Okay, cool. I enjoyed modding the other stick, so now I started thinking about a mod for this one. I wanted to be a bit more elaborate this time around. An art mod would do the trick.
I thought about it for a few days and decided it might be cool to do something related to one of my favorite bands, the aggrotech outfit Psyclon Nine. My first idea was to do something to play off the white casing of the stick rather then dying it a different color. The cover art to Psyclon Nine's second album, INRI, would work really well.
The idea was to chop the logo and use just the feathers. With some clear read buttons and a matching balltop to play off the blood specks, it would look pretty nice. Then I saw this video, and it got me thinking about LED mods
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This required a little research on my part. After a few days of reading I came to the conclusion that I should use Uila LEDs, which would require I use Seimitsu buttons rather then Sanwa. I was okay with that, as I was curious about Seimitsu. Supposedly Sanwa and Seimitsu buttons were about equal in performance, but had slightly different feels.
I still had a few doubts, but after reading a bit more I found this guide to Uila LEDs that made things look pretty simple. I became convinced that this was a project I could pull off.
Now I had to figure out art. This is when I ran into my first problem. Though I own a copy of INRI, its not the US release with the cover posted above. Rather, I have European release, which didn't come out Stateside because Americans are terrified of nipples.
I tried several methods of getting a scan of the US art. However, nothing I could find via image searches was of high enough resolution. I tried posting on Psyclon Nine frontman Nero Bellum's Facebook page, in hopes that a fellow fan could help me out, but had no luck. After a few days of trying to come up with alternate concepts, I decided to see what I could do with the European art.
After a bit of poking around the forums at Shoryuken.com I learned that the official art template for the Madcatz SE is actually slightly off. However, d3v over at the Tech Talk sub-forum created a more accurate template that I ended up using.
This is where I ended up spending a lot of time. First things first, I needed to scan the cover of my CD. I figured I'd want as big a scan as possible, so I set up my scanner to its highest settings. The software indicated that the actual scan would take a while under those settings, so I went to sleep.
When I woke up the next morning, I checked the results immediately. I can't say I was too surprised to find the scan had failed and given me an error. Evidentally, on the settings I'd picked the resulting scan would have been several gigabytes big, and the error boiled down to my computer going "Are you fucking kidding me?". I turned things down to a more reasonable level and tried again. This time things worked fine.
Now it was time to fool around with the template. It took me several hours, over the course of a few nights, to get things placed correctly. I'd been pondering what I was going to do with the shaft and balltop of joystick mechanism, and then a happy accident with the template solved everything. When I lined up the artwork a particular way, the hole for the joystick matched the location of the nail in the goth chick's wrist. I'd just have to paint up the balltop and shaft cover in some sort of metal color. With that idea in mind, I was able to resize and align the art in a way that pleased me. I ended up using the same fonts as I had with my girlfriend's stick, so once I'd labeled the buttons, everything was set. It ended up looking like this.
Now it was time to get the internals taken care of. My first decision was which LED controller to use. My options were the Sparky PWM SMD and Toodles FGWidget. I read about them both on Tech Talk and looked up Youtube reviews and tutorials. Since this is the first major electronics project I've ever taken on, I decided that the FGWidget was a little too advanced for my skill level. I then took another look at the Sparky over on Focusattack.com and saw that they'd linked to an installation video. It was made made by Nerrage, the same guy who did the Uila installation video, and was pretty easy to follow. I re-watched a few sequences to clarify points I wasn't totally clear on, but soon I was sure I could do this.
From there, I had to save up money to make a parts order. By the time Black Friday had come around, I had just about enough. As luck would have it, that day I received an email from Focus Attack informing me that they would be having a big Cyber Monday sale. I decided to check their stock levels for the items I was looking to buy and discovered they were getting low on my button of choice. Therefore, on Sunday just shortly before midnight I had my cart ready to go and just waited a few minutes for it to officially be Monday. Everything went fine, and I ended up ordering the following:
1 Sparky PWM SMD LED Controller PCB
I also snagged a few .110" Quick Connectors and Nylon .110" Quick Connector Insulation Sleeves because I'd opened the stick to take a quick look at it and discovered that one button had soldered connections rather then quick connectors. I figured adding quick connectors would make my life easier. Finally, I grabbed a couple odds and ends for some friends that needed things that were too inexpensive to warrant paying shipping for on their own.
