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Thinking about building something similar to the X-arcade Tankstick

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bkenobi:
Add it up:

$25-40 - Controller (cost depends on the options you want)
$30 - 2 joysticks (minimum price is ~15 each.  You can easily spend more if you want better stuff)
$27 - buttons ($1.50 average price for black and player start buttons assumed)
$75 - trackball (I haven't priced these recently, but if you pay less, it might not come with a controller.  If it doesn't include one, you need an optical controller or a mouse hack)

TOTAL = $150-$175'ish

You can probably do a bit better if you are picky about where to buy things (like starting with a X-Arcade bundle), but you can certainly spend more.  If you can get it at $100, that's a deal!  If you get it for retail at $200, you won't save much building it yourself (if at all). 

If you want the project, then you have answered the question before you started.  You are ready to dump a bunch of money into something because you want a hobby.   :afro:

ivwshane:
I really depends on the quality you want and how many buttons you plan on using.

From ggg.com you could go with this setup:
Happ comp stick (8 way) $8.49
Black pushbutton (with cherry switches) x10 $12
LED wiz+gp (16 input) $39.95

Total: $60.44

Or go with altimarc:
U360 (configurable analog stick) $59
USB harness (supports 8 buttons only) $8
Black pushbuttons (cherry switches) x8 $15.60

Total: $82.60

Keep in mind there is no trackball and this is only for one player.

Add about $20-$40 for wood and other misc supplies.

And that's assuming you already have all of the tools needed to make the thing.

ropeadope:
Now it doesn't sound so bad. I can get the two joysticks and all the buttons (except for the two pinball side buttons) I need from X-arcade for $39.95. I already have plenty of controllers (not sure if we're talking about the same kind of controllers though...probably not :P - I'm thinking gamepads I could dissect) - I could skip getting a trackball for now. Then I'd just need to build a box/control panel and do my best to try and connect all the dots. Still seems very unlikely that I could do all of this though, but I guess there's still a little hope.

bkenobi:
You can do a joystick/gamepad hack.  There's a thread about using a $9 controller that was posted last week that might be interesting.  I personally would avoid a keyboard hack since they have limitations and you can get an economy controller for ~$20 that does more out of the box (vs ~$10 for a cheapo keyboard + time + supplies + etc).

The parts I listed were middle of the road assuming you wanted to recreate the Tank Stick.  I did forget about the pinball buttons, so you would want to add 4 more buttons onto what I said above.

ropeadope:
Actually looking at more of the tankstick pics there are already buttons on the side that would seemingly be perfect for pinball stuff. It's like they built the tankstick just for me :D - I'll just have to put it on my wish list.

Thanks for the help, though.

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