Battlezone joystick help

CossackWarrior

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I think I wired my right Battlezone joystick wrong, the joystick with the fire button. Its not firing. I cant seem to find any clear pictures of the joystick open and where the three wires go up on the micro switch, and at the other end, where each wire goes to the main harness.

If anyone could post clear pics, or a point me to an existing thread, I would much appreciate it.
 
Only two of the 3 wires that go up to the fire button are used. The third is a field ground, which attaches to the metal shaft, as a safety ground. I remove it, as it isn't really needed, as there are no high voltage wires to short to that small shaft anyway (and things would need to go very wrong in the cab for something to be miswired enough to cause that. If you F your cab up that badly, you deserve to be shocked.)

So you really just need to care about the two wires that go to the two tabs of the switch that are the common and normally open. (Basically just take your DMM and find the two tabs that connect to each other wen you press the switch.)

The wires run out of the stick, and into the yellow and black (ground) wires on the CP harness. Sorry I don't know which pins they are, but see the schematics if needed. But the order of the wires here, and up on to the switch don't matter, as they all just form one big loop, so any way you put them on the right tabs will work.

Note those wires are small, and they run up through the shaft, however the Allen bolts that hold the plastic grip handles to the shaft also go through the center of the shaft, so it's possible to clip the wires with the bolts when tightening the bolts down, if you're not careful. Maybe that's what happened. Pull it apart and check to make sure the wires are intact.
 
Only two of the 3 wires that go up to the fire button are used. The third is a field ground, which attaches to the metal shaft, as a safety ground. I remove it, as it isn't really needed, as there are no high voltage wires to short to that small shaft anyway (and things would need to go very wrong in the cab for something to be miswired enough to cause that. If you F your cab up that badly, you deserve to be shocked.)

So you really just need to care about the two wires that go to the two tabs of the switch that are the common and normally open. (Basically just take your DMM and find the two tabs that connect to each other wen you press the switch.)

The wires run out of the stick, and into the yellow and black (ground) wires on the CP harness. Sorry I don't know which pins they are, but see the schematics if needed. But the order of the wires here, and up on to the switch don't matter, as they all just form one big loop, so any way you put them on the right tabs will work.

Note those wires are small, and they run up through the shaft, however the Allen bolts that hold the plastic grip handles to the shaft also go through the center of the shaft, so it's possible to clip the wires with the bolts when tightening the bolts down, if you're not careful. Maybe that's what happened. Pull it apart and check to make sure the wires are intact.

Thanks Andrew. Very helpful, but I would still want to see some pics JUST to make sure and confirm if possible. Also, as you mentioned three wires with the protective tubing around it BARELY fits in there....
 
Thanks Andrew. Very helpful, but I would still want to see some pics JUST to make sure and confirm if possible. Also, as you mentioned three wires with the protective tubing around it BARELY fits in there....


You aren't unlikely to get any, as nobody's going to disassemble their stick to get pics. (Ain't nobody got time for that.) It's pretty straightforward though, and you aren't going to damage anything if you hook things up wrong. It just won't work.

I removed the tubing from the inside of the shaft in mine. I modded my fire button to have an LED in it (as it always bugged me that it didn't light up), so I ran an extra two wires up through the shaft. I got rid of the field ground wire and the plastic sheath, and replaced all of the wires with quality fine silicone wiring, which allowed all of the wires to fit. I just had to be careful when inserting the bolts, to work them around the wires. Came out great though.
 
You aren't unlikely to get any, as nobody's going to disassemble their stick to get pics. (Ain't nobody got time for that.) It's pretty straightforward though, and you aren't going to damage anything if you hook things up wrong. It just won't work.

I removed the tubing from the inside of the shaft in mine. I modded my fire button to have an LED in it (as it always bugged me that it didn't light up), so I ran an extra two wires up through the shaft. I got rid of the field ground wire and the plastic sheath, and replaced all of the wires with quality fine silicone wiring, which allowed all of the wires to fit. I just had to be careful when inserting the bolts, to work them around the wires. Came out great though.

