DV888 is Way Too Reponsive

I just got the DV888 starter set from Yoyoexpert because I wanted a responsive metal yoyo. I got it last night and it is way too responsive. It is shooting back to me in the middle of doing tricks like Man on the Trapeze and His Brother and Mach 5 and even Brain Twister. All of my other yoyos are responsive and I have no problems with them coming back to me in mid-trick. The DV888 is whipping back at me so fast my hands are red and starting to bruise. I am thinking it is the response pads so I am wondering if there is a way to wear down the response pads by rubbing them on something. I don’t want to try sandpaper because that would probably take some paint off the yoyo, too. I did replace the string with a 100% polyester string and now it’s only whipping back at me a little over half of the time.

On a side note, the DV888 isn’t spinning very long, too. When I do tricks like Split the Atom where the DV888 doesn’t come whipping back at me it is only spinning about half as long as my Yoyofactory Velocity and Yomega Crossfire and I was wondering if that is normal since it’s brand new? I did clean the bearing late last night but I haven’t noticed any difference. I was thinking about lubing it but according to mostly everything I’ve looked at it, any amount of any type of lube will slow it down, even if just by a little.

If anyone has any advice I would appreciate it. I would really appreciate it if anyone else who bought the DV888 starter set could respond.

Oh, and I can do without the “What do you expect from a responsive yoyo?” and “Play it unresponsive” remarks. If that was what I wanted I wouldn’t have bought the DV888.

Thanks for your help in advance!

That yoyo comes responsive, using slim bearing. Not much more to say - If you want it unresponsive put in the wider bearing that came with it. Lube will make it more responsive. Leave the pads alone. If that’s not what you want, clean the slim bearing in a suitable solvent. Play it dry or very lightly lubed. Or, put in the large bearing and lube it. That will make it play responsive if that’s what you want.

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I know its responsive. Like I said in my post I want a responsive yoyo. But i also like to do tricks. And you can’t do many tricks with a yoyo that comes back in the middle of them. Like I said in my post, my other responsive yoyos can handle them just fine so it’s obviously not the fact that it’s a responsive yoyo that’s the problem.

My guess is your other responsive yoyos don’t use the slim bearing. Put in the larger bearing and lube it. Or clean the slim one. Not much more to say. Sorry you don’t like the answer.

Bummer.
And no my other yoyos don’t use the slim bearing. I’ve been trying the larger bearing with some lube but it’s not coming back very reliably. Sometimes the yoyo comes back, other times it doesn’t. I know it’s not meant to be used for responsive play though so I didn’t really expect it to work.
I guess I’ll just keep trying to use this thing but if it doesn’t work at least I have my velocity. I was just really looking forward to learning more tricks that you don’t have to play unresponsive to do.
In case you can’t tell I’m not a fan of unresponsive play. I can bind just fine I just think it takes away from the tricks when you have to do a bind after to bring it back to you. I really like the feel of the yoyo snapping back when you pull it after doing a trick.

Oh, and thanks for trying to help. I appreciate it.

Lube the bearing more. Take a shield off first so you get it good. I play quite a few of mine responsive. Lube is the key.

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I will give it a shot tonight.

If the large bearing with more lube doesn’t do the trick for you, then what about a thin shim with the narrow bearing to fine tune the gap. To test it cut a circle of thin plastic (like what batteries, for example, are packaged in) and punch a hole in the middle.  If you like the idea, then you can purchase the shims at YYE here: http://shop.yoyoexpert.com/product/57/YYJ-shims.

[Edit: Actually, there may be a problem with shimming, now that I think about it, as the bearing isn’t recessed into the DV888 very much.  This could be a problem if the string gets by the edge of the bearing if the shim creates a gap between the bearing and yoyo half.]

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More lube with the larger bearing helped somewhat but it’s not very reliable as to if/when the DV888 will come back up when I pull it. I just remembered I was going try looping the string around the bearing one more time so I will have to try that tomorrow. I did try shimming it with thin cardboard with the slim bearing in place earlier before I saw your post and it drastically reduced the spin time and didn’t help. Tomorrow I will try plastic shims like you suggested. It’s worth a shot. Thanks for your help.

