Order buttons too my friend.
Yes, if the microswitches in your stock buttons are going bad, you can just swap them out for sanwa’s. Like most who bought the SE, all we really paid for is the main pcb and the case, everything else can be easily rectified by replacing the stick and/or buttons.
This may sound silly, but I’d figure I’d ask:
Has anyone experiencing the washer problem with the original stick tried glueing the washer down? I already modded mine, but except for that problem the original parts are actually pretty good, just not quite sanwa/seimitsu quality. It seems to me that gluing the washer down (sharp side down. Markman, make them grind and polish the burrs off after stamping them out if you can) it would solve the sticking and rubbing against the pcb while allowing it to still do its job of protecting the base from the constantly moving plastic piece at the bottom of the spring.
I’ll try it as soon as I find a case to put the parts in, but I’d figure I’d share and see if anyone else has done it.
Well my 360 SE came completely screwed out of the box. I used arroldite on the washer to stick it down ()the build quality of the whole stick part is so bad its hard not to break it when taking it apart!
Thats now working fine but the X button is now only working 50/50 making ultras very hared. Sometimes it will work perfect others i can press it ten times in a row without it throwing a single punch!
Case feels real nice to use so its not a waste of money i just wish the sanwas would come a lot quick than i suspect they will… only ordered today
Errr…have you even tried to read the OP?
I’m more worried about what happens if you live neither in USA or UK, as in my case.
To anyone with a faulty SE & contemplating upgrading the parts… Just Do It.
I put Sanwa stick & 8 new buttons and it is so smooth & responsive now.
I also spent some time on the Madcatz stick to glue the washer down and then filed a bit off the bottom of the plastic cap that goes over the spring.
I did that because I found the left input and down input of the stick was sometimes not registering and first thought the microswitches were stuffed. They were ok ( QMSRON - China, rather than OMRON - Japan, switches in the Sanwa).
Upon inspection I saw that the plastic spring cover was catching on the bottom of the spring, filing it back with a sharp cutting tool by about 1mm seems to have fixed the problem and it now works as good as a Madcatz stick will ever work, ie. pretty ordinary and not as good as a Hori even.
I put it all back together and played SFiv for a few hours but then went back to the Sanwa stick and now that baby is in for good, no comparison and once you play with both you can understand people saying Sanwa is best.
Madcatz made a big fail on the joystick component of the SE, it is just trash, plain & simple and not worth the effort. They really should have got it manufactured to just a little bit higher standard, but that’s Madcatz for you and they say a Leopard can never change its spots.
My stick after modding :
I called Mad Catz today after having Gamestop run that bs hustle on me I too picked up a stick last night and asked that if it started sticking I could return it and sure enough when I got to the store, they had the corporate release handy stating that refunds were not to be given and to direct you to send it in to Mad Catz. I live in the Bay Area so shipping should only be 1 day each way, so tech supports said it shouldn’t be too bad getting it back soon. I got my initial email after I got off the phone with him and he said that I should get my shipping label the next day in a second email.
I am very dissapointed though because for $80, these issues should have been caught. We aren’t talking issues that take months to develop…these are defective right out the box. Did they even QA any of these or even try one out:annoy:
Hey youngjboy, if you can afford it don’t even bother returning it to Madcatz, the quality of the stick working or not is below average. Pickup some Sanwa parts, put em in and you have a really, really nice stick… as good as any and it looks really nice too 
Yeah, I am gonna probably send it in and get it back and then if it is still wack, just swap them out. I just hate to HAVE to do it because the total cost is then almost identical to a TE stick. I went to licklizard and it was about $58 for a stick and 8 buttons. That in addition to the original 79.99 and tax is a TE stick. I will probably end up having to bite the bullet though and go sanwa.
So i’m a little confuse with buying a joystick… Do all of them come with a PCB because I thought we would have to stick with the stock one when modding.
Heres my broken “up” on the board…
How do I get a new (or used) replacement board? I dont have the setup for this type of soldering. I can burn big stuff all day, tho.:wgrin:
This sucks. I really want this squared away asap
So I am a sucker and even after reading all of the negative posts about it, I picked up my SE on launch day. Played on it for about 12 hours so far. There don’t seem to be any problems. Hopefully it stays that way…
Just giving some hope to people that are looking to buy it.
In about 10 hours of gameplay on my SE fightstick. I have had all of my punch buttons (entire top row, including the all-in-one black button) stop working entirely. A replug on the 360 fixed it one time. Second time it magically started working without doing anything…
Very odd. Anyone seen similar?
writes down
Remove washer when it’s here. Buy Seimitsu buttons.
You might be like: Why not buy seimitsu LS-32-01 as well? Well, it’s all I can afford. Gotta maintain. Food, bills, you know.
Thank you, MadCatz, for shitting on us that have to watch our spendings with the Fightstick. Love ya.
I am still wondering if anyone knows the size of the screw to screw down the joystick? one of my screws and washers came stripped and busted from madcatz
Just got my second SE stick in the mail. Looks to be better than my first one as it registers all movements at the moment (haven’t used it much yet). I have a feeling it’s going to self destruct at some point as every now and then I could feel the stick…sticking, along with a kind of spring noise as I moved it around (not the micro-switch sound, but more of a boing type of sound). Fiddling with it a bit more the stick would go back to normal but who’s to say for how long.
I think for the time being my first stick is going back to gamestop if they’ll take. At this point I don’t absolutely need the second SE stick, and to tell you the truth, I’d rather not give Madcatz any more money than needed but I want a decent stick to use right now with SFIV. I’ve ordered up a sanwa stick and some buttons so I guess I’ll use my current-for-the-time-being-working SE stick until it dies or my sanwa parts come in so I can just replace all the innards.
Have you tried taking one of the good screws to Lowes / Home Depot and have them thread match it? One of my screws was the same way, except the thread is what’s stripped. It still tightens down as only about 3/4s of its thread is gone. I was thinking of doing such but it hasn’t bothered me enough to do so yet.
ya i have the same problem is what i meant haha. umm i just called matcatz which was a waste of time…1st they didnt know which screw i was talkin about, 2nd he then told me they didnt have any screws available, 3rd he didnt even know what size screw it was so that i could get a new one. i went to lowes and bought a 8-32x3/8 and 6-32x3/8. the 3/8 is the right length, but the 8-32 is too big and 6-32 is too small…i dont know much about tools or sizes so i need help!!!
The screw that holds the stick in place? (to the mounting plate)
You can go to home depot and look for a Flat - Phillips 4mm x 12mm screw.
thank you markman!!! i will now go on a mission to find it