Guide: How To Build Your Own D-pad (& Centre-push)

[bacteria]

Some pics...

​

This D-pad works great, I am very happy with it. Diagonals are easy to hit, although there is a marginal bias towards the 4 main directions (which is exactly how it should be). The assembly is low (under 5mm above the GP2x case) so is very easy to use - I think it is just the right height for comfortable usage.

The advantages of this design are that you don't need to remove the motherboard, cut out a large hole carefully and accurately from the GP2x case, remove (desolder) the existing joystick, build housing to accommodate a rubber pad, use a solder pen tracer to solder wires to the PCB for the D-pad or make the PCB fit correctly in the GP2x. My solution is designed for people like me without good soldering skills, without specialist tools (Dremmel, solder tracer pen, desolder material, etc), who are a bit scared of opening up the GP2x properly (ie over and above removal of back cover!); who want a solution they can make potentially for no cost, easy to make and assemble, and is reliable. You also don't need a PCB converter board with this solution.[cut]

You can make your own D-pad and assemble it easily, using this step-by-step fully illustrated guide, out of basic materials; and you can make it for potentially free, or virtually no cost. The centre-push button can be mounted almost anywhere sensible on the GP2x you like, instructions are in the guide for making this.

I have no way to tell how many people download this file; I would be grateful if you could please post a reply to say that you have downloaded it, what you think of it and whether you intend to use it. I would love to see your results!

If you have any trouble downloading the file, please let me know and I will set up mirror sites. Thanks!

Guide[/cut]

 

[chunkyktr]

very informative and interesting, thanks!

 

[dadioflex]

This MIGHT void your warranty...

I kid.

Interesting read and well beyond anything I'd do with my geepeetoo. I'm happy enough with the replacement stick but it does seem to catch on EVERYTHING.

 

[BenScar]

Nice one bacteria, looks pretty good too.

 

[sehs33]

Saved to my desktop, will comment later, thanks for your hard work, if this succeeded to be as easy as you are describing it, you will be the hero who solved GP2X greatest issue

 

[garengarch]

Thanks for all your work, looks interesting.
Have downloaded and read the guide, will maybe have an attempt at this.
/salute

 

[moz]

its alive
ITS ALIVE!
/nod

 

[nik166]

so you even kept the original stick inside! :blink:

you barbarian!


but that may give some ideas to some other peoples and there may be some "DIY pad community" spreading from your pdf

the only real problem that may happen would be the diagonals, in some possibly rare apps, but anyway it can happen, but i think it's fixable by software, thank you linux

 

[xafier]

Think I'll stick with the replacement stick... that mod looks really ugly... I don't want a frankenstien GP2X... I like mine looking pretty!

 

[bacteria]

so you even kept the original stick inside! :blink:

Yup, no point in removing it, and anyway, one of the points was to do the mod without removing the motherboard! I read somewhere that you could unscrew the stick, I tried this, it doesn't - so I used wire cutters (shown in document) to snip most of the stick off - wasn't hard, the metal isn't too tough.

but that may give some ideas to some other peoples and there may be some "DIY pad community" spreading from your pdf

Hope so. I want people to benefit from my R&D and the document I spent ages producing!

 

[kardasan]

THAT mod is SICK!! dude, you rock but I'll try to make it more...perfect looking.

 

[bacteria]

... that mod looks really ugly...

Seriously? :blink:
Anyway, you can make the square base whatever shape (circle, whatever) and colour you like, and the D-pad circle could be the top off a commerial D-pad (a flat one preferred), or a hexaggon shape, or whatever. You can make it how you like, the making off it will be exactly the same as per my document. This is a trully personalised project - be creative!

THAT mod is SICK!! dude, you rock but I'll try to make it more...perfect looking.

No problem. There are only two components you see on the GP2x (everything else is hidden) - the base for the D-pad top and the support for the D-pad top. You could make the support block any shape you like, you could make it out of metal if you like (but paint it before placing the aluminium foil, otherwise everything connects the circuit) to make it really flat; the D-pad top can be any shape you like, even the top off a commercial D-pad (a flat one, with pivot removed) - there is no limit. I didn't have any metal sheeting about, so I used plastic - I could have smoothed the edges and gradiented them, etc - easy to do, but I preferred (it is personal choice after all) the way I did it - however you can make yours look however you like, and still make it as per my instruction guide. You can personalise this as you like! Have a go - post your pics, I would really like to see some please!

 

[spoyser]

Use paper masking tape to cover the side of the GP2x screen (you don’t want to mark it),
and use polyfiller to fill in any blemishes you have on your GP2x (eg part of the volume
button melted a while ago when my solder went astray); and the sides of the D-pad square
– makes it nice and smooth, and integrated.

Brilliant!

Anyhow, nice idea!

Would it be possible to raise the pad slightly and leave the joystick shaft intact, cutting it off seems rather final!

 

[STTrife]

well obviously you can take this tutorial as a basis and try to make it more 'pretty' with your own ideas

 

[peetabix]

Downloaded. looks great

 

[jansport]

Clever idea if I must say so myself but I'm not eager to snap off my joystick anytime soon :huh:

 

[ste_167]

Reading that mod reminds me why I could never be a surgeon. An interesting read, but doing that to my GP2X would be terrifying!

 

[Megagun]

Exactly. Not really a "no frills" mod like I had expected it to be. For sure, I don't want to do any damage to the thing, really. The soldering thing I'm semifine with, but certainly not removing the little nub on the front of the unit (the thing below the stick)..

Still a nice mod though

 

[___]

Yeah, I am glad that it works for you but it just looks too cheap for me and I am too concerned about my gp2x front being ruined and my joystick being crippled. Also, you use so much cheap material, don`t you think that the aluminium foil or the card board will break at some point? Maybe that the pad will suddenly make contact when not even touching it? Seems like a bitch to remove all that excessive glue then and repair it.

 

[bacteria]

Use paper masking tape to cover the side of the GP2x screen (you don’t want to mark it),
and use polyfiller to fill in any blemishes you have on your GP2x (eg part of the volume
button melted a while ago when my solder went astray); and the sides of the D-pad square
– makes it nice and smooth, and integrated.

Brilliant!

Anyhow, nice idea!

Would it be possible to raise the pad slightly and leave the joystick shaft intact, cutting it off seems rather final!

Thanks! I like to be creative and practical! I must confess, I hated the marks I had on my old GP2x from old experiments and mishaps, a bit of piller and paint and it looks great again!

Yes, you could easily raise the pad slightly and leave the joystick shaft intact. Use two bases instead of one, then - 1) make the under piece shaped around the raised joystick area (ie don't shave it down) or 2) make two identical pieces, but make the bottom one have a sightly bigger hole (to accomodate the old joystick stick). The top piece will then be very slightly above the old joystick staft, so achieve what you want.

I did this idea before, hence all the jokes about "sticky floor tiles" - I used two layers of these so do exactly above in my previous designs, easy to remove, yet stayed in place - no grinding down of the joystick raised area and no lowering of the joystick stick (as you can see in my document). The only downside to this is that you end up with a D-pad assembly about 8-9mm high; I achieved just under 5mm in my construction in comparison; if you use a thin piece of metal, instead of plastic, you could end up about 3.5mm high only. I wanted to make everything nice and low, so that meant grinding and slicing down the joystick raised area and snipping down the joystick stick - doesn't matter anyway, after using my design I will never want to go back to the old joystick again anyway! My D-pad works far too well to ever go back to a joystick!