Modify Supers' throw

[Serpent]

I've heard there's a way to reduce the throw of Happ Supers. What is exactly what I have to do? Does it involve modifying the microswitches or any other part of the stick? Please explain clearly. Thanx.

[grafixmonkey]

Duct tape some free weights to 'em, and you won't be able to throw them nearly as far as you could before.    

No really...  I'm interested in this too if anyone knows how.  (other than restrictor plates, which might be a good option if I stop caring about the artwork that's around my joystick.)

[pfriedel]

From what I understand (not having ever done it), it's fairly easy, but a ---smurfette--- to balance.  

1) Remove the cherries from the bottom of your joystick.
2) Bend the metal leg (the bit the shaft moves) away from the cherry, making it a >90 degree angle.
3) Reinstall.
4) Pray you didn't toss $10 down the drain.  (or buy more from Bob Roberts for 10 for $12.50!) I can't figure out how to get those little legs out (if you even can), and I don't see a way to bend them back into shape.

  Warning:  Your diagonals will probably start coming in towards the center unless if you make some funky compound bend in the actuator.  Good luck!

(obDisclaimer:  You're on your own here, man.  If you screw up, you screwed it up yourself.)

[Xiaou2]

 supers 'lever' type micros are made with cheap metal.. and internally seems unsound

 if you bend the levers too far... you wont be able to reverse the process... and a 1$+ switch will go down the drain.  

 also... if your bending isnt perfectly equal on all 4 switches, you will end up with problems with diags and maybe more.
 
 i suggest a different stick rather than this.

 

[NoOne=NBA=]

The first thing I would try is slipping a thin strip of masking tape between the lever and the actuator.

That doesn't require any permanent modifications, and using a combo of masking tape and scotch tape, you should be able to balance it, and decrease the throw.

Alternately, you could wrap tape around the actuator itself.

If that works, I would try to find a mylar bumper sticker and use strips of that in place of the tape.
The mylar is alot more durable, and shouldn't wear out as quickly.
The best material for this type of shimming is self-adhesive aluminum foil, which you can probably find scraps of at a local label shop.

[CthulhuLuke]

Actually this is how my supers are and they have great throw on em.  Actually it doesn't redue the throw as much as it does the sensitivity of the microswitches.  It's pretty easy to do actually, because what you do is take out the super joystick, and hold it in a direction.  Flip it around and look where its touching the actuator, and mark it with a pen or something you can remember,  move the joystick around on the actuator to see where bending the actuator would be best, mark that too if you'd like.  Either one of those spots when you bend them will give you a smaller throw/sensitivity.  Just take some needle-nose pliers, bend the actuator a little, try the joystick a little, see how it feels, bend it to your liking, and match up all the other actuators to what that one you liked was at.

[paigeoliver]

 if you bend the levers too far... you wont be able to reverse the process... and a 1$+ switch will go down the drain.  
 

Nah, it isn't down the drain, you just converted one type of $1+ switch into another type. If the actuator breaks off it is still a perfectly good switch to use for buttons or non-actuator type joysticks.

[grafixmonkey]

hmm, when I've been saying "throw" I meant the total distance the joystick will move to a side.  My Happ Supers click on almost immediately when I begin pushing the stick, but don't stop moving to the side until they've been pushed a good distance.  It makes for some tricky gameplay, and I think it's the ultimate cause of all the complaints of the angles being so sensitive.  

But I get the feeling when you guys are saying "throw" you mean the distance the joystick moves before the switch turns on...  that right?

Could someone post a picture of what their joystick microswitches look like after the flaps have been bent?  It sounds like that might help a little, but I want to make sure I'm thinking right.

[NoOne=NBA=]

I think of throw as the movement before the switches contact.
Anything after that is wasted movement.

If you want to STOP the stick, that's an entirely different proposition.
For THAT I would still use the self-adhesive aluminum foil I talked about earlier, but I would put just enough of it UNDER the levers on the switches to stop them from going any farther.

(That foil got me through THREE projects in electronics school, btw).

I think the angles being sensitive is due to the levers themselves.
I did a hack on a Happ Ultimate that I just posted about to fix the zig-zags in Tron.
I replaced the factory square actuator with a piece of a flag pole (1" diameter).
Because there are no levers on the Ultimate (just bare switch contacts), it made the diagonals much less sensitive than they were with the square actuators.
You can still go diagonally, but it requires a greater effort than with the square actuators, or with the Super.

[grafixmonkey]

Anything after that is indeed wasted movement.  But, it's pretty hard to only move your hand far enough to click the switch on, and then stop.  If I developed that skill, I'm sure I'd not have any problem playing with the Supers.  The problem is that after I've moved the joystick to the side, it doesn't release until it's almost completely centered.  I could just let go and then move it again, but if I do that the joystick bounces back and forth and hits opposite directions a few times.  

I think I'll go play with my joysticks for a while, and map the regions where the joystick actually detects movement into a jpeg.

[NoOne=NBA=]

I tried my tape idea on my super.
It does stop the joystick, but doesn't work as well as I had hoped.
The problem is that, with something between the lever and the base of the microswitch, it forces the actuator to bend the lever to activate the switch.

I'm going to work on my second idea, which is to epoxy a nut onto the end of the microswitch, so that a set screw can be adjusted to stop the lever from beyond the end of the switch.
That should let you adjust the screw to the point that the lever stays straight to hit the button, but stops immediately at that point.

I'll let you know how this works once I've tried it.
I've got to try to find some nut/bolt combos the right size in my HUGE pile of junk.

[NoOne=NBA=]

This plan appears to be working GREAT, based on initial testing.

Here is a pic to show how I installed the stop screws.



I have them set to the point that they will stop the joystick immediately after the button makes contact.

The overall travel on this stick is 1/4" (1/8" each direction, vs. 1/2" each direction on the Ultimate next to it).
It appears to work very well on every game I've tested, hits the diagonals great, and provides a very postive stop when the lever hits the screws.

I obviously don't know how well this will hold up long term; but, if there is a problem with it, I will post it here as soon as it is discovered.

[Xiaou2]

long term:

  with hard slams - will bend levers as well as sand off from the metal to metal contact.  The nuts might stay attached to the switch... but the switch itself may split into its 2 pieces.

  Youd be better off making a differnt actuator out of a block of plastic (sand and drill), or out or something else.  

  Or better yet... why bother?  use a competition.  They are better for switch travel, durability, and if nessessary, easier to modify.

 

[RacerX]

If you haven't built your control panel yet, you could just drill a smaller hole for the stick than normal, that doesn't help *you*, but perhaps could help someone else.

[NoOne=NBA=]

Serpent was looking for something that would stop the stick immediately after the buttons pressed.
I actually like my super straight out of the box; but thought this thread was interesting enough to warrant some investigation.

As far as the levers bending, I think they will bend LESS with my modification because you are getting two points of contact on the lever (button and stop screw) rather than one (button only).

I've modified the actuator on an Ultimate I have (nearly identical to the Competition), but there really isn't a way to do that and "stop the stick" as he requested above.
You can tighten the amount of throw required to activate the switch, but the stick will still continue to travel afterward.

His other request was to keep the stick from oscillating, and thereby hitting up/down/up/down repeatedly, when released from full travel.
The only way I found to do this, was by restricting the stick from moving into the far end of its travel to begin with.
The modified Super goes back to center and stops dead, my Ultimate twangs like one of those spring door stops when I let go.