Gotta hand it to the germans..

Ok time to get on with the externals again, primed the base plate to check out how the black paint works..




Tidied up the wood filled edge and sanded it down so its no longer proud, and got the edge nice and true..



Looks better now, and is ready from priming..




Also filled the hole on the back side of the box, the bottom edge was quite badly chipped when i put it in the car, so its out with the wood filler again... Arg..

First black coat on the base plate, as you can see its quite "deep" black, with a beautiful sheen, will have to be careful not to put too many brush marks on it or underpaint it though..

With Flash OFF!

With Flash ON!!

Primed the box from the bottom upwards, this is the base..

As you can see the wood filled chip is "gone!"

Sides including trench..

And finally the top including the new wood filled inner edge..

Front edge..

Took the base outdoors and gave it a second coat, note the paint is still very wet here, but my gosh the gloss on it is almost mirror like..

And brought back indoors to dry, its still very very reflective, i hope it doesnt end up being a fingerprint magnet like the PSP!!

Well thats it for today, just a quick gripe, sent a second mail off to Arcadeparts.de about the delay in sending the parts as i got ZERO reply to the first.

Got a nice rude reply..

Please read the message at our homepage, it's there for over 2 months:

"We ask for your patience

Due to lots of orders and questions concerning how to mod a SF4 controllerwe fall into delays in every way. You can help us reducing the queue andwaiting time and avoid unnecessary questions.

The current lead time is 1 - 2weeks."

regardsJan

Those cheerful Germans eh, i didnt see the tiny fuckin note on the front page cos i came via a search, and is it anywhere else on the site!! NOPE! Did you include it with the email telling me my order had been received, NOPE.. Or the email when you took my fucking money.. NOPE.. Well fuck you very much, i'll just shut up and wait then shall I..

Grrrrrrrrrr... Back to GremlinArcade next time, they may be pricier but they do have some kind of customer support...

So its been a week already, so in theory it'll either be another week and then 3 days for delivery or it will be here in 3 more days.. Who wants to bet it'll be the longer one eh..

We return to our scheduled programming..

Sorry for the delay, but the perspex took FOREVER to arrive after much prodding of mr Ebay man it finally slid through the postmans sweaty hands today and into my posession..


So lets get on with whats happened since that..



Ok perspex arrived and test fitted, needs a bit sanded off it and some alignment to make up for wonk in frame but apart from that fits well..

Again ignore the blue, thats the protective layer of plastic on both sides to protect from scratches..






Make guide holes for buttons.. Bradawl pilot holes ready for preliminary drilling..






Drill pilot holes using small drill bit..







Use hole cutting bits as before to remove perpex for buttons, I'm using the 2mm perspex so it comes off very easy providing ITS CLAMPED DOWN WELL, it didnt crack that i can see..






Test fit to lid to check for gaps to fill and check for alignment, as you can see its a bit out, but not too bad, that gap on the left hand edge will need some wood filler but its cool..





OK so time to get that lid fixed down, drilled some pilot holes, countersunk the holes for the screws to dip into and fitted the super countersunk screws through lid and braces underneith..





Nice and tight now..









Perspex fitted to test and as you can see the alignment is right now..





Thankfully it hasnt rained in all this time, but it looked like thunder all day, the gods are pleased with me for some reason..





You can really see that gap on the left edge now, so out with the wood filler me thinks..








Fit perpex and wood fill gap, remove perspex and smooth wood filler back, level and leave to dry.. The gap is gone!!

So thats it for now, when thats all dried nice and hard I'll prime the box tomorrow and get it ready for graphics and external finish..

No sign of the parts yet, so email fired off to arcadeparts.de to check up on the order, been 6 days now..

Back soon!

Oh good god, the glue, my eyes... my eyyeeeeessssss..

Managed to get the proper measurements for the start back and the same as before for the guide button, the start and back need the MDF routed down to 2mm as before and the guide needed about 5 mm off the top, so out with the router again!!

Finished the woodworking now!

Ok so out with the madcatz 3rd party controller, HarumaN from the Arcade Controls forum did my last controller hack, but i cant afford to import another this time, so i'll have to do the soldering and hack work myself, still its a skill I havent used in a while and shouldnt be too hard!! famous last words anyone..

Controller opened up..

Crap removed!

The only bit I want to keep beyond the PCB!

So heres the PCB stripped down and ready to get the controller hack wires soldered onto it..

First I need to sort out the tools i'll need for this, the 12way connector blocks i bought for the last stick and didnt need, some medium gauge wire I used for the common ground on my last stick, a box cutter knife to cut any solder away that bleeds, and my circuit tester..

