SFIV TE Fightstick - A Basic Mod

Andrew76

So I had an hour to kill last Saturday and wanted to see if I could do a basic stick and button swap on the TE fight stick. What with the arrival of DDP SDJ I've started to use the TE again and wanted to swap in some spare Seimitsu parts I had lying about.

A disclaimer first; this isn't about the aesthetics, I didn't have the time to mess about changing the artwork so the end result doesn't look all that sexy colour scheme-wise (certainly not a patch on Project Snorkle anyway). Maybe it's something I can change down the line. It was more about getting a familiar Seimitsu shmup setup for the 360 upstairs.

This post will be double entendre heaven I'm sure.

The only tools required (other than a spare stick and buttons) were: allenkey, Philips head screw driver and needle-nose pliers.

Here's the stock TE with a JLF stick (didn't bother checking the exact model) and Sanwa snap-in buttons, all in perfect nick. You just need to undo the six screws on top with an allenkey and lift up the lid to get at the innards.



Handily they colour coded the ground and signal wires for each button. Just note down which colour goes to which button before removing them. The wires were tightly fit so I had to use a needle-nose pliers to remove them, grab the metal clip rather than the wire itself. Had to press down on the black centre piece of the button while gently wiggling and pulling off the wires.



The JLF has a flat mounting plate very similar to an MS plate, it sits on top of a base plate that looks something like a pair of crossed SS plates. This base plate is welded to the metal lid. Just undo the 4 screws and disconnect the black cable from the 5-pin connection (the little bit of glue comes off easy).



A comparison of the JLF and LS-58-01 sticks. As mentioned the JLF plate is almost identical in size to the MS plate on the LS. Importantly the four outer mounting holes line up so that's all that matters. The JFL shaft is slightly longer too.



You'll notice above, the position of the 5-pin connection on the JLF is at the left whereas it's on the bottom on the LS. So I just needed to undo 4 screws (Philips head) on the top of the mounting plate which frees up the entire mechanism underneath the plate. Rotate the mech 90 degrees clockwise and screw it back in. All lined up correctly now.



So the Seimitsu parts were coming from a fully populated AWSD 2P CP sitting unused in a corner. Green and pink colours, neither really goes with the TE artwork but it's all I had. The buttons are all screw-ins except for the one closest to the stick base plate. A screw-in wouldn't fit here so I had to use a Seimtsu snap-in. Made sure to correctly reconnect the coloured wires. LS stick in place also.



And here's the finished article. The green and pink look ok against the top black background but not so good against the red lower half. But overall a very easy swap to do. Now I've got some tight Seimitsu action for the shmups upstairs.



Some DDP SDJ action on the Trini:

safetyboy

I really need to change the graphics on my brawl stick, morto. Changed the stick and added octagonal gate.

Andrew76

safetyboy wrote: »

I really need to change the graphics on my brawl stick, morto. Changed the stick and added octagonal gate.

Not young-uns with their baps out I hope!

That JLF above had a square gate originally but the nice chap I bought it off had an octo to go with it. Jeebus when playing SFIV I couldn't use the square gate at all, rubbish I was (even more than normal) so fitted the octo.

Pyongyang

Now get her painted! :-)

Wait a second,
Slow down !!!
No promo video before the big revel? ?
Im disappoint to say the least

CiDeRmAn

Perhaps we can look forward to some Fighter Stick boudoir photography, with the TE stick making all sexy like...

Andrew76

urbanledge wrote: »

Wait a second,
Slow down !!!
No promo video before the big revel? ?
Im disappoint to say the least

:pac:

I leave all the hype to our North Korean member, he has a flair for it.

Pyongyang

Bah! Get her painted Dunos!

Back on topic though, that looks good, I didn't realise those sticks and buttons were so easy to switch out. Far easier that an Agetec, and the Hori EX2 (next project I think).

Andrew76

Yeah it's a quality stick in fairness, well built. Shame the Agetec is so awkward inside, dremel and soldering feck that.

Pyongyang

It's not that bad in fairness. I didn't have to do any soldering. The link-up from the LS-56-01 to the old controller was done with a screw terminal block.

The longest part was painting it, and having the patience to wait for each coat to dry. :P

It's laborious but done over a couple of weekends it isn't so bad. It's very satisfying to see your finished work.

Andrew76

Pyongyang wrote: »

It's not that bad in fairness. I didn't have to do any soldering. The link-up from the LS-56-01 to the old controller was done with a screw terminal block.

The longest part was painting it, and having the patience to wait for each coat to dry. :P

It's laborious but done over a couple of weekends it isn't so bad. It's very satisfying to see your finished work.

Get some pics up of the innards so - I could have sworn the existing buttons are soldered to the pcb? Pretty sure they are in mine.

