[VFDC CHOICE] Choosing a stick for VF4 PS2

wow nice! an 8 button layout. great job /versus/images/icons/laugh.gif
I wonder how important R3 L3 buttons will be in evolution

 

Looks top notch strider. I see you used the small project box for the pcb. Awesome job.

 

Dont know if this was mentioned, but www.toysnjoys.com is in pre-order mode for the red and blue Evo Hori sticks.

 

Thanks...I was looking for a place that took pre-orders on Evo stix.

 

Another one bites the dust...

 

Scheisse.

Those sticks you guys are making, is incredible.
Keep up the good work dudes! /versus/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

hawt damn catchy~ they get better each time

keep up the good work =]

you should make an arcade cabinet!! ~~

 

That stick is a work of art! Catch you should design your own sticks for a living. Give Hori a run for its money!! /versus/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

Big Boy says: Tell 'em about Koen-Ken, Lau!

Catch, I'm gonna wear this word out but THANKYOU! Your work is peerless...it easily surpasses any expectations me & the fellas had. YOU RULE!

 

Catch: You should make a gallery on your site of all the finished sticks you have made. It would be cool for potential customers to be able to look at the ones you have provided to the community.

 

Actually, I'm tired of making 'em. I know I promised it for the longest time... but hopefully I'll finish the real Joystick Builder soon, so VFers can build their own if they wish to undertake the process. Luckily, finals for DeVry just ended for me, and I'll have the rest of the week, and next week off.

Really though, there is no website yet, that provides the average joe the knowhow to do it. It'll be another contribution to the gaming community.

 

How much would you charge for a 8 button joystick?

 

I'm going to take a break right now...

BUT I'VE MADE AND UPLOADED THE NEW JOYSTICK BUILDER website. Corny name, I know. Those who are will to put in the time, it's all DETAILED!

http://members.cox.net/ctwentytwo/joystick_builder/index.htm

Also, here's my new stick. 3 /12" high and 14" wide. Oh yeah. I was browsing Home Depot more thoroughly this week, and I've found a few stuff I can start using for the upcoming sticks.

Fred, it's coming Friday... just to be sure.






This was done for the tons of guys who asked for it... a little late, I know.

Srider, forgot your AIM username... give me a head up on chat next time I'm on.

 

Another beauty. How do you spell talent again? Thanks, btw.

 

[ QUOTE ]
CreeD said:

From an ad on vfzone -

http://www.stick.pe.kr/

Custom VF arcade sticks for PS2.
It can't be utterly awful if it's on vfzone... or can it?
Maybe someone can try and comment.


[/ QUOTE ]

Broken link... /versus/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

Well, here's some pix of the stick I completed a while back. Different design philosophy from catch22, to say the least, but thought some might find it interesting.



I'm pretty sensitve to mounting bolts sticking up on joysticks, even rounded carriage bolts, so the case is a simple box with no underlay or plexi. The box is made out of a piece of wood 3/4"x15"xcouple feet that I got for a few bucks at home depot. All joints were done with wood screws. The screw head holes were filled with fake wood putty & sanded. The box edges were rounded with a router & sandpaper. Between all of this, there are no sharp edges or protrusions anywhere. There's a pretty generous angle to the top, maybe 5-10 degrees.



Here's the underside of the box.

The stick is a heavier-duty Sanwa model with the metal hemisphere bushing instead of the apparently plastic one on the VF sticks. I got it from Ultimarc . Cost was usd 27 or so including very rapid shipping from the UK. Shipping cost doesn't go up very much with multiple stick orders. He calls it a "j-stick", but it's definitely a genuine Sanwa naomi-type stick.

The stick comes with a metal mounting plate on top. I'm not sure exactly how this was designed to be mounted. I used the router to cut a square hole all the way through the wood for the black plastic base you see in the picture. On the top side, I routed out a larger rectangle maybe 1/8th inch deep, just enough to set the metal plate level with the surface of the wood. I epoxied the plate to the wood & filled in the extra mounting holes with more putty. The countersunk screws supplied with the stick (heads are just barely visible under the plastic disc in the first picture) secure the plastic body to the mounting plate. This setup is very solid - the plastic body is snug against the wood, and the mounting plate isn't going anywhere.

The buttons are Happ competitions. I know sanwa makes wood mount buttons, but Happs are much easier to get ahold of. There's a minimal difference; the button heads on the happs are maybe a millimeter or two smaller, and they have springs so they're a little stiffer. The pattern is a slanted offset 6-button; the two lonely top buttons are start and select. I set it up this way in case I wanted to add a ninth button for a non-offset 6-button pattern; at any rate, it keeps the start and select buttons nice and close.

Wiring was done with solder, because i had it around & was too cheap to buy spade connectors. You can see the cutout for the female db-15 connector at the back of the stick; the two loose wires are in case I end up adding buttons. You can barely see the black plastic radio shack housing holding the Playstation pcb and male db-15 on the other side. So far I've made an xbox adapter & am in the process of making a gamecube adaptor. For PC use, I juse use a cheap psx->usb adaptor. I'm also going to rewire one of my Saturn pads to use the db-15 connector, so I can use it with any of the adaptors.

So far I quite like the stick. The way I mounted it makes the shaft longer than the virtua stick pro I was used to, but mounting it from the underside would have made the stick too short. Aside from getting used to that difference, it's much higher quality than my virtua stick pro, which was pretty much the best commercial joystick i've used.

 

does that work well? it seems like a much easier way to build a joystick! Catch22 why do your sticks need that crazy intricate inside? all that would cut to wierd shapes, i dont really understand all that.

 

[ QUOTE ]
SoundWave said:

does that work well? it seems like a much easier way to build a joystick! Catch22 why do your sticks need that crazy intricate inside? all that would cut to wierd shapes, i dont really understand all that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Because I use a plexi top that's only 1/8" thick, it flexes without the extra wood bracing. I would use thicker plexi, but shaping and cutting the plexi would be in a word, difficult and would in fact take half the day, and also the buttons that come with the Sanwa VF4 sticks are made to hold on material no more than 1/8" thick... Unless you order more expensive, "screw-type" buttons.

There are a lot of variables to consider, and you'll come across them as you build one, ... like the mounting depth of the stick is affected by thickness of the top mateial, and also if you'll mount the stick with fasteners going through the top material or not because your stick can be a bit higher up, thus making it higher from the outside.... stuff like that.

 

another plus to the intricate bracing and wood work in catch's stick that I noticed... the wood adds to the overall 'weight' of the stick. This I thought was very important since the stick does not move out of place. That's one problem I found a little annoying in
Hori/ascii sticks

 

Rula,
Have you weighed the stick? That is the heaviest stick I have built to date. It must weigh over 4 pounds. The MDF I used, and will continue to use in place of regular wood due to the straightness and it's non-chipping properties, is way more dense, thus it's weight. Yes, that bad boy will not move. When testing, that thing felt rock solid. I was tempted to keep it. /versus/images/graemlins/grin.gif