I made my own Guitar Freaks controller. Why? 'Cause I could.

[zonic505]

Now we just need someone to make a K'nex Drummania, DDR pad, & IIDX controller!

How fragile is it?

[DizzyBum]

Hey, I haven't updated this in a while, so let me mentioned the further enhancements I've made.

- Krazy Glue!

This stuff is liquid gold, I love it. The neck of the guitar had a tendency to slip apart a bit during wail-heavy songs. So I disassembled the neck and dabbed a bit of Krazy Glue into the purple "3-D" connector pieces to give them a permanent joint. The neck hasn't budged at all since I reassembled it. I also dabbed a bit here and there to keep the pick mechanism from sliding around and to hold the pick's contact components in the right places.

- Solder!

Well, I said this project would be solder-free. Now it's simply free of any use of a soldering gun/iron. A friend of mine warned me that the aluminum foil would quickly wear itself out if used for an electrical circuit; he was right. I tried and failed to find good quality conductive metal tape or foil (such as copper or brass). So instead, I took a bit of solder and coiled it around the pick frame where the wires make contact, weaving the wires into the solder. I secured it with a bit of electrical tape -- enough so the coils stay in place during gameplay yet I can still slide them around and make small adjustments with my fingers.


How does it play? Well, I'm still not that great at Guitar Freaks, but I'm quickly getting better and passing stuff into the 50's now. I can S/SS tons of stuff 40 and under. The fact that I'm able to improve my game on this controller, and that I'm able to get SS on things should tell you it's working great. The buttons are flawless and the pick feels pretty damn good, and everything gets better the more I fine-tune it.

What's next? No idea, but I can tell you it's not 100% done until I feel it is. And if I manage to make it to Bowlmani Fest '08, I can promise you that this controller is coming along for the ride, because it's too badass to not show off... and maybe we can get a certain Bemani artist to jam on it a bit.



Oh, to answer zonic's question directly: It was a bit fragile before I added Krazy Glue, especially when wailing. Now it's pretty solid. It'll get better as I tweak it more and more. But I wouldn't step on it or anything.

[Zarcom]

I vote Checky to be that Bemani artist .

or me .

See yaz bye.

[aeriyu]

I'm sure he was referring to the Bemani in-house artists, not the thousands of legions of fans they have in the palms of their hands...

[Zarcom]

Originally Posted by aeriyu

I'm sure he was referring to the Bemani in-house artists, not the thousands of legions of fans they have in the palms of their hands...

my bad.

See yaz bye.

[[NesS]]

req iidx and pop'n controllers. at least a iidx turntable would be epic.

[Zarcom]

Originally Posted by [NesS]

req iidx and pop'n controllers. at least a iidx turntable would be epic.

LMAO, then it would be "blockmanix" or "block n' music".

See yaz bye.

[Shinden]

*worship*

[DizzyBum]

Another small update. I made a couple small adjustments here and there, and now hyper-picking works much better than it did. I'm now passing stuff into the high 40's and 50's, including a 60.

I know I promised I was going to take more pictures and such, but my camera phone really sucks, and work has been killing most of my free time. I may invest in a digital camera with some decent video capabilities soon, and then I can show off the controller better.

[kittyfluffins]

Awesome. You win.

[DizzyBum]

Still to add to this thread:

- The A-series DualShock 1 solderless hack
- Future plans for the controller
- Videos and pictures, if I ever manage to find a good camera, because there are way too many options

Once all is said and done, this will be compiled and placed on a website somewhere for posterity.