Paradise Arcade Shop, LED Joysticks, Buttons, Mods and more

Tech Talk
2021

First off, this is what tech talk is supposed to be, I love it guys!

I think the key thing is experimentation. Everyone plays a little different. There are short throw actuators that have come to market, but we are taking a slightly different approach and using the gate to shorten throws and the actuator to actuate switches. I know, craziness, use the restrictor gate to restrict motion and the actuator to adjust microswitch actuation… I must have lost it. (Susan is nodding her head)

There are some JLF acrylic gates we did and will be doing again similar to the Moonchilde gates for the the Seimitsu sticks, and we think the second version will be well received. However, I have a TON of stuff on my plate, so patience is a virtue. I would agree with Pnoy’s sentiment that above 1mm does not work well with the stock micros.

I also have to agree with some of the sentiment here regarding how much do you tweak a JLF before just buying a different stick. While we do produce a lot of mods for the JLF. Sometimes it feels like making a 250,000 dollar Civic:

http://drivesteady.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/21.jpg

I think tweaking the JLF is great, but if the JLF doesn’t feel tight enough, maybe it’s time to try a Seimitsu.

At the end of the day I think the thing you need to figure out is what feels good to you and the only way to get there is what MC, Pnoy, George, and Inendoi are saying, ask here, buy something, try something, get the feel, have an idea and repeat, ask here… This is part of the fun of modding sticks.

A simple example about how these things are hard to predict. I bought the 9lb spring as an over the top comparison, never expecting anyone to really want it. Now we are sold out and people are bugging us to get them back in! Who would have ever predicted that.

2022

Yeah, I missed the good old, no drama, tech talk … talk. LOL. For a while I simply hated checking in Tech Talk.

2023

Any idea when you’ll be getting those 1mm actuators back in stock? Any chance you get some short solid short JLF shafts soon or ever? Does the short Zippy/ Seimitsu shaft fit Sanwa? Will you ever get Sanwa gates? && can I get a picture comparison of a standard JLF shaft & you short, hollow10mm JLF shaft, please?

Sorry for 20q.

2024

Have you considered checking the PAS Twist? It’s’ a variable height JLF Hollow shaft, should take care of your needs. Any reason you want a solid over hollow, abuse paranoia maybe?

2025

I used seimitsu’s before it was cool. true story.

2026

1mm actuators were supposed to come in a month ago but that vendor flaked on us so we are moving the orders over to the person who does all our hollow shafts, they should be arrive before the new year.

@Moonchilde beat me to the Twist suggestion

Susan will post pictures tomorrow

@hibachifinal welcome back! but I think you made that up

2027

I checked the Twist but the shortest length didn’t look noticeably shorter to me than the mid-length. The 10mm hollow looks to me to be at least half as long as the standard shaft.

Yes I do realize I could try a Seimitsu stick or whatever blah blah but I just had a USPS package containing MK v DCU, Injustice, Tekken 6, & a TE SF4 fightstick that I won on Ebay for $85 **stolen **& I’m just heartbroken & I just want to mod my HRAP3 & try not to cry. Yes Ive done everything I can about but something tells me I wont get what I paid for.

Yo will that short Zip/ Sei work with a JLF though? & Octo Sanwa gates. I know everyone hates them but I’m not asking for opinions right now. I’m not trying to sound rude I’m just saying…

Yes I was worried about breaking hollow shafts though.

2028

9 lb joystick spring?

I have the 3 lb LS-56 spring installed in my LS-58 and that’s probably the highest tension I’d go for ANY joystick!
Ratcheting the tension up can be just as bad as being too loose which is almost the case with the stock LS-40 and definitely my impression with the LS-58!

Believe me, I’ve had crazy joystick tension in one or two LS-32’s. I’ve screwed two springs together and got crazy tension. You had to be a weightlifter to move a stick with that much tension! Never doing that spring mod again!

FYI,

Only negative I saw using the 38mm balltop/Tiger Eye Emerald was the increased diameter. You have to adjust a bit to do dash-dash/tap-tap on the joystick. Every other move works the same. I’ll get a lot more use with it when the stuff I ordered from Art Hong over Black Friday weekend arrives soon. It’ll probably end up as the handle on the LS-32-01 I have installed in my Hori Soul Calibur V joystick.

