Arcade FlightStick

If there is one law in nature it is that you cannot play Space Harrier without a decent stick! This commission was to take an industrial control stick (from an earthmover / crane) and turn it into something that can really take the beating Arcade games require.

I did my usual trick of hacking a USB joypad and putting its guts into a small enclosure. With a little woodwork, and a (even if I do say so myself) ingenious clamping solution the stick was ready to go!

Check out the YouTube link at the bottom of the page for details!

mechanical build

I mounted the stick onto a sturdy lump of 18mm ply. Luckily there were come suitable mounting holes to place four wood screws through the metalwork. I notched out a suitable croove in which to fit my clamping solution. This thing clamps so hard it becomes part of whatever it is attached to - a far cry from those late 80's joysticks we had to suffer with!

wiring

I cut down a joypad PCB and managed to fit it into a small enclosure. Using some spare ribbon cable I tack soldered it all together for testing (funnily enough I did not need to redo the soldering it all worked out correct). Plugged it into the PC and nothing! The crystal on the PCB had become damaged! One replaced crystal later I was playing Space Harrier. I was so happy I actually played through it for the first time in my life!

Great build!