Star Wars yoke bartop?

[RubberB]

Does anyone know of a bartop kit available in the UK which would be suitable for mounting an Atari Star Wars flight yoke? There would need to be sufficient space under the control panel for the back of the yoke (or have a raised mount on top of the panel like the hydra or roadblasters yokes had) and the angle of the screen would have to be such that the view isn't blocked by the yoke (especially if a raised mount is used). Any ideas? If a kit's not available, does anyone have any drawings/plans?
Thanks in advance!

[RubberB]

A couple of clarifications: (1) doesn't have to look like the Atari Star Wars cabinet; and (2) I'd envisage putting an LCD in it not a CRT monitor to save space and weight.

[BigCurtis]

Looking at the yoke on my Jedi, it is already... 80% the volume of what I think of as the smaller bartops, so I expect you're going with/looking for a larger "bartop"?

Thinking on what compromises I'd make if I couldn't have a fullsize cabinet, I think I'd look at either something like the Pin-Up project, or a pedestal (with the HDMI dropcord to the bigscreen), but one of those large bar-tops like the SNK, which use their own pedestal, would be considered as well.

I've perused a lot of bartop designs, and most fall into the sloped-back style followed by mini-but-looks-like-a-big-classic-cabinet style. The Upright ROTJ already looks like it's on a pedestal to some degree, so creating a looks-similar mini starwars cab should be doable.

[ChadTower]

You don't want to save weight on a Star Wars bartop.  Not unless you want to be able to flip the thing over yanking the yoke around once you're good at it.

[paigeoliver]

Having owned the real gear I have to say that your plan is bad. You couldn't even mount the thing to the average bartop and you would just flip the thing over unless it was a heavy crt based build.

[RubberB]

Yup. I decided that a yoke based bartop wasn't really going to work. I'm building a freestanding slim cabinet which will be bracketed to the wall at the top.
Ps I did post about this a while ago but a few posts from this thread seem to have disappeared as a result of the forum's server issues earlier this month.

[RubberB]

Incidentally, I need to replace the springs in my yoke. I have the spares ready to go in, but it looks like I'd have to cut the molex connector off to do it. Has anyone worked out some magic way to replace the springs without cutting off the molex?

[PL1]

Incidentally, I need to replace the springs in my yoke. I have the spares ready to go in, but it looks like I'd have to cut the molex connector off to do it. Has anyone worked out some magic way to replace the springs without cutting off the molex?

No magic required.

1. Label the left-handle and right-handle wire groups.  Also label the Y-axis wire group if you're replacing the X-axis springs. (You don't need to disconnect the Y-axis wiring if you're only replacing the Y-axis springs)



2 Take/label pics of the wire colors connected to the Y-axis pot and handle switches if they don't match the labeled pics below.



2. Desolder wires from the pot and switches.

3. One wire group at a time, pull the wires free. (in case you lose the tape flag)   


Scott

[RubberB]

Ah ha! Thanks, Scott. I considered that but thought I would be making too much work for myself. Is it tricky to thread the wires back through to the handles when you're done?

[PL1]

You shouldn't have any problem.   

It will be a lot easier to push/fish the wires through than to re-pin the molex.


Scott