Davec's Joystick Cap Mod

[CoinOp]

Today I received DaveC's hand machined joystick cap in the mail.
I've been playing with it for about 6 hours or so. For me overall control is dramatically improved with the cap.

If you've seen the pictures of DaveC's mod you'll notice that it looks not unlike a birdbath. The top is recessed for your thumb to fit into. There are no sharp edges for your thumb to catch on the sides. I had got into the habit of using the edge of the stock stick for quick throws. Because his mod is bigger, and has no sharp edges it ment that I had to throw out the last month and a half of learning how to use the stock stick effectively. It didn't take me that long to get into speed with it, but I think it is worth mentioning that it felt awkward at first.

So I fired up Tail Tale to see if the stick would help me get farther in the game. I made it to level 27 which is astonishing considering my previous effort of 18 with the stock stick.

I let my wife have a go with it too. Mind you, she hasn't logged the first hour on my GP2X since I received it back in November. She just couldn't get the swing of the stock stick. After 15 minutes with it I realized I wasn't getting my 2x back soon. Looks like I may be getting another GP2X for the house.

If you hate the stock stick, or lost it, or want to try something different I think it's worth a go. I highly recommend it.

edit: spelling and clarification

I had a PM question about the stick feeling awkward to me. Not so much the stick feeling awkward more of the transition from the crappy stock stick to the new one. The relearning as it were. I love DaveC's cap mod as it stands. 1000% better in my opinion then the stock stick.

 

[TelcoLou]

Good to hear (well, read) .. mine just got sent out, so I should have it by next week.

 

[Shane R. Monroe]

Thank you!

I ordered mine ... I can't wait to try it out!

 

[DaveC]

Thank you!

I ordered mine ... I can't wait to try it out!

​

Yours was sent already so you should get any day.

Hope you guys will like it. I know that is what I use myself and to me it is much better.

With the old stick I couldn't get through one level of Thunderforce III in DrMD. With the new one I can get through a few levels. May be just in my mind though (placebo effect), We will see when more feedback comes in *crosses fingers*

 

[naples39]

Sounds interesting. How difficult is the stick to install? I am terrible with my hands so its needs to be easy for me to even consider. Is it possible to revert to the original or try other joysticks, or is installation permanent?

 

[Claym99]

where are you buying the mod from?

 

[CoinOp]

Sounds interesting. How difficult is the stick to install? I am terrible with my hands so its needs to be easy for me to even consider. Is it possible to revert to the original or try other joysticks, or is installation permanent?

​

Easy as pulling off and pushing on. I'm confident you can do it.

 

[DaveC]

Sounds interesting. How difficult is the stick to install? I am terrible with my hands so its needs to be easy for me to even consider. Is it possible to revert to the original or try other joysticks, or is installation permanent?

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You just pop off the old cap and press on the new one. Very easy, and yes you can go back to the original one (don't think you would want to though).

 

[DaveC]

where are you buying the mod from?

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I make them *points to sig VVV*

 

[mrpig]

This is very interesting. Other than money, the joystick was the main thing stopping me buying a 2x as it wasnt concave. I see they are improving the firmware all the time so perhaps I will end up getting one in a few months and sending some money your way at the same time

Do you still get issues with diagonals I have read or was that due to the old stick and/or software needing to ignore the inbetween diagonal signals and so on?

 

[Rayek]

That's something that can't be fixed with a simple cap mod. It'd make hitting the direction you mean to a lot easier, but you would have to pay a company to remake a switch and possibly a mainboard to fix the diagonal issue.

 

[Cbass182]

In all honestly...I don't care for DaveC's stick. It's WAY to slick on top, which I imagine is now why he makes them with groove's (as in his sig) and it is WAY to wide. You can't just kind of push the stick left and right, it's more like pressing on the outside edge of the stick to make it go down in that direction, makes it much more tedious of a task to do precise controls...albiet it may be better than stock, the RetroCon mod is still to be surpassed in my opinion, convex, grippy, not really wide = much better control. And I don't think that the stick was worth $10 except for the fact that it was made by hand...and I can't do it myself...

 

[nubie]

In all honestly...I don't care for DaveC's stick. It's WAY to slick on top. . .

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You could be right, I am planning on doing mine with a Interact Barracuda cap because it has more of a ridge to grip your finger and I can't make one from scratch right now either.

I think his choice of material is better than these though, they are cheap plastic and I have had a couple break from the barracuda's being chucked around and buried under heavy stuff, but that shouldn't really happen with the GP2X.

 

[gdelappa]

Please where do you order it? Thanks!

 

[Quiest]

Please where do you order it? Thanks!

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Damn, if you read through these posts you could have noticved it as easy as clicking on DaveCs signature <_<

 

[DaveC]

In all honestly...I don't care for DaveC's stick. It's WAY to slick on top, which I imagine is now why he makes them with groove's (as in his sig) and it is WAY to wide. You can't just kind of push the stick left and right, it's more like pressing on the outside edge of the stick to make it go down in that direction, makes it much more tedious of a task to do precise controls...albiet it may be better than stock, the RetroCon mod is still to be surpassed in my opinion, convex, grippy, not really wide = much better control. And I don't think that the stick was worth $10 except for the fact that it was made by hand...and I can't do it myself...

​

There was no way for me to make it from rubber, I wish I could though. I could try to make one that looks similar but non rubber may be too slippery. Oh well sorry you don't like it. I guess I will wait for more feedback before making more. If I get alot of bad responses I will quit.

I had some parameters that I had to go by though. The Retrocon stick has to be higher because of the shape. I wanted to minimize the throw distance by having the surface of the stick as close to the top of the brass shaft as possible. Right now it is like 1 mm above or less. If I make it a shape like a retrocon it will increase throw distance. Maybe that is not too bad to do? I don't know throw distance and dead zone were a big complaint with the GPH stick. Mine was made to handle more d-pad like than stick like.

Dave

 

[xafier]

DaveC: maybe you could buy one of those plastidip rubber things and coat it? if your doing lots then you'd use the full can so it wouldn't be that much extra per stick or waste of money?

 

[Julius]

I am definitly tempted to buy one. Maybe it would be possible to use a liquid rubber coating to give it more grip? But I don't think that is really necessary.

Anyways, even though I am tempted I guess I will wait for the new official cap that is supposed to be released sometimes soon, probably with the official launch.

 

[skeezix]

$10/$11 seems like a great price; ie: Sure, its probably 50c worth of plastic/nylon, but having someone make it (or design it for CNC or whatever) is more work than our lazy asses can do, so its worth it (Including shipping, and his time away from family to do this stuff.)

I need to find out how to get a glass-mod done -- how do you stick glass to the unit? Where can you get thin crisp glass cut?

You just yank out the existing joystick, and push this one in? No damage to the mechanism eh?

Mebbe I'll order one

jeff

 

[Paradox]

I am definitly tempted to buy one. Maybe it would be possible to use a liquid rubber coating to give it more grip? But I don't think that is really necessary.

Anyways, even though I am tempted I guess I will wait for the new official cap that is supposed to be released sometimes soon, probably with the official launch.

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where did you hear they where releasing a new stick?