Lets face it the Standard edition Madcatz fightstick was made to be modded, I already took delivery of x6 sanwa buttons which ive never used before and have to say i really like them, even though they are a little on the sensitive take side i’d rather take speed and responsiveness over the allegedly weightier seimitsus.

So the next trick was replacing the stock sanwa Madcatz SE Joystick (e.g fake!) that feels nothing like a proper JLF /JLW.

Here’s what i did, and i in no way suggest you do this to your own sticks and blame me for turning your new stick into a street fighter paperweight :-

• Grab a phillips screwdriver
• Remove the bottom 6 screws – 4 in the feet and 2 in the middle of the base
• While the stick is still mounted remove the 5 pin connector, The connector will have a bit of glue in place so you might want to prise it gently away from the socket with the help of a screwdriver however I just did it by hand.
• Using a flat head screwdriver hold the bottom of the stick in pace while you unscrew the balltop off and remove the dust guard
• Unscrew 4 screws on the mounting plate, they might be covered in red glue, this should be no probs for the screwdriver, and gently remove the stock stick.
• Remove the cluster of four small screws connecing the mounting plate to the joystick body.PRO TIP: make sure to use an appropriate sized cross head screwdriver as these screws like some typical mad catz shortcutting are made of jelly, one size too big or small will ruin them and you’ll never get the plate off!

NOW MUSTER ALL THE PATIENCE YOU HAVE BECAUSE THIS IS THE TRICKIEST BIT
Removing the restrictor plate:-

Now the reason i got you to remove the mounting plate is because it makes this next step so much easier. I had such a hard time trying to remove this until i read this article on srk http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=182260&page=2

I was actually try to push my screwdriver in the holes from the bottom of the stick but actually like this diagram explains you should be wedging it in and it in the direction of the plate comes off (despite the hooks). Now that the mounting plate is off go round each of the 4 hooks and apply gentle pressure to each with a screwdriver, loosening each hook the same amount. You should hear a creak if this is working an with about 5-10 mins you can have this off

TO MOD OR NOT TO MOD…

Now this is a crucial point, you can now do substantial mods http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QytcbzZmXaI to this stick to get the throw and activation quicker at this point and ive also seen advice along the lines of: “ok throw the stock stick away! ”
But last night i a stroke of genius and 30mins 2am soldering I discovered another use for the stock components…
Introducing the …

****  5 PIN CONNECTIONLESS MOD! ****

We can mod the SE stock stick to our hearts content but the trouble is why polish a turd, And we can tighten the throw on a JLF, but really why do this unless you want an octo gate fitted as well when there are perfectly tight seimitsu sticks about. Well i had one LS-32 stick spare!!

…HOWEVER its not the -01 types (the ones with the 5 pin connector) I did have a JLF 5 pin coming for my birthday, but i just couldnt wait to try SF4 with a Seimitsu. How could i connect this stick without a 5 pin connector? I have to say this was done as a first time, late night mod, apologies if this has been done before, but i was quite excited about it.

Looking at the components i thought there are 5 soldering points on the pcb, probably 1 ground and 4 others for up, down left and right respectively, I made a note of which way the pcb was fitted in, The connector would be facing right when the back plate of the SE stick is opened. Then following the copper traces i deduced that pinout for the board was, from left to right i the pictures above :- (DOWN, UP, LEFT, RIGHT, GROUND)

I started to solder wire from each contact to the appropriate connection on the microswitches of the LS-32. From looking at the existing stock PCB I deduced that the ground on each microswitch was the pin on the opposite side of the actual switch mechanism or the lowest pin where as the pin that connects to a directional contact on the pcb was PERPENDICULAR to the switch mechanism. That might be clearer in the following pictures, Ive daisy chained the ground, (wires in white) to solder to that single contact, and the rest just connect up to the appropriate microswitch but feel free to get in contact with me if you need clarification.

