Keoliz Arcade Sticks: Modding Razer Atrox - JoyMOT(Joystick & Mod Throwback)

Kali ini kami mendapat kesempatan untuk memodif stick arcade Razer Atrox. Produk Xbox 360 ini hadir di bengkel Keoliz dalam keadaan tidak lengkap. Tak lagi punya tombol, lever arcade, PCB, bahkan stick ini sudah tidak lagi dilengkapi dengan fer hidrolik. Colokan kabel nya juga sudah hilang.

This time we had the opportunity to mod a Razer Atrox arcade stick. This Xbox 360 stick arrived at our workshop incomplete. The stick no longer had buttons, no lever, no PCB, and even the hydraulic springs were missing. The USB cable along with its unique, proprietary port was also missing.

Konsumen kami meminta Keoliz untuk menyiapkan 3 lubang berukuran 24mm di samping kiri casing. Ditambah satu tombol kecil di atas 8 tombol action karena dia ingin memiliki tombol arah atas ekstra. Port USB tipe USB B cewek juga perlu dipasang untuk kebutuhan koneksi kabel Razer ini sesudah ganti PCB. Tidak lupa juga dia ingin melengkapi Razer nya dengan artwork Dragon Ball Z.

The customer asked Keoliz to prepare three 24mm buttons on the left side of the case. Plus one more small sized hole above the action buttons because he wanted to have an extra up button. A female USB type B port was also required to connect a new PCB to this Razer stick. And to complete this mod he wanted to swap the stock artwork with a Dragon Ball Z themed one.

Ketika Razer Atrox ini baru tiba di bengkel Keoliz, kita mempertimbangkan ide membuat 3 lubang di sebelah kiri; dengan catatan tombol ketiga dibuat jauh dari 2 lubang 24mm yang lain. Pertimbangan Ini demi menghindari kemungkinan rusak nya bagian casing yang menampung fer hidrolik nya, atau lebih tepat nya bekas tempat hidrolik. Di malam pertama pengerjaan proyek ini kita juga yakin bisa dengan mudah bor panel atas untuk memasang tombol arah atas.

When this Razer Atrox stick first arrived at our workshop, we were considering the idea to separate the third 24mm hole from the 1st and the 2nd ones on the case's side. The idea was to avoid damaging the part of the case that used to hold the hydraulic springs. During our first night of this project we were convinced it would be easy to drill the top panel & add the extra 24mm button.

Ternyata kita salah menilai beberapa hal. Ruangan kosong di casing nya cukup luas untuk menampung 3 tombol masing berukuran 24mm untuk dipasang secara berdekatan. Tahu nya tingkat kekerasan panel atas nya juga sangat lah keras. Panel atas ini tidak lah terbuat dari plastik melainkan terbuat dari bahan besi. Sehingga saat kita bor panel nya kita harus betul-betul memaksa bor & mata bor kita; bor yang biasa dipakai untuk melubangi permukaan kaca acrylic, kayu, atau fibre glass; jauh lebih lunak dibanding besi. Permukaan ini terlalu keras untuk bor kita sehingga kita menghabiskan sekitar 2 jam lebih untuk bor satu lubang saja. Lain kali kita hanya akan terima permintaan bor panel besi kalau kita sudah punya alat-alat yang memadai.

As things turns out we were wrong about several things. The empty space on the side of the Razer case was big enough to hold 3 small sized buttons, and had them installed close to each other. We also found out later while we were working on this project the top panel was very hard to drill. It was not made of plastic; instead it was made of metal. Thus we had really to force our drill & the drill bits; our drill that we normally use to create holes on an acrylic, wood, or a fiber glass surface; a much softer surface to drill. The panel was so hard to drill we ended up spending over 2 hours just to drill one hole. Next time we will only accept requests to drill metallic surfaces, only if we had sufficient tools.

Selagi teknisi kita sibuk memodifikasi casing Razer ini, divisi design kita juga mengerjakan artwork nya. Gambar Dragon Ball Z untuk sebuah produk leverless yang dijumpai di internet & disukai oleh sang konsumen ternyata tidak dibagi-bagi secara bebas. Namun kita berhasil menemukan sumber gambar karakter nya. Oleh karena itu divisi design kami mulai edit gambar sendiri.

While our technician was busy working on this Razer case, our design department was working on the artwork. The DBZ artwork that was used on a custom leverless product, that the customer saw on the internet, was not shared to anyone on the web. However we managed to track down the source of character art. So our staff started working on his own stick artwork.

Staff kami perlu meluangkan beberapa jam tambahan untuk mencari referensi dan belajar melukis semacam aura di sekeliling karakter nya, karena dia tidak terbiasa melukis efek khusus seperti semacam api yang berkobar saat karakter Dragon Ball sedang power up.

We had to spend hours to search for references and learn to draw some sort of aura around the character, because our graphic design guy was not used to draw special effects. For example drawing a burning flame that appears when a Dragon Ball character charges up.

Setelah gambar selesai dicetak & dijemput dari studio foto profesional, gambar nya dipasang, dan casing Razer ini pun selesai dimodifikasi. Tapi tunggu dulu karena konsumen juga minta beli beberapa tombol 24mm tipe kancing mur(Yatta start), dan beberapa tombol microswitch yang mirip dengan tombol Suzo Happ. Selagi kami mengunjungi Jakarta, kami sempatkan waktu untuk pergi ke distributor tombol arcade.

Once the art was printed & picked from a local photographic studio, we installed the artwork, and the project was finally done. But hold on the customer also wanted several Yatta Start 24mm buttons, and some American/European like arcade buttons. So while we were visiting Jakarta, we stopped by at the local shop to buy some arcade buttons.