Need suggestions for replacement Red ball joystick for my MAME cab

[bpjacobsen]

I have a custom MAME cab with custom joy/button board. The left joystick seems to stick now and then. Would like to replace with the classic pacman style Red ball joystick. Need to know what is good and would hold up. I know there are the ones with the 4 switches AND the ones that have the plug harness. Just need something that won't break the bank and will have no latency and will hold up over time.

[processedmeat]

Do you have a picture of the joystick top and underside that is in there now?  I think that would help people give you recommendations since some sticks are dependent on the thickness of the control panel etc.

[BadMouth]

There are different mounting patterns for the bolts as well.  Best to have something that will bolt right up.  You can get adapter plates, but that adds a lot of cost.  If we can figure out what is in there now, we can recommend something.  ...or possibly tell you how to fix the current one.

[bpjacobsen]

Do you have a picture of the joystick top and underside that is in there now?  I think that would help people give you recommendations since some sticks are dependent on the thickness of the control panel etc.

Attached pics of joystick and a video showing how the MAME wheel runs away/gets stuck. I confirmed, it does it with or without the keyboard inserted so nothing to do with any obstruction. It only does it on the MAME wheel so are. seems fine in game play and other wheels like Atari and the main emulator wheel for selecting which emulator you want to go to. So might this be a bug in Hyperspin/frontend? I did look up frontends and came across Launchbox which looks way better that HyperSpin so may just get that. I plan to also replace the somewhat antiquated pc with a mini pc. it's just a bit slow for my taste.

I had to cut one bolt hole away on on the joystick in order to be able to add that red button right next to it but 3 bolts is fine. Not loose or anything. The more I think about it, it seems like this could be more of a front end issue since the joystick works fine mostly with the other wheels and with game play.

[BadMouth]

I haven't used Hyperspin beyond trying it out back in the day, but it only doing that in one wheel and not in game would lead me to believe that it is caused by some other controller (such as the trackball or spinner) mapped in that wheel that is not mapped in the others.  I'd unplug the trackball and see if that makes a difference.  If not, unplug a connector from one of the terminals on the switches one at a time.  If it stops, you've found the bad switch.  You can just replace the switch for cheap.

They look like standard Happ/IL sticks.  Needing to cut the corner off is going to prevent you from using most options with a balltop (pacman reunion) because they have a square housing.  A quick search came up with IL Eurosticks with ball tops, but they were from vendors I am not familiar with.

You can get shafts that allow you to switch the current joysticks to balltop: https://focusattack.com/spare-parts-tools/popular-brands/industrias-lorenzo/eurojoystick/
(Although those are IL shafts, they should work on Happ as well.)

P.S. I hate that button location and the collars that raise all the buttons. 

[bpjacobsen]

I haven't used Hyperspin beyond trying it out back in the day, but it only doing that in one wheel and not in game would lead me to believe that it is caused by some other controller (such as the trackball or spinner) mapped in that wheel that is not mapped in the others.  I'd unplug the trackball and see if that makes a difference.  If not, unplug a connector from one of the terminals on the switches one at a time.  If it stops, you've found the bad switch.  You can just replace the switch for cheap.

They look like standard Happ/IL sticks.  Needing to cut the corner off is going to prevent you from using most options with a balltop (pacman reunion) because they have a square housing.  A quick search came up with IL Eurosticks with ball tops, but they were from vendors I am not familiar with.

You can get shafts that allow you to switch the current joysticks to balltop: https://focusattack.com/spare-parts-tools/popular-brands/industrias-lorenzo/eurojoystick/
(Although those are IL shafts, they should work on Happ as well.)

P.S. I hate that button location and the collars that raise all the buttons. 

I doubt it's a switch b/c it happens in both directions and if it was, I would expect it to stick during game play and in other wheels. I will see if I can find the culprit within hyperspin/trackball etc. Thanks