Author Topic: New life to an old stick (Read 1525 times)

HomeBoy · « **on:** August 13, 2006, 05:35:02 PM »

Here's a little twist to things.

This is an old CH Force FX gameport stick gutted of its JS components and replaced with FighterStick inards and one of my lefty handles. The FF is handled by the circuit boards out of a Logitech Wingman FF stick (haven't installed those yet).

My buddy Sparx over at the CH-hangar is the author of this really cool mod. He calls it the "Franken Force." Many thanks to you Sparx.

SkyRock · « **Reply #1 on:** August 13, 2006, 06:08:59 PM »

Great work!

doobs · « **Reply #2 on:** August 13, 2006, 06:58:08 PM »

that was the best stick I ever had.

RTSigma · « **Reply #3 on:** August 13, 2006, 07:35:30 PM »

I'm thinking of find out how to make my Fighterstick shorter, the base of the stick is too far down for me thumb to reach the 8way hat.

HomeBoy · « **Reply #4 on:** August 13, 2006, 07:38:09 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by RTSigma
I'm thinking of find out how to make my Fighterstick shorter, the base of the stick is too far down for me thumb to reach the 8way hat.

Could be done but things are crammed pretty tight inside that handle. It could be done though.

DREDIOCK · « **Reply #5 on:** August 14, 2006, 07:15:07 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by RTSigma
I'm thinking of find out how to make my Fighterstick shorter, the base of the stick is too far down for me thumb to reach the 8way hat.

Im going to be buying a CH stick soon and I have the same concern.
I am thinking though. Instead of cutting the stick down.
why not bring the rest (where you park the side of your hand) up?

Curious. in your opinion
How too far up is that hat located?

Another thought. open the stick and swap hat locations.
Making the 8 way lower and the 4 way on top

BTW if anyone has a broken (as in snapped off) hat

In a fit of desperation I devised a quick fix

Take a heavy paperclip and unbend it heat one end up and insert it into the hat. Next measure down about 3/4 of an inch and snip it off there using a pair of wirecutters.
Now heat up the other end and insert it into the switch itself and hold in place till it cools.

There ya have it.

Now its probably made better then the original

RTSigma · « **Reply #6 on:** August 14, 2006, 08:53:09 AM »

Dred, never thought about switching hats...I think I'll give that a try sometime in the future when I have the resources.

The 8way hat for my hand is a stretch for me. When my hand is rested at the cup of the stick, the tip of my thumb barely touches the middle of the hat. Bringing my hand up loses the comfort rest makes my hand feel loose.

DREDIOCK · « **Reply #7 on:** August 14, 2006, 08:58:10 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by RTSigma
Dred, never thought about switching hats...I think I'll give that a try sometime in the future when I have the resources.

The 8way hat for my hand is a stretch for me. When my hand is rested at the cup of the stick, the tip of my thumb barely touches the middle of the hat. Bringing my hand up loses the comfort rest makes my hand feel loose.

Yea thats exactly what Im afraid of too
thats why I've stuck with my ancient Thrustmaster XFighter stick so long
the size is absolutely perfect for my hand
Not too big and not too small

As for the CH stick
Im thinking a small block of wood carved to shape attached to the top of the rest (cup) might do the trick also.

HomeBoy · « **Reply #8 on:** August 14, 2006, 10:03:34 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by DREDIOCK
Im going to be buying a CH stick soon and I have the same concern.
I am thinking though. Instead of cutting the stick down.
why not bring the rest (where you park the side of your hand) up?

You could probably cut about 1" out of the stick just above the pinky button. That's about the only free space in that stick.

Quote

Curious. in your opinion
How too far up is that hat located?

There isn't much you can do with relocating that hat. You see, the trigger button is pretty much right there and if you tried to move that hat up, it would be in the way of the trigger button.

Quote

Another thought. open the stick and swap hat locations.
Making the 8 way lower and the 4 way on top

Nope. Can't do that. Sorry. The 8-way, the two 4-ways plus the button in the upper left corner are all on a circuit board. To try to move those around would involve building a new circuit board. I doubt you'd be willing to take that on.

Pretty cool idea about how to fix a broken hat.

