Review Of The Ultimate Ministick Fix!


frolik

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Link to the tutorial I am reviewing.....

Last night I bought a hot glue gun (AU$6) and craft knife (AU$1.20), and with a printed copy of the tutorial thread by my side I set to work on fixing the thumbpadon my FLU unit which has become very wobbly and completely unresponsive to diagonal movement.

Open Sesame

I opened up the case which I have done on various occasions before, and almost immediately managed to break off one of the orange cables connecting the FLU switch to a resistor. Very annoyed at this bad start since I don't have a soldering iron. Anyway I proceeded to remove the front shell and discovered how awkward it is to get to the joystick without removing the ribbon cable connecting the screen. Sheared off the plastic nobs, removed the plastic joystick parts and was happy to finally see how it works.

Shave and a Haircut

First thing I notice was LOADS of plastic shavings where it had worn down over the years, I cleaned this up and made the cross out of 2 layers of wide insulating tape, but this didn't work very well and I was worried that the central hole would make it split at some point.

Alternative method

Instead, I put 2 layers of tape on each arm of the joystick cross (one layer at a time), and used the craft knife to slice off the excess and made it look very neat and tidy. Put it in and the clicking felt spot on, so glued it back up and put it back together. While I had it open I replaced the button membrane which had broken over 8 months ago and made the buttons go soft and unresponsive. I wound the end of the FLU wire around the resistor wire (which had broken) and used a miniscule amount of insulating tape to stick them together.

Back together,... or is it?

Once I'd put the case back together I noticed the top was not on right, so I pushed the L button in and it clicked back ok. Fired up the unit and the diags were amazing, never seen them this good! Dead chuffed! Until I tried to use the L button that wasn't working at all. Took it apart again and found the plastic wall holding the metal lever had broken where I put it together badly. Used the glue gun again and bent the metal lever out some more and with some tweaking managed to get it working again, though it's not quite as responsive as before....

Conclusion

Can't believe it but it's working almost 100% and shootemups are extra playable now. Although I might at some point open it again and put one more layer of insulating tape on the joystick arms for extra responsiveness. But I'm dead chuffed with it. Thanks for the tut and the info, hopefully if someone else does it, the shite I've just written may help them too.
 
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you really don't need to take your gp32 apart to fix the joystick, dude...
 
take the joystick off, narrow the shaft using a craft knife, stuff some paper up inside the joystick so it keeps the joystick 'pulled-out' type of thing, and there you go. there's really no need to stuff your gp with paper or mess about with glue or any of that stuff :)
 
pirloui posted on Apr 17 2005 at 06:12 PM said:
toxibunny, here is why frolik opened his GP to repair it...:

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=18100

so quickfix is surelly nice and quick; but maybe bad in the long run..


frolik posted on Apr 17 2005 at 11:10 PM said:
thanks pirloui, you saved me having to open a can of whoopass! :D

i wasn't talking about taking the back off the gp32 and putting paper inside, if that's what the 'quickfix' is. my top-left didn't work at all, and the rest were near-enough impossible to hit, so I did what I said above. result- all diagonals work, and have a much larger 'arc of responsiveness'. no screwdriver needed, nothing glued, and I haven't had to do anything else with it in the six months since.

you may now commence with the whoopass :p
 
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I'll recommend the fix too (not the one Toxibunny was mentioning) - Just used it this weekend. On 2 GP's actually.

My own GP also began crack on the back, so I didn't find the ghetto-fix satisfactory anymore - And my parent's GP simply wasn't usable at all. So we fixed 'em both.
 
When i wrote the tutorial, i wanted to tell you a way of how to make your ministick how it was when your gp32 was new, and without having to modify the GP32 visibly. If you enlarge the hole (like Dino did) or narrow the shaft, all you´re doing is enabling you to apply more force to the microswitches. I wouldn´t call that a fix.
 
I have actually tried all (afaik) fixes in the past, and they all helped a little, but since my case cracking I lost diags completely.

I can positively confirm that this fix is much better than any other fix I've tried, although it takes a little more hassle to perform. That's why I wrote this mini review of it!

Furthermore, shaving off ridges from under the thumbpad stem is a bit dodgy, and increasing the 'arc of responsiveness' just forces you to push the pad our further to reach the diags, not very accurate at all!

The fix I've reviewed will make your stick feel like new, I just love the way it doesn't wobble anymore!

-no need for any whoopass this time :)
 
Another happy customer. This diagonal paper/card technique has given my trusty FLU a new lease on life so many games that were unplayable before have become so playable now. Seriously I'm hitting perfect diagonals every time... Speedball2, Sensible Soccer, etc..

/me plays Ninja Warriors on GPengine with perfect precision diagonal jumping.

:)
 
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