I recently modded my Mayflash F500 v2 arcade stick with genuine Seimitsu parts. The Mayflash F500 v2 arcade stick is very well built with two metal plates, an acrylic top that is held by powerful magnets making the artwork easily exchangeable, and pre-drilled additional holes for Seimitsu and Sanwa compatibility.
Here’s how the stick looks before modding:


Notice how tidy everything is inside and how nice it is built. I love the stability given by the metal plates. After taking out the stock joystick and buttons, I noticed additional, unused, holes in the metal plate. Those holes are there for modders: they perfectly fit my Seimitsu LS-32 stick (without its mounting plate). The pushbutton holes also fit Seimitsu and Sanwa buttons perfectly, making this the easiest arcade stick mod I have ever done.
Here you can see how I mounted the Seimitsu LS-32 stick using the holes that were already present. The stick sits flush below the top surface, as it should:

Here’s how it looks after I replaced all the stock parts with Seimitsu brand parts. I used a Seimitsu LS-32 stick, 8 Seimitsu PS-14-G red pushbuttons and 1 Seimitsu PS-14-D yellow pushbutton:


I now personally like Seimitsu better than Sanwa. Seimitsu sticks and buttons feel sturdier and heavier to me, and they definitely make nicer sounds with more “oomph” when actuated, compared to Sanwa parts which feel more flimsy to me. But I think this is all a matter of taste. And the Mayflash F500 allows easy modding with Sanwa or Seimitsu, whatever you prefer.
One note: The circuitry in this stick actually uses a common ground, so there’s no compatibility issues with Sanwa or Seimitsu parts. Some sticks use uncommon ground which makes modding harder. I first saw all the separate ground wires and thought it might not be common-ground, but it is 🙂
The Mayflash F500 v2 has a lot of circuitry inside and claims to be compatible with PC Directinput, PC XInput, Switch, PS3, and many more. I have not tested all of that, but I did briefly play using XInput in PC, and it seems to work just fine. I am not sure if all that circuitry adds much input lag. If any lag is revealed in the future, I don’t see a big problem either. The case is so tidy and there’s so much room inside that it would be absolutely no problem to bypass all that complicated Mayflash USB circuitry and instead directly hook up a PS1 digital PCB connected to a Retroadapter flashed with my RetroadapterMOD firmware (https://github.com/rsn8887/retroadaptermod), a Retropad32, a Daemonbyte USB adapter or any other lag-free controller readout solution.
I love the Mayflash F500 v2 and how easy it is to mod it with actual Seimitsu (or Sanwa) arcade parts. This is a stick build from the beginning with modders in mind.
I also ordered a KOWAL octagonal restrictor plate for the Seimitsu stick. That light and dark blue two-layered plastic thing that came preinstalled on my Seimitsu stick (shown in the photos above) is not what I want from an octagonal restrictor, regardless what Seimitsu tries to say about it.
EDIT: I installed the KOWAL octagonal restrictor plate a few days after the original post, and it works great!

Until next time,
rsn8887