anyone know of any sites that sell miniature joysticks and buttons?

[northerngames]

anyone know of any sites that sell miniature joysticks and buttons?

looking for one's that look like real arcade buttons and joys but smaller then your average happ button and joy size like something half the size or so?

[BobA]

Check out Bender's Mini DK for button and joy ideas.

Mini DK

[northerngames]

yeah I seen that but the parts were from over seas and the joystick price was crazy so I'm passing on that setup.

[05SRT4]

I was going to say Digikey but the joysticks do get pricey.

[BobA]

Here is a link to a small DIY joystck using a pen and some micro switches.

DIY Mini Joy

[Mysterioii]

I know these are not as authentic as you are looking for but here are some things that come to mind...

bright colored tactile buttons...
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10302

Joystick (analog though, but acts like a button like the PS analog sticks so hey it's a topfire...   )
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9032

Lower-profile joystick...
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9426

Teeny tiny blackberry-style trackball (with a breakout board version...)
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9308
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9320

And hey it's illuminated RGB, too...   

[Le Chuck]

Has anybody tried out the BB trackball?  It has four magnetic microswitches so the wiring is different.  I'm wondering if it can just be hooked up to the direction leads on a gamepad.  I'd love to see some implementation examples.

[Mysterioii]

I'm pretty sure I actually picked up one or two to throw into my pile of components for future possible projects, but I haven't done anything with it yet.  I'm not sure if I got the breakout version or the bare trackball, but if I just got the trackball itself then it apparently doesn't even come with the hall effect sensors, so I'd have a bit of work to do (and further component selection) to get it working.  Looks like the breakout board version might be worth the extra bucks because they've done that bit for you (and even added the RGB leds).

From the product description, "a slight roll of the trackball creates multiple high/low transitions on the four axis pins, easily picked up by any microcontroller."  Doesn't sound that you could just hook it to the direction controls  of a gamepad but you could hook them to the inputs of a microcontroller like an arduino then have that output directional signals to the gamepad (for another $30 bucks or so of hardware).  Hall effect sensors basically conduct current in the presence of a magnetic field and IIRC these trackballs have a tiny magnet on each side, and using the ball causes the little magnet to rotate.  The sensors then react to this rotating magnetic field so what you get is four pulse trains whose frequency would indicate how fast the ball was turning in whichever direction.

Sounds like a bit of work to do what you want.