Reproduction 720 Degrees & Hall Effect Lower Housing

Daviea

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Reproduction 720 Degrees & Hall Effect Lower Housing

Well, I've finally gotten around to getting my teeth into the lower housing component used in the 720 Degrees and Hall Effect controllers.

This is what I started with:

DSC05757.JPG


Yeah, a filthy OEM part, but it was in one piece and not TOO worn. I've definitely seen worse..... much worse.

So I drew it up in Solidworks and made some minor changes to beef up the rigidity and compensate for the new material/process I intend to use:

lowerhousingside01.jpg


This is the underside of the new version of the lower housing. Note that the "pockets" are totally different. The original part was injection molded nylon. Injection molding requires that wall thicknesses be limited, which is why the thin walls are all throughout injected parts.

lowerhousingside02.jpg


This is the top side of the new version. Essentially, this looks pretty much identical to the original from this perspective.


Somewhere along my testing, I decided that cast urethane was the way to go. Urethane compared to Nylon is an amazing material. It's wear properties tend to be pretty extreme. Plus, it's cost-effective for relatively low production numbers. There's no way I'm going to be making 100,000 of these things, so an injection mold really doesn't make much sense. However, if I had found that injection molded nylon was the BEST way to go, I would have dropped the money on the molds.

Anyhow, here is my very first cast urethane lower housing fresh from prototyping this morning. It has not received it's program of machining for the fine details yet, but here you can see what it looks like right now. The first 720 lower housing made in 20+ years!!! Pretty cool. Check it out:

DSC05758.JPG


Once I apply the machining to this part and test it out, I'll green light the full production run. Next on my list: upper housing.

Hope you guys enjoy the pics.

Dave
 
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Wow. Looks really good. Can't wait to see future updates on this.

BTW, Dave if you want a NOS 720 upper housing to go by PM me.
 
I was just wondering... is there really any interest in having me post this kind of update? I never know exactly what might (or might not) be interesting to the general public on the forums. I see this kind of work all day long, so it's all the same to me for the most part. I know that many of the forum participants may not see this kind of stuff which is why I'm trying to share a little bit. If it's not of any interest, let me know and I'll try to focus on other things here like my free giveaways! LOL

Dave
 
I thought it was cool Dave, Kinda like a mini "how its made" I have no sweet clue on how a hall joystick works as i have never played the 720 arcade before.
 
I was just wondering... is there really any interest in having me post this kind of update? I never know exactly what might (or might not) be interesting to the general public on the forums. I see this kind of work all day long, so it's all the same to me for the most part. I know that many of the forum participants may not see this kind of stuff which is why I'm trying to share a little bit. If it's not of any interest, let me know and I'll try to focus on other things here like my free giveaways! LOL

Dave

I dig this sort of thing, even if it's for a part that I'm not personally dealing with... always nice to see the behind the scenes view of how something is made. Keep doing 'em!
 
Looks great! Upper and lower housing reproductions for the 720 stick are too good to believe, can't wait to see the finished products. Definitely keep the updates coming.
 
Ok, good. I was starting to get worried that this information wasn't of any interest to anyone aside from myself. LOL

The lower housing was pretty much a slam-dunk as soon as I was able to put a little bit of my attention into it. The upper housing in my next target. I've already drawn it up.

This is what I am starting with:
DSC05759.JPG

Obviously, it's a dirty, used part. I tried to get NOS from Stephen, but he doesn't have any in stock, so I had to make do with what I had available. I'm actually pretty talented when it comes to accurately extrapolating correct measurements from worn parts, so I'm 100% sure my repro parts will exceed original Atari specification.


This is the solidworks drawing - top side:
upperhousing01.jpg

I've made no obvious changes from OEM, but the material I will be using is urethane which is lightyears better than the nylon Atari went with. I'm using the hardest incarnation of urethane too!


This is the solidworks drawing - bottom side:
upperhousing02.jpg

Again, no obvious changes.

All in all, the upper/lower housing parts for the 720 controller are going to work out quite well as far as reproductions go. I'm quite pleased with the ease in which this project has been moving along as of late. The most difficult parts (upper/lower housing) isn't putting up much of a fight.

I'll update as I progress.

Enjoy!!

Dave
 
Awesome!

This kind of stuff is great. I love reading this, as well as Rikitiki's how to threads over at CoinopSpace. Some of my favorite video game reading materials.

I think it is just amazing the work you guys go through to keep our games running and looking good.
 
LOL, I didn't see this until after I finished drawing the upper housing from a used part. I might want to borrow yours just long enough to verify my measurements.

Dave

Wow. Looks really good. Can't wait to see future updates on this.

BTW, Dave if you want a NOS 720 upper housing to go by PM me.
 
The Hall Effect joystick is different from the 720 joystick. They both use a few common parts between them, however.

Atari was really sold on using this upper/lower housing setup as they used it on many different games, changing out a few things to make the controller do whatever they needed. In a way, I think it's pretty cool that they made a modular joystick system like this. It actually makes my job that much easier since I can get a bunch of different joysticks finished up around the same time with only minor additional workload.

Dave

I thought it was cool Dave, Kinda like a mini "how its made" I have no sweet clue on how a hall joystick works as i have never played the 720 arcade before.
 
It's definitely a labor of love. I can't imagine anyone else taking on the kind of stuff I've been doing since there's really not much money in it. Whatever money I make with RAM Controls, I just put it right back into making more parts. It's probably the best part of my hobby, aside from the HUNT - nothing like tracking down that elusive game you've always wanted!! LOL

Dave

Awesome!

This kind of stuff is great. I love reading this, as well as Rikitiki's how to threads over at CoinopSpace. Some of my favorite video game reading materials.

I think it is just amazing the work you guys go through to keep our games running and looking good.
 
i called and left a voicemail the other day Dave, call me back sometime? :D
 
LOL, I didn't see this until after I finished drawing the upper housing from a used part. I might want to borrow yours just long enough to verify my measurements.

Dave

Anytime. You know where to reach me.


As for posting this stuff, I find it extremely interesting. The information you have in the blogs, information on what the original part was made out of, or even just how your parts are made is information. I'm a big fan of posting as much information as you have. The readers can read it, skim it, or ignore it.
 
Perfect. I'll be contacting you shortly. :)

Thanks for the help.

Dave

Anytime. You know where to reach me.

As for posting this stuff, I find it extremely interesting. The information you have in the blogs, information on what the original part was made out of, or even just how your parts are made is information. I'm a big fan of posting as much information as you have. The readers can read it, skim it, or ignore it.
 
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