TWIN STICKER

Adventures in building a Diy twin stick arcade controller. Credit to the original bamboo controller which i based the design on. http://bambooarcade.com/ Added twin seimitsu sticks for tight and responsive twin stick shmup action. Rounded off with an arduino board to control inputs and neopixel RGB lighting.

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Some goodies have arrived! Including a kind donation of some rgb less. Exciting times

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Cut excess bamboo into four pieces to create brackets for the lid.

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Survived the Ikea shop and came back with the two parts for the base of the controller. Cue Mcgyver music. Let modding commence!

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Tried to get a shot from directly above the arduino with two joysticks connected. I've used x2 grounds and x8 digital, pins 2-9. I still need two spare for the button. And a few more for an LED.

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Cable Guy

That's the other set of wires for the daisy chained seimitsu I had lying around.

Looking after my own arcade I'm a stickler for cable ties. Cable tie everything! It makes fitting all this into the box much easier.

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That's one set of wires all glued, cable tied and ready for the pcb seimitsu stick.

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Hot glue gun to the rescue. The glue was the quickest way for me (without breaking out the soldering iron) I simply pushed the wire far enough down to make contact in the female dupont connector. Then I glued around the join between the two wires. This provides insulation as well. Will add some electrical tape to isolate it a bit more.

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Friends Electric

The other end of the joystick wire i connected to a group of 5 dupont cables male to female. Each cable is for a compass direction on the joystick plus ground. This was connected to the arduino 2,3,4,5 pins for the direction. And pin 8 for the ground.

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The seimitsu LS-32-01 has the benefit and ease of use of a pcb and 5pin connector. I used a JST ph5 connector into 5 stray wires as seen here. This connected to...

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Thats the second joystick in place. A bit of details here but this second stick was an original model seimitsu LS-32 one without the pcb. This type is a traditional arcade joystick where the ground wire had to be connected by a daisy chain crimped wire connection touching all the directions. I had one of these sticks and wires spare so threw this one into the stick to match the newer pcb version of the LS-32-01 (the 01 part number is the pcb version)

Both sticks are the same height and have the same Seimitsu SE mounting plates, medium firm springs and throw distance. These are ideal shmup sticks as the throw distance is shorter than sanwa sticks.

Time to finally add the seimitsu button and lock it in place. That's the whole of the top panel set out and physically connected now. Very pleased!

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Superfreak

Now to mount the second joystick. This joystick is an original LS-32 (top left) with no pcb or 5 pin connection. It was my original street fighter fight stick and had the phreak mods quick release shaft customisation (top right). I had to remove this and put it back to stock before marking and screwing the plate to the bamboo lid.

The mounting plates I used are seimitsu SE mounting plates. Which is the screw configuration to fit taito viewlix / madcatz enclosures.

Again my screws were too long for the bamboo lid so I raised them by using some nuts as washers (bottom image).

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I used 28mm screws which were a bit too deep so I raised them with x2 washers I had lying around. This is the first joystick mounted. I screwed back on the pcb, microswitches and square gate.

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Regulators... mount up

Time to mount the joysticks. The se mounting plate of the seimitsu LS-32-01 will just about fit providing you've been following the measurements so far.

I carefully removed the pcb and microswitches as well as the ball top.

I marked the position and used a dremel with 1mm drill bit to create pilot holes for the screws. I didn't have a depth guard so had to judge by eye about 10mm deep.

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The bevel worked well, and allowed the screw nut to catch. The button felt secure in place.

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The Hardest Button To Button

Disaster! The depth of the seimitsu clear button is exactly the same depth as the thickness of the lid. This left me no room for the screw in nut to catch... Snap in sanwa/seimitsus are not an option and the longer depth american buttons are not an option. Clear buttons is what I need for this project.

Again a bit of critical thinking and a dremel can go a long way. I decided to cut a 32mm diameter lip and bevel about 4/5mm deep.

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Snug fit! The button was the first time the project felt like it wasnt just component parts and was beginning to take shape. Especially after the initial tangents and misteps. The clear seimitsu 30mm button looks great against bamboo. However...

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Adding the seimitsu PN-14 clear 30mm button.

Drawing around an old 2p gave me a 28mm guide to begin with. I didn't have a spade attachment handy so I initially drilled with a 12mm drill bit. Then dremelled away in the hole to give me the final 30mm gap. It was a case of take this part slowly I wanted the button to be a snug fit.