Stuffmonger
Member
I will start off saying that before this experience I have never used a MAS system joystick or supergun. I had also never opened one up before. I have, however made a couple joysticks for arcade and game console use prior to this job.
I was asked by another arcade collector to look at one of his MAS joysticks in the past couple of weeks. The joystick had a bad switch. I figured I'd fix it up for him since it would be a simple switch swap job. After opening it up (for the supergun), I noticed the tiny 26-28 gauge wire. I have never used anything smaller than 22 in anything I've made simply because it's really easy to break anything smaller, and you can't strip smaller then 22 with a regular stripper. So, after gawking at the tiny wire, I see the ground is uninsulated solid wire. Ok, that isn't terrible, but it's still too small. Everything is soldered and there was no slack in most of the wiring. I ended up putting quick disconnects on all joystick switches (so the guy could change them out easily in the future), and replaced the ground with beefier wire.
Ok. That one was done. So, he brought me 4 more to change to QD's and better ground. So, I did, and noticed all of them were the same with the tiny wire, and one of them (for the 360) had everything held in place with packing tape. One of the 4, he told me had the same problem as the first one (for neo AES). It wouldn't go left. So, I changed out the switch again. I also noticed the connector was glued together instead of using the appropriate casing, but didn't think much of it except that it looked like junk. Lo, and behold, he tells me that it still has the problem. So, I unscrew the connector housing, and notice the wire twists freely in the shell (not a good sign). After taking the screws out, the casing was still held together by a bunch of glue that held the connector on the front of the casing. So, I pried the casing a bit so I could look inside. The clamp to hold the wire in place in the connector shell falls out (apparently, it was never clamped on), and I see a bunch of cut wires and at least one broken wire in there. I couldn't get the whole casing off since there was a big glob of glue holding onto the wires as well (probably leaked back from the front).
So, there's my rant. I don't really understand how this company sold so many and had as good a reputation as it has had with the cheap quality of materials used. Sure, they look pretty, but the least they could have done was use a proper connector casing on their joystick instead of gluing on a smaller one since it wouldn't fit.
I was asked by another arcade collector to look at one of his MAS joysticks in the past couple of weeks. The joystick had a bad switch. I figured I'd fix it up for him since it would be a simple switch swap job. After opening it up (for the supergun), I noticed the tiny 26-28 gauge wire. I have never used anything smaller than 22 in anything I've made simply because it's really easy to break anything smaller, and you can't strip smaller then 22 with a regular stripper. So, after gawking at the tiny wire, I see the ground is uninsulated solid wire. Ok, that isn't terrible, but it's still too small. Everything is soldered and there was no slack in most of the wiring. I ended up putting quick disconnects on all joystick switches (so the guy could change them out easily in the future), and replaced the ground with beefier wire.
Ok. That one was done. So, he brought me 4 more to change to QD's and better ground. So, I did, and noticed all of them were the same with the tiny wire, and one of them (for the 360) had everything held in place with packing tape. One of the 4, he told me had the same problem as the first one (for neo AES). It wouldn't go left. So, I changed out the switch again. I also noticed the connector was glued together instead of using the appropriate casing, but didn't think much of it except that it looked like junk. Lo, and behold, he tells me that it still has the problem. So, I unscrew the connector housing, and notice the wire twists freely in the shell (not a good sign). After taking the screws out, the casing was still held together by a bunch of glue that held the connector on the front of the casing. So, I pried the casing a bit so I could look inside. The clamp to hold the wire in place in the connector shell falls out (apparently, it was never clamped on), and I see a bunch of cut wires and at least one broken wire in there. I couldn't get the whole casing off since there was a big glob of glue holding onto the wires as well (probably leaked back from the front).
So, there's my rant. I don't really understand how this company sold so many and had as good a reputation as it has had with the cheap quality of materials used. Sure, they look pretty, but the least they could have done was use a proper connector casing on their joystick instead of gluing on a smaller one since it wouldn't fit.
