Reddit reviews SANWA JLF-TP-8YT-SK OEM Red Ball Top Handle Arcade Joystick 4 & 8 Way Adjustable (Mad Catz SF4 Tournament Joystick Compatible)

I'll give you a pass because your probably not an FGC player but it infuriates me that the Smash community cannot tell the difference between an analog stick and a digital stick.

The stick in this video is a DIGITAL stick. Likely a Sanwa JLF-TP-8YT stick used in most modern arcade sticks because its cheap ~$20 bucks and works well. It is functionally identical to flattening out 4 digital buttons like the Smashbox has. https://www.amazon.com/Sanwa-JLF-TP-8YT-SK-Adjustable-Tournament-Compatible/dp/B005BIC9QE

Analog sticks are typically very rare and expensive. They cost anywhere from $100 for the modern Seimitsu LS-64 to $200-250 dollars for a really nice vintage Sega Analog joystick. I believe this videos creator BlackHombre recently made a stick with the analog Seimitsu which probably cost an arm and a leg for the whole setup.
https://na.suzohapp.com/products/joysticks/50-2876-00

That's why you see those Frankenstein controllers that have a gamecube controller cut in half. Replacing the analog joystick on the gamecube is really hard and expensive.
http://imgur.com/gallery/oIP7E/new

I'm 37 and have wanted one of these since I was 10 as well. Also work in IT, but as a programmer, but I have done a lot of PC building and repairing on the side for decades. Never owned or worked on an arcade cabinet before, or worked with Raspberry Pi before. The Arcade1Up MK was also my first (and only so far) cab. As a tinkerer, I modded mine immediately (as in, within 3 days of ownership), and I'll give you some tips for if/when you mod yours that will save you a lot of time and money, because I made a lot of mistakes with mine buying wrong or insufficient parts, and general things that I would have done better/differently if I got to do it over again.

Modding is NOT hard. It's as easy as building the thing out of the box was (requires moderate effort and very little skill).

Hardware:

1. Get a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ from Amazon (seems to be the cheapest place, as it's $37.50 with free shipping there, but other stores charge $35 + like $5+ for shipping).
   
2. Mistake #1 for me: I went with a 256GB MicroSD because I WAY overestimated how much space I'd need, because I was looking at "complete" ROM sets that had a million duplicates, lightgun games, trackball games, spinner games, bartop touchscreen games, a bunch of adult stuff, like 500 Mahjong games, etc., and I knew I also wanted to download video previews for a Hyperspin-like setup. Depending on the systems you want to emulate, a 64GB MicroSD should be plenty. If you want to be safe (hey, maybe someday you'll get a modded control panel with a trackball, spinner, and maybe you'll do an AimTrak setup), go with 128GB. My 256GB card is a huge waste, as they're very expensive.
   
3. If you get an aftermarket joysticks/button kit, just go with the $56 Sanwa kit. I went with the EG STARTS joystick & LED buttons kit, and the buttons look and work amazingly, but the joysticks are garbage. They're worse than the stock joysticks; the only reason I'd use them over the stock joysticks is because they're 8-way (stock ones on the A1U MK cab are 4-way for some reason). The joysticks have WAY too light of a pull, and a pull-then-release will result in it springing back and hitting the opposite switch (for example if you pull left and let go, it'll spring back and briefly trigger the right switch). I got Sanwa sticks to remedy this, but it set me back $50 for those + another $10 for the 8-way gates, so that totals $115 for the controls. Don't worry, your A1U stock battops will work with those sticks.
   
4. If you want LED buttons (they do look incredible), then just get a cheap decent LED button kit of your choosing and spend $46 on two Sanwa sticks. You'll come out way cheaper than I did.
   
