I got a minor update on that purple Crown lever that JDCR, Saint and Kkokkoma have been trying out. Someone who was watching Kkokkoma’s stream said this might be version 2 of the 309 Help Me lever. Might be in early test phase so we probably haven’t heard much.
I received my 309helpme today. It felt a little crunchy, but it’s fine after disassembling and reassembling. My 309mj was the same way out of the box.
I had an extra spring from my 307, so I doubled them up. It feels pretty good this way.
I do prefer the texture of the Myoungshin battop. I might try to swap them, but I’m not sure if they’re compatible.
I have some impressions of the Crown 309MJ after spending some time with it, being my first Korean joystick and all:
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[*]Playing Tekken: It feels like this joystick, Korean joysticks in general, were built for Tekken, if they weren’t already. I had such difficulty playing Tekken on my Seimitsu LS-40; I could just never get used to it even if I tried for my life. My first run with the stick and moves were easier to crank out; it feels so buttery smooth, either due to the rubber tension system or the fact that there’s no spring or gate, and I can just yank on the stick as fast and as hard as I can to crank out my moves.
That being said, I sometimes still have trouble finding the corners, but that’s something I still have yet to get used to. Otherwise, it flows so nicely when you’re doing DP motions and especially half circles; King’s Giant Swing comes out in an instant compared to my sloppy execution job on my LS-40.
[*]Playing 2D Fighters: No problems here, pretty much the same experience as I had playing Tekken. Half circles are a cinch to execute compared to the LS-40 for me. Yet again, I still have trouble finding the corners, especially the upper corners for jumping; I feel like the sweet spot to hit both switches for the Up-Left or Up-Right directions is a bit awkward, because I’m still used to a gated joystick guiding me to where those hot corners are when I crank out my moves as quick as I can, but I’ve been getting more used to it as I kept playing and my execution eventually got to be the same, feeling natural once again.
[*]Playing Other Arcade Games: I tried out a few of my favorite arcade games, such as Klax and Neo Drift Out. I was curious to try out arcade games with a Korean joystick, as, from what I have seen, every arcade machine in Korea uses a Korean joystick lever, regardless of the game or machine; every control panel had a Korean joystick lever, so I wanted to give it a go.
Either I’m too used to the LS-40 still, or I feel like the deadzone is way too high for these games that require very quick taps, for example only in two directions. Often times when I’m tapping in either direction, such as moving the paddle to place a tile in Klax by tapping three times quickly to get it to the spot I need it to be, the paddle actually ends up at the 2nd spot instead of the intended 3rd spot, because the joystick didn’t trigger the switch from me quickly tapping it to the right direction and it ends up costing me the game, usually. I have to move the stick so much for it to actuate the switch, and I find myself not doing that as I quickly tap on the joystick.
If there was a way to reduce the deadzone, I would perhaps be more comfortable for using the 309MJ in arcade games, but I find myself missing my LS-40 much more for them instead.
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With the above comments said about the 309MJ’s tension and deadzone, how does the 303M compare, if anyone’s tested it out? I’d also be curious on how a Fanta feels for classic arcade games. If anyone is able to, try giving Klax a play on a Korean joystick to see if I’m not just used to it still. Shmups would be another good alternative test, I feel, but I’ve yet to test out a shmup of choice.
Crown levers do have a spring.
I play old school arcade games with my k-sticks, and your observations are right on. For games that require quickly repeated taps, they don’t work as well.
So Saint, JDCR and Infiltration are in Australia for BAM9, and what better to do than to get some answers about their levers?
Confirmed from JDCR that the purple Crown lever they’ve been using in arcades is a HelpMe hand-made product, but he’s not sure if it’s supposed to be a version 2 of the 309-HelpMe. He said maybe.
As for the Crown SDL-301, Infiltration said it’s coming out in June some time. Looks like he lived up to his word - it really is coming out in Early 2017. :^)
Oh interesting. I know Help Me has that Makestick-look alike stick he made but it’s interesting to make a lever when Crown helped him before. Anything on that Saint lever? Also did they try the SDB-201 buttons?
I don’t have any other info unfortunately. Saint told me he’d make me a lever about 6 months ago but he hasn’t brought up the topic for a while lol. Will have to wait and see.
I was told that a Myoungshin Fanta is better for games like SF5 than a Crown… is that true?
Not really. It might differ in minutiae like tension, switches and dead zone. Unless it’s like comparing a Fanta with a Crown 307, other Korean levers should work fine in most cases. While I used a Fanta for a while I went to using a Crown 309 in 3D fighters and 2D fighters. Feels great for my hand but might differ for someone else. It ultimately is about personal input.
