Happ Competition diagonals mod?

[Mr. Peabody]

Hi. Occasional lurker. I picked up a mame cab with Happ Competition joysticks which I like except for the diagonals. Is there a mod to make them easier to reach? Thanks.

[mgb]

I wouldn't really think so because of the way that stick is with the big square actuator.
It seems like there would be much you do with it.
I used to use comps and I thought they were pretty decent on diagonals, I thought that was the whole idea of the square actuator. But I do see a lot of people complaint of bad diagonals
You may prefer switching to a Super, the blades on the switches make it a little more tweak-able.

[JDFan]

You could try wrapping the actuator with some electrical tape or similar to make it a bit larger (not sure how it would hold up )

[Malenko]

You could try wrapping the actuator with some electrical tape or similar to make it a bit larger (not sure how it would hold up )

This method works and lasts a while but is not a permanent solution.  Maybe I should 3D print some bigger actuators for comps and retire on the hundreds of pennies I'd make.

[Mr. Peabody]

I don't have electrical tape, but I tried some duct tape, and it got messed up quickly. Found that the left actuator was broken or made wrong because it wouldn't fasten onto the housing cylinder like the right does; I swapped them and they each worked, and didn't, the same way; a strip of paper sandwiched inside the two fixed the bad one in place, for now at least. Anyways, I may have to replace them. The 4-way stick is a Super and it's one of the best microswitch 4-way sticks I've experienced. Maybe I'll replace the Competitions with Supers.

[jamesjones626]

I have a competition stick and I have to say that its a real pain to hit the diagonals.  Bought because I read it was suppose to be easy.

Sent from my Z993 using Tapatalk

[mgb]

I don't have electrical tape, but I tried some duct tape, and it got messed up quickly. Found that the left actuator was broken or made wrong because it wouldn't fasten onto the housing cylinder like the right does; I swapped them and they each worked, and didn't, the same way; a strip of paper sandwiched inside the two fixed the bad one in place, for now at least. Anyways, I may have to replace them. The 4-way stick is a Super and it's one of the best microswitch 4-way sticks I've experienced. Maybe I'll replace the Competitions with Supers.

By left and right actuators, are you talking about the microswitches.
Any pics?

[RandyT]

Harder to hit diagonals, is a feature of the Competition sticks.  It makes them a bit more suited for both 4 and 8-way titles.  Making the diagonals easier to hit, will make 4-way games less playable.  If decent 4-way performance is important, and the panel already has a dedicated 4-way, then increasing the diagonal sensitivity is probably desirable.

With the Competitions, there's really only one way to achieve this.  Different microswitches will have different length actuation "nubs", and will also actuate at different points in their travel.  So the answer is to do some experimenting with different switches, to find which will provide the desired actuation zone sizes.

[Mr. Peabody]

I meant the left stick's actuator was broken.


@Randy: I haven't thought about Competitions being designed for 8-way and 4-way. I thought of putting Super switches in....but it's probably easiest to just buy some Supers.

[Purple Tophat]

Copying this over from an older post asking the same question. Not sure if the pricing is still the same, but in your case you would just want the gold switches and springs anyways since you already have the sticks:

Not sure if this reply comes way too late, but Happ actually sells a "Williams Modified" Competition Joystick. You can find it on their site, but some vendors can actually get them for you cheaper than you can get them yourself. They come with gold microswitches with a higher actuation point, as well as harder springs. Basically they were the ones Williams used for their Mortal Kombat Games. The diagonals are way easier to hit, as that is critical for those games. I have them for my MAME project that I am finally getting back into working on, and my friend has had them on his MK/MAME cab for years. They are perfect!

The modified ones are $21.75 instead of the $14.99 for normal Competition sticks from HAPP directly, but as I said, some industry vendors can get them for your cheaper. Arcadeemulator.net was able to order them for me cheaper. Check it out here: http://na.suzohapp.com/all_catalogs/joysticks/50-6071-16

Part # 50-6071-16

You can also just buy the gold switches and the hard spring, swap them out yourself, and biggitty bam, you got yourself a true MK arcade fighter stick with good diagonals.

[Mr. Peabody]

Thanks, Purple Tophat. I'm curious to see, but I don't know as I'm that curious given my recent experience with leaf switch sticks.