How to Mod your Hori Fighting Stick Wii

[David G. Farragut]

Ok I thought since I finished this this weekend that I would document it for a little guide for anyone here that might find it useful while I modded the second stick.

If you're doing this you probably have a small bit of modding experience before hand, but if you don't I still think it is doable, my first soldering project was making a Ghostlop cart and I learned as I went along and the first thing I learned was soldering is not that hard. Sure you won't solder like Jeff Kurtz, but you will have working joints. Besides soldering the only other thing you need to know how to do is to take things apart, put them back together, and selectively destroy bits in between.

Like most regular Hori sticks (non-HRAP), this stick is a decent weight, has decent buttons, but has a miserable stick. I had to get it changed out and decided to go with all Sanwa parts, the buttons may not need to be replaced, there is only minimal difference and a lot of work, but I needed my ball top and buttons to match, so they were changed. If this won't bother you, you could save a bunch of work.

Parts you will need.
--Hori Fighting Stick Wii
--Sanwa JLF-TP-8T Ball Handle Joystick, other Sanwa sticks and I've heard that a Seimitsu LS-32 will fit, but keep in mind that this guide was done using the Sanwa JLF-TP-8T, your experience may vary with a different stick.
--8 Sanwa OBSF-30 Pushbuttons, whatever other brand that makes snap in 30mm buttons should also work
--Sanwa GT-Y Octagonal Restrictor Plate, you won't want the 4 way plate that comes with your joystick, so get this or the cornerless GT-0, whatever your preference
--If you want the colors to match as close to the original you want Sanwa's Light Blue color for the ball top and buttons, its a little darker, but goes well.
--16 .110" quick disconnects if you think you can use them, I didn't, I will get to this later
--I got all my parts from www.lizardlickamusements.com I would recommend Chad for all your parts as well, everything was packaged very nice, and he even refunded a small part of the shipping charge that his calculator overestimated. My only complaint is that you may have to watch his site like a hawk to get all your parts in one order. Something will inevitably be out of stock and when restocked another part will be gone. I wish he did backordering but he is likely a small operation so its fine by me.

Tools you will need
--Soldering Iron with Desoldering braid or bulb and some small gauge Rosin-Core solder
--Dremel with a Grinding Stone head to cut screws and shave away plastic, a drill bit was also useful for me.
--Various screwdrivers, pliers, or whatever you have to do the job.
--Wire Strippers would come in handy, I stripped 16 wires with a pair of scissors very carefully because I'm cheap, it wasn't worth it.

Let's get started, Here is what you have.



Turn the stick upside down and remove the 6 small phillips head screws holding the metal plate down. Save the screws and set the metal plate aside.



Desolder the 16 button points on the green PCB board. When that is all done, lift the board gently until they all pop out of the joint. You may have to reheat a few to get them to release.



Now remove the four long phillips head from the joystick body. Save these screws. Then using a flat head screwdriver to hold the stick, twist off the ball top. Save the white dust washer if you're wanting to keep all the colors the same. Unclip the bottom part of the joystick body and remove the joystick leaving just the microswitches and the wires that are still soldered to the board.



Using a flat head screwdriver push in the two clips holding the buttons down. Remove all 8 buttons, they can be discarded.



Now desolder the 8 wires leading from the joystick microswitches to the board. First pick off all the glue you can on the brown side of the board. The glue will probably melt with the heat and make a mess. So once the solder is gone pull on the wire from the other side to get it out. Heat it up a bit if the glue is holding it in. Then clear all the glue out from the hole. I used a needle and thread, stuck it through and twirled it around to push all the glue out that I could.



Now we're done removing parts, everything else is installing parts.

First take your Dremel with the Grinding stone, begin sanding down the two tabs in each button hole. Then you need to make the hole a little bit bigger. Go around a handful of times in a circle widening the hole. Try the button, then repeat, until you can push it in. It will take a bit of force and in my opinion the tighter the fit the better.



Once all 8 buttons are fitted we need to mod the Sanwa joystick to fit.



First remove four screws holding on the metal plate, make sure you get a good phillips head screwdriver to fit or these will strip out easily. Discard the metal plate and screws and black dust washer (unless you want to use it instead of the white one)



Push the tabs in and remove the square restrictor plate on the bottom of the joystick discard if you're changing to an octagonal or cornerless plate.



Set aside the microswitch PCB.



You'll be left with just the upper body of the joystick. If you want, you can remove the e-clip on the joystick to get that out of the way.



Now using your Dremel grind down the two extended sides of the frame so you have a nice square.




Using the Dremel and a cutting head again you need to make the 4 screws we took out of the Hori joystick about 1/2" long including the head or they will bottom out against the overlay.



