My Gp2x Directional Mod

[darkman]

After almost two years of daily heavy use my joy pad on my GP2X died. I began to look through the Archives of this site for info on directional pad mods, that others had made. I finally was inspired by “Bacteria's” concept of using the plastic and aluminum foil thing. (My soldering tools are not made for fine work.) I really did not like the cosmetic appearance of his mod. Sorry Bacteria, but that is just my personal preference. I really wanted a traditional cross button anyway. After looking over some controllers and my portable collection, I finally settled on liking the Gameboy Pocket directional button. So I went to ebay and won one for .99 cents USD. (It had no battery cover.)

I used an old out of date plastic medical card to cut out my circle. Credit card thickness.

After a lot of modifying and trying different designs for my made up directional board, I found one that worked. I had some responsiveness issues and finally had to cover the black dots on the rubber thingy with aluminum foil. This solved my problem.

I took a Drimmel to the plastic case of the GP2X and was careful to be very slow and patient in cutting my cross and under cutting the size. Then I took a very small flat file and carefully filed the plastic, constantly holding the button up to the hole, until it fit. I didn't want it to get too big.

I have it held to the GP2X PCB with a foamy double stick tape. I presently have it held together with black electric tape because I haven't been to the store to purchase any glue, but it works great! Using the black electric tape helped to see if I had everything right and in place before any gluing needed to be done. I have played some SHUMUPS, a little Mario, and a few Neo Geo Fighters. Diagonals are no problem. Playing noiz2sa was the ultimate test. Plays great. I am very satisfied. I'll be looking for some glue this weekend to make things permanent.

 

[prairiefire]

This looks fantastic

 

[iprice]

That looks great. Excellent job

 

[quote]

Nice job! This is the first good mod i've seen in a while

 

[Duddyroar]

I wish I could do something like this for my F200. The d-pad is certainly an improvement over the F100 but it's still hopeless for fighting games, IMO.

 

[tim0391]

nice mod there i wish i had the balls to cut open my 2x

 

[nubie]

Looks good, I am looking at trying to make one with micro tact switches.

I use the 15w soldering iron from Radio Shack for fine soldering, it works pretty well. Most people (hackaday, instructables) swear by the $35 weller adjustable iron (temperature controlled with a knob.)

 

[dcpmark]

Nice! Now glue on a 3mm disc like the larger, flat one in the picture below, and you'll have a true D-pad. I've done this mod to my GBA and Micro, and it's awesome! Easy rolling for the thumb:

Mini Stick

 

[Sphinxter]

I got one of these from a nephew for xmas and thought what crap but damn, it works great and hasn't destroyed any ic's or traces yet, I love it. The free wire strippers work pretty well too.
http://www.coldheat.com

 

[darkman]

Thanks for the compliments everyone.

I think one of the biggest issues I had to deal with is realizing just how much space I had to work in. The thickness of everything came into play as I experimented with various things. I ended up not using the milky clear rubber thingy in the pic and went with the Gameboy Pocket rubber thingy. It had a much lower profile. I then used a double thickness in the two sided sticky foam tape which helped to bring my disk and rubber thingy up against my button causing it to fit into place. You constantly have to keep in mind that you do not have a lot of room to play with and have to keep considering the thickness of everything.

I might keep in mind the soldering suggestions.

 

[BobBorakovitz]

nice work!

 

[bacteria]

darkman - Stumbled on this thread. Pleased you were inspired to do this mod and found my (old) guide useful.

In those days, I didn't have a soldering iron, so made my mod rather crudely; yes it looked crap in comparison to what I do now (but it was my first mod after all). As you see in my current work, I am very used now to advanced modding and hacking and a dab with a soldering iron!

After experimenting (on my projects), tact switches are fine but contact rubbers are better as the extra travel they have feels right.

Yes, there isn't enough conductivity with a rubber contact pad onto tin foil, problem with putting foil onto the rubber contacts is that they can detach and make a contact when you don't want them to, although foil does conduct well against other foil.

Nice looking job. I had a hard job trying to persuade people that the D-pad made diagonals work, it took a long time before people tried their own D-pad variations and realised it works great. I just wish people weren't so against this principle at the time.

You could hack up the GameBoy Pocket mobo for the D-pad contact part, make it fit in the GP2x and solder wires to the traces (using flux); this will be quite permanent.

 

[thumpgun]

will you install a button for the click stick button under your d pad mod?

 

[bacteria]

Better off having a centre click button elsewhere in the case.

 

[darkman]

will you install a button for the click stick button under your d pad mod?

I've never used the click stick for anything. :blink: I really have felt that it has been a pointless feature on the GP2X. I've only used my GP2X for gaming. So,.... I guess it will not be included in my mod when I am finished.

 

[Megatog615]

Did you cut the stick rod off? I was thinking of doing your mod(right now I have my 2x in pieces waiting to be modded), but wanted to keep stick-click intact. I might cut a hole in the center of the plastic and running the joystick rod through to the d-pad so it can click.

 

[darkman]

Did you cut the stick rod off? I was thinking of doing your mod(right now I have my 2x in pieces waiting to be modded), but wanted to keep stick-click intact. I might cut a hole in the center of the plastic and running the joystick rod through to the d-pad so it can click.

I took the old joy stick completely off. It was totally broken and in no way could be used to do any stick-click function.

 

[bacteria]

You only have to wire a button to the two centre-click contacts on the rear of the mobo on the old joystick connections.