DIY Arcade Controller for RetroPie
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- Update: Please read the full description before asking questions!
Recently I built a RetroPie PC with the case and keyboard of an old Comodore VIC20 and an Intel D945GSEJT Mini-ITX board. To enjoy playing old Arcade games an adequate controller is required.
So I start building my own and made a time-lapse video of the build.
I used Bamboo for the top panel and laminated Ash for the side pieces, both 19 mm thick. The bottom panel is made from 5mm thick MDF. For the finish I used boiled linseed oil.
The dimensions for the top are 20 cm x 35 cm. I made the panel wide enough that the controller could rest comfortably on my legs while playing. I picked the height for the 4 side pieces so that I could cut hem without too much waste out of the 20 cm wide panel., approximately 4.5 cm. The rabbet in for the side pieces is 5 mm deep and as wide as the side panels(19mm).
The template for the button arrangement came from www.slagcoin.co.... I picked the one that seemed to work best for my hands.
The actual hole size after printing the template does not matter as long as the buttons are not overlapping. Pick the drill for the holes according to your button diameter! In my case it's 30 mm.
The Joystick kit from XCSOURCE was bought on amazon:
www.amazon.de/...
Music: FUNKY SUSPENSE from Bensound
www.bensound.co... - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
Thats pretty awesome man. beautiful setup
9:25 Nice Mario cosplay
That's a good one. I did not realize this.
lol
hahahaha sik controller stil but yeh :P
That is a work of art. Wish i were this talented.
Thanks, I think you can do this, too!
In the end it's just a box. However, you need to start with simple joints.
Two years ago I had no table saw. I had my lumber cut at the hardware store and I was using simple butt joints.
The rest improved over time.
Ya'no you could be trained!
A Comodore Keyboard, retropie, DIY arcade controller, for playing MAME games? This has got to be a head-turner, I'm bloody impressed. Really enjoyed watching you build this by the way.
It's not just a Comodore Keyboard: th-cam.com/video/UXfvnA1DjIY/w-d-xo.html
FantaSTICK!
The one thing that I wish I would see people doing is making it easy to open up and service without the need of a screwdriver.
This is called, 100% professional.
All I can say is "WOW!" Now take my money!
Excellent video.
Do you have a video about your bench saw?
GJ...
Belo acabamento, trocando as peças do controle essa caixa aí dura umas 10 gerações ou mais!
Very cool.
thanks!
Jaja gran trabajo pero para el jueguito pacman no corre ps
caramba esse e o mais legal que eu vi top.
Very Cool Bro !! like !!
Love watching these types of videos as I can learn a lot as a beginner in woodworking. However! The best part was seeing you use a Commodore computer in the end! I'd love to learn how you did that? I'm guessing somehow you modified it so you can use that as your Pi's case and keyboard?
It's actually a PC inside of the Commodore shell. I used a Arduino Pro Micro to convert the keyboard to USB. Unfortunately I captured only part of the conversion. th-cam.com/video/UXfvnA1DjIY/w-d-xo.html
LoL. I just wanted to say exactly the same thing! ツ
I like your carpet mate. My carpet is actually pretty old, I need to replace it.
imagine buying all that equipment jsut for a a custom wooden cased arcade controller
If you are just looking for a custom wooden controller box, you should ask a carpenter to build one. That will be cheaper than buying all the tools for a one time build.
Can I buy like that one for fighting games from you? Please reply. Thank you.
Sorry, I'm not selling the things that I make in my workshop. I just want to share my ideas.
i got earrape from that music AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! >:( only because that stupid "BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!!!!" >:(!!!!
Did you route out a place for the joystick? Or does it just stick up through the 19mm top piece?
I did not route out the joystick. It's just screwed in from the bottom of the panel using 10 mm long screws.
Wow perfct
what is the total height for this controller, with top and bottom panel?
The height is about 56 mm for the wooden case. the joystick adds an extra 50 mm in height.
I don't have the tools to do it, can you share a plan so I send it to order?
Sorry Matias, I don't have plans. I picked the dimensions while I was building the controller box. Please check the description, as it contains the dimensions. You should adapt the dimensions to what fell best for your.
