Namco Stick Appreciation!

[ulovemikeroch]

thanks guys.

I’m purchasing 2 namco sticks next week and a TE stick next month which i’ll mod with Suzo rotterdam sticks (i’m old school, not sure if you guys are familiar with these sticks).

If i dont like the namco sticks i can always mod them with sanwa buttons whish i have plenty of.

How are you going to fit a Suzo rotterdam in those stick cases? Those Suzos are huge.

[Sexperienced]

How are you going to fit a Suzo rotterdam in those stick cases? Those Suzos are huge.

Ony into the TE stick not the namco’s.

[Ikagi-chan]

Trust me Sexperienced., you won’t be disappointed in your Namco Joy Sticks. If you do however get dead set on modding one to genuine arcade parts, please for the sake of zeetes and me keep at least one of them stock. :sad:

By the way, I got to thank you again for selling me my Namco jeenyus1. You’re right; this thing really is the best thing ever for table play; however I am also a lap player and having a Namco sit in my lap is probably better than any lap dance.

Hori sticks always have Omron microswitches and not because they want to use arcade grade components but simply because they’re very common, an almost inevitable choice.

Oh man, M K L owns me again! I must apologize again for my stupidity. I personally do not and never have owned any of HORI’s non-Real Arcade Pro line of sticks. If HORI does use Omron switches in their budget sticks, I’m very curious as to why they seem to fail more commonly than does the Namco. By chance, are the V-15-3A5 microswitches in the Namco rated for more depressions than the Omron switches used in later HORI sticks?

Also, M K L, I don’t suppose you know the manufacturer of the Namco’s pushbuttons, do you? I’m going to throw out a guess that HORI made the microswitches for the buttons, but since I haven’t seen up close the buttons from a Namco stick not attached to the PCB, I can’t check myself. If they are made by HORI, what was changed with their future buttons? Quality control? Different manufacturing process? Sorry if my questions are outrageous, but I’m very curious since just by eyeballing the inside of my own Namco, it seems like you could switch out the microswitches in the buttons for perhaps a Sanwa microswitch or a Seimitsu PS-14D (I think that’s the ID number for their smaller ones) microswitch.

[zeetes]

no matter how good the namco mod is, i always cringe at least a little when i see one modded. it’s sad in a way =\ i understand why people mod them with the personalization and all, but the sticks are perfect already!!

Thank you for all the replies.

I should have clarified before, that the stick isnt actually mine yet. A coworker that used to work at Namco had two of these sitting in a garage or something. I was amazed to find out that he didnt really know how good they were. He has one working stick and one with the frayed wires, so I was hoping I could get the frayed wired one for 30$ and fix the cable myself, leaving everything else stock. It would be nice if I could get the other working one too but Im not that lucky usually.

They must have come straight from namco cause there is a sticker on the bottom that reads ***“Property of Namco Hometek- Inc”***.

I think Ill try splicing the wires and go from there, as I dont have any soldering experience or equipment.

that is so freaking awesome. good luck man, i hope you get it! i kinda figured by reading the post you didn’t have it yet, i think everyone else got a little excited haha!

[ShinJN]

It’s a fun mod, I enjoyed doing mine.

Good job. I used the same techniques (JLF and seimitsu buttons) on my Namco mod that I did back in 2002. Good to know people have discovered the same techniques on their own. Great minds think alike.

For Sanwa buttons, I used another trick. =D

[zeetes]

Hori sticks always have Omron microswitches and not because they want to use arcade grade components but simply because they’re very common, an almost inevitable choice.

the only hori i’ve owned where i don’t believe this is true is the wii fighting stick. the microswitches are fairly plain and don’t say omron like the other omrons i’ve seen. plus they don’t have the same clickiness of the jlf/namco switches. my tekken sticks and hori ex2 definitely were omron though.

It’s a fun mod, I enjoyed doing mine.

haha that’s exactly how i modded the jlf in mine. using flat-sheet metal screws, it was a very easy mod. i played like that about a month before reverting back to the stock stick. it’s actually a really nice mod, i like the stick. it’s kinda like a jlf ultimate mod without the mod.

[jdm714]

Microswitch in the Namco Buttons are TKC (Tokai Communication).

It is the MM9-2.
http://www.tokaicom.jp/product30/page10/detail.htm

I think you can ask TheRealNeoGeo for them.
Because Seimitsu use these Microswitches for their Mahjong Buttons; Seimitsu JB-35-T.

TKC MM9-2 used in this HORI Fighting Stick for SNES also.
http://www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~silencium/keyboard/html/hori.html

You can replace the TKC MM9-2 Microswitch with Seimitsu PS-14D Microswitch.
The Seimitsu PS-14D is actually a TKC MM9-3 Microswitch.

And with that known, can put in Sanwa SW-68 Microswitch.

[d0c_zaius]

no matter how good the namco mod is, i always cringe at least a little when i see one modded. it’s sad in a way =\ i understand why people mod them with the personalization and all, but the sticks are perfect already!!

that is so freaking awesome. good luck man, i hope you get it! i kinda figured by reading the post you didn’t have it yet, i think everyone else got a little excited haha!