5. You don't need an amp for your audio with the RPi. I spent $20 on an amp and didn't even end up using it. Just plug some cheap powered PC speakers into your monitor controller board to use the HDMI audio. I then mounted the speakers to the top of my cab in the back, so they're not really visible but the volume knob on them is easy to reach. I've seen some people mount PC speakers right on the sides of the cab, but I don't like that aesthetic personally. If you want to go the extra mile (I plan to try), disassemble the speakers, mount them on the panel between the kickplate and the control panel (after making speaker holes or purchasing an aftermarket one with holes drilled already), and then make an extra hole in the center of that panel for the volume knob (just mount the board behind there, with the potentiometer sticking out, and then put the plastic knob right back on the dial to cover the hole).
   
6. You will need to drill two 1 1/8" holes in the panel between the control panel and kickplate for select/coin buttons. I've never done any woodworking in my life but was able to do this easily. All I did was measure the vertical halfway line (drawing a horizontal line with a square and a pencil), and then 1/3 of the total distance from both the left and right edges, drawing vertical lines. The intersections are where you drill your holes. Very simple. It's only a 3/16" thick panel so it's no sweat at all. Just be sure to remove the panel before doing this, and use some clamps to clamp it securely to a piece of scrap wood.
   
7. You can wire your RPi to use the stock A1U on/off switch. It's very simple, but you may need to reverse the switch (by just physically turning it around), or else it might be backwards ("Off" is "On" and vice-versa). It's just 2 wires. This'll have the added benefit of turning your RPi off cleanly, and also powering down all your peripherals, including the monitor and USB devices.
   
8. You're gonna want a bluetooth keyboard so you can access DIP switches in games, and use Linux commands.
   
9. If you plan on connecting any extra USB stuff beyond the controls, you'll want a good RPi power supply. You might also want a powered USB hub for extra power, because even the best RPi power supplies (true 3 amp) can't power more than 3-4 USB devices along with the Pi.
   
   Software:
   
   
10. Here's a really good clean 64GB Arcade-only RPi image. It includes all the descriptions and video previews, so you don't have to run a scraper.
    
11. If MK games have crackling audio, go into the DIP switch menu with F2 and turn the volume down to about 60%. Also turn the RPi volume down a bit, to no more than 75%.
    
12. Sometimes when using RPi images, the screen resolution is wrong; set it to 1280x1024. You may also want to disable bezels.
    
13. Some RPi themes only look good at 16:9 aspect ratios; my favorite 5:4 compatible theme is "Showcase".
    
14. If you see a yellow lightning bolt icon in the top right on the Pi, it means it's underpowered and you need to disconnect peripherals, get a powered USB hub for some of them, or upgrade your power supply. Seeing this symbol will cause slowdown in games and can potentially corrupt your MicroSD image entirely.
    
15. If you have a yellow FPS or 'frame counter' in the bottom left of your screen, do the following:
    
    Go into a game, and hit Select/Coin + X. This will bring up a special Retroarch menu. Go to Settings -> Onscreen Display -> Onscreen Notifications -> Display Frame Count -> OFF. Hit B to go back to the Settings menu, then go to Configuration and make sure Save Configuration on Exit is ON. You may have to do this for every system you're emulating, because it seems to only apply to whichever emulator you have running when you change the setting.
    
    None of this is nearly as complicated as it might sound. I was just trying to be thorough and save you a ton of time and money. Hope this helps!
    
    Here's a video of my modded cab:
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8lNARvbiKA

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FYI: This is the steps I did for my already moded cabinet with USB encoders. I ended up purchasing two of these joysticks. They connect with 5pin cables. Keep in mind that it comes with a 4 way gate (square movement) but can be adjusted to 8 way gate (octagon movement) if you purchase the octagonal plate. I prefer 4 way.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005BIC9QE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 .

Step 1: Remove the stock joysticks by unscrewing the joysticks and ball tops / washers.

Step 2: Unplug the joystick from the encoder board.

Step 3: Place and center the new Sanwa joysticks (view from the front).

Step 4: Mark your holes and drill small pilot holes for your screws.

Step 5: Once they are screwed in, I connected the 5pin cable to the new joysticks and plugged them into the USB encoders that I have.