Most of the time I'm using it now resting on legs while sitting in an armchair.
I wish the box would be a little wider making it more comfortable on my legs.
Good job! but, why always the worst game choices to test?
This game is the reason why I built the Arcade stick. As I mentioned in the description I needed two independent fire buttons to play Scramble. When I made the video I did not expect that most of the viewers will be playing fight games.
Very nice
Really cool, but I thought you put the Rasberry Pie into the stick, too. That would have been great!
I converted it into a wireless controller with minimal delay using Arduino, That's even cooler than dealing with all the cables dangling from a Raspberry Pi.
@@Wurmtal868 I mean that's true, you can know easily play from whatever place you want to. But you have to setup your console or Retropie with all the cables somewhere else.
Does anyone know where to buy a wireless control board. I hate that
these arcade pads are all wired. I know you can hack a wireless
keyboard, but really who wants to deal with that headache
I'm not aware of a wireless solution which is commercial available. I made my controller wireless using an Arduino Pro-Mini+NRF24 as transmitter and a Pro-Micro+NRF24 as the receiver. Unfortunately I have not found the time to make video about the modification.
@@Wurmtal868 That an interesting solution I will look into that. I am sure if someone can make a pcb board that is wireless for arcade joypad would make a ton of money.
Seems like a lot of work for an average fight stick. But cool that you have the skills to do that...
do you have a tutorial for the box jig program?
Sorry, I don't have tutorials on the box joint jig. Are you interested in building the jig or just the programming of the controller?
I plan on doing something similar to this. Although I don't have the most complex power tools. I was thinking of using MDF as I have experience working with it. So my plan on the box would use wooden supports with MDF screwed and glued to each point.
Then I would figure out a system to allow for me to put in my own custom artwork. (Most likely a smaller MDF board with a card stock image with holes in it, under a acrylic panel.)
Any tips or pointers?
P.S.
It is a pad hack.
are buttons just tightened by wood or you had to glue them as well? Also i didnt see if you glued or screwed down pcb for buttons on the back?
The buttons have spring clamps that hold them in place. Check this picture of a similiar button on adafruit: cdn-shop.adafruit.com/1200x900/473-00.jpg
@@Wurmtal868 about that...I've just bought the same buttons, with the same layout. How did you manage to make it click? Especially because I see you were using a vertical drill, how did you measure about when to stop drilling so it would click perfectly?
Wow! I am amazed. It is an excelente job! Thanks for share and show us. Greeting pal!
You're welcome!
anywhere I can buy that box you made lol?
I can tell you, where I bought the raw material:
www.bauhaus.info/leimholzplatten/exclusivholz-leimholzplatte/p/20509596
www.bauhaus.info/leimholzplatten/exclusivholz-leimholzplatte/p/20708603
11:39 space impact?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_(video_game)
I remember that game. What is it called?
The game is Scramble
This song gave and a headache..... muted it after 2mins.
Bruce Wayne: "Does it come in black?"
Lol what the fuck game was that. Did you only have one working button?
The game is called scramble. It's an old Arcade game from the 1980. It needs two buttons, one for the laser and one for the bombs and of course the stick to control the position of the spaceship.
+Wurmtal 868 nice! Box looks professional
wtf are u doing dude I thought he was building a house but final is ok
I kept expecting the crew from Ocean's 11 to show up. =)
I swear that music sounds like it's from those movies, haha.
Excellent video though!
Thanks, I just realized that I missed that movie. Similarities in the soundtrack are not intentional.
BTW: Great videos from Colin Hay playing live! :-)
They are not making ammunition boxes as tough as this.
Me:Jawbone I'd like to introduce you to one of my close personal associates, Jaw this is my good friend floor! Mr. Floor: "Hey how's it hanging Jaw?"
did you print the button layout from slag coin and if so what was the print size , Im making up a stick now having not yet received my sanwa 30mm buttons, the print i used was 100pixel and when i measure it with a ruler the dia of a button is around 30mm but i stil lhave not drilled the holes, also waht guage of wire should i use , thanks in advance for any additional info you may share , and great job on this set up , looks cool
Thanks! I printed the layout linked in the description on A4 paper.The actual size of the printed hole does not matter, if you use a drill bit with the correct diameter. You should check that the distance of the buttons feels comfortable for you hand and adjust the scaling of the print out if necessary. I got the buttons in set that had the wiring harness included. However, Since the buttons are only switching logic levels the wire gauge is not important. Just use what you can get easily.
