So... this has been asked already :-(.
Would not mind getting some nubs myself... I could desolder myself a nub from my spare Pandora (I actually planned to do so, but changed my mind - I want the spare operational).
I now want the spare to be "instantly usable" should I need it (like I just did, when the daily driver unit developed purple screen... now fixed...).
My right nub drifts right unless I remember to position it properly manually each time I stop moving it. And it moves left very slowly :-(.
Haven't tried cleaning, because unsoldering them is such a laborius task (unless I'm doing it wrong: lifting them a tenth of a millimeter at a time with pieces of paper/toothpicks/whatever... *sigh*...)
I wish you could just stick them in and lock them in place or something...
Anyway, seems to me that the nubs will be the practical death of many Pandoras - when both are broken/drifting you're kind of left with a device you cannot use for most tasks.
Are there really no replacements at all for these? Not even in another (but hackably installable) from factor?-(
Has anyone tried making their own? What would you need that's hard to get? Is the chip reading them picky when it comes to the range of voltage coming out, or would it calibrate to "pretty much anything"?
Why do they even break? Is it an oxidation thing? Springs?