I had initially wanted to get the Uila LED PCB S, which are a buck cheaper then the S Flash, but they were sold out. I considered waiting for a restock and buying them separately later, but realized the $8 I'd save on each Uila would be the same I'd spend on shipping, so I bit the bullet and got the more expensive PCBs. No biggie.
Shipping was fast. Placing the order just after midnight on a Monday saw my order arrive on Wednesday. I noticed that the Focus Attack page on Facebook had made a post that shipping might be slower then normal due to the volume of orders received. Placing my order early paid off, since I got everything so fast. If I'm reading the invoice correctly, it looks like I was the 4th order placed.
When the box arrived on Wednesday, I gleefully opened it.
At this point, I hadn't quite finished my art yet, so I took some time to do that and get it printed. In the mean time, I prepped the top plate for the new art. Naturally, the first thing I did was tear off the old art. This took only a minute or so, and then I had to remove the remaining adhesive.
This part took much longer then expected. I was hoping that 15 minutes with some Goo Gone and paper towels would take care of everything. Well, after working at it for the duration of the 2010 A-Team movie, I made almost no progress. The solution ended up being a glass brownie pan with some acetone in it. Combined with a paint scraper, the top plate was completely clean in about a minute and a half.
I also got the buttons ready for installation. I'm also a Warhammer 40,000 player (shameless plug), so I have a lot of small tools. Using a pin vise with a 3/32" drill bit I followed the guide video linked above, but found I preferred to drill a hole for each wire. Sure, its a bit more work, but not at all difficult and I liked the results.
The other thing I prepped was the Sparky PCB itself. The thing is seriously lightweight and tiny. I've heard of people just leaving it loose in the case when they were done, but I didn't like that idea.
I pondered the possibility of attaching it to the case with a bit of Velcro, but the aforementioned Chris said he was leery of attaching things across traces (the circuit lines in the PCB) unless completely sure the adhesive was completely non-conductive. According to him, some weird stuff is conductive enough to short/bleed across short distances. That was just enough of a concern to look for alternative solutions.
The next day, I talked with my father about the situation. He had a suggestion that ended up being the prefect solution: a small piece of Plexiglass he had laying around. It had been collecting dust for so long that he didn't even remember where he got it. Thinking about it, I remember it laying around the house in the mid-90s, so its been around for a while. One edge was rounded, and the whole thing was a bit longer then the Sparky, but roughly the same width. I decided to cut it a little bit closer to size using a Dremel with a cutting wheel. It was quite easy, taking about a minute, but it smelled a little funny.
Once it was cut to size, I used the mounting holes on the Sparky as a guide and used a 1/8" drill bit in the Dremel to cut some holes. I stuck in some brass standoffs I had leftover from when Chris and I build a computer a few years ago, and I was in business.
After that, all it took was some mounting screws and everything was perfect!
All I had to do was scuff up the bottom side a little bit, and then superglue the thing to the case. That part would come later, but I took a few minutes to find a good spot to place it. The interior of the case has several tabs in it and by sheer coincidence the Plexiglass mount fit perfectly between two of them. The fit couldn't have been more precise. I happily put the Sparky to the side and turned my attention to the visual side of things.
A few days later I had my art finished and got it printed at the local FedEx Office. I had two printed (in case I made a mistake) then LamiLabeled them using their self-service machine. Once home, a few unrelated events put me in a bad mood. Word of advice: Don't try to cut things accurately when you're feeling frustrated. I outright botched the first attempt. I thought I had the second correct, then realized I'd cut one side a little too narrow and part of the top plate was visible. It stuck out like a sore thumb to me, and would probably allow the top plate to oxidize. It was too late to go back to FedEx Office, so I instead went to my computer and made an alternate version of the art that included the outer guide line, but not the button guides. The next day I went back and had 4 copies of the art printed. 2 with that outer guide line, 2 with no lines at all.
The guide lines ended up being a good idea. I cut the art out, then applied it with a little help from the same squeegee I used on the Namco stick. I got it just about perfect on the first try. Glancing at it as I write this, I notice the teeniest bit of exposed top plate along the lower edge. You can't see it unless you're looking for it, so its no big deal. I'll dab it with a little varnish from my Warhammer 40,000 paints, and that should prevent any rust.