Why is there a hole on the bottom?
The joystick is a bit too long and would interfere with the bottom panel.
Wood working porn! I am not really into making my own stuff, but i was fascinated with the techniques used like Forstner Bits etc. Your router has back lighting! that gets +500 133t points alone.
Thanks! I always considered the LEDs on my router as toys. I never thought that my videos are more interesting because of these lights. Good that I picked acrylic glass as a base plate in my router table.
Okay, read the description. My question is this: What was the game you played at the end? I used to play it as a kid at the bowling alley, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it.
The Game is called "Scramble". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_(video_game)
This is the most professionally made joystick setup I've seen on here. I'm going to make one myself but all I have is a scrollsaw and sanding tools. It won't be this nice...perfectly straight cuts with a scroll saw are near impossible but I'm pretty skilled with one, we'll see how it turns out.
Just make your cuts slightly away from the lines, and sand it down to the finished dimensions.
did you get the button set off of AliExpress? because I saw an identical set to what you have on there and I was wondering how it was working out for you. By the way the arcade stick looks really good the wood finish is very nice!
Thanks, Stephen! I bought the complete kit from a Chinese re-seller on amazon.de. (Link is in the description.) It's very likely that the same re-seller trades on AliExpress as well. The finish is very easy to achieve because the bamboo panels already have a smooth surface, just some light sanding by hand with 180 grid paper and a coat of linseed oil is all that you need. The ash needed some more sanding to get rid of the wood glue on the box-joints.
The same track...
... for 12 minutes straight?
Don't ever do that
This track is a LOT better than most of the EDM shit that people add to their videos.
Must be nice to have access to those kind of tools.
Can you help me with the measurements of the tables that you used on your stick to create mine so anyway? Please friend, I would appreciate it
Please check the other comments! I have not used any plans while building the the controller and I will not provide detailed plans. I have mentioned most of the measurements in my other comments already. If something is missing please let me know and I will help!
was für ein programm muss man da herunterladen um es am pc zu benutzen, denn wenn ich es einstecke sehe ich es zwar als controller abr ich kann es nicht benutzen
do u sell these joy sticks?what system does it works for?
i have play station 4 & nintendo switch nintendo wii
Sorry, I have no plans selling my work, I only share my ideas in this video.
I don't have any of consoles listed above, so I can't tell if the this joystick set will work in your case.
nice build! was there any programming needed for the controller to work with the raspberry pi?
Thanks! I haven't tried it on a RaspberryPi, yet. I use the PC version of RetroPie. The only thing I had to do is the configuration of the buttons in RetroPie.
good to know, thank you!
Wurmtal 868 are you able to play 2 players on one set of controls, I built one and am trying to figure it out in Retropie
Great work. I need a saw table and most of the equipment you have. I used just a jigsaw, circular saw, drill, sander and compact router. Most of my wood is salvaged cedar or oak. No particle board.
You can do all this with only manual tools bro. If you do it often you'll also get some beefy arms :p
you should mill some wooden buttons and a wooden ball for the top of the joystick..
Great idea!
However, I don't have a lathe and a few buttons and a joystick ball are not enough to justify a lathe for my small workshop. I'm running out of space and I don't know where to put when I'm not using it.
this is what professional woodworking looks like
How did you make that jig? I have built a few from other videos but yours has got to be the best I have seen
Thanks a lot!
I guess you are referring to my box joint jig. I watched a lot of videos about these jigs on TH-cam but none of them seems to fit to my saw. So I picked up the ideas of different jigs and started building my own. The first version was hand cranked th-cam.com/video/UXfvnA1DjIY/w-d-xo.htmlm13s The wobble of my saw is so bad that I could not find a combination of full turns on the threaded rod that lead to equally spaced fingers. Since I did not want to count fractions of turns, I added a micro controller that is counting the teeth of a gear, and a DC-motor to drive the rod. This solution does not accumulate errors or lose steps.
