Classic Ball Top Arcade Joystick

Bought for my first diy fight stick along with a zero delay unit. the microswitch terminals on the stick are 4.8mm which is a bugger because I ordered the 2.8mm option with the zero delay PCB as that's what my buttons were, no bother just 5 mins with a crimping tool and correct size spades apart from this little hiccuping I am quite happy with the performance of the stick!

In the past ive always bought Sanwa arcade sticks, but thought id give this one a try as its a nicer price.

Upon arrival they looks very much like a sanwa stick.

Fitted a pair into my cabinet, but noticed straight away that they felt a bit sticky/too much friction, and didnt always fully return to the centre when releasing the stick.

I removed the shaft and actuators, gave them a bit of white grease, then rebuilt them. It has completely transformed them and they feel great to use. I would happily use them again instead of the Sanwa sticks

Basically, this is a cheap Sanwa JLW-TM-8 clone. As such, the build quality isn't 5 star: I had to tighten all the screws and sand off a nub of spare plastic on top of the stick (with very fine sandpaper!). There's also a slight moulding 'rim' running all the way around the the ball handle.

For some reason, the underside of the dust cover is textured. Thus, I found it a bit noisy when it was sliding across the textured surface of my laminated control panel. I simply put a sticky label on the underside - cut to shape - and this solved the issue.

There's also slight play in the dead zone (small movement in the stick before a microswitch is pressed). I also had to replace the supplied, square restrictor gate with a round one, as I simply couldn't play with it - but that may just be me.

However, in use, I really can't fault this stick, especially at this price. I bought 2 and beat my Robotron hi score, first go. Nuff said. :)