JHendrix's Universal Joysticks ver. 4.0

I've built yet another set of joysticks because I'm that friggin obsessed with this stuff.

I found a bunch of things to complain about with my old ones, but the main thing is that they're too big. Well too tall is more like it, not something comfortable to have on your lap and play, let alone recline back and play which is a must now that I have recliners.

Anywho, I've made what should be my final set of sticks (well till I build my arcade cabinet anyway... ) that are compatable with Neo-Geo, PS2/PSX, and just about anything I want to build a converter for. And yes I do mean anything as from past experience I ran 4 FRIGGIN COMMON LINES across the button sets for this thing, so even those EVIL multiple common voltage controllers are no match for my joysticks! buttrock

Enough jibba-jabba, here are the pics:

<a href="http://web.njit.edu/~jal0737/GFX/Misc/newjoysticks.jpg" target="_blank">Badass Profile Shot</a>

<a href="http://web.njit.edu/~jal0737/GFX/Misc/joysticks_side.jpg" target="_blank">Badass Side Profile</a>

These little bastards are only 1.7" tall! I got it using Sanwa arcade sticks and buttons (read the stuff they use in Japanese candy cabs). Unfortunately they should have been 2" tall to fully accomodate the joysticks, but with a little ingenuity I got things running smoothly without any sacrifices in performance/motion/etc.

Anyway if you want to know where I got the parts here are the links:

Boxes: <a href="http://www.pactecenclosures.com" target="_blank">Pactec Enclosures</a>
Joysticks: <a href="http://www.ultimarc.com" target="_blank">Ultimarc.com</a>
Buttons: <a href="http://www.arcade-infinity.com" target="_blank">Arcade Infinity</a>

The layout and physics of most of the tech stuff needed to build these things is at my now outdated <a href="http://web.njit.edu/~jal0737/" target="_blank">website</a>.

With any luck inside of a year or two I won't have anything to complain about with these things so I won't have to build another damn set...

Well at least I can hope. wink

Sweet looking set of sticks you have there. I'm gearing up to build a stick with a sanwa stick and the wannabe japanese pushbuttons that Happ Controls sells. You should update your site

My only question though: why all green buttons? personally i think that is quite hideous.

Nice, man! Thanks for sharing these!

how much did it cost to build it?

Will you ever make additional joysticks and sell them? You could be the next MAS systems man!

Those are sweet!

i must disagree with an above post: I LIKE the green buttons!

But who cares, what YOU like is all that matters.

JHendrix:

Anywho, I've made what should be my final set of sticks (well till I build my arcade cabinet anyway... ) that are compatable with Neo-Geo, PS2/PSX, and just about anything I want to build a converter for. And yes I do mean anything as from past experience I ran 4 FRIGGIN COMMON LINES across the button sets for this thing, so even those EVIL multiple common voltage controllers are no match for my joysticks! buttrock

Click to expand...

Definately, more info about this stuff would be necessary, as I had no idea the incompatibility had to do with "multiple common voltage" (which I don't really understand what is lol). Were the PS controllers you sacrificed analog? I found that most PSX->Xbox adaptors will refuse to work with digital-only devices.

I LOVE the new ones... much smaller and neat... and I prefer japanese parts any time of the day... drool_2

DAMN!! There nice man!!

I wish I could do that!!!

Will check your website soon... maybe I can start it as a hobby... see you in 4 years after I finish my first one tickled tickled tickled

Thanks all.

The reason the buttons are green (and yeah they're a little offsetting, but I got used to em quick) is because that's all Arcade-Infinity had in stock. Well that and pink, and as much as I like KOF2k2, I wasn't building a pink set of these. wink

But yeah, one of the main reasons that a lot of pads are incompatible for hacking a normal joystick is because of the common line. On the Neo and any JAMMA cab you run one "common" line, where you chain it all together around all the buttons/direction on one side, then the other side goes to your JAMMA connector or Neo.

Sony Dual Shock 2's and I believe the XBox pad both use multiple common lines, lord knows why (maybe to thwart controller hackers like myself). Here's the next problem though, the PS2 converters I have are two fold. First off, the native converters I used were 3rd party PSX digital pads. These are VERY reliable to use and are just great to use. They work on PS2/PS1 and can convert well to Dreamcast and PC.

The second set are 3rd party analog controllers (the cheaper kind that only use 1 common line, these were built to use my original joysticks with). These will convert to PS2/PS1, XBox, and GC. Problem is that SOMETIMES if you go really crazy with the directional pad it'll trigger a button press, although I've not been able to replicate this fully, I've noticed it a few times at the character select screen (although I've never had a problem with it during gameplay, so it may just be something else - the sticks I've used with it before have had grounding problems on and off over the year).

Anywho if you check <a href="http://www.neo-geo.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=022376#000000" target="_blank">this thread</a> you'll notice my documented hatred of Sony and the new way they build Dual Shock 2 controllers. It's very annoying since a perfectly hacked Dual Shock 2 would convert to ANYTHING 100%, but unless you have two VERY EARLY revision Dual Shock 2 pads, it's going to be MURDER to hack. I actualy got mine soldered up right (surface mount soldering.... blow_top ), but only to find I damaged the PCB in the 4 hour or so process I put it through.

