Vec-Cab: Adding analogue functionality to the Vec-Cab control panel (Part 3)

For those who have stuck with me from the beginning of this blog journey (and boy it's been many years!), you will be familiar with the control panel I've been building for the Vec-Cab project. The setup was originally using an unmodified Sanwa digital joystick.

Now I'm busy converting that digital joystick to an analogue joystick controller using ClockworkRobot's Hall board.

I previously mentioned that the board has plenty of holes in it to support fixing to various joystick configurations. Different joysticks have holes in different places, but through standardisations of Sanwa joystick clones, at least one set of pre-drilled holes should match the location of the joystick holes.

However, there's one specific problem in my use case scenario. That is although I can thread the bolts through the top surface plate of the joystick, it is not then possible to place the black perspex layer directly on top because, the bolt heads stand proud out of the top plate surface.

Therefore, I needed a joystick with holes underneath to which I can thread through the bolts.

The first thing was to remove the existing restrictor plate and the four micro leaf switches. The leaf micro switches don't have to come out but removing them avoids the clicking sound heard in such digital joysticks. The switches slide out by wiggling in an upward manner. As soon as any gap between the leaf switch and base appears, gently inserting a flat blade screwdriver and levering underneath helps with their removal.

Next, I wanted to add a new plate that would fit onto the remaining joystick mount. I got a spare plate from an old (non Sanwa) joy stick I had lying around. I drilled four new holes in the plate so that they would align with the mount holes previously used for securing the restrictor plate. I also placed and secured four bolts into the corner holes. These bolts will feed into four matching located and freshly drilled holes in the ClockworkRobot Hall board. The top nuts are used to ensure that the Hall sensor on the PCB is spaced not more than 4 mm distance from the magnet.

I cut off one of the plastic prongs protruding from the plate as when the Hall board was placed on top, the prong was interfering with the micro-controller on the Hall board.

I took the smallest of the two magnets supplied in the Hall board kit and attached to the bottom of the joystick shaft.

!!! WARNING !!! TAKE CARE WHEN HANDLING THE MAGNETS. DONT BRING THE TWO TOGETHER AS THEY ARE VERY STRONG AND COULD TRAP YOUR SKIN IN-BETWEEN!

For testing purposes and if you are gentle in your game play, just using magnet power to secure the magnet to the shaft is enough. However, to make a permanent mechanical connection you should dab some Araldite glue between the magnet and the shaft.

Drill four new holes into the Hall board. The holes must align with the location of the bolts located at each corner of the joystick plate. If you make the holes bigger than the M4 bolt diameter it gives you the ability to twist the Hall board if necessary to ensure the Hall sensor is well aligned with the centre of the magnet.

You can actually drill anywhere in the hashed area without fear of destroying any conducting layers (see my new holes made in the inside drawn square below).