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Raider Pro flight stick conversion tutorial

(how to convert a standard Happ joystick to a 2 button trigger stick)

Parts list (scroll down for a description of each one)

Interact - Raider Pro PC flight stick (they come in blue translucent and solid black)

Happ Controls 4 way or 8 way Competition Joystick.

Male/Female extention cable of some kind with at least three wires and connectors on each end (If you want to build one like mine that plug/unplugs from the control panel)

Option 1 (Swappable trigger stick) Solid metal shaft the same diameter as the shaft on the Happ Joystick

Option 2 (Dedicated trigger stick) Hollow metal shaft the same diameter as the shaft on the Happ Joystick  (this is so you can run the wires through the Happ Joystick and out he bottom of your panel so the wires cant be seen)

(2) 1" plastic spacers (optional) These will restrict the depth that the trigger stick can slide into the Happ Controls joystick shaft.The spacers also let the black plastic "slider ring" that comes with Happ Stick slide on top of your control panel easier. A depth restrictor/spacer ring also comes with the Happ Controls Competition Joystick, you can use that one to match up the diameter of the Happ Controls Joystick shaft with your new shaft.

Adhesive - Quick drying epoxy or plastic cement will do fine. You can use silicone adhesive but that stuff takes way to long to cure.

Interact - Raider Pro PC flight stick (about $10 US at Best Buy)

Interact makes a really nice PC flight stick with two buttons built into the handle. One on the back side (shown in picture) and a trigger on the other side. Perfect for Tron or any other game that needs a joystick and two fire buttons. I used a Raider Pro Blue stick for my cabinet because it was all they had at the local Best Buy store. I also got the blue stick so I can light it up inside in the future with some L.E.D.'s from Radio Shack.

Happ Controls Competition 4 way or 8 way joystick. (About $12 US from Happ, minimum order is $25)

This depends on your tastes. When playing Tron with an 8 way stick in the light cycle game, sometimes when you turn you get a zig-zig pattern thats hard to get out of quickly. If you are building a dedicated trigger stick, you should probably go with a 4 way. If you are building a "swappable" stick like mine, chances are you are using an 8 way joystick.

Male/Female extention cable of some kind with at least three wires/connectors on each end

I used a stereo headphone extension cable from Radio Shack (about $6 US for a twenty foot cord) If you are building a dedicated trigger you wont need this because the headphone cable is for a "swappable" trigger joystick. This allows you to plug the stick in quickly on the control panel so the trigger and second fire button can input commands to the keyboard encoder or joypack hack.

Not all keyboard hacks/encoders have a common input for all the buttons on the control panel. Sometimes you need two seperate wires from each button on the Raider Pro stick to go to the encoder/gamepad/keyboard hack. You will need some kind of cable with more than three connectors and three wires inside. You could use a PS/2 extender cable which has 6 wires and a male and female end. That would give you two extra wires to work with if you want to light up your stick with L.E.D.'s when you plug it in.

Metal shaft the same diameter as the shaft on the Happ Joystick about 5 inches long

Make sure you cut this down to length only AFTER your stick is finished and is slid in the Happ Controls Joystick shaft. Every control panel is a different thickness and you may cut off a lot or a little depending on how yours is set up. Wait until your stick feels right and the spacers are in place before you mark it and cut it down. The shaft, when your stick is finished and cut should only stick out the bottom of the Happ Stick about 1/8" just like the Happ does with the joystick inserted. The shaft you choose can be solid because you will be plugging your stick in on top of the control panel. You will need to find a shaft that is at least 5" long to start with. You can use steel stock from a home improvement store that is the same diameter, its cheap and easy to cut with a hack saw. Finding a hollow shaft the same diameter and at least 5" long may be tough, I'm not sure exactly where to get something like this, you may have to go around and look for this. You can get creative but do not use plastic as this thing will more than likely take a beating and will break sooner or later. I have seen hollow metal tubes at the local Home Depot you can use and they are cheap.

