I Created a pretty realistic 720 Controller

[fischb]

I watched this video and it gave me an idea. 

I took a spinner from my panel that has a 5 inch steering wheel attachment.  I found some old arcade joystick parts and drilled an angled hole in which to insert the joystick and now I have a reproduction of the 720 controller.  I wonder what other games can use this type of controller.

Note: I free-handed the drill hole but it came out pretty close to the real one.  This is for the arcade game 720 played in MAME

[Nephasth]

Nailed it!

[pixel]

Not bad Fischb.


 From looking at the original assembly... it appears that the Top of the Ball,  would travel in about a  3" to 4"  Diameter circle.

 Your adaptation appears to be more like 7 to 8 inches in diameter.

 As a result... this will make it very difficult to pull off quick 360 degree movements, as your hand would have
to travel much much further,  to get the same result.

[processedmeat]

Did you have issues with the spinner not lining up with the direction of the skater after a while like the guy did in his video?  If so how did you solve it?  Thanks

[pbj]

Hm.  There's some potential here.

[Howard_Casto]

I think it would work better if you took a sold aluminum knob and drilled a hole in that.  This would make the travel smaller and more like the original.  It's pretty damn brilliant though. 

[pixel]

 If the spokes on the Wheel are metal... you could probably angle grind away the wheel..
and then re-attach the Stick to a single spoke.

 To keep it from wearing...  I suggest at minimal... making an E-Clip groove on the top of
the shaft... and maybe putting a washer right under the E-Clip.

 Otherwise... Howard's idea is good  (solid block of metal,  cut and carved down to a circular
format).  Drill and tap a set-screw hole... and you can fabricate a custom bearing mount.

 2 part Epoxy Putty could probably work well too... and would be a lot easier.
 I recommend QuikSteel (white plastic's version)... as its like 5000 PSI.   Make sure to kneed it
Really good... for maybe 3 min... leaving at least 1 min for shaping.  By the 5th min... it will be
hard as a Rock... in less than a 10 second window.    Allow the stuff to cure for 24 hrs,  before
putting it under and strain,  and it should be plenty strong.

 With Epoxy putty... you could even embed a standard bearing, or dual ball bearings, right into
the assembly.

 Finally,  "Friendly Plastic"  is also an option that might be decent,  for a quick prototype.
It can be a bit of a pain to work with.. but once its set... its solid and strong.  (so long as
the parts do not get too hot... and thus melt.  As such, some sort of bearing should be used,
just-in-case)


 Finding a way to add a "Calibration Disc", would of course be the best... as otherwise.. the
Sticks direction will not match the onscreen Characters orientation.

[DarthMarino]

An idea I had when I was making my version and the video was to have the spinner hit a button or switch every time it was at 12:00 (instead of my doing it manually between levels). I couldn't figure out how to implement this on my setup but I think there is potential with this design.  Perhaps the bottom of the joystick shaft could very lightly come into contact with something underneath it.

[Howard_Casto]

An optical gate could do that job... just have a little tab of plastic or something at 12:00 to break the beam as it spins by. 

[PL1]

An optical gate could do that job... just have a little tab of plastic or something at 12:00 to break the beam as it spins by.

Yep, that's pretty much how the original controller did it.  (disc with two notches)





Maybe a hole slightly inboard of the slots in a single-row optical encoder wheel similar to the hole at 90 degrees on this example's double-row encoder wheel and 3d print a mount for Adafruit 2167 3mm beam break sensors or similar.   




Scott