DIY Arcade Joystick Kit

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 TIME REQUIRED:
1–2 Hours

DIFFICULTY:
Easy

MATERIALS
» Box x 1
» Arcade stick x 1
» Ball Top x 1
» Dust Guard x 1
» Buttons (30mm) x 8
» Buttons (24mm) x 5
» Button Leads x 13
» USB Encoder x 1
» USB Connecting wire x 1
» Templates x 2
» Sticker x 1

TOOLS
» X-Acto Knife or Box Cutter
» Masking Tape
» Hot Glue Gun
» Screwdriver
» M4 or 8-32 bolts and nuts
(optional)

DIY Arcade Controller Written by Tyler Capps

THE BUILD:
1 1. Open your kit box and unpack the contents, paint or decorate your
Tab box as desired.
cut 2. Carefully pull the interior side tabs out of the box, lay it out flat and
b
Ta

flaps
43/4" cut 43/4" off each flap (Figure A ), this will make it easier to cut out
your button and joystick holes.
A B
3. Refold the box and close the lid, then flip over to the bottom of the
box, the thumb notch should be facing away from you on the lower
side of the box.
4. Use the Makey Robot sticker or the provided paper template,
center on your box (Figure B ).
5. For the sticker, carefully peel/crack one side of the sticker and
C D align on your box. Peel remaining backing and smooth across the
box using a credit card or other flat item to remove any air bubbles
from your sticker. For the paper template use masking tape.
6. Using a sharp razor hobby knife or equivalent blade carefully cut
out the large 8 button holes and the smaller 2 button holes, cutting
inside the white dot area only. Do not cut out the joystick hole yet.
Tip: Try pie cuts with your blade or use a screwdriver or skewer
to poke holes in a radial pattern to make cutting out your circles a
E
snap! (Figures C and D ).
7. Test the fit of the buttons but don’t press any buttons all the way
in yet. If it’s a little too tight, you can carefully remove a little more
cardboard from the circumference of the hole until the button can
be pressed in snuggly. Connect the ends of each lead to the prongs
Red goes to + on each button (Figures E and F ).
8. The arcade stick can be attached in a couple of ways, for this build
Black goes to - we are going to use the screws found in the joystick itself. You can
also use hot glue or M4 bolts and nuts (or 8-32 for an imperial
F
1
DIY Arcade Controller

Align the stick so that the ribbon cable connection

G H is on the side closest to the buttons. This way you
can be sure UP is in the correct orientation

Tacking down the

USB encoder with
a little hot glue to
keep it in place is
a good idea

equivalent) for more permanent builds or when using your own

controller housing (Figure G ).
I J 9. Remove the 4 small screws holding the joystick’s metal plate
(Figure H ).
10. Take the metal plate and align it straight over the final uncut
joystick hole on your sticker.
11. Using a pen or screwdriver point, mark the center for the handle
along with the four screw holes. You can widen the center point
(about ½") with an exacto blade or screwdriver, just enough for the
joystick handle to come through. Poke smaller holes through for
the 4 plate screws (Figure I ).
12. Realign the plate back over the joystick and from the inside of
your box poke the handle through the hole. Use the screws to
secure the box to the joystick plate. Do not overtighten (Figure J ).
K L Optionally use hot glue or other screw mounts for extra strength.
13. Place the joystick dust cover over the handle and screw on the ball
top (Figure K ).

INSERT YOUR CONTROLS

14. Choose your buttons and then feed the wires through the holes and
press each button in firmly (Figure L ). You’ll have a bit of a wirey
mess on the opposite end now, but we’ll get to that.
Example:
15. Next let’s take a look at the USB encoder. You’ll notice labels on the
back for all of your button connections (Figure M ). These buttons
M can be reassigned later however you like. So hook them up in
whatever way makes sense for you.
16. All of these connectors including the joystick and USB cable
can only be plugged in one way so you don’t have to worry about
hooking anything up backwards.
17. Our last connection is the USB cable. Before we connect that we
need a way for it to exit the box. I used the USB connector end to
mark and cut a small hole (Figure N ).
18. The cable is then fed through the hole such that it can be
connected to the board and pass through the box when it’s closed
(Figure O ). The stopper near the end of the cable should keep it
N O
2
DIY Arcade Controller
from pulling loose easily, but you can secure this by feeding some
slack back into the box (so you can still open it while the cable is
connected) and using a dab of hot glue or tape to secure the cable
in the slot.
19. Close the box lid and you have a fully functional plug & play arcade
controller (Figure P ).

