Mystery sort of solved. The volume knob according to the translated Ebten page is to adjust the “fire volume” when fine tuning your turbo setting for each individual button. Any ideas what the circular “speaker” on the left side of the stick is for? Air vent?
Can anyone tell me if the instruction sheet I scanned has anything on safely opening the case to get to the internal components?
Most probably no. Instruction manuals do not usually show you how to void the warranty.
Like d3v supposed, there’s nothing.
Well, thanks for looking anyway.
Edit: I read on GameFAQs that this stick is back in stock over at ebten:
http://ebten.jp/p/7015014091001/
I hope that’s true.
It looks like the stick is back up for sale:
Maybe someone can finally answer my question about the difference between this stick and the TE2…
The one you linked to looks crap.
Okay, I should have put my question here instead of a vague reference: why is the JLF lever on this stick more responsive than the one on the TE2 when they are supposed to be the same part?
That would be your imagination.
What you are smoking, I want some of it, it sounds like good stuff.
Swap the JLF’s and see if you’re still crazy
So instead of questions or help, I get ridicule and an invalidation of my experience. Great. I was hoping that someone modded their stick and could tell me if there was something different about the microswitches or the actuator–that’s what I think is possibly different. If anything is different, then why would Sanwa do that?
On the TE2, I must ride the gate or the diagonals will not register. I tested this with every fighting game I have with the same result. If it’s not all the way in the corner, no diagonal input will be registered. But on this stick, I don’t have to even touch the gate for a diagonal to register; it comes out about 3/4 of the way there. Explain that one to me.
If I can figure out how to open up this stick, I’ll take a look and do some measurements myself. But something is certainly different. But according to you guys, I’m either insane or on drugs. Thanks for nothing.
My experience has been that JLFs that have been handled by third parties (assembled in complete arcade sticks) tend to have a pretty wide variance in terms of how they feel. A friend and I bought sfxt sticks a few years ago at EVO from the madcatz booth; his was a ps3, mine was a 360 and if I had been blindfolded I would not have believed they were the same part. Brand new out of the box; no mods, no wear and tear.
Could be the PCB is less laggy in the ebten than the TE2 + the placebo effect in your mind that you’re already looking for a difference between the two.
There feel better?
Maybe the mounting is different and both stick heights aren’t the same.
Try swapping the sticks like someone suggested, or at least the joystick pcb’s. They’re both jlf levers, the parts are the same. Unless you have a defective pcb or a damaged pcb (or a thrashed actuator) they should be equally responsive.
Has anyone beaten the crap out of the te2’s lever? If swapping the pcbs works, install a new one ($12 part, no soldering).
What I’m going to do is try and open the Sanwa/ebten stick up (no obvious screw holes, but I’ll find them) and take a look at the JLF and do some comparison measurements (mounting hight, actuator size/integrity, etc.) If it’s not those, I’ll compare the microswitches. If it’s not that, it must be the pcb.
The biggest problem is that there is no user-made documentation available for this stick as far as I could tell. No reviews, none of that stuff. A newbie with arcade stick tech working in the dark is not a good combination. That’s why I was hoping someone around here already opened theirs.
I’ll also try ordering a new JLF for the TE2. Maybe I just got a bad one? I really hope it’s not the TE2’s pcb…
The jlf has its own pcb. Switch these between the two sticks and see if the problem remains.
If the problem moves to the exar when you swap joystick pcbs, buy a new one. If the problem stays with the te2 after swapping jlf pcb’s, switch the whole joystick and see which one has a problem.
I would advise against buying a whole new jlf or wasting time with measurements until you’ve done these tests. All wear parts are easily and inexpensively replaced in a jlf anyways.
I’ll try that out then.