I've been poking the broken arcade stick, trying see if I can find anything obvious, but no such luck. It doesn't look like a loose connection and I have no way to test if the cable still works or not. I don't have a multimeter to beep it. Hopefully I can borrow a multimeter later, but I'm not sure I know what pins are supposed to connect anyway. But the search is narrowed down a bit, it's with the cable, the PCB or a combination of the two. So it should be possible to resurrect the stick by replacing those two.
So, let's talk replacement parts. Cthulu seems like the immediate choice here, as far as I can tell. Looks relatively easy to install if you read the manual, at least once I find out where in an SE it'll fit, and it works either on both PC and PS3, or on practically everything but an Xbox 360 due to encryption. Which is okay, I have no 360. But is it better to get the Multi-Console version over the PC/PS3 version? Can it do anything else than just run on more consoles?
Where do I buy one of these? Keep in mind, I live in Denmark, so shipping and customs will be an issue when importing from outside the EU. Anyone try to order a PCB from the US to the EU? How much does shipping and customs cost?
I'll also need a new USB cable, but those are cheap and easy to find. Unless I need a special kind of cable. Cthulu uses an A-B USB cable, do I want anything in particular with it? Duarbility or shielding may be worth looking at, I'd imagine.
And finally, if I have to take pretty much everything apart anyway, disconnect all wires and so on to fit a new PCB, and wait a week or more for replacement parts, perhaps it's time to replace the stock Street Fighter IV art. And maybe paint the white plastic. Just to make the stick a little more personal. I mean, if I replace the PCB, only the box and wires to the buttons will be left as stock MadCatz. I don't really have any idea for new art, though. I like lightning, so that might be a place to start.
I'll probably have even more questions later, but I'm still in the examination phase.