Got a package from the UK today! After months of waiting to buy my U360s, I finally bit the bullet. In the process also decided since I was going, I might as well go all out, and bought a couple of PACLED64s as well. I was originally going to hold off on the PACLED64s (or some other form of LED controller) for a long while, but it just didn't feel right to have those pretty LEDs sitting under the CP and not being able to light up. When I ordered the 2 U360s, I also ordered 4 octagonal restrictor kits and 4 hard springs. I put the extras in my Sanwa JLWs. The JLWs are AWESOME with the hard springs and octagonal restrictors. The other vendors really should offer the octagonal restrictors, $14 is a little steep just for a restrictor plate from Ultimarc (they come with the hardware to be fitted on the U360s, but none of it is used when mounting the restrictor to a JLW). The JLWs feel like completely different, and much better sticks with these and the harder springs installed.
The JLWs with the new restrictor plates and springs. No need to remove the sticks from the panels to install the new parts.
To install the restrictor kits in the U360s, I used a small (very, very small) pair of channel lock pliers to thread the aluminum stand offs all the way into the joystick. Doing this marred the stand offs, but was easily smoothed out with some scotch-brite. Either the holes, or the stand offs weren't perfectly straight, and the holes in the U360's pcb did not line up exactly and I had to file the holes of the pcbs just a little bit larger to get them to fit. Here are the U360s with their new restrictor kits and harder springs.
For those who don't know... Although the U360s are basically enhanced JLWs, there are some differences. The most noticeable are the shaft diameters. The shaft diameter of the JLWs is 9mm. The diameter of the U360 shafts is 10mm. Not a major difference, but you can definitely see it when they are side by side. The JLWs feel like they have a larger range of motion as well, which I believe is due to the difference in shaft diameters.
Now that I have the PACLED64s, I will be able to mount those at the same time as the Lono to the interface panel, which will make wiring the cabinet a little faster and easier. Ultimarc states that the PACLED64 comes with two 48 pin connector housings, but each of mine came with four 24 pin housings, luckily I have plenty of those.
Ultimarc's connectors on the right, mine on the left.
Yesterday a co-worker gave me an old ass computer he was going to throw away. I snagged quite a few good parts out of it. I might try using the power supply for the computer. We'll see, it's 160W. I also cannibalized the case for the mobo tray and some other metal. I was planning on using a cased computer inside, but now that I have these free parts, it's a different story. Here was the original black heart of the beast.
The case parts I repurposed. These will be painted black.
Hard drive mounting bracket I cut out of the top left piece of the previous pic.