Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: Wade on May 01, 2003, 09:09:29 am
-
Anyone who uses the Ultimarc J-stick 4/8 way switchable sticks might be interested in this.
The site says that friction holds the restrictors in place and they can be rotated by hand. This hasn't worked for me. If I don't tighten them significantly, the restrictors "walk" and end up out of alignment. I have resorted to tightening the screws and just leaving a phillips screwdriving in my control panel.
I went to my local Lowes with one of the restrictor screws. I bought small bolts, luck nuts, and wing nuts. I think the size is metric M7. I assembled them like this:
_ ____ _
\ \ [____] / / <- bolt head
\ \[____]/ / <- lock nut, upside down
\______/ <- wing nut
|///| <- bolt threads
|///|
|///|
I was going to put the lock nut under the wing nut, but it turns out the head of the bolt was too big to tighten down all the way onto the wing nut. So I ended up having to put the lock nut on upside-down in order to tighen the wing nut to the bolt.
Now I essentially have a wing nut with a threaded shaft. I put these in place of the screws on the bottom of the J-sticks. Now I can loosen and tighten without a screwdriver! A cleaner way would be to eliminate the lock nut, cut the head of the bolt off, and put a small tack weld to hold the wing nut on to the threaded shaft.
It doesn't really save any time when switching modes (it only took about 30 seconds even with a screwdriver) but people look at me funny when I have to whip out a screwdriver to play certain games.
I reused the plastic washers.
I took some pics to post here, but brought the wrong card with me to work. If anyone else uses J-sticks and is interested, I'll try to bring the pics tomorrow.
Wade
-
yes.... thx... I'm interested... plz post pics...
I know exactly what you mean...
I was playing sf games... and after a few games...
I can't jump forward anymore....
then it turns out the plate will "shift" by itself if we don't tighten it......
-
This is good information! Pics would be great!
I have 2 J-sticks on order from Andy to replace the 2 worn ones in my Impress cabinet.
Impostor
-
Pics are hopefully coming tomorrow then!
Wade
-
Here's a pic:
(http://www.wvinter.net/~flanham/wlanham/arcade/jstik_small.jpg)
Wade
-
I've had a couple of j-sticks since they first came out and they don't seem to have this problem at all.
I wonder if it is because I don't play fighters and therefore am not so hard on the sticks.
Good solution though.
-
I don't play fighters as much as I play classics but I am a bit hard on the sticks I think.
Do you ever switch from 4/8 way? I don't have the problem with them walking if I tighten the screws down a lot. The reason I have the walking problem is because I have to leave the screws too loose if I want to be able to spin the restrictor by hand.
Someone who never switches from 4/8 way or always uses a screwdriver to tighten them down probably won't have the problem.
Wade
-
Thanks for the pics Wade!
-
There was a discussion about this a little while ago...
I'm *pretty* sure Andy bopped in and said that they shouldn't "walk" and you shouldn't need a screwdriver to tighten/loosen 'em...
Let me find that thread before I dig myself any further...
rampy
EDIT I found the thread (http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=4308;start=0) I was thinking of and it's not talking about what I think it was... i.e. I was wrong!