Hell yeah! Completed AF’s Joystick Mod. [Throwing the Hornz] WOOT!

Modding the EX2 joystick was an idea that both AF and I came up at the same time because we both needed a good “arcade quality” joystick when neither one of us were willing to wait for the official $150 Street Fighter IV joystick with the Sanwa parts, compass on the stock and a thing that tells time because the price was WAY TOO much for us to swallow. So when the cheap EX2 sprouted up at Fry’s, Ancient Flounder encouraged everyone to go snagged one up and if you are still looking for one today, tough titty because that milk done dried up. Yep, Fry’s sold out and don’t seem to be restocking the SoulCaliber IV sticks. Stupid clearance sale.

Now if you were the frugal yet incredibility intelligent PineconeAttack reader, you saw the potential of this penny-wise project and snagged one for yourself right? Then you followed the oh so simple step-by-step guide on modding your stick with custom graphic, right? Of course you did! So your stick should look as awesome as AF’s stick below.

So what do you think? I think its pure badassery of course.

I started off with AF’s stick before I wrote up the guide and came across a few hurdles. For one, the annoying lady at FedEx Office didn’t seem to want to do any work so our lami-labled artwork was a no go. But that did not stop us from treading forward. Ultimately I removed all the crappy buttons and replaced them with the Sanwas and left the joystick art blank. So after completing the guide and did a few minor custom upgrades to my joystick, AF’s on his EX2 over on his next day off so we completed it once and for all.

I had to unsoldering all the buttons which was no problem but it was real convenient to have another pair of hands prepping the wires for me. After the art was applied and the buttons were all in place, I ran into a little snag with AF’s daughter board. One of the damn leads came off the PCB and I had to bypass the daughter board which forced me to unsolder a pair of wires off the daughter board and solder them directly to the button. This method is a LOT more tedious but overall is the more reliable method. I might need to do this to my stick one day.

This project was fun but I’m done looking at console joysticks for now. I need to focus my attention to my CPS2 boards for battery swaps and get started on the MVS cab. Overall I really like this project because if you can find the initial EX2 or any console joystick for that matter on the cheap, you can make a good stick great and for much less than purchasing the custom arcade sticks online.

–Jangofatt