Of note, the reports of the damaged button tabs aren’t that they arrived broken, but that the plastic is flimsy/brittle and they break very easily when removing the buttons. This happened to me on several of my buttons.
Also, for the PCB, accessing the USB is very easy as the solder points extend through the PCB to the top. I installed a Toodle’s SOCD Cleaner which requires USB power and you can just solder them to the top of the board with no problems whatsoever. D- and D+ are labeled and VCC is next to them, separated by a white line. There are two grounds which are wired together so it’s incredibly easy to confirm where you’re soldering to by checking connectivity between the two points on the board and the outside of the USB cable.
This means you’re not removing them properly or carefully then as almost every Sanwa OBSF button on a metal panel is pretty much the same. That wouldn’t be an issue with the stick’s metal panel itself then but something that happens universally with an OBSF. I’ll take it off the list.
Will re-phrase then. I see from your photo how accessible the USB solder points are from the top, but it doesn’t change the accessibility or convenience of the bottom of the PCB. Correct me if I’m wrong here, but if you want to remove that PCB you must desolder the USB wires from the PCB first.
Can anyone confirm if the wires that go from the PCB to the inside of the 5 pin ProCable can be removed easily without desoldering from that as well? Or perhaps if the inside piece of the ProCable can be removed with the wires so that the PCB can easily be taken out?
The buttons thing was kind of unique in that it was reported by several people including myself who are well versed in installing and removing OBSFs on many previous sticks without seeing this issue. On 3 of my TE2 buttons (out of 16 over 2 sticks) - the OBSF locking tabs were damaged, defective, or possibly suffered rough installation in the factory. Perhaps the locking tension of being installed was enough to keep the cracked tabs in place until one attempted to remove them, as there were definitely no loose tab pieces rattling around in my sticks when they arrived (I’d have noticed for sure). Either way, even gently pressing the locking tabs resulted in them cracking and breaking off. Since I was removing the broken buttons to replace them with another color, it didn’t matter much to me, but hearing several other people complain about the same thing made me question whether the installation process was done with care.
Also, it’s possible that the unique clear “riser ring” that is installed on the OBSFs on TE2 buttons could have something to do with this phenomenon as they do inadvertenly change the engage height of the tabs on the metal plate.
If you want to remove the PCB entirely there is actually another way. By removing the plastic cover from the USB port internally you can remove the PCB/USB connection entirely. This will leave you with a PCB and the USB wiring still connected with each other but removed entirely from the rest of the case. If I can I’ll try to post a picture of it tomorrow morning.
I’ve updated my previous post CLICK with my “almost final” version of the pluses and minuses of the TE2.
There’s still a few remaining questions I have for TE2 owners if anyone can chime in. They are as follows:
If you can provide any answers or information towards these questions I can be more detailed in the positives and negatives of the TE2 listed above. Please PM me with any information you can provide.
1-Does the existing placement for the ProCable mount have enough clearance on the outside AND inside to install a Neutrik or Switchcraft USB B to A adapter?
2-What is the usable interior space for mounting PCBs? Do the quick disconnects go far down enough when shut to eliminate the empty space real estate in the stick?
3-Are the hinge clasps metal or plastic?
4-Riser ring on OBSF buttons? User @IronmanSS mentioned there was a riser ring on the OBSFs potentially changing the “engage height of the button tabs”
On the outside where the Procable is the space is about 2cm by 5.2cm so I’m not sure if both screws on a USB Neutrik would be able to fit, the shorter side on the Neutrik is 2.5cm around? As for the inside of it I didn’t open that box yet where the Procable is but it tapers and gets smaller than the outside.
I would say there’s decent room for a PCB on the front right of the stick and the whole right side if you use 6 buttons instead of 8, as for the space inside I can place something 5.5cm tall and close the lid, so RG buttons should fit fine.
The side hinges are metal, the middle front part that’s connected to the button to open and close the stick and lock is plastic
If you check these outthey’re what I’m referring to. While it doubtful they are the direct cause of the damaged OBSF locking tabs, the tabs do have to be engaged to install these “washer/riser rings” on the buttons. While they would change the engage height of the tabs, it would not be much different than having a plexi of that same thickness instead, so I would lean towards rough installation as the probable cause of the cracked tabs.
Updated main post again CLICK if anyone who owns a TE2 can read and confirm including info via @IronmanSS and @Tensho Pretty much done now with the TE2 one, will start on other sticks soon.
I believe the first run of the KI TE2s had 1/8" plexi with either 1/16" or 1/32" (can’t remember which) edges where the bezel would sit so that the plexi actually sat flush with the bezel.
After the KI version, they switched to a regular 1/16" with no special edges like the previous version.
Finally, the latest ones have 1/32" plexis, which I’ve noticed are actually lower than the buttons due to the (required) translucent spacer rings that go under each button, so the buttons are actually above the plexi as opposed to being flush, at least on my P4U2 TE2.
They just need to let go of the easy art swap plexi with the spacer rings; it is the source of so much woes with these sticks. They should start using plexi that is held in place by both the buttons and the bezel. The stick became so much more comfortable to play with after I swapped the original plexi with one from Art.
hay marksman you never got mack to me on twitter. when are the t.e.2 of march suppose to ship i been waiting for this bad boy since i bought it baby HA HA bingo
How soon can we get the N-Type plates for this bad boy? Still holding out on changing up the artwork and plexi due to costs of shipping it to the UK from Arts Hobbies and not wanting to repeat the process in a few months time for the other panel…