The SC V/HRAP N3-SA is a mixed bag as a joystick case. Great heft, beautiful exterior, but the inside is a mess for stick replacement. They have this stupid “tub” or plastic ring around the joystick mount. You can still install an alternate lever, yes, but there’s just no room to snake a joystick (other than the JLF or maybe the LS-33) without the PCB banging into that “retainer ring.” That this should be a problem with a joystick that has a top-loading/removable faceplate is a joke… You should NOT have to remove the baseplate to change joystick levers or change spring installations with a toploading faceplate! The only Hori HRAP joystick case that’s designed worse (interior-wise) is the HRAP V3. I have small hands, somewhat pudgy fingers. I still shouldn’t have to have child-sized hands and child-sized fingers to be able to comfortably remove buttons from a joystick case!

Interior space wasn’t a problem with the Astrocade HRAP cases and certainly not the Hori HRAP VLX joysticks. Can’t speak to the Fighting Edge – don’t own one of those joysticks. I might be “cooling it” anyway with current gen joysticks, not buy anything new for the forseeable future, and just finishing customizing what I have with possible scale-downs in the collection as it were. Don’t know… I’m only sure that I’m good for now with systems and have no intention of buying a PS4 for at least 7-8 months, maybe not even until Year 2’s well under way.

2029

@Armi0024 - I wanted to ask you if you could post a pic of the Emerald Tigereye balltop with an Aqua PS-14-G but I don’t think you have anymore of those buttons. @GeorgeC - Can you give me any idea of how these would pair together?

2030

I don’t have Aqua blue Seimitsu buttons – and I know which ones you’re talking about, they were limited production – BUT the Sanwa light blue buttons should be close enough for a good comparison/contrast even though they’ll be darker/more saturated than the Seimitsu’s.

IMHO, the aqua blue SHOULD work with an Emerald Tiger Eye. The Tiger Eye is a Teal Green, NOT an emerald green color. That means it has blue values (shades) in it.

The only blue buttons I have right now (besides Seimitsu Pearl blues) are 24mm solid (light) blue Sanwa buttons. I brought the Tiger Eye emerald ball handle up to them for comparison under strong light and then moved away.

[The ironic thing is that I used to have a a TON of light blue buttons… they disappeared as I sold joysticks over the past few years.]

You know what? I DO think they’ll work together fine for a color combination!
I would go with light blue/aqua over any of the green buttons available on market now. I just don’t think this ball handle would look as nice in combination with green, period.

http://i956.photobucket.com/albums/ae47/GeorgeC1970/IMG_0157_zpsa0dad240.jpg

Just goes to show how dramatically even slight light changes affect color…
This a very dynamic balltop handle when it comes to the way it reflects light.
You can even see slight color changes between two 24mm buttons that are SUPPOSED to be the same color/same production lot!

2031

I asked this in the art-hobbies thread, but I never got a reply. Does anyone know is the light blue OBSC buttons match the tek-innovations fluorescent blue? I suspect they do, but the sample pic Art has on his website says otherwise.

2032

Can’t help with the Art Hong thing… I ordered enough from him as it is this season! LOL

The only way to know for sure how colors match up is to have items side-by-side like I just posted.
You have to look at them in person… Even the best consumer camera doesn’t completely capture what the human eye sees. Mechanical view is always different and IMHO inferior unless it’s built to see into areas of the visual spectrum where human vision is weak or nonexistent (IR, ultra-low light level, etc).

The problem with anything that’s dynamic like the Tiger Eye or transparent material is that they’re going to look different depending on lighting and light levels. The average light bulb doesn’t do much to change appearance of many materials but move it into Sahara Desert sun or a power camera light stand and you see huge differences with something like the Tiger Eye balltop. Unless a material is absolutely clear (or close enough) or solid-colored (most arcade buttons), it distorts the way light passes through or bounces off it. You have to take your averages as it were… Changing angles and distances changes the color for dynamic objects, too.

