I had a few minutes this morning and put together a JLF wiring guide based on my own iCade (I used Nudgenudge's pic of his JLF. Hope he doesn't mind). Anyway, if your existing iCade stick uses colored wires this "should" help. Also let me know if i've miss marked something and i'll edit my graphic. Enjoy!
Oh man, I just got an iCade from the bed bath and beyond sale ... and now it seems that the micro-leaf switches are out of stock! Does anyone know an alternate source? Or maybe a similar low-impact upgrade? Maybe I'll replace the stick in the mean time ...
My Bits arrived in the post today. Going to mod my CP tomorrow and take some pics ro share. *Edit* Interesting find. Especially, key up / key down thing... weird. http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=icade%20button%20mapping&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ionaudio.com%2Fdownloads%2FiCade%2520Dev%2520Resource%2520v1.3.doc&ei=pycQT5n5GMnRhAf50_yWAg&usg=AFQjCNHkaXuFsR1uUhKqOa_GQEAjT4gL7g&cad=rja Also imame4all / iCade button mapping: TOP: [RED/COIN] [BLACK/START] [BLACK/Y] [WHITE/B] BOT: [RED/L1] [BLACK/R1] [BLACK/A] [WHITE/X]
Great info here guys, Thanks! I'm personally a fan of the 20gram microswitches from paradisearcadeshop.com. but they've got leaf switches, and a few others in stock if those are more your taste.
Excuse my ignorance, but why did you have to remove the PCB? Surely if one rotates the stick (as is) by say 180°, up becomes down, left becomes right etc? The only thing that needs to change is the colour of the wiring... no? Doing mine tomorrow and don't wanna get it wrong.
Correct me if I am wrong, but that image showing the 4 possible orientations and wiring combinations shows you what order the wires should be in for any given rotation of the pcb, no? You could probably test a game with the case still open to make sure, just in 'case'. I guess the different rotations are shown so you can wire it up however is convenient for you to organize the space inside? Cool, I'll check those out. Are either of them drop-in replacements and able to use the same buttons? Also, how is the noise compared to stock microswitches?
They all "should" fit the stock buttons fine, but since I haven't opened mine up I can't say for sure. The leafswitches also stick out a little farther than microswitches so I'm not sure if that would be an issue either. but I can say those 20 gram switches are MUCH quieter, and require a much lighter press. standard arcade switches are about 50-75 gram. Not sure how the stock switches measure up pressure-wise, but as far as noise and feel go, they're the clunkiest buttons I've ever used. edit: after looking at Lions diagram above, I doubt there will be enough room to fit the leafswitches. The 20g switches are probably the closest you'll get. The sanwa buttons mentioned before are VERY smooth as well and have built in switches, but cost a bit more and will take a bit of sanding/dremeling
Excellent; this thread is full of great info! Thanks. I've just placed an order for some of the 20 gram switches (they are so cheap that it won't be the end of the world if I can't use them for some reason) and a couple of concave buttons (just to see if they will fit without too much dremel action) as well as a wiring harness for the Sanwa stick I ordered previously. It seems like there are a lot of clear pictures regarding the process here - would anyone also be interested in a video / series of videos regarding this?
Ok guys, I got my stuff today and went right away into the action My background: none! I never modded anything and I am not handy with tools at all. So you can be assured, if I am able to do this, everybody can. I'd like to give you a detailed guide nonetheless so no one needs to be afraid of "surprises" So what's in the box I ordered a Sanwa JLF-TP-8YT joystick. This is the one with the metal plate you DO NOT want. Instead you want the JLF-TP-8Y but it was not available at the shop I ordered. The good news is that the 8YT is convertible to the 8Y by simply removing the metal mounting plate. The shop where I ordered the joystick was kind enough to remove it for me before shipping so I had not to worry about this. Make sure the joystick comes with the wire connector if you don't want to solder anything (it's the multicolour wires with the white connector in front of the picture). Its product name is Sanwa JLF-H. Additionally I ordered 8x Sanwa OBSF-30 buttons. I decided to stick with the original iCade colors for no special reason but ordered the stick with a white ball So, first thing to do is to open the iCade. It is not hard at all but there are a ton of screws. Make sure not to lose them When done, you can open the panel and get access to the stock stick and buttons. The buttons have quick disconnects for the wires whereas the stick's wires are soldered. So the next thing to do is to cut the wires from the stick and disconnect the wire sockets from the buttons. Before you start it might be a good idea to write down which wire color represents which iCade button. So I wrote down that button 1 on the upper row should be connected to the wire with the color X, that button 2 on the upper row should by connected to the wire with the color Y and so on... Make sure not to pull on the hoses but to grab the metal joints from the quick connectors. After this remove the switches (black