Plastic spacer rings

Well, this is where I lucked out again, I work at a car stereo installation shop and we have bins full of these laying around and the are exactly the same inner and outer diameter as the Happ Controls spacer/depth restrictor ring (see top of graphic at left) I slid them on the shaft up to the base of the trigger housing until I got the right depth I wanted. You will have to use your judgement on how much of the spacers you will need. My joysticks are mounted from the bottom of the 3/4" thick control panel, you may not want to put that much space on yours. That big ring on the bottom is fro hiding that hole you cut in your panel for the joystick shaft to go through. (look at the graphic below to see my spacers and where they are at on the trigger stick shaft)

Directions:

Once you have the parts, the first thing is to disassemble the Rader Pro stick. Flip it over and remove the four phillips screws that hold the bottom of the base on. Next remove the three phillips screws that hold the joystick portion together. Inside the base you will see a few small circuit boards and some clear and black plastic levers and cams for the analog sensors. Remove the screws that hold these in place. All we are interested in is the stick, the plastic shaft that comes out the bottom of the stick, the two switches inside the joystick and the four wires that come out of the stick.

The black plastic joystick shaft on the Raider Pro needs to be cut to insert the new shaft. You will see two oblong holes in the shaft, this is where the wires come out into the base. You will need to cut the solid portion off the bottom of the plastic shaft right up to the bottom of the oblong holes.

Now you will be able to slide your new solid or hollow shaft about a half an inch into the plastic joystick/trigger shaft, it should fit snugly in place. It turns out it is the same diameter as the Happ Controls joystick shaft. You will need to use a strong adhesive to glue your new shaft in place. I recommend epoxy or plastic cement. Plastic cement dries/cures in about fifteen minutes after the two tubes are mixed together. Once this has dried or cured you can move on to the next step.

There are four wires in two pairs that go to the switches, usually a brown and black wire going to one, and a red and black going to the other. You will see where they come out of the stick and go onto the circuit boards inside the base. Cut those in the base to make them as long as possible, this will let you remove the stick and the shaft completely seperate from the base.

I cut the male end of the headphone cable off about a foot long and used that for the wires that come out of the trigger stick. Since the I-PAC has a common input for every button on the panel I twisted the two black wires inside the trigger stick together and soldered them to one of the three conecctor wires on the male headphone extension cable. The two wires left get connected to each of the remaining wires left in the headphone cable. I drilled a hole where the two halves of the joystick portion come together about 3/4 inch from the bottom so now you have a stick that looks like this.

This is where you have to use your own judgement on spacers and the final length of the shaft that slides into the Happ Joystick shaft holder. You may have to come up with a way to keep the TriggerStick from rotating. I used a simple method of grinding down both the Happ joystick metal shaft and the new one that goes in the trigger joystick about an inch from the bottom into a half circle shape and gluing the cut piece into the Happ joystick shaft holder so they fit like a puzzle. I used a very thin hacksaw type blade and an air powered cutter.

Then I drilled a hole into the small piece I cut off all the way through and inserted a small spring with a ball bearing on the end that fits into the hole so the bearing only sticks out about half way (just like a socket is held in place on a socket wrench). I glued that permanently into the happ joystick shaft holder flush with the bottom where the normal joystick  sticks out.

Then I drlled a shallow hole on the trigger stick shaft in the same place so they match up exactly and the ball bearing pops into place. Its a lot of work and you may come up with a better way. I had cut the Happ joystick shaft the same way I did the trigger stick shaft, thats why I put the piece with the spring loaded bearing in the joystick itself and not on the shaft because I would have had to make two spring loaded pieces instead of just the one.

Once the shaft is cut to it's final length you can modify it so it doesnt rotate. This graphic shows the two pieces after the gray area has been cut away from the shaft. The gray area gets glued inside the Happ joystick shaft holder at the bottom.

The last thing to do is drill the hole in your control panel for the female end of the headphone jack/quick disconnect cable about an inch and a half directly in front of the hole on your panel that the joystick shaft goes through. What you should do is drill it from the bottom right up to the black rectangular base that holds the entire Happ joystick in place. That way you wont accidentally drill through your Happ joystick and ruin it.

You will need to drill a hole the same diameter of the headphone jack or whatever male/female cable you are using to disconnect the stick from the panel. Once the hole is drilled push the female end up from the bottom and glue/epoxy it in place and hook up the appropriate wires to your encoder or keyboard hack. Tie the main trigger wire into the same input as you are using for left Ctrl. Then hook up the wire for the button that is on the top front of the Raider Pro (the thumb button) to the input for Alt. Those are the same inputs for player 1 buttons 1 and 2.

Well, thats how I did it. You may have a better way to keep the trigger stick from rotating. Let me know if you have any improvements on this design. If there is something you dont understand please e-mail me ad I will try to answer it for you.