Secure wire joints
If you have access to a soldering iron, it’s a good idea to add a bit of solder where the threaded wires join to guarantee a good electrical connection that won’t come apart.
Wires
Prepping the buttons
Each of the buttons will need wires prepared and connected to them:
- Connect the JST button connector cable. Those are the cables that came with your Arcade game kit with a white square plastic connector at the end (named JST connector).
- Insert 2 male jumper wires into the JST connector.
- Secure the male jumper with some electrical tape. Make sure to pull hard on the tape as you wrap it giving it some stretch so it will grab good.
- Using the wire stripper, strip one of the female jumper wires (strip off about 1/2” or 1cm).
- Attach (optional) a piece of clear tape as a label and mark the name of the button with a permanent marker. It will make wiring much easier…
- Repeat this process for ALL of the 7 arcade buttons.
- Grab the 7 stripped jumper wires and thread them together. Use electrical tape at the end of the unstripped portion to keep the wires together.
- Strip the male connector off of another jumper wire and thread it around the bundle of wires you just created. Use electrical tape to secure it all.
Prepping the joysticks
For each joystick, they have 4 direction switches to prepare:
- Connect the joystick cable to the COM and NO terminals of the switch.
- Connect 2 jumper wires to the JST connector.
- Strip one jumper wire for each connector.
- Repeat these steps for the terminals on ALL 4 of the joystick switches.
Tidy up the wires
You can use small zip ties to bundle wires together and avoid a spaghetti-like mess of wires.
- Join the 4 stripped jumper wires into a bundle.
- Strip the male connector off of one more jumper wire and connect it to the bundle.
Next step…
Next, assemble the buttons and joysticks