Well like Soko1 said, modifying those cheap 74hc165 breakout boards to make them compatible is probably going to be more work and result in a crappier product than just building it up right the first time. Good call on cleaning off the flux; I'll throw the board in my ultrasonic cleaner with some isopropyl. I know the output leads look like garbage; that was just a real quick and dirty job to test the board. That board is destined for a Combatstick grip and I'm going to wait for my Virpil base and 3d printed tailpeiece to arrive in the mail before I wire it up to the grip. Then I'll button it up right.

Very cool news on the "pots" rel4y. I'll probably stop caring about my Fighterstick, jittery pots and all, once and forever as soon as my Virpil arrives. But that hasn't happened yet, and in all seriousness, a hall-sensored Fighterstick lathered up with Nyogel 767a (like I've done to mine) would still be an excellent piece of equipment. I think I read somewhere in here that the gameport Fighterstick button matrix can be directly wired up to an mmjoy2 board, but the USB Fighterstick cannot, is that correct?