Tuesday, March 10, 2009

HFS3 MOD

Okay, so this is what initiated my wii case mod. Since the parts have been ripped out of my HFS3, I didn't want them to go to waste. 

Here is what I've ordered/bought: Mostly from LizardLick

1xJLF-TP-8T (White)
1xGT-Y
6xOBSF-30 (White)
6xPS-14-KN (White)
1xLB-39 (White)
16xQD's (0.110")
22 gauge wire

Tools Used:

X-acto knife
Soldering iron
Solder
Desoldering Iron w/bulb
Spray paint 
Clear gloss
Aerosol Adhesive 
Wire stripper
Small Phillips screw driver
Dremel w/ attachments
Fine grain sand paper for plastic/metal (usually says wet/dry)
Electical tape
Painting tape

Resource: SRK












Wii Casing to PS2 Arcade Stick

This is one of my first two arcade stick mods and is a work in progress as I run into the occasional problem here and there. I will try my best to remember to take pictures of my progress as I go with details of what I'm doing.

What I started with:

-The original Nintendo Wii case/shell (white) 
-PS2 Dualshock (Series A - which some say is unhackable)
-Hori joystick and buttons (taken from my HFS3)

Tools & Materials Used:

-Dremel w/bits &accessories 
-Soldering Iron
-Desodering Iron w/bulb
-Solder
-26 gauge solid wire (I prefer stranded, but solid was needed for this mod)
-Spray Paint & Clear Gloss
-Small Phillips screw driver
-Pliers, wire stripper/cutter(scissors or anything with a sharp blade also works), and *tweezers(optional)*
-Something to cut holes in the plastic of the case, I used a 29mm holesaw and buffered the edges with my dremel  - this is for the action buttons, use a smaller hole for the joystick appr. 24mm, you can always just draw a circle, use a drillbit close to that size and then grind down to the edge of your line
-Crazy glue 
-1-1/2 carriage bolts to fit through the joystick, the stock hori ones are too short(and I'll be using them for my HFS3 later on anyway) if you need to grind down to make it fit flush then do so
-Nuts to hold the bolts in place

Here are a few pictures to start it off...

The top two pictures are of a PS1 Series-A 
I had already wired up my PS2 Series-A when I took these pictures.
It is almost identical to the PS2, but I believe the slot order for the buttons are a little different. The installation will be identical though. 












Here i just drilled the holes with a 29mm hole saw, and then afterwards used a buffer to open up the holes slightly to better fit the buttons. I used the same 29mm hole saw for the joystick hole, but later realized that was a little too big ( just about 2-3mm too big and the hole shows slightly when the joystick is pulled to one side. 

The buttons fit in very nicely, snug, but doesn't snap like it's supposed to because the plastic case is a little too thick. I don't really find any serious problem with this for now.

After fitting t
he buttons in a putting the joystick in position to see how it would look, I decided i didn't like the color, so I then went ahead and painted everything white. (First coat without gloss in these pictures. The final product will hide the color of the buttons completely)

At this point, my major issue is mounting the actual stick, and finding the cleanest and best looking way of doing so. I've thought of crazy gluing it but of course it wouldn't work for very long at all. One other idea is to glue a metal plate on the inside of the case with holes drilled for the shaft as well as mounting holes for actual unit.

Ideally, the best way to mount the stick is to just drill through the top, use longer carriage bolts with nuts on the other side to secure it. This method would be the strongest, but would look the worst, since the screws will be visible on the top.




So after I though about the aesthetics vs performance, I decided to go with the stronger way to mount the joystick. 

I used the standard drill that came with the Dremel and it happened to be just the right size. 

I then used #6-32x1-1/2" machine screws with nuts to secure them off on the other end.












*Again, this is a work in progress, I will post as I go.* 

Thanks for dropping by =] 

-Pr3y11