Keep in mind that the shim diameter has to be small enough, so it doesn’t contact anything but the inner portion of the bearing.

Okay, I will keep that in mind. I haven’t tried making the plastic shims yet but I am planning on making them a little later tonight.

This might sound stupid but the DV888 is my first metal yo-yo and the spin time (With the normal sized C bearing) is very short. The longest I’ve ever gotten it to sleep for without doing any tricks is about 40 seconds. When the string is touching the side it spins for about 25 seconds. And when I do tricks I only get about 10-15 seconds with the last 5-7 seconds having it sleep so slow it turns and goes sideways.

My Yoyofactory Velocity, Yomega Raider and Crossfire and even my Duncan Butterfly XT all spin longer than my DV888. I would even say that my Velocity and Butterfly XT spin twice as long as the DV888 with the normal-sized C bearing. (The spin time with the slim-sized C bearing is about the same or a little bit longer than my Velocity and Butterfly XT, so I’m not worried about that bearing.)

Am I supposed to be throwing the DV888 differently since it’s metal and not plastic?

I know that’s probably a dumb question but I see all these videos online with guys throwing their DV888s right out of the package and they spin for so long. My thin bearing seems to spin just fine but with the normal C bearing I can only do tricks like Split the Atom and Mach 5 with enough spin to pull the yoyo back up maybe half of the time before it stops spinning. And I know I didn’t over lube it. I had an experience with that before so I make sure I don’t do it again, ha ha. With my Velocity I do combos where I will do something like a Mach with 5 rotations then 1 or 2 Barrel Rolls (or Atom Bombs) and then either 3 or 5 spins of Split the Atom and have plenty of time to pull it back up. But with the DV888 a lot of the time I can only do 3 rotations of the Mach 5 and still be able to pull it up. Any more than that and it stops spinning when I set the trick down.

Sorry for such a long reply. I just wanted to include as much info as possible.

Any help anyone can give me is greatly appreciated. I’m really trying to have fun with this yoyo but so far it’s not going as expected. I know I’m not very good compared to a ton of people on this site but this just doesn’t seem right.

Thanks for your help in advance.

I believe the responsive DV888 comes with thicker response pads as well as a thin bearing. There should have been some standard 19mm slim pads in your starter set. Try swapping out one of the original pads for a standard slim pad, if that does not give you the desired level of response then try swapping both pads.

Hope that helps!

-Garrett

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Oh, sweet! Yes I do have a pair of response pads that came with it in a little baggy. I will give it a shot!|
Thank you very much!

EDIT: I replaced on of the thicker stock response pads with one of the ones that came with the starter set and it fixed the problem. Now I just need to order some backups of both kinds and I’m all set.
Thank you very much for your help. I had a hunch the response pads were a little thicker but I really wasn’t sure and I didn’t want to mess anything up. So thanks again for your help. And thank you everyone for trying to help. I really appreciate it!

EDIT #2: I ended up having to replace the other thicker stock response pad as well and now it seems to be playing exactly how I want it to play. So if there is anyone else out there having the same problem I was having with the DV888 try replacing the response pads with the normal sized ones.

Lube cut spin time off A LOT… if you expect long sleeper, DV888 is capable of 6+ minutes as long as the bearing is clean and unresponsive.
Why don’t you start learning bind anyway?

Glad it worked out, if you have any other questions don’t hesitate to ask!

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I do know how to bind and I do play unresponsive sometimes when I’m in the mood. I just don’t really care for it. I really like completing a trick or combo and then giving it a tug with one hand to have it come back nicely in my hand. Plus, I think responsive play looks better aesthetically. That’s just my opinion, though. I know a lot of people will disagree for whatever reason and that’s fine. It’s just not the experience I’m looking for when I yo-yo. If that makes sense haha.