My custom controller / supergun

[miisalo]

Last christmas Mendel gave me Time Soldiers board and happ rotary sticks as a gift, probably because I did some modding for him.

Those rotary sticks are huge, I measured that they need more than 4" under them and decided that I should build box that is almost like cabinets control panel. Idea is that I would later build also stand where you can put both controller box and tv - just like a ghetto cabinet Because box would be huge, I also decided to build "supergun" in it.

This is second time I do anything out of MDF and first time I used paint sprayer so quality is what it is but here is the project (I will split it to several posts).

I started by cutting top "plate" and started to gluing side parts to it. I also applied filler while gluing to save some time.



I didn't have exact form in my mind and I cut and designed the box while doing it. Cutting pieces with sides in two different angles was challenge, but I knew that filler and sanding will save me



After I had the box glued, it was time to sand it



Using filler and proper tools allowed me to have nice rounded corners



To be continued...

 

[miisalo]

After applying filler again and second sanding, I started to drill holes for the joystick and buttons. Because I was going to make this also as supergun, I decided four button layout - anything more than 4 buttons and I could use my 6 button cabinet instead.



I also cut holes for scart, power switch, jamma harness, power cable and audio attenuation on/off switch to the back, but I don't have picture of those.

Once I was happy, I sprayed primer paint



and painted first layer of actual paint, glossy white. Testing the button colors here



To be continued...

 

[miisalo]

Once I got it painted, it was time to design wiring. As Europanistan, I wanted to use scart for both video and audio, so I designed small board that takes in both from jamma wiring, has trimmers to fine tune video level and audio attenuation circuit and RGB on signal for the scart.

Here is the pcb etched and drilled


and components soldered (except attenuation on/off switch)



Then it was time for wiring hell



Arcade psu added. You can also see extra support in the bottom plate. Friend of our kids decided to use that as balance board and cracked it. I had to glue it and add support.



I used jamma harness that was otherwise ok but was using too thin 5V and gnd wire. I had to add thicker wires.

To be continued...

 

[miisalo]

Coin, test and service buttons are going to be in small external board, but otherwise finished:





Unfortunately the Time Soldiers board has problem with audio and I need to recap it and replace some components, but could I tested it and joysticks work fine. I did replace microswitch and cleaned them to get them work.

We used controller first time week ago with cps2 D&D SoM, actually had also two neo controllers attached to it too.

And finally the action picture!

 

[MCF 76]

WOW miisalo, that is some major skillz! It look freaking mazing I wish I could do something like this. I think the color choices you did look perfect. I also like the shape you decide to go with on the enclosure.

 

[JasonToddLives]

Arcade psu added. You can also see extra support in the bottom plate. Friend of our kids decided to use that as balance board and cracked it. I had to ban him from our home.

Fantastic work.

 

[miisalo]

Yeah, banned the kid for 2 weeks . Wanted to rip his head off This happened like few days before I had meeting where we were supposed to use the controller, I didn't have big enough piece of mdf or particle board, I had already put all cutting tools away and I generally was pissed off.

But you can do miracles with glue, filler, sander and paint

 

[ballzdeepx]

Nice work as always mii!

 

[Atro]

You have the same layout as my old Globetrotter cab.
I wonder how you manage to feel comfortable with the descending D button!

 

[miisalo]

You have the same layout as my old Globetrotter cab.
I wonder how you manage to feel comfortable with the descending D button!

That layout is how naturally set my fingers. button is perfect place for my pinkie.

 

[Atro]

That layout is how naturally set my fingers. button is perfect place for my pinkie.

Years of use of the AES stick makes me use mostly my thumb for the A button.
KOF98 is to blame. I can never imagine myself playing with my pinky tho!

 

[miisalo]

With aes stick, I of course use thumb. But I feel comfortable playing both ways. I suck equally

 

[TheSegaDude]

Very nice job! I've been reading about superguns and you make building one look easy!

 

[SNKBossKilla]

That looks amazing! I like how you used the US style stick with Sanwas....The perfect setup IMO..

 

[madman]

Wow, looks great! Nice work!

 

[Neo Ash]

Damn fine work! Making your own PCB takes it to another level, nice touch.

 

[Jarofmayo]

Looks very nice and professional. What kind of buttons and sticks did you use?

 

[miisalo]

Looks very nice and professional. What kind of buttons and sticks did you use?

Joysticks I got with the pcb so I don't know what they exactly are. Buttons are Sanwa OBSF-30 if I recall correctly, they were leftovers from another project. Still got few and I have special controller in my mind.

 

[miisalo]

And another custom controller project started. This is probably going to include Raspberry pi 2 and Retropie installation so it can be used both neo geo controller and standalone gaming machine.

 

[BerryTogart]

Nice fit to the cmvs,

Gesendet von meinem Nexus 5 mit Tapatalk

 

[miisalo]

Nice fit to the cmvs,

Thanks, Berry

Decided to use (momentary) switches instead of start and select buttons. Makes it more rad I think.



Lot of room inside. Also the wires are not soldered to db15 port, I soldered connector into it and pins to wires so its easy to expand it and connect them to Raspberry Pi.

 

[Electric Grave]

For a supergun case, awesome, for a CMVS, awesome, for a joystick, horrible.

 

[systmdfect]

For a supergun case, awesome, for a CMVS, awesome, for a joystick, horrible.

I would have to agree. The design is pretty cool, I'll give him that. Better than anything I could do. But, that has to be extremely uncomfortable to use.

 

[miisalo]

I would have to agree. The design is pretty cool, I'll give him that. Better than anything I could do. But, that has to be extremely uncomfortable to use.

To be honest, I made it just to have this

But I have to say that its not uncomfortable to use at all. Actually it feels better than standard AES stick (it was surprise for me too) - buttons are better for me and stick feels good - and if you think about size, its 1" taller than my favorite stick, modified Madcatz Arcade Flight stick, but otherwise more compact.

I do prefer button layout where you don't use thumb and use pinky. You can even see in that video that I throw grenade when trying to jump because of that, so probably the stick will end up being a prop or as standalone gamestation once I install rpi with retropie in it.

 

[Gummy Bear]

To be honest, I made it just to have this

But I have to say that its not uncomfortable to use at all. Actually it feels better than standard AES stick (it was surprise for me too) - buttons are better for me and stick feels good - and if you think about size, its 1" taller than my favorite stick, modified Madcatz Arcade Flight stick, but otherwise more compact.

I do prefer button layout where you don't use thumb and use pinky. You can even see in that video that I throw grenade when trying to jump because of that, so probably the stick will end up being a prop or as standalone gamestation once I install rpi with retropie in it.

Detractors gonna detract, bro.
Looks frickin sweet. Great idea and great execution