Ok so i now need the soldering iron, i should really get a better kit as the tip on this is massive, but it will have to do for now, at least its nice and hot..

My circuit tester only tests voltages, so off to Lidl for a 9v battery and back to fire up the old multimeter instead..

Ok so first I label up the connector blocks so i know what is coming out the PCB and where it goes, and then i can plug my buttons into the other side to match..

I've done the D-pad on a separate block so i can stick this nearer the stick and the harness, should help keep the wiring a bit tidier this time..

First I soldered the common ground, and used the UP ground for this.. Also soldered the links to the D-Pad at the same time.. Not to bad, the contacts are quite big.. Then moved onto the A,B,X,Y, then the shoulder buttons and finally the guide, start and back.. All wires are now soldered onto the right contacts, and attached to the connector block..

Had to do a few bits again mostly as the face buttons contact points are so small its very easy for the solder to bleed across and bridge the connection... Said Fuck many times, tested many times, finally got it down to this..

After the points all tested properly plugged into the PC, i got the glue gun out to get them stuck down nicely and stop any weak solder from coming away from the PCB.. should hold everything nicely in place now..!

The PCB is now ready to glue so one last pic of it naked and on the bed....

And a after the "glue gun money shot" picture, its not too neat and tidy but its only my first controller hack and it took 2 hours as it was.. I know now why HarumaN charges for this.. What a pain in the arse..

Finally a home made completed hacked PCB, soldered and glued.

The buttons have been ordered from Arcadeshop.de in Germany and although the postage was a little steep, the price wasnt too bad...

Hopefully the perspex will arrive soon too so i can then make a start on the final polish up before i paint the box.. Which reminds me I need some black paint.. Arghhh!!

Back with more soon..

Very thin ice..

Ok time to get the hole drilled ready for the buttons, had to get another drill bit, a 30mm as these buttons are bigger!

Printed out the template again, this time with improved markers and new sizes, also moved the joystick over to the left a little bit so it doesnt overlap the bottom left button as I did with the first stick..



Marked the holes with a bradawl and then drilled pilot holes..

First 5 holes drilled and the hand drill runs out of battery, its fucking SHIT!!!




Out with the power drill and beyond nearly setting the bit of wood underneith (that stops blowout on the back of the lid) it all went well..

Last holes drilled and cleaned up..





Lid in place to check postitions and fit..




Lid in place with template underneith REALLY properly check postitions and fit..

Alll is good..



Now as these buttons as click in ones and dont have a massive barrel and a screw on thread like the previous stick, I now only have 4 mm to click the buttons into, this means that 2mm of perspex only leaves me with 2mm of the MDF lid to get the buttons in..

Sooooooooooooo, i need to route the lid down to 2mm off the top and leave a thin layer ready to click the buttons in..

To do this, i routed down 10mm using a straight bit and locked it off 2mm from the bottom of the MDF..

As you can see, all seems to have worked well. the mdf and persex together is now 4mm thick around the buttons... I hope this can take the strain of hands on the controller, i couldnt make it any thicker, perhaps I'll have to put some kind of 10mm column in the middle bit to brace it if it still flexes under the MDF..

The bottom of the lid, showing the 10mm route..



Top view of the lid showing how the button holes are now only 2mm deep..





Cleaned up and given a bit of a sand..

So thats it for now, if the new 2mm perspex arrives I'll drill the holes in that tomorrow, if not i will start on the electronics..

More soon, thanks for reading..

Stay on target......

Ok some more progress, I'm really pleased with the quality of this woodwork, much better than a MDF effort and much easier to work with pine than it was with the compound rubbish..

Made the braces for the lid, i've already done edge to edge ones for the base.. These are a bit smaller as i want to leave room to be able to get to the start/back buttons etc and a bit of finger room for cables etc..

Cut and drilled the braces for the lid.

Braces fitted to the inside of the frame..

Close up..

Lid fitted on the braces with space left for the perspex to fit on top, note its indented by 2mm

With white-plastic covered perspex fitted on top of the lid..

After some more sanding with the fine paper i've got a lovely finish on the outside frame, its soooo glossy its sexy.. I've also sanded the "death star" trench down the inside and got it level and nice and smooth..

Close up of the side "trench"



Close up of the front edge "trench"..

Corner view, note the shine... Oooh lovely..

Side elevated view of the box..

Ok so as expected, now i can move onto soldering the madcatz and getting the internals fitted, just need to get the order in for the buttons etc.

All coming along nicely I think..