Next, I cut out all the various holes. That was fairly simple. A fresh X-Acto blade handled everything nicely. However, at one point I accidentally pricked my finger. No big deal, just a drop of blood. People often talk about putting their blood into a project, so I decided to do it a bit more literally. The underside of one of the kick buttons now has a smear of me.
After I was done cutting and placing the artwork into the buttons, I screwed said buttons back onto the case. This was quite easy. Some people have difficulty with the light kick (X) button, because the nut for the button is too close to the joystick's mounting plate to turn. The typical solution is to hold the nut in place and rotate the button instead. Screw that, I have tools! That part of the mounting plate is not important, so with quick application of file and Dremel, I removed it and screwed the button in properly.
Before wiring, I decided to do one last thing. The bottom plate on these sticks is made of metal. Its winter hear in Massachusetts, and sometimes that metal plate gets seriously cold. It can be annoying to get a chill even through a heavy pair of jeans, so I came up with a solution. After a quick trip to the fabric store, I had a piece of felt that was just slightly larger then the plate. I chose purple both because its my favorite color, and because its a color of the church and would play off the fallen angel motif of the artwork. A bit of Elmer's Spray Adhesive would do the job nicely.
A little bit of excess adhesive got onto the exposed side of the felt, but a little acetone on a paper towel took care of it without damaging anything. After giving it a few minutes to set, all that was left was to trim the excess off with a fresh X-Acto blade and poke holes for the screws to go through. Now the plate doesn't get cold and as an added bonus, it prevents the stick from sliding around in one's lap. I have a second piece of felt, so I'll be doing this to my other SFIV SE soon.
There was one other thing to take care of before wiring: To get my desired result, I'd have to paint the balltop, shaft cover, and dust washer. Luckily, when harvesting parts for the Namco build, my friend Mark gave me the spares from his Brawlstick he'd no longer be needing. I used the shaft from one of the Madcatz JLF knockoffs, along with a 2x4 I drilled a hole into. This way I could stand up the shaft with the cover and ball attached to it while I sprayed them with primer. For the dust washer, I just laid it on the same 2x4.
Once primed, I sprayed the balltop and dust washer with some Citadel Colour Boltgun Metal spray paint. I bought the can nearly a decade ago, when I was considering building a Necron army. Then I decided I didn't like their play style and the can just collected dust. Hell, they stopped making it something like 5 years ago. I'm still somewhat amazed that it still worked, but the results were to my liking.
For the dust washer, I used several of my 40K paints and did it by hand. For the dirty areas I mixed Vallejo Model Color's Orange Brown with just a touch of Vallejo Game Color's Earth. The red was a blend of several different reds, but mostly Vallejo Game Color's Gory Red, with a bit of Citadel's Devlan Mud wash mixed in. There was also just a touch of Citadel red ink (another thing not made since around 2008) and another red ink wash of some sort that I mixed up a bunch of years ago and kept in an empty Vallejo bottle.
The painting process took a few days and ended with several coats of gloss varnish. One night, while waiting for things to dry, I figured it was time to get the wiring done.
I followed along with Nerrage's guide posted above, but made things a bit easier on myself by downloading the video and converting it to a format that would play on my PSP. With a portable guide, the initial wiring was pretty easy. After fixing the wire with a soldered connection, I used the barrier strip technique mentioned in the guide. Everything went smoothly, though a few of the quick connections were a little bit loose. A small squeeze with my piers took care of that.
From there, I moved on to the daisy chain between the Sparky and the Uilas. When using a Sparky, the Uilas don't need their white wire. I'd removed them earlier, and ended up using them as the bridge between ScotchLoks, rather then trimming some wire as suggested by Nerrage. I also saved a bit of time and effort by using some tongue-and-groove pliers to close the ScotchLoks, rather then my fingers or some scissors. One thing that caught me off guard is that some, but not all, of the ScotchLoks had a clear liquid inside them that made a bit of a mess when I closed them. A little Googling informed me that this is an anti-corrosive compound to protect the connection. I simply incorporated a paper towel into the task and things went fine.
I was a little nervous when I had to mess with the USB cable. Sure enough, I cut it a little closer to the PCB then I probably should have, but I was still able to ScotchLok things alright.
Now it was time to test things. I brought the stick over to my PC, fired up the joystick control panel, plugged the thing in, and... nothing. The PC didn't recognize that I'd plugged anything in.
