The leaf switch arcade buttons I ordered from Ultimarc have arrived and although I’ve spent most of the weekend working out in the garden, the frequent heavy showers started to get a little too heavy and so retiring to the kitchen, thought I’d pimp my iCade.
The replacement buttons are almost identical in size and so swap out is quite easy. The screw thread is slightly different and o the original icade button retain nuts can’t be used. Thankfully, each button from Ultimarc is shipped with a correct fitting nut.
Stripping out the original buttons. It pays to write notes so that you know which coloured wire goes to each button. The replacement button terminals are smaller than the originals so rather than cutting and fitting new crimp ends, I used a pair of small pliers to gently squeeze them together to create a better fit. I suppose you could get away with electrical tape or indeed soldered for a semi-permanent fix.
I’ve decided to change the button colours slightly by removing the two black buttons and have four yellow/two red instead. The two white buttons closest to the joystick will remain as they are including the noisy original switches. I only use these for start/select/coin etc and much prefer the clunky contact.
All put back together and ready for testing.
Pro-Gear via Final Burn.
Here’s a short video I took to show the sound difference between the buttons.
the sweet sound of silence. nice work fella