Rotary Stick Turns too Easy- Fix?

[tommyinajar]

Someone had some old parts in a box and asked if I wanted to buy it. Mostly junk, but It had some Ikari style rotarys in there that felt ok in 8 way but they rotated almost freely. I never really looked at one in depth. What would be the cause and is it worth the time and money to fix it? (If you can even find individual OE or repo parts)- Thanks-

[PL1]

Are you sure those are LS-30 (mechanical rotary) sticks and not Loop-24 (optical rotary) sticks?

There's a wiki page here on how to service the rotary switch on an LS-30.


Scott

EDIT: I haven't transferred all the pictures from the old wiki yet.   

The old wiki page here has all the pics.
EDIT2: Wiki pic transfer done.

[tommyinajar]

Are the green handle ones the optical ones or did the LS-30 use both the yellow and green ? It's been a long time since I played or even looked at a rotary control- Thanks!

[tron84]

Are the green handle ones the optical ones or did the LS-30 use both the yellow and green ? It's been a long time since I played or even looked at a rotary control- Thanks!

Yes, the green tops are the Loop-24 optical joys.
The LS-30 are the yellow tops & are rotary joys.
Second pic is the Loop-24 bottom open.

[PL1]

IIRC, Data East also made optical rotary sticks with barrel-shaped yellow handles and the octagonal yellow and green handles are interchangeable.

The best way to be sure what kind of rotary stick you have is to look at the number of pins in the rotary circuit.

Opticals will have 4 pins -- power, ground, and 2 data lines.

Mechanicals will have 13 pins -- 12 directions and ground.

The reason for counting pins is that rotary encoders like the GP Wiz40 and KADE combine the 12 directions into 3 groups of 4 plus a ground = 4 wires.

You connect every third directional connection together -- 1(1), 2(2), 3(3), 4(1), 5(2), 6(3), 7(1), 8(2), 9(3), 10(1), 11(2), 12(3) + ground.

This only uses three inputs + ground, and the encoder sends the output when you change from one input to another.

Input 1->2, 2->3, or 3->1 = right turn.

Input 3->2, 2->1, or 1->3 = left turn.


Scott

P.S. Great pics, Tron84.

Mind if I use those two for the wiki? (assuming they are your pics  )

If they're not yours, do you remember where you got them?

[tommyinajar]

Yea I figured I wouldn't get lucky, they are the opticals. With good LS-30's going for about $100ish on Ebay, and are going to be used for Mame, are the happ rotary comparable or just souped up supers?

Ps I think the pictures are from http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=26272. I found they same ones when I googled loop-24 & thanks for all the great info-

[PL1]

Electrically, the Happ mechanical rotary sticks are the same as the LS-30 -- mechanically, they are like Happ Supers.

Brian74 used them in his build.

This thread covers the KADE rotary firmware development and several alternative rotary encoders.

The wiki joystick page has game lists and MAME settings required to use mechanical rotary sticks for rotary mechanical and rotary optical games.

Divemaster carries the Happ sticks (specify 50-5618-00 mechanical, not 50-5619-00 optical) for $42.99.

If you like the octagonal shape, you might consider ordering a few extra shafts (P/N 95-1274-00) from Divemaster (PM him for availability) and casting octagonal handles using a process like this.




Scott

[tron84]

IIRC, Data East also made optical rotary sticks with barrel-shaped yellow handles and the octagonal yellow and green handles are interchangeable.


Scott

P.S. Great pics, Tron84.

Mind if I use those two for the wiki? (assuming they are your pics  )

If they're not yours, do you remember where you got them?

He was right those pics came from http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=26272.
I put those up because he was asking about the green handles, which we both knew was the Loop-24's.
I only have the LS-30's and my pic they are dirty before I got them cleaned up. BTW a 50/50 mix of pinesol & warm water with a no scratch dish sponge, cleans the tops right back to new.  I do have some rotaries but it was not the pic he needed. I will have to get a pic of them cleaned up with the 50/50 mix. A before and after.

You are right, Data East made the barrel handles in green & yellow. 
I think Wico made those rotaries for them.

Pic below are my LS-30's.  That is just a Data East panel they had been in.