The construction is very simple because it was only planed as a proof of concept. It's working a lot better than I expected.
I have seen a lot of these homemade arcade joysticks and yours is one of the nicest looking ones on TH-cam
Thanks a lot!
Wurmtal 868 just giving credit when it's due
Awesome build! Can you tell me the name of the material you used for the bottom cover?
Thanks a lot! The bottom cover is made of a 5 mm thick MDF panel.
What an amazing video and inspires me to have a go myself. Thanx for sharing.
I love you keyboard! is that just a keyboard or did you mod it to be a raspberry pi pc?
It's a PC inside of the VIC20 case. Some details of the build are shown in my trailer: th-cam.com/video/UXfvnA1DjIY/w-d-xo.html. Unfortunately I messed up most of the build videos
Play Street Fighter IV To See How It Feels... I'm Not Forcing You To Do It. And BTW Great Job! 👍👍👍 10 Out Of 10!
Thanks for the commendation, Tiffany!
Unfortunately I don't have Street Fighter IV.
Regards :o)
Wurmtal 868 That's Fine... Thanks For The Comments... Maybe Street Fighter V (5)
After you finish mapping all of your buttons, do you just plug the USB into Retropie without any further configuration? Please answer. I'm planning to do a build very soon. All the button stuff just looks so complicated.
For RetroPie it does not matter how you plug the button into the USB board. as long you don't mix up the joystick
with the buttons. RetroPie will ask you to configure a joystick when you start it for the first time. You can always change the configuration later on if your not happy with the button assignment. There are many tutorials on how to do this here on TH-cam
Wurmtal 868 Ok. Thanks for the tips m8!
Where did you downloaded that MAME collection?
It's been a while since I build this project.
Back then I had to compile RetroPie for X86 from the sources. Now you can get Debian packages: emulationstation.org/gettingstarted.html
For the ROMs you have do search on GOOGLE.
Joystick height, and buttons that supposed to "grab" a thinner top plate is comprimised by the thick top wood... if this sort of thing bothers anyone.
For the buttons I don't get your point.
They are back drilled and have a pretty snug fit. Even without back drilling they would not not move.
However, I agree, the joystick is shorter because of the 3/4 " inch Bamboo.
You could rout a recess that makes the Bamboo only 1/4" thick in the area of the stick, if you prefer a longer stick.
In that case you need through hole screws to mount the base plate of the stick which I did not want.
The buttons are made for a thin metal plate, no more than a couple mm, like a Japanese arcade faceplate, like a Blast City, or Astro City. There are proper buttons made for thicker material, with screw down plastic nuts.
Also, to recover at least some height of the stick, remove the metal plate. There should be holes in the black plastic that holds the switch pcb assembly and you can use those as mounting. holes.
Just a little nitpicking. Whatever works I guess.
Otherwise, your craftsmanship for the base is extraordinary. You even notched the ends of the wood.
Where do you order your PCP boards?
How well do the buttons stay in? I'm planning a similar build, and debating between the push in buttons or the ones with the threaded shaft/body with the nut at the back. I figured the push in ones, without an acrylic top for the clips to catch on, would eventually wear the wood down enough that they'd start coming lose.
It all depends of on the fit of button to the hole. In my case there is a tight fit. There is no movement of the buttons when you pushed them, so I expect to see no wear caused by the clips.
My advice would be to make the quality of the buttons your priority.
Microswitch buttons of the type used in the vid are okay-ish, but you really want to go with a leaf type switch like the Ultimarc Gold Leaf buttons for a true old school arcade feel
Amazing work dude!
Subscribed. :-)
Nice work. You look like you know what you're doing.
Thanks you're right.
Most of the time I work without plan. I just have idea what I want to build and the details fall into place as I'm doing it. However, sometimes the details run out of control but luckily there is video editing to make it still look nice.
E.g. I was in trouble with my cheap 30 mm Forstner bit on the bamboo panel until I had the idea of back drilling with a bigger and better bit.
