finished project

The Tankstick seems great on the surface, the truth of the matter is it's not bad, but it's not great either. The joysticks aren't too bad, the buttons aren't too bad, but the encoder board that sends commands to your computer is falsely overrated by x-arcade, and overlooked by every single online reviewer I can find. X-arcade claims that they use technology that allows all the buttons on the control panel to be active at once. That is a not true as far as I can tell.
I did not realize this downside to the X-arcade controllers untill after I purchased an Xtension arcade cabinet for the X-arcade tankstick from rec room masters. Now I have an arcade cabinet built around the X-arcade tankstick, so buying another arcade control panel is out of the question, do other control panels even exist anymore?
So the plan is to replace the X-arcade internal electronics with the Ultimark I-PAC 2 interface, which is supposed to be about as good as it gets for registering simultaneous keyboard inputs. I will be changing this out and adding the OMNI2 4-way / 8-way switchable joystick that restricts the 4-way motion of the joystick with a diamond shaped restrictor plate that rotates by a lever at the bottom to 8-way, which is perfect for my setup with the Xtension cabinet because if I drill a little access hole on the bottom of the X-arcade control panel, it can easily be lifted up a couple inches to make the switch. I'm only installing one of these for now, if the 8-way function of the OMNI2 is that much better than the x-arcade joysticks I'll install another, I just don't need 2 joysticks with 4 way restricted functionality.
I already installed two Turbo Twist 2 spinners from groovygamegear.com into the X-arcade panel, I followed the lead of roger on these boards and put them above the buttons, between the 2nd and 3rd rows of buttons. The way the X-Arcade is setup by default, all the connectors on the button microswitches face the same way, taking up more space than they have to. I managed to get the Turbo Twist 2 spinners at least an inch closer to the buttons than I would have been able to without turning some of those buttons around. The spinners are installed with the energy storage cylinders at the bottom and they still clear the bottom panel of the X-arcade. I did have to remove one of the buttons from the back like roger did, I don't know which one it is because I've never used either of those buttons. Another way the I-PAC beats the X-arcade board is the ability to store and recall a button assignment program without having to push a button on the back of the x-arcade every time it turns on, which is why one of those buttons is back there. After I install the I-PAC that missing button will really be a non-issue. The other button is a trackball X-axis disabler you can presumably use to cheat at golden tee golf, who needs that?

Drilling into the laminate was nerve racking, but easy. I used a 1 1/8" spade bit with spurred edges on very low speed to remove the laminate, then after I got that out of the way I just switched it up to high speed. I drilled the center of the hole out first with a tiny drill bit, then a 5/8" drill bit thats diameter matched the width of the middle tip part of the 1 1/8" spade bit I was using, then the 1 1/8" spade bit. this helps keep the spade bit from moving at all while drilling.
To break it down, I already
-Added two Turbo Twist 2 spinners
In the next couple of weeks I will be
-Changing the X-Arcade encoder board out for the I-PAC 2
-Changing the 1st Player joystick out for the OMNI2 swichable joystick
-Adding an easy access hole for the OMNI2 for easy switching between modes