shrine-write

Poverty Tutorial #1: how to mod a HRAP3 arcade stick

So you want to be super cool like MM and stick some sick art on your stick? Well here I’m going to show you step-by-step how I pulled that off in what I like to call ‘the poor man’s guide to modding their arcade stick.’

Tools required -

• small phillips screwdriver
• flat head screwdriver
• 7mm socket (alternatively needle nose pliers)
• thin kitchen knife or box cutter
• extremely basic tool/circuitry knowledge

My costs-

• HRAP3 Plexi-Glass Cover – $18.75
• HRAP3 Art Cover – $10.00
• Custom Art Dustwasher – $3.75
• Shipping – $6.75
• Seimitsu PS-14-K-N Buttons x8 – 2320¥
• Seimitsu PS-14-D-N Buttons x2 – 560¥
• Seimitsu LB-39 Bubble Balltop – 240¥
• Shipping – 870¥
• Total: $85.23

Areas covered-

• button swapping
• art swapping

This tutorial is going to show you how I “customized” my arcade stick, which is really the bare minimum as far as customization goes. Still, I’ll go ahead and cover the basic essentials you’ll need to know to mod your very own. While this guide is intended for Hori sticks, other sticks share the same basics and you may learn a thing or two from this, however it would be smarter to follow a guide for your relative type of stick if it isn’t a Hori brand one. And if you’re an arcade stick noob (only reason you’d be reading an amateur guide like this) then you may want to know the basics of arcade sticks outlined in this post here.

Step 0] Purchasing

Purchase your parts wherever you may, whether lizardlick, akihabara shop, or used from someone personally. For your art, you may do it yourself or if you’re lazy like me, request it from Art’s Hobbies. I highly recommend doing so unless you already have all the required tools for creating your own custom art and glass (which he also has a tutorial on how to do). It’s fairly simple to purchase from Art, he’s very reasonable to work with and will respond quickly to questions, just make sure you read all his FAQs on how to request and purchase from him. Once you have all your parts ready, we can begin with the actual work.

Step 1] Opening

We’ll start opening the bugger by removing the obvious screws on the metallic underside of the arcade stick. There are eight screws that can be removed with any standard phillips screwdriver, remove them however you may. After doing so, use a flat head screw driver or just a strong fingernail to pry open the metallic plating. An easy spot to do so is underneath the spot the USB cable extends from. Be sure to set the plate and screws aside in a safe location.

Step 2] Unscrewing

Now you’ve got the first plate off, feast your eyes on the inside of the stick. Or rather, the underside of the inside of the stick. This area only serves to protect the real innards of your stick. Here you can locate six bolts, the same six that appear on the top side of your Hori stick. There are three parts to each bolt, the bolt, the washer, and the nut fastener. If you’re a professional you’ll have a proper 7mm socket wrench or ratchet available, but if you’re a professional who’s just unlucky that his dad took his toolbox with him out of town, then you’ll have to improvise with another tool. The next best thing are some rusty needle nose pliers that got the job done for me just as well, as the nuts are not screwed in very tight. Once you remove the nut, push out the bolt and retrieve the washer and store all three parts in a safe area and repeat for the remaining bolts. After doing so, the top plate should pop off, but the wires attached to the buttons will hold it back.

Step 3] Removing buttons

Take a minute to familiarize yourself with the basic layout of the stick’s insides. There’s a main core unit that all the wires lead to under the Turbo area. You won’t need to be messing with this for these basic mods. The colored wires (held down by super Hori brand scotch tape, feel free to remove) then lead to each individual button and then to the joystick area. This is where we’ll start the actual swapping, starting with the buttons. First, be sure to write down the wire color placements! If you don’t, you’re going to have a fun time playing guess what wire does what for hours later. Not necessary, but I even labeled each wire “L” or “R” to define which side they were originally on.

Each button has two wires with a metal slot that covers the plugs extending from the actual button. Your goal is to forcibly remove the metallic cover off the button, which can prove to be troublesome. This step can take up to thirty minutes depending on how rebellious your wires are being.

First, with a thin (yet durable) knife or box cutter, slide its edge underneath a wire’s metallic cover over a plug. This is the easy part; carefully, push the cover out slightly, enough so the flat head screwdriver can fit in between it. Once there, slide the flat head in that area and force the entire wire out. You want to be very careful as to not damage anything. Severing a wire somehow is possible, but it will also be difficult to push the metal cover out without a lot of strength so you want to be in control of how much strength you’re using. There’s always that one wire that refuses to budge at anything. In that situation, there’s nothing left to do but jam that motherfucker out with all your might. Just don’t go crazy Hercules. The entire process of removing all ten default buttons can take up to twenty minutes so be patient with it.