What is different between the 1st generation and 2nd generation? I do see that the 2nd generation lever has Panasonic/Matsushita switches while 1st generation had Gersung. Also I guess most of us outside Korea won’t be able to buy it easily. The purple top does look nice.
Yes 2nd generation switch is panasonic. I heard that Helpme renovate other thing.
I don’t know detail changes
It seems likely that Focus Attack has been selling the 2nd generation Help Me levers since they only use the Panasonic Switches.
True we don’t get the purple top offered. Maybe that is exclusive to Switch Arcade over there in Korea (kinda like how the Green Levers are never offered outside the Green Arcade).
Also, I was wondering what’s the progress on the Golden Fanta Project. It seems weeks since there has been some update on it and @wazwuz hasn’t been posting as of late.
I have it (the purple lever) exceptionally from Helpme with sanwa mounting plate.
http://nsa38.casimages.com/img/2017/05/15/mini_170515031519502904.jpg
It’s the new helpme crown stick.
It’s a really good one. I think the best joystick for Tekken PLAYERS.
I have tried the crown helpme stick (red one) just before, and its not as good as this new one.
http://nsa38.casimages.com/img/2017/05/15/mini_170515031519601494.jpg
Now in Green Arcade they use a white one.
@hmongbettaman any noticable differences between the first gen and second gen help me levers. I have the 309mj on a couple of my setups and the collared 309 on my Makestick setup and so far I enjoy them over the 307.
only microswitch are changed. they are a little bit more firm than the first gen.
first gen : Gersung (A2) microswitch
second gen (purple) : panasonic microswitch, and purple color, the new color for crown sticks
the rubber is the same
http://nsa38.casimages.com/img/2017/05/15/mini_170515061911844914.jpg
How is first gen switches on 309 Helpme some Gersung A2 ?? The pic shown for the Helpme 309 on ISTmall shows hinge lever Gersung A4 switches ( official promo pic from Samducksa http://istmall.godohosting.com/Images/309%20lever.jpg ) and the pic shown on Makestick’s site features hinge lever Gersung A3 ( http://istmall.godohosting.com/makestick.com/309%20lever(detail).jpg ).
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IMHO there are no “gens” ( you said the Helpme you saw , “first gen” , had A2, but official pics show A3 & A4…) ) and Crown just mounted what they had available at the moment. Replacing gersung by discontinued (since 2015) panasonic switches is a weird move from Samducksa, people won’t be able to replicate the feel of the panasonics if the switches are faulty and/or when they’ll need to replace them.
As for being “the best with Tekken” it is probably the best for Helpme to have ultra soft grommets and …A4 switches as per the model sold by IST, but Infiltration claims the best for him to play Tekken is to have a much stiffer grommet (according to Yo-O on Ruliweb concerning the SDL-301 being fine tuned as we speak) as Infiltration wasn’t comfortable with the 309 grommets (25-35A shore hardness) . All just a question of personal taste, as Phantomnaut put it down as well.
A4 Gersung , as pin plunger model (non levered) , needs 400gram-force to operate, but the force needed to operate when the switch has a hinge lever is not specified for A4 on the Gersung website. Same thing for A3. Reading the charts on the datasheet, it seems that a given hinge lever Gersung has the operating force of the NON levered model which has a reference digit number -1 (according to the values for A1 and A2 levered switches ) : folowing this method, we would get Gersung hinge lever A4 with the operating force of pin plunger (non levered) Gersung A3 which is 300gram force.
Similarly, Gersung A3 with hinge lever would then have the operating force of non levered Gersung A2 which is 200gram-force.
English Gersung site only references the A2 and A1 hinge lever models (A3 and A4 custom order only? Korea exclusivity? )
Panasonic AM5 do not have any hinge lever model over 2.35N ( ~2.40 gram-force) operating force so I highly doubt that the switches in “latest gen” 309 Helme have stiffer switch feel unless we compare with A2 of course.
Panasonic AM51630C69N, usually seen in recent Crown models, has indeed (according to equivalence in datasheet, AM51632C63N ) 60gf more operating force (total ~180gf) than the hinge lever Gersung A2 (120gf) , but the Gersung A3 and A4 are way beyond the stiffest Panasonics.
The panasonic in question could be a fake or a custom model, this needs of course confirmation ( “9” digit is also used in Seimitsu’s PCB panasonic switches which were probably a custom run, but the “0” in the switches seen in Crown models is a wrong digit that corresponds to a non levered model -see my post on the subject on page 30- ) .
OK.
i have the latest version of the stick i’m happy. and wanted to share with you.
don’t worry and be happy. 
i just cameback from SouthKorea.
HelpMe is one of my best friends 
Thank you rageux