Does anyone know?
OBSF is a Sanwa designation.
OBS is the regular designation for buttons and the letter afterwards tells you what type, while the number tells the width in mm.
OBSF-30 is the typical Sanwa button you see in most arcade sticks.
OBSC-30 are the transparent or Clear buttons.
HBFS are the designation GamerFinger uses for their buttons. Again, the number afterwards indicates the width in mm.
HBSF, I think stands for Harder, Better, Faster, Silent… according to their website (www.gamerfinger.com)
I think its a slight misnomer honestly, they aren’t necessarily silent (the MXs can click) and the better is negotiable when you consider all aspects of them. That octagonal rim really chaps my ass.
I so agree on all accounts for the Gamefinger. They really need a major “2.0” re-design. Good design concepts, horrible execution.
It is like they are subliminally telling you “Stop, don’t press me”.
Gamerfinger buttons have a LOT wrong with them. That was a very expensive mistake 
I don’t hate mine, but it’s really only a matter of time before someone else offers up MX keyswitches in circular rims, and an LED implementation that’s actually useful.
They should be round just like the others from Sanwa/Seimitsu and add a screw-in version along with more solid colors options.
My only complaint about the GamerFinger HBFS-30-G2 is the travel distance before activation, which is bigger than in the Sanwa OBSF/OBSC (never used the OBSN) and Hori Kuro buttons. Funny how nobody mentioned this and talked about the octagonal rim, which is harmless and even original. o.o
It really depends on the micro from Sanwa. Cherry’s site says the operating point of the linear MX is at 2mm. The OBSF is .85mm and the OBSF with RG is 1.73mm (from what I was able to find on the net). Depending on how you play, imo, the ~1mm difference isn’t much. I know there is a large fanbase of RG switches out there and the extra mm of travel isn’t a deal breaker for them. The ability to change the operating force on the MX can make up for the travel. For me the travel isn’t a deal breaker nor is it a problem, I tend to mash buttons hard when I play so travel is inconsequential.
Looks matter to me; these things drive me absolutely nuts because of the octagon rim. When they are even a bit out of whack… forget about it. It seems like the choice to be made octagons was only to be “original” which has alienated some; and the fact that they use MXs are original enough IMHO.
The construction seems to be OK, but the way they interact the pin with the QDCs is a little hokey. Im sure it could be done better.
Because it’s completely dependent on the MX keyswitch inside it. You could easily replace it with something that has a high actuation point and a legitimate bump, and it would negate the issue. It’s not fair to compare them to Sanwas based on the MX Reds they ship with. If anything you could make the case that the button/plunger is 1mm too tall, but that’s ultimately negligible in the context of actuation. It’s really only relevant to hitbox players who utilize the slide technique (the height is detrimental).
that’s hungarian for fast car
Honestly the octagonal thing, while maybe a gimmick, is really smart from a marketing perspective. It’s like The Link. You know its there, and its a cool showcase. There could stand to be more of that IMO. With your average arcade part, the fun stuff is all under the hood and its sort of hard for new products to get represented.
I love Seimitsu and Sanwa products, but the monopoly is a little boring. I know i know… they set the standards and all that, how much different can you make a joystick etcetc… but still.
This isn’t really the place for this, but what Gamerfinger has done is a good direction. The more the merrier I would say.
I’ve tried Cherry MX Red, Brown, Blue and Black switches with the HBFS-30-G2. What are the differences in activation distance?
In any case, the activation distance still doesn’t come close to the Sanwa OBSF or the Hori Kuro – does anybody know the distance for the latter (it might be even less than the Sanwa OBSF…)?
It may be just me, but the button actuation point has an impact on my piano proficiency (I use Honda on USF4) – a perhaps somewhat subtle impact on my finger agility, I’d say. I love the Kuros for this. I believe double tapping is more difficult with a lower actuation as well (I use Sagat just to practice double tapping by attempting to cancel s. hk into itself – I’m not any good at it), and someone who has mastered it has an interesting tool to avoid missing links. 
An HBFS-30-G2 with something that has a high actuation point? I’m quite interested in this something. I’ve ordered Razer orange switches (I’m curious), and I’m aware that in keyboards they have a shorter travel distance than Cherry MX switches, but I don’t know about when used with the HBFS-30-G2…
Speaking of sliding (I’m not a hitbox player!), I don’t have trouble sliding my fingers on the HBFS-30-G2 buttons, only on the Kuro (my main gripe about them, though I still like them a lot and have them as my main buttons nowadays)… Can I somehow lower the button/plunger and as a result significantly shorten the activation distance of the HBFS-30-G2? If they had an actuation point similar to the Hori Kuro, they would be that much more awesome for me!
ya i saw someone talking about shaving the button caps to get a lower profile on the buttons
edit:
the inside obviously
I’m not sure the travel distance until activation would be changed by shaving the bottom of the button caps, or there would just be a lower profile. I wonder if something can be done without changing the actual switch…
You make a good point… you might be right about that.
If you could extend the plunger’s switch contact so that the switch is partly pressed it would be more sensitive.
For the GamerFingers, they attach right to the “+” on the switch, like your mech keyboard caps. Extending the plunger attachment on the cap, most likely, wouldn’t work because it would just prevent the plunger from getting pressed in far enough to actuate.
The full travel of the switches are 4mm (per the datasheet), the operating point is at 2mm. This is a physical design of the switch. Here’s the graphs from the datasheet:
http://www.thesupergun.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Screen-Shot-2015-02-20-at-9.14.34-PM.png
And for the techweenies… here’s the datasheet for the MX Switches: cherrycorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/mx_cat.pdf
How would it prevent the switch from activating? Is there really nothing holding the plunger except the connection to the switch? I guess I’m thinking of the traditional button design with tabs on the sides of the plunger preventing the plunger from coming out of the rim. With that design, extending the pin contact would certainly make the button more sensitive. This is something Tim and I have discussed on the subject of 3D printed plunger inserts for Seimitsu x RG buttons to make them feel more like actual RGs.