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Building your own Defender controls.
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paigeoliver:
Here is a quick tutorial to making your own Defender controls with common cheap arcade parts instead of uncommon expensive Defender parts.

Basically all you need is a Wico joystick. You are going to need the MICROSWITCH type, not the leaf switch type.

Take off the microswitches for left and right and reinstall them backwards, this will help to guide the stick into only going up and down. The rest of the 2-way action will be accomplished simply by cutting a narrow slot in the wood as opposed to a circle.

You will need to chop off the corner of the base where the reverse button pokes through. If using a microswitch reverse button then you can use a holesaw to cut that hole and the button nut will also help hold the joystick down, but it is fine with 3 screws instead of four. You can also add screws on either side of the missing corner if you wish.

paigeoliver:
Another view, can anyone name the interface I am using from just that partial pic?
paigeoliver:
Finished product
Apollo:
Thanks for that Paige. Just wondering if you or anyone has any tips for doing this with a metal panel. At the moment I have a MsPac/Galag 4 way in my Defender panel. I tried just cutting a slot for the joystick shaft but I could see pretty quickly that the steel was going to slice through the joysticck pretty quick so I drilled a normal hole instead. Trouble is now of course I don't have the control that the original had, the joystick wants to go forwards and backwards. Anyone fixed this problem without using a Defender 2 way?
paigeoliver:
Get the joystick I show in this picture and put a piece of wood behind your panel to space and guide the joystick.
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