As for the pics, I was hoping to get lucky and someone having one open already.....or find some pics on the net that I couldnt seem to.....

Thats awesome. You changed the cherry switch to a lit one. I have a few spare lying around. Where did you hook up the two wires to, to get power. I would like to do this same thing.

Are you not worried that with vigorous play, the wires without the protective sheath will eventually get teared into? I was thinking about not putting the sheath, but then as you test the joystick and with the wires hanging out, as you move it, the wires move in and out too. Over time, that worries me a bit.
 
I actually didn't replace the Cherry switch. I put an LED in it.

I got a 3mm red LED from GPE (P/N HLMP1700). I soldered the fine silicone wires to it, but I left the leads on it, which I heat shrinked. Keeping the leads on allowed me to bend and form it, so I could get it up into the button, similar to the normal-sized LED Cherrys. (The fire button Cherry is basically a shrunken version, with no LED.) I think I zip tied the LED wires to one of the other wires for the switch, to hold the LED up inside the button.

The silicone wire I use is pretty good stuff. Doesn't melt, and tough enough to be abrasion-resistant, but it's a dream to strip and work with, and it's super supple. I have all different gauges of it, which I've ordered from different places on ebay (all Chinese).

Not all sellers have the really good stuff, so I'll order a test batch, and if it's good, I order a larger bunch from that same seller, as I use it for everything. I think I used 28 or 30AWG in this case. The wire is thin and super flexible, but the core is made up of super-fine strands, and a lot of them. (The cheaper stuff is mostly insulation, with very few core strands).

The wires are fine enough, and they're not stuffed into the shaft, that there isn't much friction in there to cause issues, aside from getting the bolts through, which you just need to be careful with. (And it's my home use cab, so it's not getting a ton of play.) The way I routed the wires out of the bottom, they don't rub there either, again, not that I'm worried about abrasion.

Power was the trickier part. I didn't want to run a separate dedicated power wire all the way back to the AR, so I ended up using one of the lines for the unused center coin mech/slot on the coin door. I think it's 12V, I forget. There are a bunch of unused wires already with spade connectors on them, bunched together for the center coin slot. I just grabbed my meter and found one that was power.

The trickiest part (which I spent way too much time on) was figuring out the right resistor value to get the brightness right. You have to use a bigger one, as I was pulling from a 12V supply, instead of 5V, and it's a brighter LED than the ones from 30 years ago. I did the calculations, but it still ended up being too bright. I tried a bunch of different values, as I wanted to match the brightness to the start button. In the end, I said screw it, and threw a pot in there, so I could adjust the brightness (which is the one thing I'd recommend, if you're going to try it.)

It was a stupid project that took way more time than it should have, but I get a kick out of seeing that stupid little button lit up every time I play it. Lol.
 
I've disassembled mine to clean them up and put in new bushings. If you don't get any until this weekend, I'll open mine up for you. I want to try and soften up wiz's rubber thingy anyway. Or just remove them altogether. Also, think about a second button on the right controller. Seriously what's up with that. :D
 
I believe if you look closely enough the switch has "NO" (normally open), "COM" (common), and "NC" (normally closed) embossed on the black plastic of its body. You want to use the first two.
 
Hey Sasha, I believe it doesn't matter which wire goes to which prong, they are just completing a connection. (99%) I think. If your not getting it to fire it may be the button itself. When I did my two, I replaced all the wiring for the handles with new stuff. Also really check every inch going to the main harness as they were always prone to breakage. Also the correct cherry switch for those handles should be the ones that only have two prongs. Some operators would put the other cherry switches in that illuminate and thus have more prongs so if that's what you have then they may simply be hooked up wrong. If you post a pic I can tell you if they are correct. Also FYI both my buttons were not working when I got my Battlezones so not too uncommon for that issue.
 

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