YouTube Video Overview
I own all different kinds of arcade sticks (Hori, MadCatz, MAS, Saulabi), but they are all single-platform sticks- they work with either the PS3 or the X360, but not on both. I know that many fighting-game players modify their joysticks with a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) called a "dual-mod" that allows the joystick to work on both PS3 and X360 systems. I figured that having a dual-modded stick would make things easier for me, plus I had another idea that's been brewing in my mind for a few months now that my friend Tryptal finally motivated me to follow-through with- to make a hybrid arcade stick / PC.
Rather than modify one of my existing working joysticks, I knew that I had a broken joystick collecting dust in my attic- the Tekken5 (Tekken 10th Anniversary) Hori PS2 joystick. This was my first Japanese-style joystick that I had owned, and I played the crap out of the stick until the interface cable frayed and broke. Since dual-mod PCB's include a new interface cable, I realized that this was a great opportunity to resurrect this classic stick. (I forgot to take a picture of the original 10th Anniversary stick before I started ripping the thing apart, but it looks like this:)
(Click any thumbnail image for full-size picture)
Bottom Case Modifications
My first step was to take off the top panel and cut out all the unnecessary black plastic molding out of the case that's not needed- I plan on shoving a lot of hardware inside this thing, so I need to open up all the free space I can get while still keeping the lid bolt points intact (so I can lock the lid down). Here is what it looked like before I started hacking away:
I'm not a master craftsman, so I decided to use my trusty Dremel tool to cut/melt all the unnecessary plastic off. I also cut a rectangle-shaped hole in the back for the motherboard I/O plate, holes for additional LED's and buttons, as well as screwholes in the bottom to mount the PC hardware. To cool down the air in the enclosed case (as well as allowing me to overclock the processor cores from 1.6GHz to 2.0GHz), I carved out two fan channels on both sides of the cases. This creates a wind-tunnel circulation where fresh air is pulled into the case through the left fan, then blown out the case from the right fan.
Once the case has been prepared, it's time to mount the fans, PC power button and LED's.
Next step will be to load-up the bottom of the case with our PC gear:
Motherboard - ASUS AT3IONT-I Deluxe (Mini-ITX) Details: Intel Atom 330 (1.6GHz Dual Core overclocked to 2.0GHz) CPU w/ nVidia 9400M GPU - 4GB DDR3 1066 - Realtek ALC887 6-Channel / SPDIF / RCA / HDMI Audio - 1Gb LAN - 802.11b/g/n WiFi - Bluetooth - PS/2 - USB 2.0 - HDMI Video / D-Sub VGA
Hard Drive - OCZ Vertex2 SATA-II 2.5" 40GB Solid State Hard Drive
Top Panel Modifications
After knocking out the old existing Hori buttons, I noticed that the button holes had metal grooves notches that lined up with grooves in the sides of the Hori buttons.
Time to break out the Dremel again and grind those nublets off so that I can install standard round 30mm buttons.
The pre-existing Hori stick was good, but it was getting a bit worn down and was not acting as smoothly as it used to. I had a spare Sanwa JLF-TP joystick, so I decided to use that as a replacement. After removing the old Hori stick, I ran into a little bit of a design problem- The joystick mounting bracket on the top plate of the Anniversary edition was not compatible with Sanwa joystick mounting holes. Rather than drilling new mounting holes through the top plate, I opted instead to attach the stick to the mounting bracket with industrial epoxy. My only problem is that if I need to replace the stick, I'll probably need a hammer to get it off.
I left the default Hori yellow 24mm Start / Select buttons as-is. I didn't see any need to change them out, as they've never given me a problem, and they haven't been mashed on as much as the eight standard red 30mm buttons.
Unfortunately, I ran into yet another design problem- The big tall blue heatsink on the ASUS motherboard is positioned right below the eight 30mm buttons on the top panel. I don't have enough clearance room to close the top lid down because the buttons would bump against the heatsink. I reached out to joystick guru and collector MarkMan (of SDTekken and MadCatz fame), and asked him if there were any 30mm buttons that had a lower profile depth than that of the standard (OBSF-30 or PS-14) 3cm-high buttons. He pointed me to the Seimitsu PS-15 buttons that were sold in the Akihabara Shop, which were a full 1cm shorter than the other buttons. Thanks MarkMan!
I ordered a bunch of the PS-15's and found out that if I bent the connector pins sideways, I had juuuust enough room now to close the top lid down!
I ordered a bunch of quick button disconnects and a few different colored spools of wire, so I needed to crimp / solder together the necessary button wiring. First to solder-up will be the Ground connection harness, which daisy-chains a common Ground wire between all the buttons.
Once the Grounds are locked in, the next step will be to connect individual Signal wires to each of the buttons, and then secure them in place use a zip-tie mounting base. The joystick wiring harness will also be clipped onto the joystick and zip-tied down too.
This is the actual Joytron Paewang Revolution PS3/X360 dual-mod PCB that I ordered from the eTokki website. Now that by stick and buttons are wired up, I can now solder those wires to the dual-mod PCB.
Completion Steps
I'll also solder some black wires from the PCB that will connect to "Home" and "PS3/X360 / Turbo" buttons I installed on the outside of the case, then fit the PCB's interface cable rubber stopper through a slit I've cut in the case.
Now that the top panel and bottom case are now connected, I can close the lid, then lock the lid down with the panel bolts.
To finish the job, the bottom plate has to be screwed on. Before putting the plate on, I had to drill 6 holes through the bottom of it to accommodate the motherboard / hard drive mounting screws going through the bottom of the plastic case.
Thread the corner lid bolts through the top panel to keep it locked down, and the project is finished!
If you want to see the stick in action on the X360, PS3 and the PC, check out the YouTube video link at the top of the page. Through cool applications like XPadder, you can control the PC's mouse with the Sanwa joystick. Rather than lugging around a keyboard with this PC, the integrated Bluetooth motherboard receiver allows you to use a portable Bluetooth-enabled device (like a tablet or a cell phone) to act as the keyboard.
