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| spidermonkey:
Ok,well here are the original Midway part numbers for the plateform/grommets used on Tron & Pac-Man. Keep in mind that these are Midway numbers,not Lord Manufacturing numbers but since Lord was the original manufacturer then they may recognize or have records of these numbers having delt with Midway for quite a few years. Tron bushing-Midway part# 0628-00905-0000 Pac-Man bushing-Midway part# 0932-00902-0000 And here's Atari's part# for a typical Wico plateform/grommet used in a Wico leafswitch joystick from the game "Dig-Dug". Atari part# 99-080031 Again,this is Atari's part# which is most likely different from the actual Wico or Lord |
| RandyT:
There is also something else that isn't being taken into consideration aside from mechanical fit. There are load ratings on these devices that will dictate the resistance. Much of the time, the mechanical properties (shaft size, plate size, etc) dictate the formulation of the rubber. In other words, a vibration mount that is designed for a .375" shaft, would probably be overkill to support a 15lb load, but that combination may be what is required to give you the proper feel for the joystick. It's entirely probable that WICO had a custom batch of these made with exactly the specs they wanted. Even the rubber "grommets" for the Happ 49-ways are made special, with a .313" shaft diameter. Every stock unit I have ever seen is either .257" or .391", pretty much meaning that a drill will be your best option. Unless you want to to have a thousand dollars worth of vibration mounts on your shelf for who knows how long :). BTW, this is also most likely the reason that the "knock-offs" reportedly have such a sloppy fit. If the shafts are modeled after the original WICO shafts (mine measures .369") and they are using the commonly available .391" mounts, then there is .022" slop, which doesn't sound like much, but in an application like this, it's tantamount to a "rat tail in a rain barrel". RandyT |
| PoDunkMoFo:
If WICO had to have the part of the joystick that fits into the mount made, pretty sure there are no alternate uses for balltop handles, wouldn't it be more likely that they had that part made to fit an off the shelf plateform? It would seem less likely that they would make the handles a size that would require a custom order grommet. Am I way off on this? I don't think drilling would be a major undertaking. Again I could be wrong. |
| RandyT:
--- Quote from: PoDunkMoFo on May 11, 2005, 12:21:30 am ---If WICO had to have the part of the joystick that fits into the mount made, pretty sure there are no alternate uses for balltop handles, wouldn't it be more likely that they had that part made to fit an off the shelf plateform? It would seem less likely that they would make the handles a size that would require a custom order grommet. Am I way off on this? --- End quote --- Maybe. See the part above about large shaft diameters and rubber formulations. If WICO wanted a beefy stick, but soft rubber, a custom run would have been required anyway as demand for this is pretty unlikely in the "vibration control" market. As I said, the larger the shaft, the tougher the rubber...usually. --- Quote ---I don't think drilling would be a major undertaking. Again I could be wrong. --- End quote --- I have some .257" ones here. I'll give it a shot in a day or so to see how it goes. Drilling out a metal bushing that is encapsulated in a chunk of rubber is something I haven't tried yet. But I don't expect it to be as straight forward as just putting a piece of metal in a vice. RandyT |
| PoDunkMoFo:
Well my thinking on the off the shelf thing is this. If I understand these mounts they are meant to dampen vibration and the deflection figures listed in the specs are forces perpendicular to the mount. Meaning, at least I think, is that these things were never meant to have force applied in the manner of a joystick. That is why I think that someone somewhere went "Hey that'll work". Randy, On the drilling thing I was thinking it might be worthwhile to take the time to make some sort of jig to hold the plate in place ( A couple of dowel pins on he diagonals). Just a thought. Let us know how it works out. |
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