gliptitude Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 I've seen pictures of this and other similar ones but I had never seen one for sale. Not surprised to see the high price and I had figured that would be the case. I've always liked the idea of making my own controller and it is hard to imagine a design that is cheaper and easier to make than this one. It seems like the perfect place to start. .. I like the idea of making a controller of this type very HEAVY and have been figuring on forming the body out of a solid chunk of material, with the holes and channels milled out. I practiced this with the styrofoam, and have only one small square shaped hole that is open (on the bottom), with small channels cut through the inside walls of the bigger holes. .. I'm even considering making this a piece of small furniture, using some massive tree trunk pieces I salvaged this summer. I thought about mounting the buttons on the top of this coffee table I'm working on, (solid block currently weighing 105 lbs), but more likely I would use another piece and put some smooth rolling caster wheels on the bottom. .. At a certain point though I'm asking myself why I'm making a steer/thrust controller for the VCS when I have a VECTREX sitting here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osgeld Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 A big chunk of wood would be cool as long as you dont have to sit it on your lap lol, course you could take a slab off the bottom, and use a router to almost completely hollow it out and glue the slab back on the bottom which reduces weight and once dried sanded and finished an almost invisible seam for the solid bottom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 The Starplex varies a bit in price. Earlier I read someone on AtariAge "slumped away" a handful of those, but it was limited supply. Building your own is great too. I have built some other custom controllers out of tactile switches with covers, soldered to a small board that was screwed into place into a plastic lunchbox that I spray painted black. It wasn't the prettiest sight, but it filled its purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gliptitude Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 A big chunk of wood would be cool as long as you dont have to sit it on your lap lol, course you could take a slab off the bottom, and use a router to almost completely hollow it out and glue the slab back on the bottom which reduces weight and once dried sanded and finished an almost invisible seam for the solid bottom Of course it wouldn't sit on the lap. I'd use an upright oriented piece about 2 feet tall. It would sit on the floor in front of you while you sit in a chair. I would NOT hollow it out, only the neccessary discreet channels like in the styrofoam, which would be even more discreet in this instance because you would never see the underside of the table. .. The main problem with this idea is the same as with the coffee table, that the wood will take years to dry, cannot realy be finished until dry and will likely crack in the process of drying. .. There's a reason you can't just buy a piece of "educated" wood this big. Well the button mounting is a potential problem but I thought I could fudge that. These are push fit buttons with tabs, no threading or nuts. I thought I could just drill an acurate hole and just have the tabs remain compressed, or maybe even cut the tabs off. It's not like you would ever be pulling up on the buttons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted August 22, 2016 Share Posted August 22, 2016 Now I really need to find a nice wooden cigar box for that Starplex! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsdee Posted August 23, 2016 Share Posted August 23, 2016 Amiga Competition Pro joystick ghetto edition. I had spare parts and a box of intriguing size. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted August 24, 2016 Share Posted August 24, 2016 (edited) Now I really need to find a nice wooden cigar box for that Starplex! Found a smoke shop in my area that sells used cigar boxes for $5. The one on the far left of the first image is my fiance's. It's too shallow for a joystick enclosure with but she wanted it to use as a jewelry/cash box. The other two on the upper and lower right I plan on using for joystick projects. I won't refinish or alter the appearance of the cigar boxes in any way besides cutting out holes for components. In other words minimally repurpose them as game controllers thus creating functional art. The squarish black box PDR 1878 I plan on doing a simple VCS style joystick. The gold leaf Jabak Especial I plan on making a Starplex controller with. The Jabak Especial really stinks from whatever the "mystery potpourri" stuffing that was in it so I'm letting it air out in the garage for a few days with the lid open. That will give me an opportunity to order parts anyway. The boxes are made from real premium hard wood but I'm afraid the lids are too thin (~1/8") to use a spade bit without massive blowout, so I'll need to carefully trace and route out the holes manually. I'm probably going to use low profile Japanese style joysticks and snap style 24mm buttons for these rather than the usual Happ/IL fair. Wish me luck. If my prototype builds are successful, I may consider building a few extra to sell to the community... EDIT: Parts ordered as of last night from Paradise Arcade Shop... Edited August 26, 2016 by Kosmic Stardust 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted August 26, 2016 Author Share Posted August 26, 2016 EDIT: Parts ordered as of last night from Paradise Arcade Shop... Photos when yer done! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted August 26, 2016 Share Posted August 26, 2016 Of course! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Update: The parts came in today from Paradise Arcade Shop. I went to Lowes and purchased a 15/16 spade bit as well as some mount screws from King's Hardware (local mom & pop type hardware shop). Got to actually drill some holes tonight, although the joysticks aren't functional yet as nothing is wired up. On the left is the PDR 1878 Atari classic joystick, and on the right we have the Jabak Especial Starplex with banana yellow 24mm Simitsu buttons. That big toggle switch in the middle is the turbo fire control, just like the original Starplex. There will be a 555 timer inside which I plan on tuning for about a 10Hz auto-fire rate. I got all the components I needed from Radio Shack. Wish me luck... