mm m3 screws.

Obviously dremeling our the screws holes on the inside is required to make it fit, something I did not want to do, but my friend did for me so I had no choice. The screws under the metal plate aren’t 100% flesh since that was causing the case to bend, but you don’t notice once you screw the plate back.


Good work! how about painting it Black?

A sheet of black adhesive vinyl would dress up that worn metal plate, but regarding the joystick and button work, great job.
I’m exploring options for fixing the aesthetic currently. I was considering measuring the metal plate to make a template that I can share online, but I have no idea how to accurately do that. I was also considering a paint. What would you guys recommend? I suppose more than anything, my adventure with this project should serve to help anyone else in the community going forward. Learning from my mistakes and what not.

I plan to be done with it tonight, so I’ll share results if I can get it working or not
 

McColbo

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I’m exploring options for fixing the aesthetic currently. I was considering measuring the metal plate to make a template that I can share online, but I have no idea how to accurately do that. I was also considering a paint. What would you guys recommend? I suppose more than anything, my adventure with this project should serve to help anyone else in the community going forward. Learning from my mistakes and what not.

I plan to be done with it tonight, so I’ll share results if I can get it working or not

Long term powder coating would be pretty awesome. I kinda like the worn look compared to the fresh ball top and buttons myself.
 
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Long term powder coating would be pretty awesome. I kinda like the worn look compared to the fresh ball top and buttons myself.

It definitely adds character. My main issue is covering up the name, I still want it to say “Fight Stick Neo” on it

Of course, my new issue is that my box of parts for the other stick showed up and it’s missing the yellow button. Now I need to decide if I wanna delay the project or use a different color button
 

Bratwurst

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It definitely adds character. My main issue is covering up the name, I still want it to say “Fight Stick Neo” on it

Powder coat would be sick. You could stencil and spray paint the logo (and whatever other text) back into place. For detail that fine though you'd probably have to cut the lettering out by hand with a hobby knife for the stencil.

I have a vinyl cutting machine, I could cut the logo for you either as a stencil with thin card stock or make a gold vinyl decal, but it doesn't do small text that great so it might have to be made a little larger than it originally was.
 
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shadowsfollow

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Nov 30, 2019
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LS62 with PS14G Semitsu hardware and that stick would be amazing!~

Nothing wrong with Sanwa but I prefer Seimitsu in this application.
 
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I just threw some sanwa parts into my hori stick. When wiring up the buttons I linked all the grounds and hooked it up to the board at button d not realizing that also controls the turbo. Now the switch for button d turbo turns all the buttons on or off. Annoying
 

shadowsfollow

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Nov 30, 2019
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separate the grounds accordingly so the inputs don't conflict, there's a reason for it to be the way it was originally. When there's a common ground line which is most of the time, you can daisy chain grounds all day but when you have different diodes between ground lines and what have you they are "separated" and thus the need for separated ground lines for your buttons. Hope that helps.
 
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