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PDP MK TE Fight Stick LED Mod

N

nephasth

Noob
First post, thought I'd share this with some MK fans. I've had a Mortal Kombat Tournament Edition Fightstick for a while now and have been planning on modding it since I got it. I finally got the last of my parts for the planned mod this past weekend and had some time yesterday to do the whole mod. I wanted to do the same "ring of light" buttons on this fightstick like I did for the CPs on The Two-Headed Beast (my MAME project). I also wanted the buttons to be lit up in the standard Xbox 360 button colors as well as the colors of the classic MK buttons by tapping 5V from the fightstick's USB and switching the grounds on the RGB LEDs. I planned on taking some detailed pics of the steps I went through, but once I got into wiring, I just wanted to get it over with and it's all pretty much the same stuff over and over again anyway.

A quick before pic.


Most of the parts used for the mod.


IL-lumination RGB LED.


For this mod I used Paradise Arcade Shop's clear translucent IL pushbuttons and their IL-lumination RGB LEDs. I modified these buttons for the RGBs just as I did the buttons for The Two-Headed Beast. I started by drilling 11/64" holes into the switch base of each button.


Installed the RGBs into the button and routed the wires through the holes.


Hot glued the wires to the switch bases to prevent them from being pulled out of the RGB boards.


Cut the wires to 2.5" long from the base of the buttons.


Stripped the ends of the wires and crimped on the terminal pins for the Molex Micro-fit connectors.


Installed 4-pin Molex Micro-fit connectors.


I removed the top panel of the fightstick from the box and removed the plexiglass cover. One at a time, I removed the buttons from the the panel. Once removed, I took the plungers out of both the clear IL and the black Suzo Happ buttons and installed the black plunger into the clear button.


A shot of the new buttons installed in the panel.


Next I tapped into the USB cable to get power and ground for the LEDs. I used the same 4-pin Molex Micro-fit connectors for this.


I got into wiring mode and didn't take any pictures of any of the other wiring process (basically the same as wiring the 4-pin connectors for the LEDs). I daisy chained the 5V from the USB to each RGB LED. I built a harness for the grounds of the RGBs. To do this I used 20-pin and 5-pin Molex Micro-fit connectors. By heating up an exacto knife, I cut a rectangle hole into the plexiglass cover for the selector switch. Installed the switch and wired it up to the grounds. Here's a few shots of the panel with the cover reinstalled.




Reinstalled the panel onto the box.




Mod finished with LEDs off.


With the selector switch in the | position, the buttons light up in the colors of the standard 360 buttons.


With the selector switch in the || position, the buttons light up in the colors of the classic MK arcade buttons.


All in all, it took me about 7 hours. I made the wiring a lot more tedious than it needed to be.

Feedback welcomed and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions.
 
lazybird123

lazybird123

Purple Belt in BJJ, White Belt in MK
VERY cool set up. I was wondering if I can ask you some noob questions.

I am getting those buttons and the wiring in the next day or two and I was under the impression that they are easy to install. Yet you said you took 7 hours! You also said you were real tedious about the job, so I was wondering if it was going to take me that long if I wasn't planning on being that tedious. Thanks man
 
N

nephasth

Noob
Thanks guys! :cheers:


lazybird123 said:
I am getting those buttons and the wiring in the next day or two and I was under the impression that they are easy to install. Yet you said you took 7 hours! You also said you were real tedious about the job, so I was wondering if it was going to take me that long if I wasn't planning on being that tedious. Thanks man
Click to expand...
What took me so long was stripping the wires and crimping the terminal pins for the grounding harness. Nearly 100 wire ends to crimp terminal ends onto and install into the Micro-fit connectors. If you're going with single color buttons, you don't need a switch installed, and that will save a little time. You can daisy chain the grounds of the LEDs with butt connectors, quick disconnects, or even just solder the wires together, any of those will be much faster than how I wired this one up. Also, you don't NEED to mod the buttons like I did for the RGB LED boards. The leads of the RGBs will lay past the feet of the button plunger. But I have found that sometimes the wires can move under a plunger foot which can prevent the switch from being engaged, this is why I drill holes through the switch bases. I went with the Micro-fit connectors for an as professional look as I could produce since it is all visible "under glass." You could take all the short cuts I listed and get the whole mod done in 2-3 hours probably, maybe even less.

If you do use a switch to switch between color schemes, I would recommend using a SPDT switch. If you want the option to have all the LEDs off, and some buttons share colors in both "modes", get a DPDT three postion (ON-OFF-ON) switch.
 
aj1701

aj1701

Noob
Nice mod!

Also, I checked out your MAME project. I've been thinking of doing something similar as well. Still researching all my options.
 
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