Pyongyang

Nope the original buttons are attached via small connectors with a gum-like glue. Pry the connectors off, chop them off and crimp on quick disconnects. It's more work than soldering the wires back to the buttons directly, but a lot easier in future if you want to swap buttons out. Same with the stick using a screw terminal. Handy for swap outs and/or adjustments.

safetyboy

I need to get them wrestlers off my brawlstick pronto. anywhere I can get some good shmup graphics to cover it up!

Pyongyang

I scanned in my Darius II MD cover for the graphic on the Agetec. Scan in a game sleeve at 300-600 dpi and you should be grand.

safetyboy

:pac: get some savileware on there.

http://www.sk8tokyo.com/shmup/posters.htm

o1s1n

Nice work Andrew76! Nothing like banishing Sanwa crap for the ultimate precision of Seimitsu :pac:

Andrew76

Pyongyang wrote: »

Nope the original buttons are attached via small connectors with a gum-like glue. Pry the connectors off, chop them off and crimp on quick disconnects. It's more work than soldering the wires back to the buttons directly, but a lot easier in future if you want to swap buttons out. Same with the stick using a screw terminal. Handy for swap outs and/or adjustments.

You're right, I was thinking of the Virtua Stick. Although my Agetec's have a wire soldered to the stick pcb. The wiring isn't standard since they were modded to plug into the supergun, think they are NeoGeo ports.

o1s1n wrote: »

Nice work Andrew76! Nothing like banishing Sanwa crap for the ultimate precision of Seimitsu :pac:

Cheers. Ah I wouldn't call Sanwa's 'crap', I just prefer Seimitsu.

o1s1n

Are you guys talking about the Dreamcast Agetec?

I was poking around in my one earlier in the week. Hadn't a clue what was in there previous, but I thought the previous owner had just done a simple drop in part replace.

The board that everything is connected to has a little connection for the joystick that would link up to an LS-56-01. He put a standard LS 56 in though and daisy chained the ground to the micro switches.

Actually I was thinking of taking that stick out, putting it in my cab and then the 56-01 back into the agetec as it seems more suited.

Buttons are all Seimitsu screw ins. Again, I'd assumed they were just dropped in without any messing about.

Andrew76 wrote: »

Cheers. Ah I wouldn't call Sanwa's 'crap', I just prefer Seimitsu.

Oh I know, but it's fun to tease

safetyboy

Took out the brawlstick, box is getting binned fuuu gonna cover it in stickers for the moment.

Doctor DooM

I'm a fan of putting seimitsu in the TE but good lord are you all doing with octogates, they're horrible!

o1s1n

Pretty sure that gate is the default one on the Sanwa stick that he removed?

Andrew76

o1s1n wrote: »

Pretty sure that gate is the default one on the Sanwa stick that he removed?

Nah it came with a square gate installed, the octagonal was extra that I fitted straight away. I don't play fighters so it was used as a general purpose stick until I started playing shooters.

KeRbDoG

'Sure aren't all control panel joysticks/buttons the same, it's what you do with them that matters'

/me runs away, hides and looks back to watch the fire and brimstone backlash

Myrddin

Take cover!!!!!........

chopperbyrne

Octogates, ugh!

Squarey goodness for the win!

Pyongyang

Square gates all the way.

Inspired by this thread I started modding my Hori EX2 last night. What an absolute bastard to mod! I cut the case up to get the buttons to fit, ground the overlay, drilled the stick in.

...then fried the last fecking solder pad I needed to do for one of the buttons and the fecking thing tore the pad off! ARGH!

I've scrapped and binned the EX2, the actual components inside it are horrendous, absolute junk.

Think I'm going to make my own from scratch.

chopperbyrne

EX2 is a horrible stick to mod.

The V3/VX is a bit easier and is quite a pretty stick too. Still has ****e stock parts though.

Pyongyang

It actually wasn't that bad. I breezed through most of the work. It was the button soldering that wrecked my head. One false move and I wrecked the whole thing thanks to it's cheap parts and especially the rubbish circuit boards.

I won't buy another Hori, I'm making my own next.

chopperbyrne

Slow down there.

Hori make some fantastic sticks.

Anything at all in the Real Arcade Pro series is a worthy purchase.

Pyongyang

chopperbyrne wrote: »

Hori make some fantastic sticks.

No they don't. :P

o1s1n

They're Hori-bble.

...

No?

/Gets coat

Andrew76

Pyongyang wrote: »

I won't buy another Hori, I'm making my own next.

Sweet jeebus

Pyongyang

o1s1n wrote: »

They're Hori-bble.

...

No?

/Gets coat

Don't you mean Hori-endous? :pac:



...in other news, I've saved my EX2 from the ravages of the landfill.

It's going to be used as a commode instead.