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Leaf button/switch experts: Help!
whammoed:
--- Quote from: hypernova on September 12, 2005, 06:44:41 pm ---i must be the only one who has trouble finding these joysticks and buttons with leaf switches.
the leaf switches i have found were around $3 apiece.
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Pik4chu:
--- Quote from: NoOne=NBA= on September 12, 2005, 06:22:49 pm ---
--- Quote from: Pik4chu on September 12, 2005, 05:10:39 pm ---the preasure problem is easily resolved by bending the leafs so they are closer to the button, and cloer together.
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NoOne=NBA=:
--- Quote from: hypernova on September 12, 2005, 06:44:41 pm ---i must be the only one who has trouble finding these joysticks and buttons with leaf switches.
the leaf switches i have found were around $3 apiece. without the button seemingly. are leaf switches really that expensive since they're much harder to find?
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They are all over ebay, all the time.
You just have to be able to pick the good ones.
--- Quote ---and what about these sanwas that someone mentioned. where are those found, and what's the price on them, since i found only one site, charging around $3 bucks apiece again.
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That's the going price on them.
Some people choke at it, others don't.
--- Quote ---everyone's so down on microswitches because of the clicking sound. so how prevalent is this sound?
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My arcade cabinets are currently in the same room my wife watches TV in.
I can't turn the sound up where I normally would, so the clicking bugs me more than it would normally.
That aside, I'll second that it's more of a feel thing to me.
The leaf switches, when properly adjusted require almost NO movement on the button to actuate, and will allow you to "float" them.
That is where you keep pressure on the button, and just rock it slightly up and down to make/break contact on the switches.
This results in a much higher number of button presses per minute than is possible with microswitches.
That is because there is a hysteresis factor in the microswitches themselves.
You have to push farther to activate the snap switches than you do to hold them.
Then you have to release them farther to get the switches to disconnect.
This distance isn't much, but when you are constantly cracking off shots, etc... the increase in time to make/break contact on the snap switches adds up to less shots per minute.
With leaf switches, you can approach a theoretical zero movement condition where you have exactly the right pressure on the switch, and any more causes it to close, any less causes it to open.
NoOne=NBA=:
--- Quote from: Pik4chu on September 12, 2005, 06:49:37 pm ---what I meant was a distance between the two contacts, rather than that to the switch. While it won't decrease the preasure needed by very much it would greatly reduce the distance needed i.e. compensating it somewhat.
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What you're not factoring in though is that's exactly how I have them set when my buttons are on the tip of the leaf.
My leaf buttons actuate right off the top, so that will negate any compensation.
I actually build custom mounts for the switches that are just a wood block sanded to exactly the right height, so that the button rests lightly on the tip of the top leaf.
This produces a similar result to the system that Atari used on Asteroids, but doesn't require the same counter-boring, etc...
(For those who haven't seen one, the switches were just screwed to the bottom of the 3/4" board, and the buttons were back-bored into the wood, so that the PAL nut would hold the "metal" buttons through the metal CP, and into the wood part).
hypernova:
ahh...ebay...the last resort, though sometimes the only resort.
You just have to be able to pick the good ones
how vague!