I got it for 30! Now just to fix it

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/2627/namco.jpg

SO GOOD!:smokin:

EDIT: I just spent some time cleaning the wound, and playing MvC2 with it. Im kind of worried now. The wires are actually fine, the fraying was just the casing. However the square and x buttons arent very responsive at all, maybe responding to 1/5 button presses. The other buttons seem fine. And the joystick left/right movement feels sluggish as well.

I really want to keep the stock parts, but if I have to replace the board I dunno…

[M_K_L]

If HORI does use Omron switches in their budget sticks, I’m very curious as to why they seem to fail more commonly than does the Namco.

I don’t think we have enough evidence to draw such a conclusion. People often report input problems for the EX2 stick but that seems to be due to PCB failure.
Also, the Namco stick isn’t as popular as later Hori sticks so it’s normal to hear more problems ralated to the latter.

By chance, are the V-15-3A5 microswitches in the Namco rated for more depressions than the Omron switches used in later HORI sticks?

You can read on p.8 of the V-series datasheet the durability ratings:
http://www.omron.com/ecb/products/pdf/en-v.pdf

Switches rated for higher current last longer as it’s normal. I think Hori always uses switches rated 15A as in the Namco and EX2 sticks.

On a side note, it is unclear what the Omron switches in the JLF stick actually are:

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8582/jlfmicroswitch.th.jpg

The Omron V-series datasheet doesn’t mention any 01 code. 01 seems to be the part of the code where the current rating normally is, so they would be rated 1A? It doesn’t sound likely to me.
The operating force, an essential parameter, is also unclear as according to my reading D and 5 are to be kept together so 5 cannot be the OF value as is the case with the Namco switches.

Also, M K L, I don’t suppose you know the manufacturer of the Namco’s pushbuttons, do you?

See jdm714’s post.

[zeetes]

I got it for 30! Now just to fix it

SO GOOD!:smokin:

EDIT: I just spent some time cleaning the wound, and playing MvC2 with it. Im kind of worried now. The wires are actually fine, the fraying was just the casing. However the square and x buttons arent very responsive at all, maybe responding to 1/5 button presses. The other buttons seem fine. And the joystick left/right movement feels sluggish as well.

I really want to keep the stock parts, but if I have to replace the board I dunno…

that is awesome! double check the cable to make sure the fraying is just the jacket and the braid and not the actual wires. also just crack er’ open to take a look, it’s only 6 screws on the base, small phillips will do the job!

thanks M K L and jdm714 for all of the good information!

[zeetes]

Grainger has the omron v-15g-3c25-k microswitches, new part order: grainger # 2krf8 stopped by there in north houston and they had 1 in stock(1.99 w/ work discount), only 3 stores natiowide had any more and the most was 2, but the clerk said they are available online, I’m on my blackberry otherwise I would look

[Sexperienced]

Grainger has the omron v-15g-3c25-k microswitches, new part order: grainger # 2krf8 stopped by there in north houston and they had 1 in stock(1.99 w/ work discount), only 3 stores natiowide had any more and the most was 2, but the clerk said they are available online, I’m on my blackberry otherwise I would look

try this site http://uk.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=retrieveTfg&Ne=4294922322&Ntt=omron&Nr=AND(avl%3Auk%2CsearchDiscon_uk%3AN)&Ntk=I18NAll&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial&N=4294963948+4294957311+4294921629&Ns=stockPolicy_uk|1||new_uk|1&Nty=1&binCount=264&multiselectParam=4294963948%204294957311&selectSubRange=V3%20Housed#breadCrumb

[zeetes]

Grainger has the omron v-15g-3c25-k microswitches, new part order: grainger # 2krf8 stopped by there in north houston and they had 1 in stock(1.99 w/ work discount), only 3 stores natiowide had any more and the most was 2, but the clerk said they are available online, I’m on my blackberry otherwise I would look

Mini Snap Swch,15A,SPST-NO,Pin Plunger

[Chrisz0r]

Got this on ebay pretty cheap. This stick is gdlk!

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/9383/namcostick.jpg

[Gigazord]

Got this on ebay pretty cheap. This stick is gdlk!

Wow…that thing looks gorgeous! Did you get an unopened one or something?

[Chrisz0r]

Wow…that thing looks gorgeous! Did you get an unopened one or something?

negative. The face and internals were kept in very good condition but the bottom plate is scratch ridden. Not to mention the douche who previously owned it wrote his full name on the back with a huge permanent pen, which I already took off.

[Kazujiro]

Wow…that thing looks gorgeous! Did you get an unopened one or something?

They just look that damn good, new or used condition.

negative. The face and internals were kept in very good condition but the bottom plate is scratch ridden. Not to mention the douche who previously owned it wrote his full name on the back with a huge permanent pen, which I already took off.

HAHAHA, he just didn’t want another douchebag to steal his stick!

[Chrisz0r]

HAHAHA, he just didn’t want another douchebag to steal his stick!

ahaha that sounds about right

goes to grab a sharpie

[Inca]

the dust cover and the stick shaft look different… . could be the lighting of the picture tho.

[Zapf]

Yeah, the namco stick normally has a greyish dustwasher and no shaft cover.

Though when I modded mine I cut down a jlf shaft cover to use on it