Dictator(SF) Inspired Custom Stick

[Epiren]

Greetings all!

As I said in my past thread, I would be posting my newest project soon. Well, I decided to bite the bullet a bit and post it now. As you can guess by the title of the thread, it's a Dictator (M. Bison) Inspired Fight Stick. But it's not a regular box stick, nosirre.

I'm going full anime and making cosplay!

End Result

Well, it's a hitbox-style fighting stick that is placed inside/on top of my muscle shirt. Note the white ellipses - that's where I'm intending to place the buttons.

Here are the rough designs:

Spoiler:

While this doesn't seem all that bad, I'm also planning on adding LED lights to both my buttons and gloves (not included at this time) somehow - hence, my friend who is helping. That, and the buttons themselves are quite big at about 1.25" - even bending the contacts/prongs, it's still over 1.00" - I will need to fix my buttons to have both LED lights and be small enough to adequately fit inside my cardboard+duct tape vest, which currently has a minimum depth of 1.2".

I will need to shorten that.

Well, going down on details: ver.1.0 will be xbox only - I'm cannibalizing one of my old sticks. I'm mostly using cardboard and paper mache (however you spell it) to make the vest, which fortunately I still have after my failed Lancelot cosplay.

Estimated Time to Make (Stick only): 2 - 12 months.

[Rafflesiac]

If this works, I will hail you as a god.

[Epiren]

I will keep that in mind. God EPI - hmm... no, that just doesn't work. Oh well.

Update 8/2/2014

I decided to do some testing with a bit of insulation foam and cardboard. The results.... weren't that great.

Spoiler:

According to my sister, the test sample "looks" too bulky when viewed from the side, pressed against my chest. The total height is 1-5/16", leaving barely a 1/8" between the bent prongs and the bottom panel.

Hmm... I might remove the bottom layer altogether and just glue the box onto a zentai suit. That will remove another 1/8". I could use a thinner top layer as well, though that won't change much.

I also took apart the button to see if I could cut any excess material away. While I could shave away an 1/8" or so, I'd rather not - or at least have it as a last resort. I took pictures of them.

Spoiler:

EDIT: I also took apart the bottom black box and learned something new. Just under the white fin, there is a spring situated there. At the bottom is the gold ball, which sorta sticks in between the 4 prongs on the last image. When the button is compressed, the spring compresses as well, forcing the ball to contact all 4 prongs - completing the circuit.

Would it be possible to shorten this...?


*Update 8/3/2014

I believe I found my solution.

Seimitsu PS-15 : according to this link, my usual button (the Sanwa OBSF-30) had a depth/height of 32mm - I verified this myself. The Seimitsu PS-15 (which I will shorten in the future to PS-15) has a depth of 22mm or .87". Much smaller than before, and I won't need to mutilate any of my buttons. I will be ordering them shortly to ensure that they are what I need.

Spoiler:

[Ivan The Mouse]

Go Epi, go!

[Epiren]

Got my buttons - rather than the ps-15 I wanted, I had to settle for the Seimitsu PS-14 DN-K, which as you can see, features a transparent plunger. This is really recommended for the LED mod, so I decided on getting this instead. Note that I had bent the plungers/prongs in a near 90 deg angle. This has decreased the depth from 30.5mm to 24.5mm. Success!

Oh, and I made a mold of my torso with duct-tape. You know, for attaching the pieces of cardboard on? The base will be a spandex or something suit, but I made this to get the cardboard arranged properly beforehand. Also, attaching and removing the duct tape is really annoying, especially when you're by yourself - DO NOT DO IT ALONE!

Spoiler:

[Epiren]

Update time! 8/12/14

Apparently, breathing in pink insulation foam is bad for your lungs. Good to know now, but would have been better four days ago. That, and a bandsaw would've worked much better than my tiny utility knife. Oh well.

Well, I started on physically making the concept of "Cardboard & Foam Vest Stick". Turns out, the foam itself can hold the button itself reasonably well. I might look into that for my next designs.

The original design left most of the foam in 4 "whole" and "unbroken" blocks. Well, that felt uncomfortable, so I cut it apart so that the foam better forms over my torso. Using my knife and a flathead screwdriver (seriously, cutting as far as you can and then plunging the screwdriver through shorten the work considerably), I also decided on the button placements. I had to fix the damn chest piece four times, since the hole kept expanding and ruining the piece, but I like where the buttons reasonably are now.

Next time, I'll try to shave away the foam so that the chest pieces more resemble human muscles.

Until then, you can look at my photos.

Spoiler:

1. The Chest Piece - paper draft.
2. The Torso Complete - paper draft.
3. Pink Insulation Foam cut into pieces.
4. Side View of 3
5. Dividing it out to bend
6. Buttons Ho!

[Rafflesiac]

Looks like it's coming along nicely.

[Epiren]

Yo. Got all my buttons in. Now, I'll just need to pack away the PCB (it's from the Hori Fighting Edge VX - the old model) into another foam piece, and wire it up.

I'll just do a light paint job in the meantime, to hide all the ducttape and cardboard.

Spoiler:

[Mattias]

That's a fuck-ton of buttons. What are they all for? (aside from the obvious 8 kick/punch and start/select)

[Epiren]

Guide. Then, Up/Down/Left/Right since it's a HitBox design. (Think keyboard) A regular joystick I felt would have put too much stress on the foam/cardboard and could potentially destroy them. So I used buttons since they're much lighter, cheaper and easier to mod.

--- Also, since I'm planning to... velcro? the top panel to the costume, I gotta leave the middle open so that I can zip down the shirt and allow for easy access to the insides. That means I have to put the stick to one side. And that is something I just don't like aesthetically. Maybe. Who knows.

:That, and I got no money to buy another joystick TwT

[Rafflesiac]

Ahh, I see.

[Mattias]

Guide. Then, Up/Down/Left/Right since it's a HitBox design. (Think keyboard) A regular joystick I felt would have put too much stress on the foam/cardboard and could potentially destroy them. So I used buttons since they're much lighter, cheaper and easier to mod.

Makes sense. Although it would be hard to do Supers/Ultras without being able to roll a stick. Even assuming you play Bison/Vega mainly with it don't really need half/full circle inputs, there's still those Supers (although it would be fun to play only Ken while dressed up in a Dicator cosplay outfit, or even just play something like KoF) and. Then again I've only ever played on an analogue stick so I've no idea how much more easy/hard it is to do those moves.

[Epiren]

Right, well, I've been trying to get it done for GUTS 3 (which is this weekend) but frankly that looks to me like it's an impossible dream. So I stopped all work on it this week to prepare for the tournament.

I'll post what I did before (which is mainly learning coding) later today.

***************************s/2vpllaepas...imana.zip?dl=0

As for the tournament - I'll bring my Dakimakura-turned-warhammer stick into combat. (Pics later)

............

Edit:

Yeah, this project's hard. And, unfortunately, I lost my drive at this time.

Plus - work, training, games, other projects, and training to do my other projects are occupying most of my time. I'm putting this on hold for a while - though it will get done!!! (Probably without the cosplay though D: )