The RetroPI Tank Stick project

[Master Phruby]

In honor of PI day, I am starting my RetroPie tank stick project. The idea is to put a Raspberry PI running RetroPie inside an X-Arcade Tank Stick. I'll be detailing out the project and configuration for anyone that wants to follow along. The Raspberry PI 3 will be completely installed inside Tank Stick with outputs for HDMI, USB, Ethernet and power on the back of the stick. This will make it an ALL IN ONE video game system. Pictures will be posted. I'm going to be following Jason's examples from his i64X YouTube channel with some small alterations along the way. Check out his channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYBzlD6bIuM

 

I'll begin with the configuration of the Tank Stick today.

 

 

 

 

[Master Phruby]

To begin I bought the Raspberry PI 3.0b from Amazon as part of the CanaKit. It came with the PI, a clear case and 2.5a power supply. We are going to hacking up the power supply so it will fit inside the Tank Stick and use a regular C13 power cable. the CanaKit was $49.99.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C6EQNNK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I also picked up a Sansung 32GB EVO Micro SDHC memory card for $10.99. It might be a little overkill but I have a lot of arcade games.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DOB6Y5Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

Next I downloaded the Win32DiskImager (http://www.raspberry-projects.com/pi/pi-operating-systems/win32diskimager) and the latest RetroPie distribution from RetroPie.org site. (https://retropie.org.uk/download/) Since this is Raspberry PI 3, I grabbed the Pi 2/3 image.

 

Install the win32diskimager and put in the path to the RetroPie img file. Point the destination to your sd card and press write.

 

 

[Keatah]

Sound like a fun project. Now make it play Atari Assault with them stick triggers! How would one go about that?

Edited March 15, 2017 by Keatah

[Master Phruby]

Sound like a fun project. Now make it play Atari Assault with them stick triggers! How would one go about that?

Simple enough if I were to replace the joysticks with stick triggers. In the future I would like to add a Tron or Zaxxon joystick and a spinner control. A little later I'll post pictures of the inside of the Tank Stick. The sticks are very easy to unplug and replace with other arcade sticks. I will be drilling holes in the side of the Tank Stick for the hdmi/usb/power plugs.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Master Phruby

[Hyperboy]

One of my tanksticks I made into a custom controller unit. The left stick is setup as 4-way at a 45 degree angle for Q-bert, A spinner in the middle and the right stick is a 4-way for precision cornering (a changeable 2/4/8 way gate is there if need be).

[Keatah]

Simple enough if I were to replace the joysticks with stick triggers. In the future I would like to add a Tron or Zaxxon joystick and a spinner control. A little later I'll post pictures of the inside of the Tank Stick. The sticks are very easy to unplug and replace with other arcade sticks. I will be drilling holes in the side of the Tank Stick for the hdmi/usb/power plugs.

 

Do you think you would use a two-button trigger-stick? And what about the Tron spinner? Do you think you would use one from Discs of Tron - the one that you can push & pull up and down? And could it double up as a Tempest spinner?

 

Lots of questions because I've got some of those in separate controllers for my emu rig. With the wife's growing interest in these classic games I'm think'n about building her a custom right-sized controller like so.

[Inky]

Simple enough if I were to replace the joysticks with stick triggers. In the future I would like to add a Tron or Zaxxon joystick and a spinner control.

 

I wonder how Tron would run with a track ball instead of a spinner. Hmmm

[Master Phruby]

A Tron spinner would be fairy easily to do. It's just a matter of finding space for it. One person suggested this:

 

 

The spinner control is the same diameter as a button so one of the lower buttons could also be replaced with the spinner instead of drilling a new 1 1/8" hole.

 

There might not be enough room for a push/pull spinner. They are expensive at $130.

 

One of these would work better form X-arcade since it is only 1.5" below the surface.

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=86&products_id=316

[Master Phruby]

This could be interesting as a Tron 2 button joystick. You might have to replace the case with a clear one though.

 

https://na.suzohapp.com/products/joysticks/50-9975-00

 

 

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=319

[keepdreamin]

Sanwa/Seimitsu buttons and joysticks have a MUCH better feel.

[Master Phruby]

Inside the Tank Stick. The PI will go center bottom.

 

[ricortes]

I should ask people to slap me HARD if I ever mention starting another project. Short history, got an original Pi when they first came out, promptly 'borrowed' and never returned. Add in I am a disciple of no copper connections so WiFi and Bluetooth are my new credo. Walking through Fry's and saw various flavors of Pi packages and thought: My grand kids love old games on emulators. My S.O. loves TV <I have her set up with Xfinity and Hulu on her cell phone>. I need some Linux in my life. So $42 and a 16 gig Micro SD card I got back in the game.

 

I look forward to your adventures in Pi gaming. If you could add in additional info like: It works with xxx emulator using xyz ROMs, it would make my life a little easier.

[toddtmw]

RetroPie works really well for just about everything. The default packages are pretty solid. The optional and experimental are a little less perfect, but still pretty usable. I have mine hooked to a 50" flat screen I got at Wal Mart for $169 and an xArcade Tankstick sitting on top of a keyboard stand. It works REALLY well. I'm having a blast playing old games.