​

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I recently bought a 8bitdo joystick so my GF and I could improve our Burgertime/Galaga/Donkey Kong experience. I like the solid feeling of the case and the fact that you can use Bluetooth or a wired connection. I was less impressed with the joystick and buttons, so I ordered this sanwa joystick: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005BIC9QE And these sanwa buttons: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003KSB2YC

The bottom of the case comes apart easily with 6 screws. It only took a few minutes to pop out the old buttons and replace them with the new ones. The old joystick was then removed and the soldered-on leads were clipped. There are 8 leads, which include a ground for each direction. The Sanwa harness only has 5 wires(1 ground and 1 for each of the four directions). SO basically, I just wired the 4 ground wires from the board to the black wire in the sanwa harness. The other 4 wires were then connected to their counterparts. The wiring diagram for the joystick can be found here: https://www.focusattack.com/5-pin-wiring-harness/ The N30 usb board has each joystick direction printed on the board above the connector, so you don't even need to label anything. I set the joystick gate to 4-way, as these are the games we mostly play. All in all this was a very simple project, even for someone like myself that doesn't know anything about arcade hardware or electronics.

Same seller (hikig-online) is one of the people selling the Amazon listing for the same part: https://www.amazon.com/SANWA-JLF-TP-8YT-SK-Adjustable-Tournament-Compatible/dp/B005BIC9QE

And between both their Amazon and Ebay ratings not one person calls them out for selling counterfeits. It's probably all right. Unfortunately I can't give you 100% assurance on that because I don't see that username show up on /r/fightsticks like hklegend does, but there's a pretty good chance it's not a knock-off.

You don't think what exists? I've got an 8way stick with an octagonal or circle gate.

https://www.amazon.com/SANWA-JLF-TP-8YT-SK-Adjustable-Tournament-Compatible/dp/B005BIC9QE

Mine are actually the clones in this kit though:

https://www.amazon.com/Hikig-Buttons-joysticks-Controller-Raspberry/dp/B07JFXQSM5

I expected that kit to come with square gates but it came with octo-gates. I replaced with circle gates.

https://www.amazon.com/SANWA-JLF-TP-8YT-SK-Adjustable-Tournament-Compatible/dp/B005BIC9QE/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=3K94X8SRJ04BN&keywords=sanwa+joystick&qid=1550471653&s=gateway&sprefix=sanwa&sr=8-3

Excellent answer, thanks.

I have the following coming this week:

Qanba joy stick

Sanwa GT-Y Octagonal Restrictor

Sanwa JLF-TP-8YT-SK OEM Red Ball Top Handle Arcade Joystick

Basic, middle of the road stuff. I was thinking of doing one of those Raspberry pi inside of a fight stick setups, but I kind of like the look of the Vilros mini NES.

Thanks again for the response.

Amazon Sanwa is real

For a nice all-in-one cheap solution, I'd go with the Elite F300.

If you're willing to mod, then I'd suggest a 8bitdo N30 w/ Sanwa buttons and Sanwa joystick. This will give you the same as above but with bluetooth and I'm pretty sure it will eliminate the need for an extra controller to get it hooked up to xbox/ps.

If you're looking for something bigger but still cheap, then I would have to suggest a used Razer Panethera or Hori RAP 4 on Amazon for about 100-130. The returns on Amazon Warehouse are usually people who tried the stick for an hour or two and didn't care for it. They're usually pretty damn nice and offer around 30-40% discount. I once got a "used" display shelf that still had all the protective material on and around the shelf, like the sticker kind that you can't re-apply... so I guess somebody literally just opened the box and said well nevermind and returned it.

I used Sanwa joysticks and buttons:

http://www.amazon.com/Sanwa-JLF-TP-8YT-SK-Adjustable-Tournament-Compatible/dp/B005BIC9QE/

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Dark-Sanwa-Buttons-OBSF-30-B/dp/B004R6EAYA/

SANWA JLF-TP-8YT-SK OEM Red Ball Top Handle Arcade Joystick 4 & 8 Way Adjustable (Mad Catz SF4 Tournament Joystick Compatible) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005BIC9QE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_kRamDbF5E8NQV

I did not use the Sanwa bracket since I didn't want to drill new holes. I used the one that was already there and mounted the new Sanwa on it.