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Ikari Warriors LS-30 Alternative?

doozer

doozer

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Hi All,

I recently purchased an original SNK Ikari Warriors PCB. Did not think about how I would control it at the time.

As you probably know, it requires a special joystick known as the LS-30. This allows for movement and rotation.

A search of the Internet tells me the LS-30 is hard to find and even when you do find one, there's a fair chance you're going to end up with something non-working.

I came across this nice project in my travels, but after speaking with the designer, it doesn't have raw signal output, so it won't work with the original PCB.

GRS-Super-Joystick

It did occur to me that perhaps I could order one and make some sort of interface board that would convert the output back into something useful. The designer convinced me this would be a difficult project as it seems most of the decoding happens in the PC software, not in the device itself. This would mean a lot of work would be needed to first understand the signals coming from the joystick and then remap it to a similar output to the LS-30. Not impossible, but time consuming for sure.

Does anyone have a modern solution to this issue? Is there another solution I'm overlooking?
 
Well that sounds promising!
 
I was looking for info about this like last week. I found some examples of people modding American sticks, basically sticking rotary dials on the ends. It's not ideal but if you have the vertical space for all of that, it's something. At the end of the day there's nothing fancy about the electronics side of the LS-30, it's just switch.

I came across this too which does have a USB encoder, but there's no reason you couldn't do something custom and get the direct rotary output. https://www.ultimarc.com/arcade-con...i-12-way-rotary-upgrade-for-servostik-j-stik/

If you wanted to go down this path, searching for Ikari Warriors joystick will yield more results than LS-30.
 
Data East Made Rotary sticks that are cross-compatible with the LS-30, they're not Candy Cab friendly though as they're very VERY deep, and they have cylindrical knobs so they're not as nice to grip IMO. They are a lot cheaper though as they're less desirable, though they don't seem to come up for sale nearly as often. I've seen some home-made variants on YAJ as well, no idea if they're any good.

I see LS-30 sets pop up on KLOV every few months. going rate seems to be about $160-$250 USD for a pair. To be honest, while they're not longer in production LS-30s are arguably one of the easiest "out of print" controls to still find, mostly because they made a ton of them and the're rugged enough to still work after so many years.

IMO the price and difficulty to source originals isn't so far gone that non-original alternatives make sense yet.

Biggest things to look for if you DO find a set for sale.
- Each stick requires a 13-pin JST NH harness to connect to the PCB, get those if you can
- Make sure the knobs are in good shape, there is a special tool to remove the knob from the shaft and lots of people have gouged them to shit with a screwdriver trying to remove the knob without the tool (if you don't have the tool I made a 3D printable version, or you can bend a paperclip in the right shape in a pinch)
- Biggest wear part is the anti-rotation pin, that's an excellent indicator of how much use the stick has had in it's life.
- weirdly the most common failure point I've seen is the PCB snapping where the connector is soldered. I've got a handful of LS-30s that are perfectly fine except the PCB is snapped in 2 and I've seen others for sale in the same situation.
 
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In USA you can easily get $350 for a good condition pair now on the arcade museum sales forum.

E.g.
https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/pair-of-ls-30-snk-rotary-sticks.528107/



Very rare to come up for sale in EU at all now. I looked for around a month for a pair before paying €280 (I know, I know, madness).

I saw that thunder stick and was going to buy it but it's for usb PC only and not jamma. It uses totally different technology. They don't seem to ship to EU either. Does anyone have one to see if the yellow top can be used in a ls-30 to refurbish it?
 
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Oh wow, very cool. That's a new product from them. I asked for a full catalogue a few years ago and they didn't have that then.

12 positions, so should work perfect as a replacement.

EDIT: nevermind, video is five years old. Are you sure they're still making these? There's a comment in the Youtube video that they haven't been made in years.
 
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nem said:
Oh wow, very cool. That's a new product from them. I asked for a full catalogue a few years ago and they didn't have that then.

12 positions, so should work perfect as a replacement.

EDIT: nevermind, video is five years old. Are you sure they're still making these? There's a comment in the Youtube video that they haven't been made in years.
Click to expand...
CoinOp Warehouse mentioned them in a live stream a year or two ago when they were selling a rotary game cab. When I looked into it back then, they appeared to be still available (and I don't think they were cheap either) but perhaps they're no longer available now... Emailing Samducksa / Crown directly might be best.
 
Thanks guys. I’ll look into this.
 
Interested in the results.

I have 4 rotary sticks. Two I managed to clean but they could use a new dial pcb as mine are worn to shit.

The other 2 I cannot get open. I think the seller must have glued the tops on. No amount of tooling can get it open from underneath.

the GRS sticks look nice. So long as we can find a way to mate them to the official pcb's, I would be down. They are $ 70 each which is quite reasonable.
 
If thunderstick sold the GRS repro yellow tops on their own and samducksa sticks were still available (and the yellow top fit them!) that would be fantastic
 
At least we have some options. I was worried I purchased the PCB and wouldn't be able to play it :)
 
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