boxes) from the buttons by pulling them up and to the sides. Then remove the buttons by unscrewing the black retention rings first and pushing the buttons up afterwards. Unscrew the four screws of the stick and remove it too. Now you have the empty panel at your hand. As the button holes are a little too small to take the Sanwa OBSFs you need to enlarge each of them slightly. You can do this by using sandpaper. I had a dremel (a Proxxon to be precise) available so I used this for a couple of seconds of sanding on each hole. When finished take the Sanwa buttons and push them from the top into the panel. They just click in; there are no retention rings. The hole for the stick is slightly too small, too. So enlarge it in the same way a little. As there are some plastic restrictions in the iCade panel, the stick's wire connector needs to be rotated so it faces to the back of the iCade. This is easily done by removing the gate restrictor (that is the transparent plastic thing on the bottom of the stick). To remove it, pinch the four black retention clips and pull it off. Once off, you can take off the stick's pcb and turn it by 90 degree so that the wire connector faces the back of the iCade. Put back on the gate restrictor, done! Now take the stick and srew it onto the panel. It will fit without further modifications. Now we have the new shiny buttons and stick installed. Yeah! So back to the wires. I started off with the joystick. If you don't want to solder the cables you need a luster terminal / screw joint that is available in every hardware store. It is the white bar on the photo that lets you connect the cutted wires from the old stick with the one's from the Sanwa. On the iCade's pcb the joystick's directions are printed in tiny fonts right next to the wires so you don't need to remember which cable was which direction. That is pretty handy now! The only question is which of the Sanwa's colored wires represents the corresponding direction on the new stick. Luckily, there is a wiring guide available here: http://media.photobucket.com/image/sanwa%20guide%20shoryuken/rtdzign/Misc/JoystickWiringGuide.jpg As we rotated the stick's pcb, the bottom left pic is the one we need. Just connect the directions as indicated in the diagram. Don't worry, if you get it wrong you'll notice soon enough and can change it without problems (I somehow managed to mix up left and right ). Next for the buttons. As you have written down the colors previously, it is getting easy now. Just clip on the wires accordingly on the first pin of each switch and one of the black grounding wires on the second pin of each button's switch. Almost there. Now it's time for some testing. You don't need to reassemble the unit know. Just power it up and connect to your iPad. Start some game and test if everything works fine (I found out that left and right directions were mixed up... ...). If everything is ok, attach the dusk protector to the stick (the black round thing that sits over the four screws that hold the stick) and put on the stick's ball. Tight it up by using a screw driver at the bottom of the stick unit while screwing on the ball from the top. After this, reassemble the control panel and reattach it to the iCade frame. DONE So this was rather long but I think there shouldn't be too many questions left for those who want to try it on their own. As I am always scared that I screw up on things like that I hope you guys find this guide somewhat helpful for your own attempt. It's not hard at all and want take too long. Now for my first impressions: WOW!! What a difference to the stock stuff. The buttons are soft and not noisy at all. The stick has almost no dead zone and is way smoother than the original one. The stock stuff is ok but this is a huge improvement. I am glad I took the plunge.
Cool guide. Why do you have to remove the PCB though? I don't understand why you can't just rotate the stick as is and simply change the order of the wires to suit?
Actually, it's because the plastic part around the Sanwa + the PCB do not fit in the stick. Rotating the PCB allows to fit it snugly, but without cutting plastic in the stick's housing. Sorry, should've clarified it.
I've decided to add a 10.1" LCD to one of the two iCade's I purchased, a plexiglass monitor bezel (with black vinyl surround stuck to inside), LCD controller board, illuminated push buttons, marquee, speakers & mini-itx motherboard etc. Basically, gonna do a full MAME conversion.
Agreed. Already ordered the plexi, the screen & LCD controller. TBH the rest is a few simple router cuts (hopefully). Oh... got to try and find some 2-3" little speakers and a decent 12V amp.
Congrats MarkHerm! glad the mod went so well for you. Also great write up with pics. I'm sure other forum members will find that very very helpful.
Thank you! Yours and Nudgenudge insights were an indispensable help to get started. And boy, I am glad I took the plunge
Thanks to all of you guys for all of this input. My icade should arrive tomorrow, and im seriously thinking of doing what you guys have done to yours. Im afraid i will have to wait another 4 weeks for funds to refresh to get the parts but that will give me time to play around a bit with the icade and see if those noisy buttons really do bug me! no previous modding experience but it looks very very rewarding to my eyes. Thanks everyone geocelt