Now take a drill or dremel with drill bit and you want to sand down the raised posts that the screw will pass through, you also want to widen the hole so that two things can happen, where the joystick meets the case, you want those 4 plastic posts to be able to fit inside the holes you made larger so that the joystick is mounted flush against the case, you also want the other side of the hole to be big enough for the head of a screw to sit recessed inside of it and out of the way of your microswitches.





Screw the four screws down to mount the joystick body, if you removed it, put the stick back in.



Mount the microswitch PCB with the pin connector facing away from the buttons.



Mount the Octagonal gate.



Now move the harness around the top of the joystick through the posts where the controller cable is held in and cut it to length so that the wires will reach the joystick solder points and strip the ends.



The order from top to bottom goes Control Left, Ground, Control Up, Ground, Ground, Control Right, Ground, Control Down. Top in this picture is to the right side.

And if your miscroswitches are oriented like mine, Black is a Ground Wire, Green is Left, Yellow is Right, Orange is Down, and Red is Up.

Solder the wires in from top to bottom, Green, Black, Red, SKIP, SKIP, Yellow, SKIP, Orange.



Now I used to remaining wire from the joystick loom to make 16 small pieces of wire. You can opt to use quick disconnects, maybe bending the pins of the QDs but if you mount them straight up and down they will be too tall for the bottom plate to go back on.

So make 16 equal length small wires strip both ends and solder to the button post first, then starting with the top four buttons get all the ends through the board and solder them down, repeat with the bottom four buttons until everything is soldered.



Go test out the board, make sure everything works properly.

Now put the bottom plate on, don't put the screws back yet. Turn the stick over and just set it flat one a table. Move the joystick around, you should hear it scratch. Do it a little more in all directions so that there is a good mark on the inside of the bottom plate.

You will have to take your grinding stone and thin out the bottom plate in a small square where the stick will make contact it is just a hair too long. You could also grind down the end of the stick as long as you keep the screwdriver slot useable, but I preferred not too and you can get it to fit by just doing the bottom plate.



Now one last thing you will need to do, either coat the bottom metal plate with black electrical tape on the inside, or find some shrink tubing strips and apply them over the joystick and button solder joints. Reason for this is now your board is sort of hanging loose as opposed to being held tight to the buttons earlier. If the solder joints connect with the metal plate they'll ground out and make the button unusable.

Well that's it, there are a few different ways you could do a few things like if you wanted you could drill larger holes for the larger sanwa button pins into the board so they can be soldered in like the Hori buttons without the small wire, but that will be personal preference and minor stuff that you can decide on your own.

This SHOULD work with all the 360/PS3/Wii Sticks out there that are essentially the same non-HRAP sticks, but please double check that everything is the same as you go through as I have only done this on my two Wii sticks.



As always if you Dremel your eye out, I'm sorry but that wasn't in this write-up so...not my fault.

NOTE: Pictures will go up as I finish the second one, and I'll sorta work back through this and edit anything I feel needs clarifying but it is mostly all there. Feel free to ask any questions.

[leehom]

Thanks for the lengthy write up!

I don't fully understand how the Sanwa OBSF-30 Pushbuttons are installed. You have to solder a wire from the buttons to the pcb board? The two metal pieces won't plug right in like the original Hori ones? I was hoping for a smooth/easy solder job.

[alec]

dude, thanks. i've been thinking of taking this project on. i'd probably get more use out of it.

[dark penguin]

Seems like a lot of work when you could just get an HRAP1 or 2 and a GC adaptor, and you wouldn't have to worry about (de)soldering shit for the mod.

[David G. Farragut]

Originally Posted by leehom

Thanks for the lengthy write up!

I don't fully understand how the Sanwa OBSF-30 Pushbuttons are installed. You have to solder a wire from the buttons to the pcb board? The two metal pieces won't plug right in like the original Hori ones? I was hoping for a smooth/easy solder job.

Unfortunately the button posts are larger on the Sanwas so you would either have to drill larger holes in the board or just do the small wire bits.

Originally Posted by dark penguin

Seems like a lot of work when you could just get an HRAP1 or 2 and a GC adaptor, and you wouldn't have to worry about (de)soldering shit for the mod.

That's fine, but really this works as a Classic Controller and that would be working as a GameCube controller, so its a bit different and you'd spend the same amount of money if not more on the HRAP.

[leehom]

Originally Posted by lithy

Unfortunately the button posts are larger on the Sanwas so you would either have to drill larger holes in the board or just do the small wire bits.

Drilling a larger hole in the pcb board isn't a option for me. That's a really big risk I'm not brave enough to attempt.

Is the length of the Sanwa and Hori buttons exactly the same? I assumed the Sanwa button posts would hit the pcb board? What if I dremel the button posts a little? Could that theoretically work?