One thing I have to sadly lement is that after going through this it's not very economical to build these things, as they've exceeded the $100 per stick cost to build them. You can do the math:

Enclosure: $15 per box

Buttons: $60 (10 buttons per stick * $3 a button)

Joysticks: $15 a stick

Misc (wire, nuts/bolts, DB15 and DB25 connectors, backshells, and the killer: 25ft of 25 conductor cable): $50

Pads: Varies, I got the pads I used to hack it for $8 a piece, but I WASTED like $50 trying to hack PS2 pads. Oh the analog pads used for that conversion were like $12 a piece.

So in the end it works out to be like $210 for the both of them in COST alone, not to mention the other costs I already had covered: Drill bits, solder, soldering iron, tape, VHS case, small enclosures for the other converters, etc.

Believe me it gets beyond annoying building these things and about halfway through I almost broke the things out of frustration (they need to go through a good 3-4 day burn-in to ensure that EVERYTHING is working properly, because faulty connections or loose solders that can come un-done will always bite you in the ass later on).

So yeah, sadly it works out being better to order a stick from X-Arcade or get a universal stick already.

And another thing that gets me going (that I might just do as an upgrade later on anyway... oh_no ) is that to get REAL universal compatibility with an EASY conversion would be to buy two of those universal joysticks they sell for Soul Calibur 2 (don't know if the stick is any good or not), and hack THAT to work with your stick. That is out of the box compatible with all 3 systems PS2/XBox/GC and would make your life very easy, although it adds far too much cost to the project upfront. Those sticks run for like $40 a piece.

As for my woefully un-updated site, it's going to move to a new host sometime in the future and it will be updated to reflect my updated supergun and the new joysticks. But right now I've lost a solid week of gaming to building these things, so I'm going to enjoy the fuck out of playing SC2/VF4:Evo/3rd Strike for a while before I get to some more technical writing.

Damn, those plastic boxes are pretty neat. I think my next joystick might have to be in one of those.

Oh well, the adaptor I made hacking the PCB of a digital-only Twin Stick for PSX worked in PSX, PS2 and in the PC via a PSX->USB adaptor, but unfortunately it refused to work in the xbox and I have two different PS2->Xbox adaptors. I reached the conclusion that it was so because it only accepted analog devices. I don't remember having tried it with my DC or GC via the adapters.

The Twin Stick pcb was dead easy to hack, it already had the wires there, you can see pics in the sgrepository. I'm absolutely null at soldering and I could never mod an official Sony :o pad.

I actually sat down and figured out how much my custom stick cost too and for the price i could have ordered a stick from a site like Mas or Redoctane. But thats not the point! Building my own stick was quite fun (frustrating at times though) and it was well worth the money spent. Building your own stick is just so much more satisfying the purchasing one.

I can't wait to build another stick, i just have to get the money together.

Glad to hear you are going to update your site Jhendrix, its a great resource for supergun building and stick making. I know i used it in my jamma project endeavours.

double post
sorry frown

<small>[ September 02, 2003, 01:17 PM: Message edited by: ThePunisher ]</small>

those look like a joy to play with

very nice my man!

your skills are impressive mr_t

edit: sorry for the double post

<small>[ September 02, 2003, 01:17 PM: Message edited by: ThePunisher ]</small>

almost forgot to reply.

they look really nice. but ... will they last for a long time? is the case thick enough or did you put some pieces of wood in it? just curious ...

supergoose79:
almost forgot to reply.

they look really nice. but ... will they last for a long time? is the case thick enough or did you put some pieces of wood in it? just curious ...

Click to expand...

?

I didn't need to put any wood or anything in there as the case is more than strong enough to support the buttons/sticks. Thats why I love those project boxes so much, light, durable, and they take all that nasty wood work out of this.

AWESOME work!!! buttrock

Nice
Great work

I know that it has been almost a year, but... I couldn't help myself from bumping this thread. The links to more information all seem to lead to "not found" pages at this point, so I was wondering if there is still any information out there on how to wire these sticks.

I am specifically interested in the "four separate common lines" wiring and the terminating pinout for the controller (I'm guessing you used DB-25 connectors and then just built straight DB-25 to DB-15 converters for use with Neo Geo systems).

Is this information still out there?

try posting in the tech forum...

I can't get the pics to show up. Ever time I put them into my browser, I get a 404 error.

look at the date of the posts!

drone9 said:

look at the date of the posts!

Click to expand...

Yes, I understand they are old posts, but I wanted to kow if the pics were still up or not. I figured they could have been taken down, but I was just checking.

i never understood why people give a shit about bumping old topics with a legitimate question.

if someone bumps a thread just for the hell of it, that's another story.

Jedah Doma said:

I can't get the pics to show up. Ever time I put them into my browser, I get a 404 error.

Click to expand...

Yes, it is definitely to be expected that the links to pages and pictures are going to be "not found," given how old this thread is. I wasn't surprised, but I still want the information.

I took drone9's advice and posted in the tech forum:
[url]http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95794[/url]