Broken Joystick...

[richiejarvis]

Hi Folks,

I did a very silly thing the other day, and pushed too hard on my GP2X joystick trying to get the cap to stop falling off. Anyway, the upshot of this is that the centre-click on the joystick is now pretty much random, mostly on. The directions seem to work fine, which is good news.

I am kinda sick about it really, cos I have only had my GP2X since Christmas, and have become very attached to it.

My thinking is that I need a replacement joystick - is this right, or there an easy way to repair this mistake?

I managed to find mention that RS were stocking one, but unfortunantely the link didn't work. I went searching on the RS site, and found this item: link: http://rswww.com/cgi-bin/bv/rswww/searchBr...e&Nr=avl:uk : the part number is 249-3381 if the link doesn't work - does anyone know if this has the same pin-outs as the original stick?

Thanks for any help/advice.

Cheers,

Richie

 

[grahf]

I'm 90% sure thats the one. It looks exactly like it. I can double check when I get home from work, if nobody else chimes in.

In the mean time, you can snip the pin for the center push. That way you can still use the 2x until the replacment comes in.

 

[chunkyktr]

yes, that is the one

 

[richiejarvis]

Thanks guys - I've ordered one. Now all I have to do is pluck up the courage to solder the replacement in place. Any hints on this?

Cheers,

Richie

 

[Reesy]

Make sure you've got some de-soldering braid. Putting the new joystick on is easy, taking the old one off is the hard part but de-soldering braid makes it a lot easier.

 

[richiejarvis]

Hi All,

Reporting back - the part turned up yesterday, and I dragged my soldering iron out of its hiding place and set to work. I am happy to report that it worked perfectly, and I was able to remove the existing j/s and replace it.

A couple of tips that might help others in this situation:

Cut off the existing joystick pins - that way, you are just left with individual pins to remove, not the entire joystick.

Get a Solder sucker (I've never used Solder braid as Reesy says, but I assume the principal is the same) - you'll need it to remove all the solder from the holes

The holes are 1mm wide - I used a 1mm drill to clean the holes - not spinning or anything - just holding it, and poking it through to make sure i had clean space to insert the new joystick - i had to hand-twist it between my fingers to open up a couple of the de-soldered holes in order to make room for the new one

It'll only go in the right way round

Thanks all for the advice everyone!

Cheers,

Richie

 

[grahf]

Awesome, glad it worked out.