Custom gates for the Seimitsu joysticks? Do you have any pictures of these? I’m not saying I would buy because I’m generally happy with the gates as they are.
The square gates are fine… The LS-40 is weak as far as the subguide is. It’s not good for old-style, 4-direction games like Pac-Man. The LS-32 subguide is much better.
I have never used a subguide or LS-56. I have an LS-58 which is similar and definitely needs a tighter spring IMHO… Stock LS-58 is too loose.
Wasn’t aware of this little gate project…
P.S. – Can’t afford to go to Evo and frankly I’m not much of a convention/tourney guy any way…
The largest game item I ever brought through security was a Sega Virtual-On Twin Stick. No way was I going to take the Black Japanese Saturn light guns through security way back when! LOL
We asked about a booth but were told it’s 10k or something crazy like that so it will be me, a hotel room and a bag of stuff. Maybe I should get a trench coat or something lol.
I will have a bunch of new things for sale as well some items to give away for fun or testing. I got interested in gates when I saw the new Seimitsu gate. I didn’t make any sense to me to put a circle gate on top of a square one. It makes a stick with accentuated angles, which is great formatting Qbert, but…
We have a stock of the original ls-32 circle base plates, but as far as I know they don’t make them any more. So I decided to see what I could do with cutting my own gates and so far the results are pretty nice. Hmmm maybe we should do another survey monkey trial.
quick question about your store. if something is still “IN STOCK” it means you still have right now still stock of that item right? (i mean its automated), i wanna order a ps360+ pcb and a bunch of other stuff, just wanna make sure you still have the pcb in stock right at this moment. thanks.
You can probably sell all those circle gates…
I don’t use them anymore and sold most of mine (except 2 – they’re on the “to-sell” list with a lot of other junk I want to unload for space) but people still occasionally ask for them.
I ended up not needing them after all because the levers on the Seimitsu microswitches actually help with circular motion. I’ve never figured out why people have problems with that but some obviously do…
I think the bigger issue is the looseness on a few of the LS joystick lines.
The LS-58 looseness is easily resolved with an LS-56 spring swap-in.
Some think the LS-40 is too loose but I got used to it; on a good day I’m fine with the LS-40. I just have to be relaxed and not try to overpower the joystick. Very smooth movements, nothing harsh. I’ve been told it’s possible to use an alternate spring in the LS-40 but I hate the idea of doing a plastic mod that takes more than a cutter snip. I was told the spring retainer on the LS-40 was the main obstacle to springs mods and there’s no getting around cutting it if you want to use production springs to mod the LS-40 tension. There’s just no convenient way to ramp up the spring tension in an LS-40… little room exists for tweaks which is not the case with the LS-32. Joystick mods shouldn’t be complicated which is why I’m out of the Sanwa joystick arena. Some people still love to tinker to death with the JLF, though.
I have used LS-32’s in stock condition but I prefer slightly greater tension than stock. A stock spring will lose tension faster than a slightly tenser situation. It just feels better to me. Not much difference between a stock LS-32 and an LS-40 really.
I like having a variety of stick subtypes just to be used to slightly different feels.
Maybe one of these days I’ll pick up the JLF again and it’ll feel more comfortable – right now, not so much.
Yeah, I’ve seen the new Seimitsu octo-gate for the LS-32. There were pictures of it posted at another site… My own thoughts were, “Wow… what a lousy design. But you know people are going to buy it and THEN bitch about it later!” LOL
(Not that the octogate on the JLF is great, either. The Achilles’ heels of the JLF are the long throw distance, slow recentering, and the harder activation force for the microtabs; no restrictor gate swap or mod will fix those problems. Those are design features like it or not. It’s not a great joystick for retro-fighters, IMHO. Those design issues don’t exist with either the LS-32 or LS-40. They have their own problems but long throw and slow recentering aren’t there!)
I was bored… gates done in 1mm stepped sizing for testing circle, square, and 4 way for the LS-56, and Octo, circle and square for the ls-32
testers? Bueller?
sweet. just ordered the ps360+ and the silent seimitsu micros set… first time ordering from you guys… now to see what all the fuss is all about that free candy. haha!
im curious about the ls-56/58 guides you posted. do those act as the replacement for the main gate (the white one)? or a sub gate? im just wondering because the LS-56 gates have tabs/protruding things which go into the microswitch’s holes, keeping them secure in place. wondering how it works with your design. (i know know its far from the final product, but yeah, just curious.)
@hibachifinal - the LS56 guide is currently replacement plate, however, it would be very easy to do it as a sub plate. on the LS-56-01 the micros are pcb mounted and do not require the extra tabs for stability. I may do a second round as a sub plate though, I like that idea. We have some really fun stuff coming out with restriction plates, some stuff that will matter here, some stuff that is geared more for the mame world.
The tabs just make putting the gate on the switches easier. The screws are what actually secures the gates and switches, you can still use a gate with no tabs built in fairly easy.
would be the case for the pcb assy. but what about if you use loose switches (which i personally prefer)? again, just anticipating some things, im not being anal or anything, i just thought without those tabs, it might get switches that wobble around.
just flip the body upside down on a stable surface, place the switches on it, and then put the gate on and the screws. Use gravity to your advantage, lol Oh right, I also forgot, that the LS-56 and LS-58 have little tabs built into the body that keep the switches from wobbling.
@armi0024 - I wish I had an LS-32 to be a tester (actually, I’ve been thinking about building a shooter stick, and an LS-32 has crossed my mind for that, hehe)!
Anyway, I know that these are just prototypes, but would the final units be acrylic as well? I just wonder if the acrylic edges would be too hard on the plastic actuator neck (of course, an aluminum replacement actuator would take care of that right quick ). Running along the same lines, I think that putting a corner radius on the square gates (both the 4 and 8 ways) to better complement the diameter of the actuator neck might put less wear on the actuator itself when hitting the corners. For a hex gate, it might not be a big deal, but for a square, it might be more abusive.
Of course, if the final production units were nylon (not sure how laser friendly nylon is), my first suggestion would be moot.
Sanwa uses acrylic, but I think we will do delrin for final production. I was thinking mirrored restriction plates would be cool though
We will definitely be rounding corners out a lot, and good conversation above, all gates will be tested to ensure size, actuation and firm retention of micros before the official launch
thanks.
). Running along the same lines, I think that putting a corner radius on the square gates (both the 4 and 8 ways) to better complement the diameter of the actuator neck might put less wear on the actuator itself when hitting the corners.