How do you hack an after burner control panel?

[rob1234]

How do you go about hacking the flight stick and analog throttle on an after burner panel? Do you use the dual strike hack? A pc flight stick hack? Any info would be appreciated.

[Kremmit]

Electrically speaking, the Afterburner controls are just two analog joysticks (and one of those only has one axis- the throttle).  The Dual Strike/PC flightstick hack, or an AKI, or an A-Pac should all do the trick. 

I'd lean towards the AKI, just because it can put three axes on one controller.  The A-Pac would show the throttle on a separate controller from the joystick, as far as Windows is concerned.  This would probably work fine in MAME, but might not work so well if you wanted to use the controls for other PC flightsim games.  If you go the hack, you'd want to hack a controller with at least 3 axes on it, and you'd probably have to replace the potentiometers on the Afterburner controls with 100k pots to match the flightstick you're hacking.

Hope this helps!

[rob1234]

Where would I be able to find the 100k pots? Also, would you know of any controllers that would be easy to hack for this, that mame would support?

[Kremmit]

Pots (and everything electrical):

www.mouser.com
www.digikey.com
www.newark.com

Just about any PC analog joy with a throttle is a likely candidate- but I've no specific reccomendations or guarantees there. 

In response to your other post, do determine the "angles"of the pots you would need take the old ones out so you can see how far they turn. 

As mentioned in that thread, it might be easier to just go with the AKI or A-Pac, as high-grade pots aren't cheap.  The AKI would let you just use the pots already on the Afterburner panel, with no mucking about.

[rob1234]

thanks for the help I ordered an aki board.

[Wienerdog]

Can you keep us updated, maybe post some pics?  I have an Afterburner panel that I am always tempted to pull out and use.  I could use some inspiration!

[rob1234]

sure, I am just in the process now of sanding and painting. The panel I recieved had a lot of rust on the throttle handle and stuff. One of the pots was broke off as well. But I did wire the 2 pots for the analog controller up and it works good with the aki board. I will post pics within the next couple of weeks. I will try to get it in the cab.

[rob1234]

I need a pic of the image next to the throttle for this game. If anyone has one, please send me a close up pic at thegreatone767@zooomtown.com thanks! Rob

[rob1234]

if anyone is interested I have started a thread in the project section, here is a link:
http://tinyurl.com/cr3t4