Voll gut, gratuliere. Der Commodore dient quasi als Gehäuse und Tastatur? Mir ist nur unklar, wieso es RetroPie heißt wenn kein Raspberry benutzt wird bzw. falls ein Raspberry Pi im Gehäuse steckt, wozu dann das Mini-ITX Board dient. Naja... egal.
Danke für das Lob. In dem VC20 steckt tatsächlich ein PC drin, auf dem RetroPie als Software läuft: retropie.org.uk/download/#Debian_Ubuntu_on_a_PC
Die Comodore Tastatur wird mit Hilfe eines Arduino Leonardo Clones auf USB umgesetzt.
I wished i would be capable of doing something like this myself xD
serious question how did you configure your controller in retropie i don't seem to be able to skip over buttons with my controller or be able to really set it up at all.
If I remember correctly you need to hold any button if you want to skip a specific button definition. It's shown only at the beginning of the configuration menu.
Wurmtal 868 thanks for the speedy response i ended up getting mine working thank you
В ДВП нарезать резьбу - это сильно!
Hi! I really enjoyed this video, can you pass me the measurements for a 2 player control?
Sorry, I don't have plans for the controller. As I mention in the description, I used a template from www.slagcoin.com and adjusted the dimensions to the material I had a available at the time.
What size holes did you drill to fit the buttons?
The holes for the big buttons on top are 30 mm in diameter. The small ones on the side are 24 mm. I only had cheap dull 30 mm Forstner bit when I drilled the holes in the bamboo panel. So I drilled only through the top ply of the bamboo with 30 mm and then back drilled the holes with a 35 mm bit. The top ply is strong enough to clamp the buttons in place. All these dimensions are for the button set I used. You may have to adjust the sizes when you get different buttons.
That's a great looking stick but why spend so much time making a work of art case and fill it with cheep cheap parts. A sanwa JLF and a set of buttons costs atou f $50 and is arcade perfect
As you may have noticed from my other comments I'm more into wood working than playing games. The joystick in my "cheap" kit is a decent quality Sanwa JLF clone. The whole set including shipping cost me less than a Sanwa JLF alone. Admitted the buttons are not the best but I can always exchange them for better ones if needed and still be cheaper than a Sanwa branded kit.
Wurmtal 868 sanwa isn't that much like I said $50 and you have yourself everything you need. You could also go with used parts from Hori for even less. I'm just saying man you did a great job on that box. Sticking some arcade perfect parts in it would make it truly special
David Garcia Not true. They have twin sanwa sets on wish.com for under $30 bucks. comes with 2 joysticks & 10 buttons each. You can make 2 joysticks under $100 bucks.
What is the size of the box? I want to make an arcade controller but I need some reference point to start from. :) Kind regards!
I started with a Bamboo panel which was 20 cm wide. My drill press has a maximum capacity of 10 cm and I wanted the joystick to be in the center. The length is approximately 32 cm so I could rest the controller comfortably on my lap while i'm playing. I picked the height for the 4 side pieces so that I could cut hem without too much waste out of the 20 cm wide Ash panel.
Thanks, man! This helped me a lot!
You are welcome!
Hi. Great job! What's the dimensions of the top wood piece? Thanks. I want to try out pine or cherry
Thanks for the feedback! The dimensions for the top are 20 cm x 35 cm. I made the panel wide enough that the controller could rest comfortably on my legs while playing. Pine and cherry will be an interesting combination. Please share a picture when it's finished! Regards Thomas
thats a clean beat, where's it from?
Link to the music is in the description.
I want that
where did you get the feet for the case?
I bought the feet from ALDI, similar to these: www.amazon.com/Bluesky-50pcs-Table-Chair-Protectors/dp/B01J5F93QC. I removed the nail and fastened them with a M3 machine screw.
Wow nice job.
If you needed to access the internals, how would you open it?
I remove the 6 screws on the bottom and the bottom panel.
Measure twice, cut once. lol
Better than cut two times and it's still too short ;-)
Очень красиво! Уважаю людей которые умеют что-то делать своими руками!
Спасибо!
(I hope Google-Translate got this right ;-)
Thanks!
Hi silly question when you print the layout in the printer, what setting is it on? Paper size is set to letter??
