Gp2x Joystick Exposed - The Internals

[bazuka]

Main problem with your solutions is that it isn't adressing major issue of gp2x's stick. The orthogonal diections register at 25 degress each and only "25" is way too less. Because of it up/down/left/right movements are sometimes hard to register. Making the hat more selective you'd prevent some of mistakes with diagonals but it will not make hitting othogonals easier. This is the problem with this stick and fastest fix would be rotating it by 45 degress (as sugested by DaveC).

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Rotating 45 deg then adding a shim under the control hat to reduce dead zone would be the best I think. If we (Craig) can accomplish the almost insurmountable task of getting GPH to actually listen to us the hard part would be done (rotation). Then we would just have to shim it and we would have a useable stick.

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In the "neat ideas" forum, there's a Dpad hack thread that's discussed a carrier board for a complete replacement of the stick, but it may apply as well here. The problem is finding someone with the balls to try it. I'm considering it.

 

[bazuka]

It appears that a carrier board won't work because of the mounting hole locations. If you rotate the installation diagram 45 degrees, you'll see some of the holes will be overlapping.

 

[Paradox]

will i be able to exchange my shitty old unit with a crap joystick in for a brand new one with a new stick? if not, i hope they dont make hardware changes.

personally, if im stuck with this stick, ill be really disgusted, the stick is the main part of the console, its faulty, its not my fault, why shouldnt i get it fixed?

 

[OrR]

You won't get it fixed for free because it works. Simple.

 

[Thraka]

I have to agree with the dpad.

If we could pull out the whole stick piece and the gold contact that the stick uses, and wire a small dpad to hit the X\Y when updown then short the UP\LEFT (and other cornors) to contact the diagonal piece, we have instant perfection.

You could pull the DPAD out of another controller, and build a small container that is raised on top of the GP itself (pretty small) and have room for the wires where the stick used to be, it would work SO WELL!!

 

[whitley]

will i be able to exchange my shitty old unit with a crap joystick in for a brand new one with a new stick? if not, i hope they dont make hardware changes.

personally, if im stuck with this stick, ill be really disgusted, the stick is the main part of the console, its faulty, its not my fault, why shouldnt i get it fixed?

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Mine is the same mate, the joystick is simply awfull but as the guy above said there is no way GPH or any of their sellers would exchange our units for new ones if they made a slight mod.

Looks like we are stuck with a joystick that basically is useless for games. Today i let my brother have a go on ghouls and ghosts on the mame emulator....he played it for like 30 secs and said " whats wrong with the joystick".....and i could see that for him to move even left or right was a joke....one minute it would work then it wouldnt.

Brilliant little handheld but the joystick is complete crap IMO.

 

[Radek]

will i be able to exchange my shitty old unit with a crap joystick in for a brand new one with a new stick? if not, i hope they dont make hardware changes.

personally, if im stuck with this stick, ill be really disgusted, the stick is the main part of the console, its faulty, its not my fault, why shouldnt i get it fixed?

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Mine is the same mate, the joystick is simply awfull but as the guy above said there is no way GPH or any of their sellers would exchange our units for new ones if they made a slight mod.

Looks like we are stuck with a joystick that basically is useless for games. Today i let my brother have a go on ghouls and ghosts on the mame emulator....he played it for like 30 secs and said " whats wrong with the joystick".....and i could see that for him to move even left or right was a joke....one minute it would work then it wouldnt.

Try to unscrew cap somewhat - it's often putted too much down so it can even touch the front panel. This is thankfully not difficult to fix. The second problem (the major one) is biasing for diagonals and this can not be fixed as easily (thought something can be done in software to make handling more comfortable).

Brilliant little handheld but the joystick is complete crap IMO.

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Joystick could be better that's for sure. But worst is that it's not mounted as it should and its cap is... Look around and you will see how it should be.

 

[Deed]

Just played to Sonic 3D with DrMD. It works very well with the gp2x joystick He he he.

 

[ant512]

Just played to Sonic 3D with DrMD. It works very well with the gp2x joystick He he he.

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Street Fighter 2 on the first SNES emu works really, really well with the GP2x. All of Ryu's moves are easy to perform because it's so easy to hit the diagonals.

Pretty much everything else is a chore, though...

 

[Thraka]

Can't let this topic die! It's as close as I am to having a dpad so far

 

[Jarska333]

Heh heh... B) It's worth a shot. Few wires, pcb from inside, drill few holes...

 

[Thraka]

and thats why the gp32\gp2x community rocks

 

[DaveC]

Heh heh... B) It's worth a shot. Few wires, pcb from inside, drill few holes...

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Only one small problem, that pad has only 4 switches, the GP2X has 8. With that pad you would get no diagonals at all, the system doesn't recognize an X+Y as a diagonal

 

[Thraka]

Correct! But what you should do is make connections to all 8 connectors. The X\Y are mapped directly but if a X and Y are hit together, they should short out the straight connections and use the diagonal connection.

 

[bazuka]

Correct! But what you should do is make connections to all 8 connectors. The X\Y are mapped directly but if a X and Y are hit together, they should short out the straight connections and use the diagonal connection.

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Still have to have more hardware (PCB) to go that., otherwise you'll hit diagonals EVERY time you hit UDL or R.

 

[Eolair]

Heh heh... B) It's worth a shot. Few wires, pcb from inside, drill few holes...

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Argh, scavenging a G&W should be a crime!

 

[DaveC]

Correct! But what you should do is make connections to all 8 connectors. The X\Y are mapped directly but if a X and Y are hit together, they should short out the straight connections and use the diagonal connection.

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If you design a logic circuit that gives X=sw3, Y=sw1, Y+X=sw2.. and so on you could do it. the 16 way input would be ignored. How good are you at designing logic circuitry? I can't do it. Plus that extra power required... It would be a wire mess and alot of work. It would probably be easier to mod the old stick.

 

[Jarska333]

One option I had in mind was simply to drill a hole onto the cross, and use it as a joystick cap.

Argh, scavenging a G&W should be a crime!

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Aw, it was broken allready...

 

[Eolair]

One option I had in mind was simply to drill a hole onto the cross, and use it as a joystick cap.

Argh, scavenging a G&W should be a crime!

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Aw, it was broken allready...

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Well not a major criminal offense then but a minor one. Let's say 10 years in hard labor

 

[Jarska333]

Should I make stick-caps? It's hard, I tell you.