The Demise of the Microswitch reliability?

pacray

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It used to be when vendors listed a microswitch for sale, the description would state it was tested for millions of clicks. It seems that verbiage has disappeared, as they are not as reliable as they used to be.

I buy around 75 joysticks a year, and in the past 3 years, I have had 7 or 8 microswitch failures joysticks, mostly in the Suzo Happ 4 way joystick, and it seems to be getting worst. This is problematic for me as it usually involves driving long distances to replace these switches that render a game unplayable when they fail.

The vendor from which I buy most of my joysticks tells me that I am the only one who has this problem, but I can't imagine this it the case. Has anyone else noticed the diminished reliability of the microswitch?
 
No problems yet, but then I haven't bought ANY joysticks and my parts are all original for the most part.

Did you take any apart, and see what was going on?

Where are you buying your switches from?
 
It's a problem.

The actuator nubs on the ZFs seem to wear significantly faster than anything else, including E-switch. The contacts never seem to be the issue with new ZFs, though that is what I see fail with E-switch, which is a more annoying problem, really.

Games like 3rd Strike & Super Turbo can burn through new ZFs. Diagonals start to get hard to hit and when the stick actuator itself is in good shape, it's due to the switch nubs wearing down; it's either 2 yr old ZFs or 30 yr old Cherrys. I really should just put old Cherrys in those games since the ZFs hold up just fine in "normal" games.

I'd still recommend ZF before E-switch. I only went through about 200 E-switch a few years ago before I realized they were problematic and set the rest of them aside for now. I've been going through about 400 new ZFs a year lately. Mostly replacing original Cherry, but also some E-switch and recent ZF.
 
Who makes the smallest best leaf switch stick ? I need a pair for my multi Williams that will fit with all the buttons .
 

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