MK TE Fightstick LED Mod

[Nephasth]

I've had a Mortal Kombat Tournament Edition Fightstick for a while now and have been planning on modding it since I got it. I finally got the last of my parts for the planned mod this past weekend and had some time today to do the whole mod. I wanted to do the same "ring of light" buttons on this fightstick like I did for the CPs on The Two-Headed Beast (if you haven't seen it, check my signature). I also wanted the buttons to be lit up in the standard Xbox 360 button colors as well as the colors of the classic MK buttons by tapping 5V from the fightstick's USB and switching the grounds on the RGB LEDs. I planned on taking some detailed pics of the steps I went through, but once I got into wiring, I just wanted to get it over with and it's all pretty much the same stuff over and over again anyway.

A quick before pic.


Most of the parts used for the mod.


IL-lumination RGB LED.


For this mod I used Paradise Arcade Shop's clear translucent IL pushbuttons and their IL-lumination RGB LEDs. I modified these buttons for the RGBs just as I did the buttons for The Two-Headed Beast. I started by drilling 11/64" holes into the switch base of each button.


Installed the RGBs into the button and routed the wires through the holes.


Hot glued the wires to the switch bases to prevent them from being pulled out of the RGB boards.


Cut the wires to 2.5" long from the base of the buttons.


Stripped the ends of the wires and crimped on the terminal pins for the Molex Micro-fit connectors.


Installed 4-pin Molex Micro-fit connectors.


I removed the top panel of the fightstick from the box and removed the plexiglass cover. One at a time, I removed the buttons from the the panel. Once removed, I took the plungers out of both the clear IL and the black Suzo Happ buttons and installed the black plunger into the clear button.


A shot of the new buttons installed in the panel.


Next I tapped into the USB cable to get power and ground for the LEDs. I used the same 4-pin Molex Micro-fit connectors for this.


I got into wiring mode and didn't take any pictures of any of the other wiring process. I daisy chained the 5V from the USB to each RGB LED. I built a harness for the grounds of the RGBs. To do this I used 20-pin and 5-pin Molex Micro-fit connectors. By heating up an exacto knife, I cut a rectangle hole into the plexiglass cover for the selector switch. Installed the switch and wired it up to the grounds. Here's a few shots of the panel with the cover reinstalled.




Reinstalled the panel onto the box.




Mod finished with LEDs off.


With the selector switch in the | position, the buttons light up in the colors of the standard 360 buttons.


With the selector switch in the || position, the buttons light up in the colors of the classic MK arcade buttons.


All in all, it took me about 7 hours. I made the wiring a lot more tedious than it needed to be.

[Donkbaca]

Nice! 

[Necroticart]

Looks really good with the LED mod.  I've also been wanting to do an LED mod but on the combat fight stick. I just have to wait till September when Sanwa releases their clear buttons here is a pic of it unmodded with a SEIMITSU LS 56 01. I also have the PDP stick but found it to hard to play MK 9 on but looking forward to the arcade collection to make good use of it.

[emphatic]

Very neat work.  That PCB looks very nice as well, I wish they'd sell them with harness for easy installation in any stick or arcade cabinet.

[Malenko]

so how much to do this to mine?

[Nephasth]

Thanks guys!

so how much to do this to mine?

For the buttons (with standard 75 gram cherry switch) and RGBs from Paradise, it's $40.50 shipped. A switch will run you another few bucks, and whatever wire you choose to use. The Micro-fit connectors I used added a TON of time to this mini project. You could probably just use butt connectors, quick disconnects, or even just solder the wires together to save a lot on time. If you want to do this and need some help, I can go into a lot more detail on the wiring.

[yotsuya]

Thanks for the walk-through and photos, Nepasth. I just did the button mod with the same exact items and my drill, but these buttons are going on a control panel. Your photos helped me wire these buttons up pretty cleanly. 

[Nephasth]

You're welcome. Glad they could be of use. Will you be lighting your buttons up in different colors based on game selection? Now point me in the direction of your CP pics!

[yotsuya]

Yeah. I'm building a 4-way joystick, 4 button panel. The plan is for it to look like this:

B1L  B2L   STICK  B2R B1R

This way, there's some symmetry on the CP, and it can accomodate lefties and righties. The buttons will be lit based on the game selection. I just spent the afternoon doing this mod and playing with the pretty lights. I'm going to be using Rollie Leaf Switches, too, so I'm going to have to mod those as well to fit.