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Happ Pushbuttons... anything better out there...?
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Bender:
one more thing to note is the height of the button travel
the newer buttons (like Happ's) have a short travel like an 1/8" and the older original games were more than 1/4" travel for both microswitch (Donkey Kong) and Leaf (say Tron)
for me the longer travel has a more satisfying feel, although there could be a slightly slower response time, but that is debatable (personally I've gotton my highest scores on the old style buttons)
again all comes down to personal preference

My suggestion is to go to and arcade and find a button on a machine that feels right and research what type of button it is, I'm pretty sure you can still get just about anything
Bluedeath:
one thing i can say avoid vertical microswitches button like the plague.
Xiaou2:
Bender... that not entirely true.

  You can adjust Leaf switches to activate in less travel than a Microswitch.

 A common mistake when playing with leafs, was to push the full travel of the button
when you didnt need to do that.   

 For rapidfire, you simply bounce the switch up/down quickly - but only a mm or less of travel
in each direction.

 Micros extra mechanical resistence, causes poor 'bounce-back' (cant fire repeated as fast as
leafs)  as well as giving more fatigue to the player because of the added resistence.

Bender:

--- Quote from: Xiaou2 on April 02, 2008, 01:01:28 pm ---Bender... that not entirely true.

  You can adjust Leaf switches to activate in less travel than a Microswitch.

 A common mistake when playing with leafs, was to push the full travel of the button
when you didn't need to do that.  

 For rapidfire, you simply bounce the switch up/down quickly - but only a mm or less of travel
in each direction.

 Micros extra mechanical resistance, causes poor 'bounce-back' (cant fire repeated as fast as
leafs)  as well as giving more fatigue to the player because of the added resistence.



--- End quote ---

What is not entirely True?

No mater how fine you tune the leafs the spring still has a 1/4" travel (old school games)
now given if your really good you don't have to let the button come all the way back up, but again I think that it is the same for both and  a matter of opinion
I mean really the the actuation on a micro switch is maybe, giving you the benefit of the doubt 1mm as well and as what you are saying a leaf extremely well adjusted is 1mm,(which is extremely hard to maintain, by the way)  which translates into how small a fractions of a second when you playing, I just don't know?

Oh yeah, I think I tried to avoid this argument by saying it was debatable

So as I was saying there are different opinions

don't take what any one says completely, including me, these are only opinions. the only way of finding out what is right for you is to just try some out and see what feels right!


for me micros feel right on Donkey Kong and Leafs feel right on Tron

it is really hard to judge what is "best" over all

I would have to agree with Xiaou2, that for rapid fire leafs are probably the best

But for "snap" and "PoP" I still like the Nintendo type micro switch( which are very different than the happ ones)

GOD DAMM it I swore I wouldn't be sucked into this debate ;)





Xiaou2:
While leaf travel may be near 1/4" ...  you can make it actuate in the 1st mm of travel (or less).   
You dont have to push down 3/4ths travel like in micros.

 *** Ok I decided to actually Measure:

  A Happs horizontal button had 1/2 mm play (space) between the button actuator and the mircoswitch actuator.
And, pressing the button down, it actuated the switch at 2mm.   


 That is:

      1/2 mm  play (space)
1 & 1/2 mm  microswitch activation

(and I think there was another 1/2 to 1 full mm of  travel after activation.  I forgot)
 

 I didnt have an open leaf in access...  but,  I felt underneath the Asteroid Deluxe to feel the buttons
top leaf... at the same time feeling the top of the button with the other hand.

 As soon as I pressed the button a hair - the leaf was matching the action.  There was no 'play' at all
as the button was sitting directly on the leaf spring.

 The leaf's themselves can be bent to be touching at all times.  This means that you can easily adjust it
to 1mm distance to total activation quite easily.

 Of course, over time, you will need to re-adjust them.   That is one of the problems of leafs.


 As for Pop - if that is what one desires.. then that is clearly a Microswitch thing.   I have some industrial
Micros that are very heavy to activate - but when they do... man do they Pop.   Twice as loud, and
the vibration is twice as strong from the activation - compared to typical arcade micros.

 I think I recall the Epyx handheld joystick for the old C-64 I used to have,  had those same
micros too.

 I just checked and found one.   I think I got it from a local
surplus place.   Same size as happs.    Name:  " OMRON "    Made in Japan.

Reads:

 1975RA5
 10A     250VAC
 V-10DL-3C8
 10A  250V~
 / 716 \   T80
 
 This one has a metal leaf on top - of course, it could be removed.   Compared to the other micro-leafs,
it really packs a punch when activated.   It also appears to need more a little more travel to activate.
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