[Keatah]

As long as you're having fun that's the main idea! Who give a hoot if the "experience" is not exactly precisely 100% identical to the arcade or original console. If by dropping that 100% authenticity of the real thing down to 98% or so, while gaining other things like reliability and convenience and comfort, you come out a winner. Even moreso I say!

 

---

 

MP: have you thought of building in an autofire circuit? Maybe something around the 555 timer and having it be variable, too? I found all the autofire options in alternate mame builds to be less than ideal. Working for some games, not precise enough for others, having the wrong duty cycle for tempest, and more "frustrations".. A simple variable timer circuit that can be switched in and out is a pretty good solution.

[Master Phruby]

I worked on the Tank Stick last night. The first thing I did was configure the Tank Stick. In order to do this I used Jason's mapping. This make writing script later on easier than trying to put in MAME's strange keyboard short cuts. The Tank Stick configuration is this:

 

 

To configuration the Tank Stick, the ps2 keyboard connector on the back must be plugged into a keyboard. The serial port connector must be plugged into the usb cable and then into a computer to give power.

 

[Master Phruby]

In order to program the Tank Stick. Move the switch on the back to bank 2. Press the button on the back of the stick. The little light will go out. Press and hold the controller button and press the corresponding keyboard button. The light will turn on and off. Repeat assigning keys. When finishing press the program button again to write the changes. When starting up the Tank Stick later on double press the programming button again to get your assigned buttons to work otherwise you will be back in MAME mode regardless of the switch bank position.

[Master Phruby]

Next I fired up the PI with a keyboard and the Tank Stick attached. It booted up and came up with a controller configuration screen. Press a button on the Tank Stick to get it recognized a keyboard. Then press the controls on the Tank Stick for each assignment. We went with a SNES style button arrangement for player 1.

 

 

For the analog joystick assignments, they can be left unassigned. To unassign them, press and hold one of the buttons on the player 2 side until it goes to the next assignment. Continue until it you get to the OK box. At that point press your Enter button on the Tank Stick (button A in the picture above). Player 1 is now programmed into RetroPi. You can now control RetroPi with the player 1 controls.

[Master Phruby]

Since I have a Raspberry PI 3, I setup the wifi. Press the Enter button on the Tank Stick (A on the previous picture) on the RetroPi screen and scroll to the bottom of the list for WIFI. This will take you to a text based screen. Use the keyboard to select (1) for connect to WIFI network and press enter. It scans for SSIDs. Select you SSID and press enter. Put in your WIFI password and it will take a little while to connect. Remember the ip address it gives you. Move over to Cancel to return to RetroPI. Press the escape button on your Tank Stick (B button on previous picture) Press the Player 1 button on the stick to bring up the menu. Move down to quit. Then press Quit Emulation Station and say yes to really quit.

 

You are now at a linux command prompt. Install Putty on your desktop machine. It can be found at http://www.putty.org/. Put in the IP address for the Raspberry PI and leave the settings as SSH and port 22. If you don't remember the ip address. You can type ifconfig on the Raspberry PI to find the address. Putty will prompt for a user name and password. The user name is pi and the password is raspberry.

 

 

Next thing to do is setup the regional options for keyboard, timezone and country. Type in the putty command prompt, sudo raspi-config

Select International Options and Change Local. Uncheck the default and put in your country and select the keyboard. That will be saved. Next select change time zone and follow prompts. Then select your keyboard options. Finally change your WIFI country to your country. Finally hit finish and your Raspberry pi will reboot.

[David Alexander]

Great Project. This is my PI console.

Edited March 23, 2017 by Protestari

[Master Phruby]

Great Project. This is my PI console.

Can you get a picture of the back of your PI console? I want to see the hdmi/usb plugs you used.

[David Alexander]

Can you get a picture of the back of your PI console? I want to see the hdmi/usb plugs you used.

 

Hi, I will have to take another picture but the plug an HMDI/USB Combo connection. Except this one has a cover while some dont.

Edited March 23, 2017 by Protestari

[David Alexander]

Can you get a picture of the back of your PI console? I want to see the hdmi/usb plugs you used.

My console was made by Retro X Canada. https://www.retroxcanada.com/

Edited March 23, 2017 by Protestari

[Master Phruby]

I have that same hdmi/usb plug that I will put in. It's the same hole size as a button. I have that ethernet plug too.

[ClassicGMR]

Actually I still think this is the best spinner mod I have seen for the Tankstick. I hope to do it sometime soon.

[Master Phruby]

I've started working on adding the new plugs to the Tank Stick. In this picture I moved the Tank Stick's usb/ps2 connectors to the inside of the stick. Now I have to figure out how to wind the long usb cable into the stick. There is space underneath the button wires.

 

 

 

I've also made a 1 1/8" hole for the HDMI/USB connector. This cable has a cap to keep it clean and to give nice finished look. The cable itself is about 3 feet long so I have to figure out how to store it in the Tank Stick. I've also made a hole for the power plug. The hole is 1" x 3/4". I had to drimmel it out in order to get pass the half inch of wood. The plug fits pretty well in the hole. I'm going to take some 12 gauge wire and crack up the included Raspberry PI power supply and solder the plug to the power supply.