That sounds like a contradiction to me. A harder spring means stronger rebounds. Generally, you have to "wear in" a JLF stick until the spring is loose enough so as not to cause any rebounds.
Well there are three rough stiffness levels possible that are playable, in order of stiffness. 1) Stiff enough to pull the stick to center when released, but not stiff enough to trip the opposite direction if the stick is released completely (broken in JLF) 2) Stiff enough to make the stick snap back to center rapidly, but not stiff enough that it fails to drift the other direction enough to trip the switch. (brand new JLF?) 3) So stiff that it returns to center from the rebound before it can trip the other direction, but not stiff enough that you can't move it comfortably. (do any sticks do this?) The other things that affect this are engage (how far you must move the stick before it trips a switch) and throw (how far you can move it before the restrictor plate stops you). A short engage and long throw increases the likelihood of bouncing. Different stick models all have different amounts of these two. The action that is affected most by these is tapping more than once in a row, as that is the most likely motion to cause an unintended bounce, and the one most hurt by it. This is part of why placements requiring double and triple taps are to be avoided during high speed play if possible without loosing too much speed or ruining your stack, and why it's worth it in TI to use hold to swap the piece to one you won't have to double tap to place (the speed gets a LOT faster than TAP ever will).
Truth is, a brand new JLF will always trigger the opposite direction if thrown; whether you tap once or twice doesn't matter. The only way to prevent it is to catch the stick with your finger while it snaps back. The long term solution is to break in the spring so that it becomes looser.
I'm pretty sure the main reaosn for that is that, pretty much regardless of spring stiffness (though obviously not completely regardless), at high speeds it's just physically impossible to get two or three taps in before the piece locks. Bounce-back isn't so much of a problem as the sheer amount of time it takes to tap twice accurately and reliably.
Ok, let' explain my problem with my HRAP. When I push it on one direction, let's say there's a distance of a few millimeters until the lever hits the edge. BUT, there's a slight gap between the distance until the microswitch and the edge. So when I push on the right for example, there's a distance of let's say 1mm where nothing happens, then the lever hits the microswitch, then there's a new distance of 1mm until the edge where the microswitch is activated. The first distance until tue microswitch is a real pain in the neck in sub 20G, where I need to place my pieces very carefully. To be clear, I can move the lever for 1mm without any response of the stick. I don't feel that problem in the arcade game, and I wondered of you guys ever had the same trouble, and how you got rid of it? I was thinking about inserting a fatter plastic piece around the lever to minimize the distance between the center position and the microswitch, did you ever hear bout that? I hope I was enough clear, thanks for your help.
There should be a small deadzone around the stick before the actual microswitch engages, so it sounds like what you are describing is normal. I wouldn't try to "correct" for this, as the spring that returns the stick to a neutral position will likely have an increased chance of triggering the opposite direction, even if you are take care to not release the stick from full tilt.
Yes, that deadzone. I wonder why I feel that on my HRAP and not on an arcade stick. It is REALLY annoying during Lvl. 0-100 when I soft-drop and I must pull down a piece for only 2 or 3 lines. It's like I push the lever down just a little bit, but it doesn't hit the microswitch, so I push it stronger, and the piece falls down for 5 lines :/.
Your HRAP probably isn't as worn in as most of the sticks on the cabs you play on. Those machines in Japan take a beating!!
Maybe it seems like non-advice, but try to avoid using soft drop in early sections for this reason. It is very difficult to get the timing correct to the point where you neither make a mistake nor lose a couple seconds of time. It is probably better to lose a second or two to wait for it to fall two or three rows than it is to spike the piece down into the stack. If you're really pushing for hardcore time attack, it would be better to aim for a clean skim than to take the slow slide.