Do you have a picture of the buttons with the small wire bits so I can get a better understanding? Sorry I'm a visual person

Dark Penguin - GTFO. Imported RAP1-2-3 will cost you at least $100+ with shipping. This is a great alternative for people who love to tinker with their toys

My Fighting Stick 3's cost me $30 each + another $30 in mods + one to two hours to install the mods = HRAP quality joystick for $40 less. btw I haven't done it yet, still gathering all the information before I take the plunge.

[David G. Farragut]

I'm getting around to more pictures as I finish this stick up, sorry hopefully by tomorrow night I'll have everything done.

If you do the wires, the board will not touch the button posts. If you wanted I guess you could try to make the Sanwa posts smaller, but the Hori posts really are like a wire, very small, so I doubt you could dremel it down without breaking it.

[dark penguin]

Originally Posted by lithy

That's fine, but really this works as a Classic Controller and that would be working as a GameCube controller, so its a bit different and you'd spend the same amount of money if not more on the HRAP.

Yea, I didn't mean to shit on your thread or anything. I considered a hori Wii stick, but when I saw that the buttons were soldered, I decided not too.

[David G. Farragut]

Originally Posted by dark penguin

Yea, I didn't mean to shit on your thread or anything. I considered a hori Wii stick, but when I saw that the buttons were soldered, I decided not too.

Honestly no problem, half the reason I made this thread is that really the information is out there on other boards how to do most of this (although more bits and pieces than a whole writeup) but I think when it gets put on the board that you frequent it might make more people think about doing it, so if you think there's a better way to achieve the same thing, I'm fine with having it posted in here.

Updating a few more pics right now.

[RAINBOW PONY]

the modded pic looks exactly the same, wtf did you do?

just seems like way too much work when that wii stick is already over 50 bucks, and a custom stick can be bought for near 100 with a way better base.

[David G. Farragut]

Originally Posted by DurandalThoth

the modded pic looks exactly the same, wtf did you do?

just seems like way too much work when that wii stick is already over 50 bucks, and a custom stick can be bought for near 100 with a way better base.

Like I said Dashy, I bought the parts in Sanwa Light Blue so that they would look the same but be better parts, if you look, the final pic is darker and that isn't a change in lighting.

A Wii stick is 40 bucks + about 50 bucks in parts and my time, sure its about the same price, but I don't think there is anyone making custom sticks yet that function as Classic Controllers.

[dark penguin]

Originally Posted by lithy

Honestly no problem, half the reason I made this thread is that really the information is out there on other boards how to do most of this (although more bits and pieces than a whole writeup) but I think when it gets put on the board that you frequent it might make more people think about doing it, so if you think there's a better way to achieve the same thing, I'm fine with having it posted in here.

Updating a few more pics right now.

Personally, I bought a pre-modded(by the seller) HRAP2 with Sanwa buttons and an octagonal gate. I couldn't be happier, and it has served me very well so far. I plan on getting a ps2 > gc connector very soon, mostly for use with the VC games, but I'm wondering how the lag will be, if any. I went with the HRAP simply because of the quick disconnects and the ease with which you can switch parts in/out.

Nice to see that someone went to the trouble of gutting the Hori Wii stick, though...I had originally thought it was a lost cause, as the stock Hori buttons tend to be so-so at best.

[muffinman943]

Thanks for the writeup, I have actually been modding my fighting stick 3 (basically a ps3 version of the wii stick), and ran into trouble when trying to mount my seimetsu joystick, which I found to be a tad too large to fit the case.

I learned some shit too that I never really thought about.

[leehom]

Originally Posted by dark penguin

Nice to see that someone went to the trouble of gutting the Hori Wii stick, though...I had originally thought it was a lost cause, as the stock Hori buttons tend to be so-so at best.

The Hori Fighting Stick is what it is, a budget joystick. If Hori released the RAP3 here, I don't think anyone would go through the trouble of modifying their FS's.

The FS stock is wonky to me, this is precisely why I'm going to upgrade it. The joystick has a weird feel to it imo. By replacing the square gate with the Sanwa octagon gate, I'm hoping this will resolve the issue for me. The buttons definitely need to be replaced and would be my main complaint. It's difficult for me to play with 8 buttons (two will get replaced with covers) and the buttons seem a little mushy.

[versus addict]

Just wanted to thank you for this guide!

Sanwa JLF and Sanwa OBSN-30 buttons.

I got the stick for $25 on Ebay and put $50 worth of parts from Lizard Lick into it.






I got a second one for $20 which I'm gonna do all Seimitsu so I'll have one stick from each camp for TVC.

[Frederick Douglass]

Originally Posted by dark penguin

Seems like a lot of work when you could just get an HRAP1 or 2 and a GC adaptor, and you wouldn't have to worry about (de)soldering shit for the mod.

Yeah but Ps2 HRAPS aren't cheap.