Looking for an illuminated balltop for my modified 49way

[Popcorrin]

I modified some 49 way sticks to allow for a larger diameter shaft and I was originally planning on purchasing some illuminated sticks from slikstik to use with them.  But after the recent issues with slikstik I was wondering if there are any other sources to get some illuminated replacement shafts from?

[Franco]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=73769.0 

[Popcorrin]

I modified the 49way to accept a happs super shaft, so I was looking for an illuminated shaft for a happs super like the one slikstik carries. 
That would be awesome if you could make some!
Does anyone know of a place that currently has some for sale though, other than slikstik?

[Franco]

No problem, ill post my results back once I have tested them.

I did ask the same question as you trying to find some illuminated balltops originally but the only answer i received was Slikstick.

[Popcorrin]

Thanks, I'll wait to here from you.

[Franco]

My ball tops arived yesterday so I have had chance to have a little fiddle with them. I was going to order them from lizard lick but they were out of stock of the clear ones so I ordered them from www.arcadeshop.de instead and I must say I was most impressed with the service. Shipping only took a couple of days from Germany to the UK and they came very well packaged.



I took one into work with me this morning and also some LEDs I bought from ebay. As you can see from the picture below the insert nuts in the balls are open ended, its a good job other wise no light would have been able to shine though to the ball.



I test fitted one of the LEDs in the ball and the main body of the LED fit nicely inside the bore but it it stopped on the shoulder of the LED. It makes sense really as the thread is M6x1mm so the bore of the screwthread is 5.1mm. This wasnt really a problem as you can easily remove the shoulder with a fine file. Once the shoulder was removed the LED fitted all the way inside the ball leaving about 5mm of thread. This would probably be enough to hold the joystick shaft but I wanted a bit more for it to hold on so I ground of the top of the LED on a bench grinder although you could easily do it with a file, I was just being lazy. The (very bad) picture below shows an untouched LED, one with the shoulder removed and one with the shoulder removed and about 4mm taken off the top.



Once the extra material was taken off it allowed the LED to fit further into the ball which will give the shaft more to grip on.



I then attached a resistor and soldered some wires onto the leads (excuse the soldering, im pretty crap at it but I have 100 or so LEDs to solder for my project so that will give me plenty of practice  ) Obviously thee will be heat shrink etc on the wires and leads when I do them properly, I was just eager to see the result!



I then gave it 5v from a PC PSU and shazzam!



    

That picture really doesnt do it justice, it looks beautiful, you can see every bubble and the brigtness is spot on.

I was hoping to make the hollow shafts for my Sanwas but im still waiting for the to arrive, hopefully they will be here by monday and I will be able to make some then.

[Popcorrin]

Very pretty.  Can't wait to see the final product.