Druin's LS30/Mechanical Rotary Interface now $25

[Druin]

I have received prototypes and finally completed testing of a new design of the Rotary Interface, which I embarked upon purely for cost down purposes because I know what people's budgets are like for this stuff. 

[Hoagie_one]

i have one of your old boards.  are there any differences in performance?  Should i buy this new board? Or will i be ok with what Ihave?

[Druin]

You'll be perfectly fine.  The boards have functioned on the same principle from day 1.  I'm just getting better at optimizing how I go about it each step along the way.

[NY_in_TX]

Druin,

You are truly an asset to the hobby and this forum.   

Paypal SENT!!!

ny

[mame_freak]

even though i dont have a rotary joystick, i want one of these... Just incase

[Hoagie_one]

even though i dont have a rotary joystick, i want one of these... Just incase

at that price, dont blame ya

[Veinman]

Perfect timing, I'm getting ready to order this!

Thank you for your efforts, this is the first time I have seen something get less expensive!

[armax]

I'm going to have to pick up one as well.

[dabone]

Now lets see those rotary mods for the 49 ways and I'll be set.

(Even though it's getting kinda silly, 25 for the joy, 35 for the 49 way interface, 25 for the rotary interface, and probally 20 for the rotary mod.)

Lets see.

$105.00

PER JOY..

ow..

Hope I only have to build this once..




Later,
dabone

[armax]

dabone, stop it.  those are my plans exactly, I don't want to know the price.  I like to keep the illusion that I'm nickel and diming it... 

[Nannuu]

Well, Druin's interface supports two sticks so it's a bit less money per stick

[samusaran]

cheers druin,paypal sent.

[Veinman]

PM sent and ordered!

[samusaran]

received it today.only took 4 days to get here in uk.thanks very much.

[Veinman]

Got mine today too! Now I just need the actual joysticks.

[Druin]

all I need is a cabinet or desktop control panel to mount the joysticks buttons and rotary interface I've had sitting in a box for 5 years and counting.

[usedelectronics]

If your down for a trade, I can make you a custom CNC cut control panel.

 

[monkeybomb]

Now lets see those rotary mods for the 49 ways and I'll be set.

(Even though it's getting kinda silly, 25 for the joy, 35 for the 49 way interface, 25 for the rotary interface, and probally 20 for the rotary mod.)

Lets see.

$105.00

PER JOY..

ow..

Hope I only have to build this once..




Later,
dabone

I know you're just playing but, I think when you put it in context with the expense of the rest of the hobby, 100 bucks per stick is no big deal.  I would have saved a ton if I wouldn't have tried to be cheap at first and just bought all the best stuff right off the bat.   If the 200 dollar setup eliminates a frankenpannel and a bunch of other setups and controls, then I think the whole thing is a bargin.

[MameMaster!]

I got mine!...now if only Happ would ship my 360 as fast I would be in business!

Thanks Druin!

MameMaster! 

[Lilwolf]

Ok, for a wierd question.

Could I hook this up AND hook all the connections directly?  I use analog+ mame for TimeSolders and a few others.  But it doesn't currently work in Ikari warriors... And it will never work with XyBots.

Its now cheap enought that I might consider it just for those two games.

[Druin]

Ok, for a wierd question.

Could I hook this up AND hook all the connections directly?

[Lilwolf]

I would like to hook all 12 connections to both your board AND to a keyboard encoder.

So that I can use analog+ mame for timesolders.. And use your board for Ikari warriors and Xybots...

So every turn, the keyboard encoder would see the one key released, the new key pressed... AND a 'L' or 'R' from your board.

[Kremmit]

Lilwolf-
I was planning on doing exactly that.  I haven't tried it yet, but I think it ought to work, just configure MAME to take the Druin inputs for the Ikari games, and the direct inputs for the ones that will work in Mame Analog+.  Even if it doesn't work, it's not so hard to add a switch, or run the wires through a molex that can be plugged into the Druin or the Ipac as needed.

[Druin]

In theory it should work, usually you can drive what, 10 inputs or something from a logic output without needing to buffer and re-drive signals.  It shouldn't be any different than for example having one output signal in a circuit going to an Enable pin of 2 separate chips in some application.

[vib_ribbon]

wow, i'm so glad i found this bbs...

i've always been a fan of ikari warriors but couldnt see a way of playing it the way it's meant to without buying a dedicated cabinet.

dumb question:
is it possible to fit rotary sticks into a normal cab and only make use of the rotary function with the games that need it, otherwise, the sticks just works like normal 8way sticks?

that way, i can just have the 1 cab where the screen can be turned vertical and play all these other games as well.

i hope that makes sense,
thanks.

[Hoagie_one]

yes, you can just asign the rotation buttons to only work for rotary games, but for just 8-way use, the ls-30 sticks suck.

there are much better general 8-way sticks out there....like supers.

[NY_in_TX]

vib_ribbon,

yes.  you can have rotary sticks and play non-rotary games with them just fine.  Just think of the rotary clicks as buttons.  In Ikari they'll be used, in 1942 or any other non-rotary game they will just be unused and won't effect gameplay. 

and to Hoagie's point, yeah the LS30s for 8 way use are not as good as a Happ Rotary (a super basically) or the new 49 way rotary project (that looks to be a sweet stick)

BTW Druin, THANKS!!!!

ny

[Kremmit]

Agreed, if you want to use your rotary sticks for normal games as well, get Happ mechanical rotary sticks, or the new Happ 49-way mod from the main forum.

[vib_ribbon]

thanks for everyone's responses, i'll go and read up on these sticks you've pointed out. hopefully, i'm 1 step closer to getting ikari warriors and playing all those old snk classics again!!

so this interface is something that you need to connect between the stick and the board? what's wrong with the original electronics...? sorry for such a clueless question...

i was tempted to buy the original sticks a while back when someone was selling them as NOS on eBay... ooooooh... ikari warriors!!!

[Druin]

so this interface is something that you need to connect between the stick and the board? what's wrong with the original electronics...? sorry for such a clueless question...

The original "problem" was that the sticks have 12 switches to show rotary position but MAME was set up with those games to run on 2 switches per joystick for rotary response.  The original hardware looked at your existing position and knew where you were, while MAME waits for you to make a move (left or right direction of rotating) and then it reacts, it doesn't care exactly where you are, just where you're going when you do make a move.

So the original hardware and the MAME software aren't directly matched.

There's some side projects that attempt to modify mame to be able to connect all those original 12 switches like the original hardware, but I don't think it works in every single rotary joystick game and also it requires 10 extra keyboard inputs per joystick (valuable resources).  So this sort of adapter method is a good all around approach.  It gives the joystick what it wants, gives Mame what it wants, and seems to make a good effort in the translation.

[vib_ribbon]

thanks for clearing that up, it makes sense now.

for MAME projects, buy this.

...but you don't need this if you are running off the original board.

correct?

thanks for the heads up.