Took me awhile, but this is finally done. I had already removed the stock buttons, backboard behind the buttons, and stick from one of the units. Now I've done all the cutting and grinding and assembled both units. I used my Dremel knockoff and cheap soldering iron for these steps. I'll describe the details as a how-to, since that'll be more useful to whoever reads this.
The Mayflash button holes are too small for standard 30 mm buttons, so those must be widened. Approach the case with the rotary tool from the inside to avoid scratching the outer surface. Ensure that each hole is just big enough for a button to be snapped in and out without too much force.
If using a Sanwa stick:
The white plastic clip that was used to secure the stock stick to the case is now downgraded to a spacer: Remove the four tabs and all the protuberances from it, and widen the screw holes enough that the protruding cylinders with the screw holes on the case can pass through them. Do not remove anything from the black case plastic.
The screws are going to pass through the microswitches, which already have two holes each, and thread into the cylinders. The restrictor gate needs to sit flush with the microswitches, but the screw heads will get in the way. To make room for them, grind out some plastic from the corner of each switch, to the left of the made in Japan text.
There are little protrusions on the restrictor that fit into the holes on the microswitches to help keep it locked to the stick assembly. Four of those pins need to be ground off because their space is now occupied with the screw heads, but there are four more plus the four tabs, so it's still secure.
If using a Seimitsu stick:
You have to put holes in the case top and use a mounting plate. Seimitsus don't have the holes in the right place to use the stock screw holes. This is going to be a straight bottom mount so a flat mounting plate is preferred. With S-shaped the only difference would be longer bolts required so it's no big deal.
Grind off the four screw cylinders and the low wall from the black plastic around the stick hole and sand the inside surface smooth. Unscrew the mounting plate from the rest of the stick assembly. Center it on the hole and mark four drill points. Remove the plate and bore the holes from the inside out, preferably with a power drill and not the rotary tool. Screw the plate back onto the joystick, then bolt the plate onto the case with nuts and preferably washers. You may need to cut two of the bolts shorter to clear the microswitch terminals.
I used bolts with smooth, round heads to ensure they won't bother my left hand, very similar to these. To get the squarish mass beneath the head to fit in the round drill hole, I just ground chunks of the metal off until it was round.
Now for the wiring. Some people seem to think a blurry camera phone photo is worth a thousand words. I don't have any camera, so here is a Paint-tastic wiring diagram, as seen from the inside and not drawn to scale:
A cheap source of wire is old phone or network cables.
There are a few ways to connect the wires to the switch terminals. The obvious way is direct soldering. You can also pass a stripped length of wire through the little hole in the terminal and wrap it around for a more easily reversible connection. (This also seems like it would be the original reason behind the holes in electric plug prongs.)
The classy way to connect the terminals is with female disconnect crimps, 0.110" for buttons and 0.187" for sticks. If you actually manage to find a store that carries this item in such small sizes, be sure to get a whole lot because they're cheap and you need two per button or stick direction, or more if you screw up the crimping or the wire breaks. Use wire on the thicker side to avoid breakage. You can bend the connectors if space is tight.
So here's the important thing about wiring the stick: The Mayflash won't work with a common ground stick. If you try, either the PCB won't be recognized by the machine, or two of the four directions register the wrong way. From the photos I've seen other people have gotten common ground to work, but mine definitely would not, so maybe Mayflash changed the PCB circuitry since then.
If you mistakenly got a common ground stick like my Sanwa JLF-TP-8Y, you have to destroy the common ground on the stick's ring-shaped board by grinding out points of the trace between the microswitches, as shown on the right. The 5-pin connector is not usable, so swap the four pairs of leads from the original to the new switches, soldering directly to the terminals.
If using a stick without the 5-pin connector, all you have to do is change the connections from the old to the new switches, optionally with female connectors. (The 5-pin wouldn't save you time even if it worked.)
Test all controls. Easy way to do this is with the joystick config utility on your PC. Fix any bad connections, then screw the bottom plate back on.
Here's the short version of the whole procedure:
- Remove the corner feet.
- Unscrew the bottom plate.
- Reattach the feet out of the way of the screw holes.
- Unscrew the stock balltop.
- Unscrew and remove the stock joystick assembly.
- Unscrew and remove the black plastic thing with tubes over the buttons.
- Unscrew and break off the button daughterboard.
