Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: muzland on March 30, 2007, 12:37:35 pm
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Does anyone know of a road blasters yoke can be easily converted to a Star Wars yoke?
I have the opportunity to buy one but I am really after a Star Wars one.
Any help/advice appreciated.
Regards
Muzland
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No, it can't. You can't rotate it forward and back like a SW yoke. Save your money.
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Also, it isn't analog like a Star wars yoke, it is optical. Actually it isn't even technically a yoke. It is an optical wheel mechanically resticted to 270 degrees and housed in a Star Wars yoke-like case.
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Cheers for the info guys.
So the casing and handles with triggers are the same but the internal electronics are different (optical not analogue).
Still sounds like it may be worth it if the price is right......
Is it possible to convert though? Does it work like a 270 steering whee/ but without the movement back and forth on the handles?
Cheers
Muzland
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It has the same range of motion as a regular 270 degree wheel, but like I said it is optical. Most 270 wheels are analog. I think it would be difficult to modify so that the handles rotate. Even if you did, you would then have to figure out how get the analog pot and gears and such to work in there. I think the left/right would be easy enough, but the up/down would definitely not be very easy.
I am sure you could do it, but I doubt that it would be worth it by the time you add in all the addition stuff you will have to buy and the man hours put in.
Also, the casing is a little different. On Roadblasters there is a semi-cirular bar at the bottom that the other yokes don't have.
If you decide to try, you will probably be able to get any internal parts you need from Ram Controls.
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I was looking at doing this project a while back. I ended up with a real yoke and abandoned it, but it's possible if you're willing to do some significant re-engineering. BTW, that "extra" curved bar on the bottom can be removed, or left in place if you don't mind it. Then you'll have to replace the optical encoder on the back with a potentiometer for the right/left motion. That's enough to convert it to regular 270 wheel operation, which is useful for a lot of games all by itself.
The big trick is, of course, adding the forward/back motion. The bar the handles mount to is a welded-on part of the main yoke body, so it'll need to be cut free and then replaced with a new bar, and a bearing system to allow that bar to move. Then, you'll have to find a way to mount a potentiometer, gears and some springs inside that central housing, which is smaller than a standard SW yoke housing.
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While hardly identical to the star wars yoke, you could mount the RB wheel onto a base that pivots up and down. It would be more like a real flight yoke. Enduro Racer used something similar to this for popping wheelies.
You'd still have some engineering ahead of you, though.