Joystick mounting question...

[hypes]

Hiya everyone....

Long time lurker, first time poster... yadda, yadda, yadda.

I'm near the finish line of finishing my first MAME cabinet...and I have a weird problem.  I have two Happ Ultimate 8-way joysticks.  My cabinet is based on Lusid's design, and I used his patterns for the control panel layout of the buttons/joystick holes. 

Here's my problem....

On the left side of the CP, if I push really hard on the joystick I can trigger up and down and I can trigger left and right without any issues; when I try to rotate the joystick slowly in a circle, all I get is left and right triggers and I get zero diagonal triggers.  On the right side of the CP, the joystick triggers in all directions perfectly.

Do I need to make the hole on the left hand side a bit bigger, or is it something in the joystick?  I hit the microswitches with a screwdriver and they trigger, and I can hear them click when I move the joystick around, but I don't get any response.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

-hypes

[Stingray]

Does the stick work correctly when it's not mounted?

-S

[hypes]

Unmounted if I move it up and down hard, I get a signal.  Left and right work right flawlesly.  Corners work sporadically.  Turning it in a circle I get nothing but left and right.  I tried swapping out the microswitches for the up and down control with those that were in the buttons I'm using for system controls, but I didn't get any better response.

I'm guessing it's the joystick...which stinks b/c I bought them a year ago and just got around to mounting them.

-h

[Stingray]

Did it come with both four way and eight way actuators? Are you using a round one or a square one? Are you sure the actuator is the right way up?

I've never used Ultimates, this is pretty much just generic advice.

-S

[hypes]

I believe it came with only the square 8-way actuator...I have it put together just like the other one that works; and when I called Happ and described my issue the tech said I had everything setup properly. 

I might try taking the other one (that does work, mount it on the other side, and see if it does the same thing (JIC it is just a hole size issue).  If I don't get any problems, then I am assured it's something with the joystick.

Oh well...at least a new one is only 10 bucks on eBay.