You might notice that you have three more buttons and cables left over
(Figure Q ). These buttons, or any of the buttons really, can be placed
wherever your heart desires. For example I found it useful to have
buttons on each side of the box for pinball games (Figure R ).
The controller is completely plug and play. When you connect it to a
Windows PC a generic gamepad driver will automatically be installed
and you can check the functionality using Windows Gamepad Setup.
If you want to use it for modern games it can be configured through
Steam’s Big Picture mode and is completely customizable. For retro
P games, MAME and most emulators will automatically recognize it.
It is also plug & play and fully configurable with Raspberry Pi, Linux
and Retropie setups. Check out our Getting Started with Raspberry Pi
book for more about retro gaming.

CODE:
//Tyler Capps
//MAKE:
//April 2023
Q R // Controlling an Arduino with an arcade style joystick and buttons

//selecting pins for each directional input

int dirDown =4;
int dirUp =5;
int dirRight =7;
int dirLeft =6;

//selecting pins for the output of our buttons

int buttonRed =8;
int buttonBlue =9;
int buttonGreen =10;
int buttonYellow =11;

int buttonValue;

void setup() {
// put your setup code here, to run once:
pinMode( dirDown , INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode( dirUp , INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode( dirLeft , INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode( dirRight , INPUT_PULLUP);

pinMode( buttonRed , OUTPUT);

pinMode( buttonBlue , OUTPUT);
pinMode( buttonGreen , OUTPUT);
pinMode( buttonYellow , OUTPUT);

Serial.begin(9600);

void loop() {

3
 // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
DIY Arcade Controller
buttonValue = analogRead(A0); //Read the analog value from pin
NOTE: The USB encoder board that comes with the kit can take up
A0
to 12 buttons of input. The 4 inputs for CLR, AUTO, TURBO and MODE,
are state modifiers that aren’t rebindable or usable as extra button int Up = digitalRead(dirUp);
inputs. int Left = digitalRead(dirLeft);
int Right = digitalRead(dirRight);
• MODE: Switches between digital and analog mode. The joystick is not int Down = digitalRead(dirDown);
analog so this function is not useful for this build.
• TURBO: When the turbo button is held down any other button pressed
will repeat rapidly. if(Up == LOW && Left == LOW){
• AUTO: sets all buttons to turbo mode until CLR is pressed.
Serial.println( “Direction: UPLEFT”);
}
• CLR: Clears AUTO state.
else if(Up == LOW && Right == LOW){
So if you connect a button to AUTO you also need a button connected to Serial.println( “Direction: UPRIGHT”);
clear, otherwise turbo will be permanently turned on. }
else if(Down == LOW && Right == LOW){
There are also 4 extra inputs for AU, AD, AL, AR connections, but
they mirror the directional inputs from the joystick ribbon cable port. Serial.println( “Direction: DOWNRIGHT”);
Meaning you can use the ribbon cable for the joystick OR the individual }
connections, but not both. else if(Down == LOW && Left == LOW){
Serial.println( “Direction: DOWNLEFT”);
}
else if(digitalRead( dirUp ) == LOW){
Serial.println( “Direction: UP”);
}
else if(digitalRead( dirLeft ) == LOW){
Serial.println( “Direction: LEFT”);
}
else if(digitalRead( dirRight ) == LOW){
Serial.println( “Direction: RIGHT”);
}
else if (digitalRead( dirDown ) == LOW){
Serial.println( “Direction: Down”);
}
else{ //This is where you would add an action for when no
direction is pressed.

}
// The resistors in the circuit will cause different resistances to be
read for each button when pressed
// This is how the Arduino knows which specific button is being
pressed when all of the buttons are connect to a single pin
// Here is where we tell the Arduino what ranges to look for for
each button

//for the Red button:

if (buttonValue>=1010 && buttonValue<=1015){
Serial.println( “RED”);
}
//for the Blue button:
else if (buttonValue>=1000 && buttonValue<=1008){
Serial.println( “BLUE”);
}
//for the Green button:
else if (buttonValue>=900 && buttonValue<=950){
Serial.println( “GREEN”);
}
//for the Yellow button:
else if (buttonValue>=500 && buttonValue<=600){
Serial.println( “YELLOW”);
}
else{
// This is where you would add an action for when no
button is pressed.
delay(100);}
}

4
TIP: Cut just inside the dotted lines. You can
always trim more out if the holes are too small.

For all templates and resources go to

make.co/joystick
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