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Carbon Fiber

Building the Case

Carbon Fiber Joystick

Preparations for actually building the case were finished and we could start working with the actual carbon and glass fibres and the resin. Friendly company cs.federleicht let us use their work shop to build the case and the rest of the stick from here.

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Carbon Fiber

Emperor’s New Clothes

Carbon Fiber Joystick

More parts arrived: Glass fibre in white and black (pictured) and resin (not pictured) for the case.

Got embarassed that they didn’t send a coil but packaged the fabrics into plastic bags. What you want is a surface as smooth as possibe and not a folded hanky *sigh*. That’s what you get for ordering small amounts.

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Carbon Fiber

Wired Up

Carbon Fiber Joystick

Today I soldered the PCB together with a friend. Wired the buttons as well – until I ran out of cable. So the last 7 connections are missing. The cables run from the PCB to a terminal strip and from there to the buttons. Quick disconnects are used for the buttons. I tested all cables soldered to the PCB and all connections work – a small wonder considering this was our first time to solder.

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Carbon Fiber

Arcade Stick Button Layout

Carbon Fiber Joystick

Now where to put all the fancy buttons? Before finalizing the case design I wanted to try button layouts. slagcoin.com is a treasure chest for all things arcade stick and he has got a large number of layouts complete with detailed measurements. The Sega Astro layout really is a winner for me.

Some gamers seem to prefere a 6 button layout and say that the additional 2 are disturbing. Also, no BEU needs 8 buttons. I think I’ll go with 8 buttons though as I want to build a stick that works with the 360 and I can use LT/RT for dashboard navigation. It will later always still be an option to NOT drill the additional 2 holes.

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Carbon Fiber

A Bag of Joy

Carbon Fiber Joystick

In the SF4 craze it’s apparently becoming harder to find the coveted Sanwa and Seimitsu sticks and buttons. I managed to find a web shop and it’s even in Germany (arcadeshop.de). I Ordered a Seimitsu LS-32-01 stick, 8 clear white Seimitsu PS-14-KN 30mm buttons, 2 solid white Seimitsu PS-14-DN 24mm buttons (for start + back buttons) and 1 white Seimitsu PS-14-GN 30mm button (for PS3 home/ 360 guide). Rounded off with an additional clear Seimitsu ball top.

I chose the buttons because of their color (gotta love the clear Seimitsus). Since I have no experience so far with arcade sticks I relied on web wisdom to choose the stick. Because it was said to have the shorter throw I chose the LS-32-01 over the Sanwa JLF. As I have no preference for a square or octagon gate it doesn’t matter that there is no octagon option for the LS-32-01.