Step 4] Removing the ball top

Now that you’ve removed all the wires from the buttons, you can easily pop out each individual button by pushing the triggers on opposite ends of the button and pushing it out the top. There’s no real trick do doing so and this shouldn’t be hard to do. After you’ve taken all of the buttons out, the next will be to remove your stick’s ball top, even if you aren’t replacing it as it gets in the way of removing the top plate. To do that, get your flat head screwdriver again and place it in the little metal slot on the underside of the joystick. You’re going to have the flat head hold it still while you twist the ball top off and that’s about all there is to it. Now that that’s off, you may place aside the ball top and dust washer and pop off the plate.

Step 5] Stripping off the sticker

Now that you’ve taken off the plate, you may now remove the default Hori sticker (sorry no more pictures from here on out). This can be done many ways, the but the general idea is to basically rip it off. This isn’t the easiest thing ever either. With your knife, cut underneath the vinyl at certain points, easiest is between the button holes, and just begin to start ripping it off with your bare hands. Be smart and make wise incisions to make the process easier, it can be very tough and time consuming getting this giant sticker off so you’ll want all the shortcuts you can create.

Step 6] Cleaning

After you’ve completely removed the default sticker, you’ll probably notice the remaining gunk of glue stuck around on various parts of the metallic plate. Since something is worthless if not absolutely perfect, let’s take the time to remove this residue shall we? Take a normal dishwasher sponge, lightly soaked with soap and water, and scrub around the plate. You’re not going to get all the gunk out, but just get enough so that you soak most of the plate. Now get a napkin or toilet paper even and just dry it off as this will also leave behind remaining pieces of paper stuck to the glue which makes locating it much easier, killing two birds with one stone. To get rid of the glue, I just used a good fingernail and started scraping away. If you have steel wool ready that would probably be an easier choice.

Step 7] Swapping

After you dried off your clean plate, stick on your custom art paper and plexiglass. Simple as that.

If you were to change your ball top or joystick, now is the time. Anyway, just get your joystick back to normal (don’t forget the dust cover) and you can start putting in your new buttons. It should be pretty straightforward, put them in place as desired and if you’re using screw-ons then hand tighten them, you don’t want to tighten it too much as you can possibly crack the glass.

If you’re installing Seimitsu PS-14-K-Ns (the clear ones), you’ll want to put the circle cut-out of art in it before placing the button in place. To do that, you’ll have to remove what’s called the plunger of the button. There are two openings on both sides of the button, with your flat head, lightly stick it in one opening and lightly push the plunger out. The trick is to push it out evenly on both sides, so once you push a bit on one side, go to the other opening and do the same.

Repeat until the plunger is out and you’ll find the slot in which you can insert the circle cut-out. Once you finish placing all of your buttons, you may easily reattach each wire to its appropriate button, as depicted on the sheet of paper you hopefully wrote down on earlier.

Step 8] Putting it back together

Almost done, all you have to do now is put it back together. Make sure everything’s in working order at this point; make sure all the wires are tight and in the right locations (you may test it on your console or PC now). Take the time to clean out any dust and dirt inside. Taping the wires back down to the bottom is not be a bad idea either.

Once you have finished with everything inside, put the top plate back in place. Get one of the six bolts from the beginning and begin to sew it back up. It should be pretty straightforward, screw the nuts and bolts back the same way you undid them and don’t forget the washers. You don’t want to tighten the bolts too much either, with the same risk of breaking the glass. Once you finish with that, make sure the USB cord is in the right place (good idea to tape this down too so it doesn’t move) and put on the final metal plate. Screw this back in normally and that’s it.

Tadaa! You’re arcade stick is now modded with custom art and buttons or anything else that you may have done. The total time could have taken you anywhere between one to three hours (I took four but I was watching a movie while doing it, smart choice). Rejoice as you’re finally a unique individual as you screw up your inputs on PSN or Xbox Live with style. You may now show it off wherever you please and make all of your friends jealous.

If you’re still unfamiliar with certain aspects of arcade stick modding, there are still several guides and tutorials about them on the internet or if you have any specific questions you can ask me. In the meantime go bust up some scrubs with yo fly beastin’ machine.