lol. you quoted me late. All the replies you saw where after i asked that question. but thanks.
Thanks for all the replies and info everyone.
The 309 I tried actually feels harder than my 307, granted the 309 is right out of the box and the 307 has been in use for like half a year. Is break-in a thing? I have the silicone one, but either way it just feels mushy and imprecise after trying the 309.
Iām also looking for the perfect lever to build myself a stick with but Iām not sure which one I want. My current favourite is the 309 Helpme, but Iām also interested in trying the Fujin, Airbag and Kaze levers. What do you guys think about these?
For anyone looking, Focus Attack just restocked some 309s and Fanta Crown kits w/ Gersung V1623A2s. Snatched up a Helpme lever while I could.
Same. I finally managed to get a black 309MJ this time around. Iām determined to make it work!
Also, I asked on Twitter, right before the store reopened, and they said āWe have some units in stock, though Crown couldnāt provide as many as we asked for. Will push for larger qty soon.ā so go-go-go get one right now if you want one shipped from the US!
@blankaex
of course there is a form of break-in for elastomer grommets , but here the stiffness you felt (you say you felt the 309 firm and precise as opposed to the 307 being for you mushy) is due to the switches, not the grommets, as the 307 has silicone grommets in 55 shore A ( home/console version ) and 60shoreA ( pro/arcade cab version) hardness which are roughly twice as hard as the grommets found in the latest 309 (25A for 309 helpme and 35A for 309MJ) .
I highly advise korean stick owners who start out to consider getting 1 or 2 sets of different operating force switches before they disappear, donāt forget the panasonic are discontinued and that there is zero info on the gersung production status. Last time I checked gersungs were like 5 bucks the set of four so if you get levered A2 stock, buy a set of A3 levered or vice-versa.
Buying extra silicone grommets is worth it too, theyāre around 2 bucks piece, so if you buy a 309MJ following the recent hype and feel upset because the centering is crappy , it doesn;t cost that much to order a 35A , 55A and or a 60A extra to try out.
For approx 10bucks extra (considering the 309MJ is only 25 bucks approx) you can have an set of different switches, 2 extra grommets in increasing hardnessā¦ IMHO it costs a lot less than forking out 60 bucks for a fujin V2 with fixed feel and sensitivity .
Heck, with different OF switches at hand you could even make your own āKazeā style mod (stiffer switch for āupā cardinal position)
Thanks for all of the info, I didnāt think the switches were that significant of a factor. I have a few Korean levers lying around so Iāll double check all of the switches on them soon. Next time I order some parts Iāll also try to grab some different tensioned grommets and switches too. How compatible are the grommets? Would one for a Myoungshin Fanta fit into a Crown? The switches should be pretty universal, right?
If only the shipping didnāt cost an arm and a leg Iād buy extra grommets for my other 309 setups. Ths ASI 60a latex grommet that is sold by Focus Attack wouldāve been a good deal if there was a way to buy or find a suitable replacement for that plastic spool that is needed to use the shafts in the Crown levers.
You just made my weekend, no joke. Thanks! 
Glad to help. Not meaning to sound like an FA advert, but Iāve come to notice practically nobody else offers what many of us are looking for in the US.
Side note, anyone know how big of a difference there is between the 35A grommet in the Helpme and the 25A in a 309MJ? Noticeable at all?
The 25a grommet feels like a stock jlf and the 35a has more usable tension. I swapped the stock 309mj grommet with the helpme grommet and used a spare 60a grommet that I have on the 309mj.
I kind wish focus attack sells the grommets from Crown so I donāt have to pay $25 shipping from Makestick.
I really, really like the 60A grommet.
Grommets for 303,307&309 are all interchangeable.
You can put a round grommet in a square grommet housing, but not vice-versa. I donāt see the purpose as it may overstress the grommet , plus there are various hardness aftermarket myoungshin compatible grommets (FLF soft silicone by IST, Wazwuzā new silicone fanta grommets ā¦ ). Someone posted about crown grommets in myoungshins on page 28.
