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TRON Stick Handles

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Xiaou2:


 Well,  the key is not that they worked.. but how WELL they worked.  Most joystick bases are made of lightweight plastic.. and is not meant to handle the stresses of a heavy metal shaft like those seen on the tron sticks.   The added leverage from the extra height also plays a problem.

 The plastic will bow and flex, and may misregister a direction (or eventually break the swiitches) ... and the spacers will wear very quickly from the added weight and abuse.

  Theres good reason why the original arcade sticks were made of heavy metal bases with hard rubber bumpers to absorb the forces.

  Making orignal mounting method is the better way.   If someone wants to use them with original joys... they will be able to.  If others want to hack a stick.. they can shave a different shaft down to fit...or make their own shaft.


Fozzy The Bear:


--- Quote from: Xiaou2 on February 22, 2006, 03:06:18 am ---  Making orignal mounting method is the better way.   If someone wants to use them with original joys... they will be able to.  If others want to hack a stick.. they can shave a different shaft down to fit...or make their own shaft.

--- End quote ---

I think the answer here is to cast them in two different flavours..... 
1) Exactly as the originals
2) With a completely solid section at the bottom end, that you can drill yourself to fit whatever stick shaft you're going to use.

It's not impossible to do this, and only requires a slight modification in the mold. So I'll produce two different masters and two different molds and then people will have the choice of which one they want.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)




MinerAl:


--- Quote from: Xiaou2 on February 22, 2006, 03:06:18 am ---Most joystick bases are made of lightweight plastic.. and is not meant to handle the stresses of a heavy metal shaft like those seen on the tron sticks.   The added leverage from the extra height also plays a problem.

 The plastic will bow and flex, and may misregister a direction (or eventually break the swiitches) ... and the spacers will wear very quickly from the added weight and abuse.

  Theres good reason why the original arcade sticks were made of heavy metal bases with hard rubber bumpers to absorb the forces.

  Making orignal mounting method is the better way.   If someone wants to use them with original joys... they will be able to.  If others want to hack a stick.. they can shave a different shaft down to fit...or make their own shaft.


--- End quote ---

I agree to a certain extent.  If I were interested in a dedicated Tron machine that I was going to put on a route and have drunken-spastic-teenage-monkeys yanking on it regularly, then there is no question that the original Tron mechanism would be required. 

However, I like playing Tron but not enough for a dedicated machine, so I would like a stick on my multi-game control panel that will make that and other trigger stick games easier.  I do not intend to allow drunken-spastic-teenage-monkeys to play my machine, so I'm not concerned that I will exert so much more force with a Tron length stick than I do with my 4 inch bat-tops (there's the whole issue of the strength of the hollow plastic handle and the hollow thin walled shaft there too...) that I will shatter my Super's mechanism.

The real issue for me on my home machine is under-panel real estate.  The Tron mechanisms are HUGE in all three dimensions.  It's quite a commitment to have one in your panel.  A Super with a Tron top takes as much room as a super with a bat top under the panel.



--- Quote from: Fozzy The Bear on February 22, 2006, 08:27:00 am ---2) With a completely solid section at the bottom end, that you can drill yourself to fit whatever stick shaft you're going to use.
--- End quote ---

Excellent.  That is fantastic news.  Perhaps instead of a solid block, you could simply do some solid (meet in the middle) struts.  The areas inside what I circled on 1up's picture below are what I'm calling struts.  They are now crescent shaped (pic 2) to fit the original Tron shaft, but could be made to meet (pic 3) instead.  Then we could adjust our shafts accordingly.  ;)


Fozzy The Bear:


--- Quote from: MinerAl on February 22, 2006, 11:44:53 am ---Perhaps instead of a solid block, you could simply do some solid (meet in the middle) struts.  The areas inside what I circled on 1up's picture below are what I'm calling struts.
--- End quote ---

To be honest I think they're too thin walled at that point anyway.... It may be possible to beef those struts up a bit as well...  I'll have a look at it when I have the sticks to copy, and see what works best. 

Even on a near 100% repro stick I think they should be a bit heavier there. That's not the strongest part of the design. I did once see one broken quite badly at the point where it contacts the shaft.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

MinerAl:

Man I hope this works out... I'm getting all excited about custom tron handles :)

Are you planning to mold the trigger assembly as well?  Seems like there could be some improvement on the way the trigger actuates the switch, but there's no point in re-inventing the wheel I guess.

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.  I have some ideas...

Al

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