@the.face Quick update on my VKB support ticket if you're interested. After a couple rounds back and forth, I sent them some pictures and some screenshots from the VKB USB error monitoring program, they said the pins on mine "look shorter than normal" and offered to send me replacement parts (new cable with contact pads and pogo pins) for free. Unfortunately I'm a few months outside the 2-year warranty so I need to pay for shipping from China via Alibaba, which is $26. Some quick googling doesn't turn up any generic replacements (wasn't really expecting to find any for this specific part), so looks like I'll probably have to eat the cost. I don't necessarily expect companies to support their products all the way to the heat death of the universe, and I've certainly gotten my money out of this (nevertheless very expensive) joystick, but I'll say that I'm totally unconvinced that this is not a weak point in the design that is almost bound to fail eventually. Contacts are notoriously hard to make durable, and these seem worse than most. When I take it apart to put in the new parts, I'll definitely be looking for a way to cut the whole thing out and replace it with a JST plug to avoid this happening again in a couple years.