- Remove the stock buttons.
- Widen the button holes.
- If replacing with a Sanwa stick:
- Remove the white clip from the rest of the stock stick.
- Cut and grind off all the appendages from it and widen the screw holes on it.
- Put the white clip in so the molded screw holes pass through it.
- Remove the restrictor gate from the new stick.
- Grind out the corner from each microswitch to accomodate the screw heads.
- Grind off the four bumps from the gate that would get in the way of the screw heads.
- Screw the new stick into the old holes and replace the restrictor gate.
- If replacing with a Seimitsu stick:
- Grind off the old screw holes and low wall and sand until the area is smooth.
- Unscrew the mounting plate from the new stick and use it to mark four holes.
- Drill the holes in the case large enough to pass bolts through up to the heads.
- Cut bolts shorter if they will run into the microswitch terminals.
- Screw the mounting plate back onto the stick and bolt the plate to the case.
- Insert the new buttons.
- Connect each button to its point on the PCB.
- Daisy chain from the ground point on the PCB to each button.
- Desolder the old stick microswitches from the PCB leads.
- If using a stick stick without the 5-pin:
- Connect the old leads to the new switches.
- If using a stick stick with the 5-pin:
- Remove the ring-shaped PCB linking all the switches.
- Destroy the common ground connection.
- Reassemble the stick parts.
- Connect the old leads to the new switches.
- Test the controls and correct any bad connections.
- Replace the bottom plate.
Required tools:
- Philips screwdriver
- prying tool, like a flat screwdriver
- pliers with the jaws wrapped in electrical tape for gripping things
- wire stripper
- soldering iron
- electric rotary toolset
- power drill, if Seimitsu stick used
Required supplies:
- insulated wire, ~100 inches total for all eight buttons
- solder
Optional:
- two 0.110" female quick connectors for each button
- eight 0.187" female quick connectors for each stick
- crimping tool, if quick connectors used
Buying notes:
- Buttons are 30 mm snap-ins
- no need for the screw-ins, which need extra space to grip and twist.
- If using a Seimitsu stick, you need a flat mounting plate and nuts and bolts.
- Do not get any stick with the 5-pin common ground connector:
- Sanwa JLF-TM-8T good, JLF-TP-8Y bad.
- Seimitsu LS-32 good, LS-32-01 bad.
Now, a preliminary evaluation and review.
It was a silly amount of work, even more because I'm not experienced with this sort of thing, but the results are good. This mod is definitely not recommended unless you are interested in the process. If you just want to hit training mode, buy a good stick off the shelf. And if you want something more personalized, you'd want to start from scratch. Part of me says it was a waste of effort since I'll never be that great, starting at such a late date, but at least I can't keep using bad controls as an excuse to not play seriously. I want to try out XSPR's TRUST at some point to improve my game.
You have to relearn how to handle the controls. You can carry over the rhythms for timing chains and links, but you have to build totally different muscle memory for handling the stick, and to a lesser degree the buttons. It may raise the execution ceiling, but it doesn't elevate your game for free. I would have liked to try out the Hitbox if I'd known about it earlier.
The Seimitsu LS-32 has a looser feel that I definitely find preferable for fighting games for some reason. The Sanwa JLF is tighter and feels better for shmups and platformers. The Sanwa buttons are more convex while the Seimitsu buttons are flatter.
Seeing as how akihabarashop doesn't offer Sanwa sticks without the 5-pin, and you need to not have one for a Mayflash, I'm not sure I can recommend them. Plus, the price turned out to be a little higher than expected. I think PayPal may have screwed me on the currency conversion. In other news, Lizardlick now gives shipping quotes with no login required. To be honest, both sites are pretty amateurish.
There is one problem I've run into: On some PS2 games, the stick doesn't work but the buttons are fine. After some experimentation I think I found the explanation. When plugged into a PS2, the Mayflash seems to send directionals only as analog stick inputs, while some games only accept input from the D-pad. It can be fixed in Street Fighter EX3 and Hokuto no Ken by enabling vibrate or analog mode in the options. But Virtua Fighter, Tekken, and oddly enough Capcom Fighting Evolution won't accept analog and won't work. I didn't think to test these games before modding, so I'm not sure if it's something I messed up, of the fault of the PCB or the old PS2. I wonder if anyone has enountered this before.
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