The next 20 or so minutes was spent carefully examining each wire. I eventually spotted a place on the red power wire where I apparently nicked the insulation while stripping the end. Its possible that I'd damaged the wire as well, so I cut off that ScotchLok and put on another one. This is when I realized I'd cut the USB cable a little close. I didn't have much extra to work with on the PCB side. Still, there was enough space to get a new ScotchLok on, then it was time to re-test.
Still nothing.
Well, shit. What else could it be? The power wires were fine, and a problem with the data wire shouldn't keep the PC from recognizing the connection. I spent some more time squeezing all the ScotchLoks again. In hindsight, that should have been my first move, and sure enough, one of them was only 95% shut. Once I'd got it to 100%, the PC recognized the stick just fine.
Now to test things. The first problem was that I'd reversed the signal and ground connections on the barrier strip. That wasn't a huge deal, and took no more then 2 minutes to fix. Now my buttons were lighting up just fine, but according to the joystick control panel, the stick itself wasn't making any inputs. That's a serious problem.
I'll spare you the 45 minutes of freaking out and re-examining every last wire (even the LED connections, which have nothing to do with signal data). I eventually noticed that one of the data wires had a nick in it, just as the power wire had earlier. However, I had a problem. After clipping off the ScotchLok, there wasn't enough wire left on the PCB side to connect another one.
After a while brainstorming and searching, I found an old Microsoft Sidewinder USB gamepad I hadn't used in years and had been meaning to recycle. I harvested some wire from its USB cable, heated up my soldering iron, and was able to splice in more wire. Its the first time I've ever done such a thing, and it was a little tricky because I really could have used another hand, but I got it done.
Once the new ScotchLok was in place, it was time to test again. Still nothing. Son of a bitch. Had I somehow fried this thing?
While pondering what to do next, I idly started tapping a few buttons, because they look pretty when they light up. Then I noticed something: The joystick control panel wasn't registering inputs from the buttons. I knew that couldn't be right, so on a hunch I went over to my PS3. Sure enough, I was navigating XMB menus with no problem at all. I bet I didn't need to do that data wire splice in the first place.
Now my stick was working just fine. My only guess was that something about the mod prevented the PC from reading the thing's inputs, even though that makes no sense. As a note, on a whim after I typed that last sentence, I reconnected the stick to the PC. Now the control panel reads all the inputs just fine. Go figure.
So, here's what the guts of the stick looked like before I started. I had used some twist ties on the Uila wires to keep things organized while I connected the LEDs. If you click it, you can see where I cut away part of the mounting plate to make room for the screw button's nut.
And here's the multi-colored linguini that is my stick's guts now. Note how nicely the Sparky mount on the right fits into the case. That wasn't planned, it was pure dumb luck. A little superglue locked it firmly in place.
I was and am very happy with the results. I just had to finish the paint and varnish job on the shaft components and it would be done. That ended up taking a few days, and I ended up painting the red parts of the dust washer on the stick itself, with help of some wax paper.
A few days later the paint was finished and the varnish was dry. It was time to test the thing out. I ended up fighting my friend Claire in 5 rounds of The King of Fighters XIII. Unfortunately for me, I caught her when she was stressed out and she took it out on me, beating me cold in 4 matches. On the other hand, I shellaced her in that last match, so go me.
During our matches, a couple bugs did arise. Fist of all, I realized that a pair of buttons was slightly loose. No big deal, just crack open the back and tighten the nuts. A more serious problem showed up during our third match: I suddenly found myself unable to move left or right. Normally I'd be worried, but I was sure I knew exactly what the problem was. Opening it up, I was immediately proven right.
Previously, I'd noticed that the wiring harness connecting the joystick to the PCB fit a little loose. This particular harness didn't have a clip or anything to hold it in place, so I ended up using a bead of hot glue to hold it in place. Not the best solution, but it works. This is when I took the time to tighten those nuts as well.
I haven't had any problems since, and the stick handles beautifully. Here she is in all her glory:
Finally, here is a short video I made, showing off the LEDs.
I am very happy with the finished product.
Special thanks:
Nerrage for the tutorials
d3v for the art template
Josh & Christopher at FedEx Office for the help with the art
Jaleel at focusattack.com for outstanding service.
1 comments:
December 22, 2012 at 2:33 PM
Very detailed work Babe! Such a great looking stick/box thingie :)
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