The Seimitsu bubbletop ball handles are another example of a part that changes dramatically under different light conditions. It’s not exaggerating to say that the green bubbletop looks “yellow-green pee color” under normal light BUT it literally glows when it’s hit with strong sunlight (or internally lit with an LED) and becomes a more vibrant green color.

Yeah, for normal light levels and non-LED, the blue and red bubbletops are generally better to use! LOL

2033

@Sticksworth, the twist short is 1cm shorter than the standard JLF, 10mm lengths are exactly the same length as the standard shaft.
That really sucks with the stolen package! The Short Zip/Seim does not fit the JLF and we do have octo’s

We have never had someone break a hollow shaft while playing. If you do, I will replace it.

@georgec I am way to tired to write back. Great stuff, we got the pink ball top back. It looks great on my stick! :slight_smile: It wasn’t set, I took my drill, ran a 6mm thread in and out of it a few times, screwed it good and hard, now it’s nice and loose. I want to thank you, honestly, for letting us know about this, its important for us to be aware of when things slip through that shouldn’t. And that Tiger eye is a nice ball isn’t it!

@iNendoi shoot Susan a text and she should be able to see if she can snap a quick picture.

@evolution169 if Art shows no, I would guess it doesn’t…

2034

@armi0024 – You have a Willy Wonka-themed joystick? Candy cane would go well with that!

I was kind of wondering where that balltop would end up…

2035

Talked to Susan about it before. Im pretty sure all the aquas are goneskis. Fug it. I’m just gonna order the damn thing. LoL.

2036

One of Butterjo’s swirl ball tops, one that sorta look like a piece of candy from a distance.

2037

That candy cane balltop armi0024 refers to is the Butteroj balltop handle I originally got from PAS.
It found a new home back in Hawaii! It belongs to another stick now! LOL

I sent it back because it the threading was too tight and traded in for a different color, the Tiger Eye emerald.

The site says Tiger Eye emerald green, in-person I say it’s Tiger Eye teal green and matches up better with light blue parts than green… (I posted a photo a few posts up to back up my assertion there…) I know, picky, but my visual accuity is pretty good and I pick up on visual details that many other people miss.

There a lot of people on SRK that don’t see the differences between Seimitsu’s definition of “red” and Sanwa’s “red” and “vermillion” red. They’ve never seen the different parts in person, are Sanwa-only people and just don’t care, or generally have some eyesight issues that don’t let them see the shade differences.

Vermillion to begin with is “orange-RED.” Sometimes, it’s “ORANGE-red.” Depends on the manufacturer. I say Sanwa’s vermillion is almost dead even between red and orange so it’s a pretty good plastic color formulation. Anyhow, it has orange shades in it. It’s one of Sanwa’s less popular color choices… People generally like the more intense red better. Seimitsu’s shade of red is definitely closer to Sanwa’s vermillion than the Sanwa red. Seimitsu colors in general are a shade or two lighter than Sanwa’s. Sanwa colors tend to be a bit darker/more saturated than Seimitsu’s. I found the difference in-person to be striking enough but that’s me. Other people don’t seem to notice so much or really care…

Even the Hori plastic colors tend to be very different from the Sanwa stock. With the exception of the HRAP 3 with the vermillion ball handle, they make very little attempt to match Sanwa’s colors although in that joystick’s case the (inferior) Hori buttons really did match the Sanwa ball handle fairly well. The (American) Tekken 5 ball handle also matched Sanwa’s red plastic shade fairly well, too. It’s a pretty close match to the Sanwa red ball handle excepting the fact that it has a flatter cut bottom that the 6mm thread is centered in and is 1.5-2mm shorter than the Sanwa ball handle.

2038

Thanks to Susan for the incredibly fast shipping. Placed an order last night and woke up this morning to see that it has already shipped.

2039

Just a reminder on our Modder program. We have four gentlemen on our site that you can “purchase” their services and they will mod your stick for you. We offer discounts on the items they buy for your stick. You can find them here: Assembly Assistance

@GeorgeC The Candy Cane Swirl balltop is off to Japan!

@iNENDOi George had the only Emerald Green balltop we had. Sorry! I’ll see if we can get one on the next order.

@YellowCan You are welcome!

2040

You snooze you lose.