Hi forum, I've been reading the various threads about making arcade sticks, but what I'm personally after is a plug n play replacement for the entire controller, down to the analog sticks.
The only appropriate stick I've found is the Suzo-Happ ultimate analog stick, which has 5k pots but you can order 10k ones instead (for 30 bucks more), which brings each stick to around 200 bucks which is probably way out of the budget for most DIY projects. I might go that route if my investigations in DIY don't pan out.
Basically, what I've done so far (aside from tons of research) is desoldered one of the analog sticks from an old 360 gamepad, to inspect the mechanics of the stick itself. I then re-wired up the pots and tested I didn't melt something via my PC control panel and the axis still works fine as I twist a screwdriver to rotate the potentiometer.
My idea to make this do-able / cheap enough, is to scale up the analog sticks enclosure to something bigger and more rugged, suitable for a drop-in pad hack replacement, using a piece of wood or metal as the base, some brackets to hold a couple heavy duty ball bearings, and then figure out the best way to replicate how the pots are connected, which in my 360 and I presume most other analog sticks (you can buy replacements for Xbone / 360 / PS4 sticks from alibaba for a couple bucks) are merely some small metal clips that hook into the up / down pot.
I just want to make sure that no one has done such a project before (other than those who just gave up when confronted with the Suzo-Happ's prohibitive cost), before proceeding, and if anyone had any insights or tips.
Ideal outcome:
1) 10k pots from Alibaba or ebay are super cheap, figure out some heavy duty ones to get. At worst, buy a couple 10k heavy duty ones from Suzo-Happ which they told me to use for an analog stick pad hack project.
2) Replicate the design of the current sticks at a larger scale using off the shelf or easily available hardware and bearings, etc
3) Share the design and iterate on it with community help / insights
4) Use our dual-analog stick arcade sticks to play any console game, Xbox 360 / One, PS4 / DS4 (for Bluetooth wireless PC compatibility) + CronusMax, PC, Wii / Wii U (via a Wii U Pro controller hack and a cheap wii u remote that we can rig into the cabinet).
At this point, I believe using the DS4 might be better since the Xbox One doesn't communicate to my PC wirelessly, and having wires to your couch or even coffee table (where many arcade sticks would sit during play) is no fun and a step backwards.
Couple questions:
1) Are DS4 analog sticks using 10k pots as well? Because if they use, say, 5k, then I could save about 30 bucks from having to replace the 5k default ones with 10k pots when buying the Suzo-Happ analog sticks. I'm definitely buying at least one to inspect the construction and perhaps try to replicate it with cheaper parts from other arcade joysticks. If not, then that's even better because then it would be electrically compatible with Xbox One and Wii U and 360 pad hacks too. I believe they all use 10k pots, but this is to be confirmed. I asked one of the original manufacturers of the DS4 analog sticks what resistance they have but they didn't answer yet.
2) What springs and off the shelf parts are best to use? I want to build this project in the cheapest possible way, but in a way that's still compatible with most people's preferred arcade joystick parts, like using commodity shafts of various lengths and compatible balltops etc.
Another thing I'm wondering, for down the road, is whether to use digipots instead of analog pots, and print out some kind of greyscale image in a circle, to glue onto each axis, so that one could use, say, a mouse's laser to read the intensity and simply map those values to the 10k pot's inputs somehow. That would allow super high sensitivity and completely eliminate the analog lifespan issues that might arise. A benefit of using optical is that you can print out various greyscale patterns to get whatever dead zone + acceleration curve you want out of your stick. But that's a pro performance upgrade for later.
The only appropriate stick I've found is the Suzo-Happ ultimate analog stick, which has 5k pots but you can order 10k ones instead (for 30 bucks more), which brings each stick to around 200 bucks which is probably way out of the budget for most DIY projects. I might go that route if my investigations in DIY don't pan out.
Basically, what I've done so far (aside from tons of research) is desoldered one of the analog sticks from an old 360 gamepad, to inspect the mechanics of the stick itself. I then re-wired up the pots and tested I didn't melt something via my PC control panel and the axis still works fine as I twist a screwdriver to rotate the potentiometer.
My idea to make this do-able / cheap enough, is to scale up the analog sticks enclosure to something bigger and more rugged, suitable for a drop-in pad hack replacement, using a piece of wood or metal as the base, some brackets to hold a couple heavy duty ball bearings, and then figure out the best way to replicate how the pots are connected, which in my 360 and I presume most other analog sticks (you can buy replacements for Xbone / 360 / PS4 sticks from alibaba for a couple bucks) are merely some small metal clips that hook into the up / down pot.
I just want to make sure that no one has done such a project before (other than those who just gave up when confronted with the Suzo-Happ's prohibitive cost), before proceeding, and if anyone had any insights or tips.
Ideal outcome:
1) 10k pots from Alibaba or ebay are super cheap, figure out some heavy duty ones to get. At worst, buy a couple 10k heavy duty ones from Suzo-Happ which they told me to use for an analog stick pad hack project.
2) Replicate the design of the current sticks at a larger scale using off the shelf or easily available hardware and bearings, etc
3) Share the design and iterate on it with community help / insights
4) Use our dual-analog stick arcade sticks to play any console game, Xbox 360 / One, PS4 / DS4 (for Bluetooth wireless PC compatibility) + CronusMax, PC, Wii / Wii U (via a Wii U Pro controller hack and a cheap wii u remote that we can rig into the cabinet).
At this point, I believe using the DS4 might be better since the Xbox One doesn't communicate to my PC wirelessly, and having wires to your couch or even coffee table (where many arcade sticks would sit during play) is no fun and a step backwards.
Couple questions:
1) Are DS4 analog sticks using 10k pots as well? Because if they use, say, 5k, then I could save about 30 bucks from having to replace the 5k default ones with 10k pots when buying the Suzo-Happ analog sticks. I'm definitely buying at least one to inspect the construction and perhaps try to replicate it with cheaper parts from other arcade joysticks. If not, then that's even better because then it would be electrically compatible with Xbox One and Wii U and 360 pad hacks too. I believe they all use 10k pots, but this is to be confirmed. I asked one of the original manufacturers of the DS4 analog sticks what resistance they have but they didn't answer yet.
2) What springs and off the shelf parts are best to use? I want to build this project in the cheapest possible way, but in a way that's still compatible with most people's preferred arcade joystick parts, like using commodity shafts of various lengths and compatible balltops etc.
Another thing I'm wondering, for down the road, is whether to use digipots instead of analog pots, and print out some kind of greyscale image in a circle, to glue onto each axis, so that one could use, say, a mouse's laser to read the intensity and simply map those values to the 10k pot's inputs somehow. That would allow super high sensitivity and completely eliminate the analog lifespan issues that might arise. A benefit of using optical is that you can print out various greyscale patterns to get whatever dead zone + acceleration curve you want out of your stick. But that's a pro performance upgrade for later.