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Looking good, but isn't the box a bit too deep for comfortable playing? I assume this box is meant to rest on a table, not held in your hands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Looking good, but isn't the box a bit too deep for comfortable playing? I assume this box is meant to rest on a table, not held in your hands. If you play sitting down, they fit comfortably in your lap. These cigar boxes are actually much shallower than my previous joysticks which were 4 inches from top to base. I picked two of the deeper boxes I could find, but my Paradise arcade joystick as well as the low profile Simitsu buttons are much shallower than the standard Happ joysticks and plunger type buttons. I should be able to use any box with internal depth of about 1.75 inches or greater but I need to actually measure the joystick. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 I got the Starplex cigar box wired up today and it works great. Now I only need to do the standard Atari one which is much easier since it will be direct wired to the 9-pin Dsub. I got the 555 oscillator set up on a tiny single chip PCB tuned to about ~10Hz. I tested the circuit and it worked as expected. Finally wired everything up and it works great. I secured the oscillator breakout PCB in the corner of the upper lid with hot glue and added a Red LED assembly above the switch that illuminates whenever pin 6 FIRE is low. You can even see the LED strobe whenever turbo mode is active and the FIRE button pressed. I played some Space Rocks on it and had a blast. Kept getting my ass handed but actually made some decent progress in "kids" mode. I've never used a Starplex layout controller before and though it takes a bit of getting used to, but it just feels natural for "steer and thrust" type space shooter games. The whole genre never really seemed to work all that great with a standard joystick. Sadly like a dumbass I was staring at the toggle switch connectors upside down due to the flip top lid and inadvertently wired the DPDT switch backwards. Turbo is ON whenever the switch is in the OFF position, but I can't be buggered to desolder all those wires and invert it... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted September 4, 2016 Share Posted September 4, 2016 Update. I'm doing an interest check thread to see if there's demand for a small production run of homemade cigar box joysticks: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/256709-homemade-cigar-box-arcade-controllers/ Take care! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIO2 Posted September 5, 2016 Share Posted September 5, 2016 (edited) Awesome work! I have a Starplex and that layout is great for a lot of games. Yours is so much cooler though with that strobe LED. Edited September 5, 2016 by SIO2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klokwrkblu Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 I have found no schematic on the internet of a light pen that actually works, so i took apart a light gun and drew from scratch a circut design, & here it is. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Nice. The world needs more schematics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIO2 Posted September 10, 2016 Share Posted September 10, 2016 My new 7800 arcade controller has a stand, a built in display and a built in Atari 7800 system with with Harmony cart. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted September 11, 2016 Share Posted September 11, 2016 IMG_20160910_174122.jpg My new 7800 arcade controller has a stand, a built in display and a built in Atari 7800 system with with Harmony cart. Needs second joystick for Robotron. Seriously that's awesome! I bet you can't wait for the Concerto to come out! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkdrummer Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 Update to the "FORTRESS" as shown in post #74. As the top image shows, I use this joystick with my second TI-99/4A system, I am left handed so of course it sits on the left. I have velcro on the bottom of the stick, so it stays put and I do not have to hold it. But I did have to bend over a bit to utilize the fire button. The case of this device already had different holes punched in it so I thought, "hell, I'll just rig a remote fire button as well." The result is shown in the second image. I repurposed a Maglite Solitaire flashlight that suffered battery leakage. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIO2 Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 Nice use of the Maglite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 I raided the local tobacco house today. Gonna breath some new life into these old boxes... http://atariage.com/forums/topic/256709-homemade-cigar-box-arcade-controllers/?p=3594574 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted September 15, 2016 Author Share Posted September 15, 2016 I think I might pattern my next joystick (someday) after this... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 I ordered a spade bit online for the Japanese large 30mm buttons. 1+3/16 inch or 30mm is an extremely uncommon size in the United States. Fortunately there is at least one practical application for bit this size (not counting custom joysticks), making holes for "rain barrels." https://www.menards.com/main/outdoors/watering-irrigation/rain-barrels/1-3-16-spade-bit/p-1444430010704.htm Description & DocumentsThis specific hole size is required for leak-less self sealing barrel seals (non-standard size). It is required for the RainReserve Connector Kit and Spigot Kit. 1 3/16 inch (30 mm) Precision ground edges, hardened steel Heavy-duty Cuts plastic Included in complete diverter kit Dimensions: 1 3/16" with a 1/4' shank Brand Name: RainReserve 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 I built a third cigar box "prototype" over the weekend. This one has a toggle switch to select between Atari and Sega wiring! Atari mode: Two red buttons can function independently on a 7800 in two-button mode. Both act as Fire on single button games or 2600. Blue "extra fire" button does not function in Atari mode. Sega mode: Both red buttons function as primary Fire. Blue button functions as secondary Fire. 2600 homebrew games that utilize "extra button" function when used with Genesis controllers can read input from the blue button. = = = = = = = = Also here's an update on the cigar box project. Nothing for sale yet... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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