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).

An arcade button with a JST cable

  • Insert 2 male jumper wires into the JST connector.

A JST connector with 2 female jumper wires attached

  • 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.

Electrical tape to secure the jumper cables

  • Using the wire stripper, strip one of the female jumper wires (strip off about 1/2” or 1cm).

A female jumper wire and a stripped jumper wire

  • 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.

All buttons wired and ready

  • 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.

A bundle of stripped jumper wire cables

  • 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.

A jumper wire attached to the bundle of jumper wires

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.

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.

Connection wires on the joystick terminals

  • 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.

Joystick cables with jumper wires attached from the JST connectors

Tidy up the wires

You can use small zip ties to bundle wires together and avoid a spaghetti-like mess of wires.

A small zip tie keep wires together

  • Join the 4 stripped jumper wires into a bundle.

A bundle of stripped jumper cables from the joystick terminals

  • Strip the male connector off of one more jumper wire and connect it to the bundle.

Next step…

Next, assemble the buttons and joysticks

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