StarOfAfrica2 · « **Reply #9 on:** August 14, 2006, 12:19:14 PM »

Curious to see how well this hybrid runs in games, and how Windows detects it.

Mustaine · « **Reply #10 on:** August 14, 2006, 12:50:20 PM »

HomeBoy, obviously you know alot about modding CH sticks....

I got a question for you. the 8 way hat on a fighterstick pro is that hard plastic thing with the pointy center...

my thumb doesn't reach it well even with my hand up off the base of the stick, and pushing it to full up is hard.

I have thought about filing it down and glueing some kind of softer material with a larger "lump" to move about, or out right replacing the hat button with some other material.

how hard is it to remove that hat, and is it easy to attach it back properly?

HomeBoy · « **Reply #11 on:** August 14, 2006, 01:52:45 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Mustaine
HomeBoy, obviously you know alot about modding CH sticks....

I got a question for you. the 8 way hat on a fighterstick pro is that hard plastic thing with the pointy center...

We call that a Coolie Hat.

Quote

my thumb doesn't reach it well even with my hand up off the base of the stick, and pushing it to full up is hard.

I have thought about filing it down and glueing some kind of softer material with a larger "lump" to move about, or out right replacing the hat button with some other material.

how hard is it to remove that hat, and is it easy to attach it back properly?

To remove the coolie hat, you'd have to be reasonable at soldering. You would also probably want to use a desolderer (I call it a solder sucker). You can get one at Radio Shack. It's a tube looking thing with a plunger on the end that you press down and it literally sucks the solder out of a joint once you heat it up. It would be a real mess to do this without one. Once you desolder the hat, it will lift right out. Putting the new one it is a simple matter of touching a little solder to each of the posts. This may not be what you want to hear. You could actually swap two of the hats using this method if you desire.

One idea would be to rough the hat up with a file and then use some epoxy putty over it. You could fashion that in any shape you wanted. That might be the easier approach.

I hear lots of guys complain that the stick is too tall. CH should really redesign that handle and shorten it.

HomeBoy · « **Reply #12 on:** August 14, 2006, 02:06:03 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by RTSigma
I'm thinking of find out how to make my Fighterstick shorter, the base of the stick is too far down for me thumb to reach the 8way hat.

Sigma,
You could cut a ring out just above the pinky switch and below the base of the Boat hat. Obviously you would need to remove everything from the handles before doing it. Use a good epoxy glue and file the finished work to smooth it out a bit. I would reinforce the inside cuts with a little extra epoxy and maybe a little fiberglass. I do stuff like this all the time. CH sticks are very easy to cut and sand. It's not plastic, it's a fiber-filled plastic type substance. Very nice to work with.

Mustaine · « **Reply #13 on:** August 14, 2006, 02:19:03 PM »

ahh thanks, no thanks. I can solder, and know exactly what you explaining...

the epoxy is probably the best idea...

but, how rough can I file the hat while it is still attached?

my original plan was to take the hat off, then either chop off the tip and attach some type of rubbery shape to it, or manufacture a whole new piece based on the base of the original hat.

just something to give it at least a modicum of grip.

guess i'll just live with it, don't want to risk messing it up or something. too expensive of a mistake for a stick in mint condition still

HomeBoy · « **Reply #14 on:** August 14, 2006, 02:44:01 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Mustaine
the epoxy is probably the best idea...

but, how rough can I file the hat while it is still attached?

Mustaine,
You could hold the hat with a pair of needle nosed pliers then file it. You wouldn't have to grip it very tight. If you could find some thin metal or something like that, you might be able to cut off a couple of small pieces and slip them in the gap of the hat to keep it from moving while you're working on it. Does that make sense? If you have a Dremel, you could use a shaping bit to rough up the hat or even shape it. The Dremel, because of the high speed, will not unduly shake the hat too much as to damage it.

You could actually try putting epoxy putty right over the hat the way it is. Worst case it will just pop off. You could try ruffing it up with a razor blade or something like that.

I understand your hesitancy to get into this because of your investment. I do this all the time and since guys pay me to mod their sticks, I guess that makes me a "professional!"

Whoo Hoo!