Then i connected the 5pin connector to the pcb, which is also now connected to the LS-32! The great thing about this mod i realised, is that when the JLF arrives or if i indeed want to connect any other 5 pin compatable joystick i can remove this as its not a permanent mod!

So there you have it:

x1 Standard edition stick £70
x1 Seimitsu LS-32 £14
x6 Sanwa Push in buttons OBSF-30 £1.70/ea

A vitually perfect stick in my eyes and fairly cheaper than the of the cost of a TE stick. Using Madcatz offcuts at 2am in the morning was pretty ghetto, and fell asleep before i could get any decent matches, but tried it with HD remix this morning and it just feels amazing. Now i just need to perfect my FADC Ultra’s and it would have been worth it!

With the launch of Street figter 4 and HD remix on PS3 (finally) I decided to complete work on a custom ps2 sanwa joystick..however after many soldering attempts after my ps2 joypad pcb refused to work

I am now attempting build of a wireless joystick for ps3.

Parts

1 sanwa ball stick ordered – gremlinsolutions
6 happ concave buttons – gremlinsolutions
2 happ convex buttons – gremlinsolutions
Cherry microswitchs – gremlinsolutions
4 countersunk bolts/washers/nuts  - local hardware store
1 dvd storage box – from Debenhams
1 PS3 wireless control pad, came free with my machine

Tools

Phillips screwdriver
Superglue
Razor blade
15W Soldering iron – Thanks Dad
Lead free solder – Maplin
Electrical tape – wilkos
Satin finish black spray paint -  wilkos

Optional but gets the job done

Fluxing pen – Maplin
Solder mop – Maplin
Masking tape

I started by disassembling and gutting a  wireless PS3 pad. Then strip and tin the ends of all your wires

PRO TIP: get as thin wire as you can find, i had been using a horribly thick 0.3 wire from maplin which kept disconnecting from the soldering points, id been using superglue to secure the solder and then have to burn the glue off when i found out it wasnt making contact properly. The nasty chemicals and heat literally burnt my first board.  away and the fumes are horrendous! This all changed once i used finer wire. It was so easy to solder!

PRO TIP 2: use a 15W soldering iron, this is a low heat for a soldering iron, it will stop your solder from getting too liquid  and will cool quicker while you’re holding the fiddly wires.

PRO TIP 3: use a fluxing pen if you prefer to help create a more adhesive bond to beween points

On the board you should see where the digital pad and button contacts are just by the shape. There is usually two small copper areas where normally when you press a button on a joypad the button makes contact between these two points. So what i did was solder one end of the wire to one of the two contacts to one end of a microswitch and the other end of the microswitch to the other copper contact, this will allow the microswitch to complete the circuit

Rinse and repeat x as many microswitches you have for the joystick and buttons, I usually had street fighter training mode on while soldering to check the buttons and stick were functioning as expected after every succesful solder.

I obtained a HRAP3 template from srk shoryuken.com which can be found here: http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=164245

I bought a cheap 99p picture frame from wikos and removed the mdf back panel and superglued this onto the bottm of the dvd container lid to give it some needed depth for mounting the joystick. The happ buttons are screw in not snap in so depth didnt really affect them. I used the HRAP template and dremelled the holes through the mdf and case.

I undermounted the joystick with 4 countersunk nuts and bolts so they would sit flush with the top surface. I added two more push to make switches for start and select and a bigger one for the PS Home guide button, they all sit in the top right corner. The free 3rd party joypad pcb had a on/off switch as it requires batteries and does not charge like an official ps3 pad via usb. (I didnt want to risk ruining an official £35 pad on my first go!) So i rewired the contacts to another switch on the right hand side to allow me turn the stick on.

Next up on a trip down to London to see my folks i had the chance to finish spraying off the top panel satin black (i had an Akuma theme in mind…) And with that put the whole thing back together

And there we have it – Sanwa JLF Wireless PS3 Stick, is probably much cheaper than the MadCatz TE sticks but took some hardcore modding work to get it to where it is now, Next step is some art i think. Stay tuned. And any comments appreciated!