It will be too complicated to order switches by other means than arcade parts vendors, so for the while being you should just settle with the models proposed by these stores, perhaps with time theyāll propose a larger choice of models ( inevitable since many classic switches are discontinued) . Some may have been lucky with Farnell, Mouser etc, but many had problems with the out of stock status and no restocking before long periods, the large quantities to order sometimes and even the payment/shipping solutions. The other solution would be cheap electronic parts stores, but alas they often donāt specialize in snap action micro switches and sometimes the few models they stock are not compatible at all with actual commercial gaming joysticks , though some may perhaps do custom orders .
Yo-O, the product designer who worked on the soon to be released Crown SDL-301 & SDL301DX, stated on Ruliweb that the silicone grommet will be much harder than 35A, because Infiltration doesnāt like soft grommets and returned the 35A prototype. Samducksa(Crown) also did an online poll to know which two other translucent color tones should be chosen for SDL-301 bat tops. They promised it would be released in the first 1/4th of 2017 but Crown seems a bit late on schedule
I very briefly tried this, and I donāt recommend it. Compressing against the housing is the basic mechanical function of the grommet. Using a grommet that wasnāt the same dimension resulted in a weird, mushy feel and poor return to neutral. It might work better with different grommets than what I have, though, but Iām skeptical.
Iām looking forward to the SDL-301, even if it doesnāt have a proper neck gate. These Crown models are great to scavenge parts from, even if you donāt like the particular model.
@Agieze
Thanks again for the writeup, Iāll take it to heart. Looks like the world of Korean arcade parts is a lot deeper than I thought. I also forgot that Infiltrationās lever was supposed to be coming out as well; thatās another one Iād be interested in. What a slippery slope.
I agree , the four anchoring points on the grommet are designed only to prevent slipping and unwanted rotations inside the housing, but if the grommet shape doesnāt match the housing, weāll get slippage, stress of the anchoring points (of the grommet) and abnormally low recentering force since the edges cannot compress . It doesnāt mean that because it āfitsā that it should be done, the same thing applies with japanese sticks and pivot bearings of a given model put inside another modelās bearing housing that is larger than the first one: it fits but itās wobbly as hell since there is too much play.
Iām not aware if it has been mentioned before, but looking at WICO joysticks ***** , they opted for stability since the grommets were just standard type industrial vibration mounts. They are latex rubber based, overmolded on both a square metal frame -and- a central brass sleeve. This means both frame and central sleeve were permanently embedded in the rubber. The shaft fits in the said sleeve with minimal play and the frame has 4 mounting holes.
The equivalent of the wico grommet central sleeve would be the spool shaped plastic part seen in korean sticks, with the difference that one needs to deform a grommet to fit the āspoolā , whereas the overmolded earlier design doesnāt need any assembling.
The downside of the wico grommets was the formula of the rubber and its mechanical properties, it cracked (natural rubber) and was too stiff ( famous for the āstick in molassesā feel), but the idea is everything except a bad one.
Letās wait and see whatās going on with the SDL-301. Iām curious to see Samducksa come back to detachable restrictor gate lower plates once again ( discontinued since the 302) . Something tells me itās not an entirely new model and that theyāve perhaps dug out some old proto design , updating it in the process to meet Infiltrationās needs. Even the model number hints to this.
***** rubber grommet pivoting in WICO sticks was patented by āSyng N Kimā , US pat US4382166 , 1981 : his name sounds korean to me , so this may explain thatā¦concerning use of grommets in korean joysticks
just received the 309 in the mail today.
itās sooooooooo much better then the 307.
i might make this my main stick to use in all games
I have been checking Kkokkomaās stream recently and it looks like he isnāt using the 309 lever at the moment. He did remove the logo on his stream overlay. I think he is also using the same Crown lever that JDCR and Saint are using. It has a purple top and JDCR did say that itās the 309. Maybe their own take on the lever?
has anyone thought of a quick release e-clip or where i could find something like it?
because i use a jlf quick release and i believe it will not fit into the 309.
i havent tried it yet, just a thought.
Hmmā¦ you can try using a plier to widen or shorten the e-clip.
I have a 307 in my te2+. I am thinking about either getting a etokki stick or upgrading to the 309. I kno gettin the 309 is obviously cheaper but am just wondering which one is better? How well does the etokki stick perform overall?