First joystick mod

[Redghost357]

I decided to swap this horrifying 8 way joystick out of my usb fightstick and went with a Zippy stick since their affordable and you can play a 4-way to make Donkey Kong feel like the real deal.

Got mine from paradise arcade shop but didn’t realize till the last minute it didn’t come with a ball top so now I have to make a second order. Also disappointed when I opened the packaging one of the prongs on one of the micro switches was bent at a very deep angle(as I show in the photo) but later I bent it backwards. Just hope nothing is damaged.

This is my first experience with disconnecting a previously installed joystick so I squeezed each quick disconnect with needle nose pliars until they came off, noticed I had to use a lot of force as they didn’t come off that easily. Do notice now that I kind of damaged them but then again wasn’t sure how else to remove em.

Also I should’ve labeled which wires were ground and which ones were normal wires for each microswitch as I tried to my best ability to connect each pair of white wires to each microswitch. It’s hard to tell since they are all the same color(white). I noticed when swapping the ground wires with the normal wires in the wrong prongs of random microswitches the joystick directions still functioned on Emulation Station on my Retropie, so seems like it doesn’t matter supposedly after all which wires go where. Just hope nothing dangerous will happen.

I provide photos in case anyone has suggestions, I’m still new to all this.

[danman123456]

The ground is just that a ground. Its not specific to the joystick direction itself AFAIK so it shouldnt hurt anything but try and hook them up the way they came off just to be certain.

"X-Arcadeâ„¢ BYO Kit Advanced Installation Diagram
NOTE: The ground wires are all ground, so you can use any ground with any input as needed."

[YesAffinity]

Looks good!  Correct, grounds are all connected, so it makes no difference which ground connects to which switch.  Heck you could solder a wire to any grounded point on the PCB, and run it to the microswitch if you needed to.  It would achieve the same result.  It also doesn't matter whether you connect ground and signal on the top terminal or the bottom.  The switch simply closes the circuit/makes the connection momentarily between the two (when in 'normal open').

[Redghost357]

Looks good!  Correct, grounds are all connected, so it makes no difference which ground connects to which switch.  Heck you could solder a wire to any grounded point on the PCB, and run it to the microswitch if you needed to.  It would achieve the same result.  It also doesn't matter whether you connect ground and signal on the top terminal or the bottom.  The switch simply closes the circuit/makes the connection momentarily between the two (when in 'normal open').

I think 2 of the microswitches have the ground wire in the signal prong(bottom?) while the signal wire is in the ground prong(top?). I’m glad your telling me it doesn’t matter which wire goes into which terminal cause I wasn’t too sure, I’m still trying to figure out the basics of how wiring goes.

[YesAffinity]

If I can make a suggestion for your learning, start with the basics of electricity.  It is the foundation of all electronics, and is a practical thing to be knowledgeable in.