I’ve had mine installed for a few days now. It works really well! Although, if you grip with your fingers underneath the balltop (wine glass grip) you need to be careful not shake side to side too hard while you’re holding onto the collar (don’t lift up!). Mine exploded on me while playing on GGPO . Top part and dustwasher went flying across the room. lol. No harm done of course, it just snaped back on just fine. It hasn’t happened again, I’m being more mindful I guess. I’l prolly be the only person on the planet that will have this happen, so its no big deal.
Edit: I may have defective unit, I can pull up on mine fairly easily and disengage the top part without lifting the collar.
Did you install into a TE, or have a bottom dust washer underneath the panel? If you do, first step is to remove that… the panel dust washer is obviously OK but the one underneath the panel has to go, it gets stuck when you move side to side… thus the popping out. Strogg had that problem as did Osirun, but they removed that secondary dust washer and the problem went away. I’ll be making note of that fairly soon here, but head’s up for anyone installing them since I haven’t put up a defined set of install instructions.
Also, for reference, I may have you send me yours and replace it with a spankin’ new top piece. The units I brought to SB (including the ones Kajoq snagged for you) were ones I received before a slight tweak was made, so some of them disengage without the collar easier than others. The new ones I’m sending out are beastly in comparison on that front, all of them, not just some. I’ve weeded out the ones that have that problem, I apologize about that.
You know what, shoot me a PM with your address, I’ll get you a new top piece with that has the tweak done to it so you can compare. I’ll ship it out tonight/tomorrow.
If anyone who got one while I was at SB notices this, please contact me, I’ll get you a new top piece ASAP.
I’m glad you enjoy the one you’ve got, I’ll do my best to get them out to you guys and girls across the pond.
In other news, I have a carload of boxes to drop off at the post office after work. I also emptied a brand new ink cartridge in a matter of hours. I should get through packing the rest tonight though. Just wanted to say thanks again for people who pre-ordered, this wouldn’t have happened without you… seriously.
First the TE Kitty goes back in stock, and now the first official wave of the The Link shafts are getting mailed out. Now is such a great time to be tweaking your stick.
All pre-orders are now filled and on their way (as of Saturday, actually). Some of you may get them really early this week I’d imagine. Please let me know what you all think of them. Critiques are definitely welcome. This is the first wave of units, improvements can and will be made as things progress.
Don’t forget, REMOVE the inner dust washer if you’re installing into an off the shelf stick (TE, etc.), it’s easiest to do while you have the shaft removed before installing the Link. I’ll be updating the first post with a short list of bullet points for install, and will mirror them on my site as well.
I may do a short video overview, but if anyone is up for that challenge when they get theirs… by all means be my guest, video instruction is not my forte.
edit:
just did a quck track on a few I sent out thursday/friday… looks like some will get theirs today, awesome.
Looks like mine’s out for delivery. I might put together a quick video of myself installing it, just for shiggles; I don’t use my camera nearly enough. I’ll see if I can’t get that done tonight after work.
Mine just came in and I’m having problems with it staying locked. If I pull up on the stick hard enough while its completely locked I can pull the top off(hear a snap and comes off). I took out the inner dust washer near the pivot so thats not the problem. Not sure if mine is a defect or not but after an hour of testing I can honestly say I won’t be using it. Also I find it a little difficult to unlink it with a bat top and highly recommend using a JLF shaft extender with bat tops to make it a little easier.
Exactly how hard are you pulling up? I’ve noted that there is a yield strength, and that you’re not supposed to be able to pull up ridiculously hard, nor pick up the TE by the top. The bat top thing I do suggest an extension though.
I was able to pull off mine by hand with some moderate force, but not so little that it would affect my gameplay. I have no fear that my joystick handle will go flying off if I am playing furiously, and if it did it will be because I was rubbing SRK too hard (and I probably deserve to lose and should work on my exection skills if that were to happen LOL)
My joystick has gone through the rigors of my 8-10 hour friday night sessions for the past few months and not a single person had complained about link.
In the end, i don’t think its such a big deal as this wasn’t designed to resist a huge pull-apart force. Mine doesn’t go flying off and it works as advertised. Thats all that matters to me IMHO
Got my Links in the mail today. I’m wondering if I messed up somewhere. I installed the Link into my TE’s JLF and it has a lot more wobble than the JLF shaft it replaced. I can take videos later but basically, you can barely move the stick with your fingertips, and compared to how little a JLF will move stick, The Link shaft wobbles about twice as much. I have two TEs so I can do a side-by-side for comparison if needed.
physically, the link’s base that goes in the joystick body is identical in dimensions to the bottom half of a regular JLF shaft…
mine felt absolutely the same… maybe something was missed during re-install?
I could present the link on the FFM Rumble in Frankfurt.
