Building a 360 Arcade Stick. Have Questions, seeking advice.

[Chris2]

1. I've read that Sanwa buttons are the best you can get for fighting sticks. However, I also read that you can only mount them on a metal control panel. Is this true? If so, can I mount a metal layer on top of a wooden panel? Does Mame Marquees artwork stick to a metal panel?

2. Is it worth it to have all 8 buttons at one's disposal on their right hand?

3. I want to make my arcade stick wireless and rechargeable (using the 360 recharge pack and accompanying USB charge/interface cable). Can anyone advice me on a proper integration for this? I was thinking a hole in the bottom, but I wasn't sure of how to pull it off.

4. Which buttons do the various street fighter ports use on a 360 pad? I'm going to be wiring to a normal 360 pad, and I need to make sure that I get the right buttons in the right places. I'm not really sure whether to use the triggers or the bumpers for the far right buttons, or whether to do something else entirely. Any advice here, especially pertaining to the Street Fighter control layout used in Street Fighter HD (or any other Street Fighter games on the 360), is desired.

Here's a picture of what I'm thinking right now as a final product.
Green=A
Red=B
Blue=X
Yellow=Y
Black=One of the Bumpers/Triggers
White=The other of the two Bumpers/Triggers

Black(top row): Back
Player 1 Button: Start
Orange: Guide


The arcade stick in question. I put several inches of space around the buttons to let my arms rest comfortably on top of the panel.
(Artwork modification by Ninjun)

[versapak]

I personally can't stand Sanwa buttons, and have all Happ concave in mine.

Your mockup looks perfect, and most of the fighting games let you fully customize the buttons. I do have 8 on mine, but there isn't really any need for the extra 2 in any games.

I busted out the rotary tool and soldering iron, and I actually mounted the battery compartment to the outside of my arcade stick. I also mounted the port for the play & charge, so that I can plug it in like I do just like with the regular controller.

I have seen another arcade stick, where the battery and all were inside the controller with the play & charge wired to a standard USB jack to the outside.

[Chris2]

I believe I've seen that one that you recalled. It used all the same parts as in the Street Fighter IV cabinets. I never knew that the button layouts for the fighting games could be customized in-game. That will be very helpful.

Does anyone know if it's possible to wire an analog stick on the 360 to a digital arcade stick? I'd love to do that in the future for games like Geometry Wars or any other dual-stick games.

Here's a mock-up of what that might look like:

Artwork by Utilizator @ DeviantArt

[massive88]

I used seimitsu buttons, but the sanwa screw ons are the exact same for mounting.  Heres my build page if you want to see what I did.  http://omgbbq.com/tfight360.htm

Basically they work fine on 1/4" thick wood, you can either just use a 1/4" thick panel with stiffeners and extra supports, or route out recesses for the buttons on a thicker panel.

[Chris2]

Stiffeners? Supports? Do you mean brackets and such?

Nevermind. I looked at your pictures and I think I understand. Supports are wooden blocks affixed to the corners to hold the bottom four pieces together, and stiffeners are pieces of wood attached perpendicular to a main piece of wood, allowing for greater strength, yes?

That said, could I do something like what you did on your controller (made the top piece sort of recessed into the panel) only do that with a thin piece of wood, and then put the actual control surface on top of this piece (turning the thin piece into a sort of foot for the top, in addition to being a really big stiffener)?

[versapak]

Here are some pictures of the one I made.

Not what one would call pretty, and I reached usable but not finished stage and haven't gone back.


The eventual plan is to putty around the battery area, and paint the rest black.

Also, I will eventually wire the headset jack, but I use a wireless primarily, so it hasn't been a priority at all.

[versapak]

Why are my images not resizing?


It has been a while since I posted images, but I could have swore that last time the boards automatically made them smaller so they could actually be seen. You could then click and it would open the larger image in a new window.


Am I remembering wrong?

[massive88]

Stiffeners? Supports? Do you mean brackets and such?

My worry with using a 1/4" thick panel would be that it would flex or be too hollow sounding (or feeling).

So to offset that, I put in supports for the panel at the midpoints in addition to the traditional corners.

Then to be extra sure that the panel wouldnt flex, I put in a stiffener across the middle.  That way the panel for the most part is 1/4" thick, but it feels from the outside as strong as a 3/4" panel.

The stiffener was probably overkill, but if you use a 1/4" thick wood panel, I would at least support it at the corners and also at the midpoints. Like I did here...

[Chris2]

Versapak: could you take some close up shots of the battery slot wiring on your panel? I like the way you managed the battery problem, and would like to do the same with my panel.

[Zeosstud]

This is what my buddy Mark did on mine.  Never underestimate the power of the 2nd joystick ( You do play Robotron dont you?? )

[versapak]

I basically "just" desoldered the pieces from the controller PCB, and placed them in the wood (hot glue is what is holding everything in place).

[JamesV77]

Very Nice Versa!  I did the same thing mounted the battery housing on the outside of the box.







Just finished wiring up player 2 tonight....

[erAser_crAsh]

Very tempted by Street Fighter IV but very new (never did any one) to modding, I bump on that interesting and quite useful topic.

Do you guys think it would be possible to modify a Playstation2 HRAP (Capcom Fighting Jam edition) into a wired/wireless X360 one ? Obviously, a quite easy and clean way to do this would help.

Nice sticks you did guys there

[cappadonna]

Hope this helps you out.  You could use a usb gender changer, leave the charge&play inside the box and connect to the backside of the GC. The use a usb type A/B cable.  What I do on mine though is buy battery boxes $1.25 US and flush mount them on the bottom of the box.  Use NiMH rechargeable batteries and replace when needed.  No need to open up the box.