I used A4 paper with a 100% scaling. The exact size of the holes does not matter as long as you feel comfortable with the positions of the buttons relative to your fingers. I used the template only to determine the center of the holes.
Wurmtal 868 im just worried about spacing. I printed the layout i wanted in both A4 n Letter mode and the spacing is different.
Are you using "Fit to page" or " Reduce to printer margins" or similar in the print dialog? When you set the scaling to "none" and zoom to 100% you should get the same print out independent of the paper size. The print out maybe cropped depending on you printer and paper. In the next step you can adjust the zoom factor until the distances fit your hand.
Omfg I love how old that computer is
These were the good old days of personal computing. I learned BASIC and assembler on the VIC20. An interesting detail on the modified machine: The Leonardo clone that I'm using to convert the keyboard to USB has probably more than 10 times the performance of the 6502 inside of the VIC20
may i ask the dimensions of the top panel and the second layer to it?
I updated the description with the dimensions. The bamboo panel has 3 layers. The center layer is rotated 90 degree to top and bottom preventing warpage. I routed the rabbet for the side pieces so that bottom layer is gone and the side pieces are resting on the center layer. The thickness of the bottom layer is approximately 5 mm. The width depends on the thickness of the side pieces. Please let know if this answers your question!
thanks man i really appreciate it
nice job also nice keyboard
Thanks! The keyboard was a bit tricky. The VIC20 has only 2 cursor keys and some other keys are missing. I wanted it to be a full replacement for a PC keyboard so I had to program some key combinations for cursor and function keys.
very good
Your attention to detail is very educational! Great work there.
I love the soundtrack, best woodworking music I've ever heard. Can I get the track name or artist?
Thanks!
Link to the music is at the end of the description.
@@Wurmtal868 I enjoyed the bwop bwop stuff, but that high pitched repeating noise forced me to basically mute the video. Felt like an alarm was going off in my brain. Or like someone's car alarm late at night that's been going off 15 freaking minutes and you want to grab a baseball bat and turn it off manually.
damn isnt there any easy way to make enclosure? i dont have these things to make the arcade stick enclosure
You need at least a drill. If you don't have the all tools for the box you could use a tea box, like this guy did: www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R32Q5T1Q7DMTM6/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B000MM79X2
First up - the video is great and absolutely love the end product!
One comment though, in all of these 'DIY controller' videos, 85% of the time is spent making what is basically a wooden box. Which is wonderful woodwork of course, you're clearly very very good at it...but it's not so important if you have a decent source of suitable wooden boxes.
Near where I live there's a place that sells very basic wooden boxes for 2-10 euros each, of many sizes, all of which make great enclosures for products like this. They even have latches on the side allowing for easy access to the internals when needed.
So yeah, Arpan, like you I don't have all the tools for the wood work, but I have a drill, and I've been able to make some really nice wooden enclosures without spending hours and hours cutting up the sides of a wooden box.
You do need to work with what sizes are available, but with a bit of flexibility and cheap spray paint, you can create something very respectable.
Just wanted to say that for those of us who aren't woodwork geniuses, there is still hope :)
(Update: exactly like in the link Wurmtal has posted as a reply) - it's not going to be quite as good as his, but you can still make something really nice by working with cheap wooden boxes from a 'bazaar' style store.
thanks for all the comments and suggestions are appreciated :)
awesome work indeed! By the way, I love your classic pc more. :D. where did you get that pc?
Thanks! :-) I built myself.
I programmed an Arduino to interface the CBM keyboard to USB and mounted an Intel-Atom Mini-ITX board inside of a dead VIC20 computer. Some snippets of the built are in my trailer video. th-cam.com/video/UXfvnA1DjIY/w-d-xo.html
wow. You can make whatever you want. Two thumbs up!!!!
Does this diy kit works as legacy controller or it is specific to mame?
It works as a legacy controller on the PS4 for games that support legacy controller and works with emulators running on PC and also compatible with PS3.
shrewdsharpshooter
Thanks
@@zeeshanzaffar1435 You're welcome.
GG.
Nice work man!!
Beautiful piece of art. Congrats! :)
Thanks a lot!
I want one!