Fishbong
man of poor reputation
This fix serves people who really have severe problems with their dirpad, like me. The upper diagonals weren´t responsive at all, and the others only barely. So i tried using the quickfix and taped a lot of paper behind my ministick. At first it helped a little, and i could use the upper diagonals if i really tried. However it was still unsatisfying, the stick still felt rather loose and, worst of all, after a week it was as bad as before again. I tried using more paper, and the back of the gp32_console really bulged out... and finally got a thick fat crack
Instantly i took the Paper out as to not let the crack expand. Of course the handling of my ministick was now worser than ever, so i examined its mechanism closer and found an elegant method to improve the responsiveness and the tightness of the stick very effectively without using mechanical force that could damage the console or its case like the quickfix does. First pull out the ministick. Then unscrew all screws and remove both the front and the rear of the case (you don´t have to remove the front part completely e.g. disconnecting the display, but you should be able to easily reach the part of the board which contains the ministick mechanism from both sides) Now you have to remove the white, cross-shaped case of the mechanism on the rear (let´s call it the `shell´). It is fixated on the circuit board with four palstic "legs" which are stuck through the circuit board from the rear and molten on the front. To remove the shell you have to take a sharp knife and cut off the edges thus creating a quadratic shape that fits through the circuit board.
Now pull off the shell and you get two parts: The shell itself and, inside it, the actual stick.
That´s the moment where you have to start tinkering a bit: Take a bit of really thin cardboard (or really thick paper, if you put it that way) like it is used for visiting cards. Out of it, cut a cross with a hole in the middle that fits exactly into the shell. It should look like a Gameboy direction cross.
If one of the directions of the pad (commonly the upper one) is especially unresponsive, you have to make one of the "arms" of the cross thicker than the others by applying one or two layers of duct tape to it. Now lay the cross on the black microswitches. Always bear in mind that the microswitches are arranged reverse , so if the upper direction is particularly unresponsive, the thick "arm" of the cross has to lay on the under microswitch etc. Take the white stick and insert it, through the hole in the cross, into its original spot. Also take the shell and put it into its original position. Press it against the circuit board firmly and if you hear a clicking sound, your cross is too thick, so make it thinner (if you hear a cracking sound you have pressed too hard ;-) ) if you hear no sound at all, try (whilst pressing the shell against the circuit board) to use all directions and diagonals of the white stick. If every direction and diagonal works and the stick feels tight (like it felt when it was new) everything is O.K. If not the cross (or one of its "arms") is not thick enough. If you ´re finally content with the feeling of the stick, you have to fixate the shell again. The best way is to use a hot-glue gun (or however the thing is called in english) to fixate the four pins in their holes on the circuit- board. You may, of course, use ordinary (super-)glue, but then you have no possibility of removing it again. If you use hot glue you can simply remove it by heating it up. I also recommend to tape a bit of cardboard behind the shell (the same spot as used in the quickfix) to support it against slipping back if the glue fails. Now reassemble your gp32_console . If you ´ve done everythhing correctly, the ministick should be as good as new.
Instantly i took the Paper out as to not let the crack expand. Of course the handling of my ministick was now worser than ever, so i examined its mechanism closer and found an elegant method to improve the responsiveness and the tightness of the stick very effectively without using mechanical force that could damage the console or its case like the quickfix does. First pull out the ministick. Then unscrew all screws and remove both the front and the rear of the case (you don´t have to remove the front part completely e.g. disconnecting the display, but you should be able to easily reach the part of the board which contains the ministick mechanism from both sides) Now you have to remove the white, cross-shaped case of the mechanism on the rear (let´s call it the `shell´). It is fixated on the circuit board with four palstic "legs" which are stuck through the circuit board from the rear and molten on the front. To remove the shell you have to take a sharp knife and cut off the edges thus creating a quadratic shape that fits through the circuit board.
Now pull off the shell and you get two parts: The shell itself and, inside it, the actual stick.
That´s the moment where you have to start tinkering a bit: Take a bit of really thin cardboard (or really thick paper, if you put it that way) like it is used for visiting cards. Out of it, cut a cross with a hole in the middle that fits exactly into the shell. It should look like a Gameboy direction cross.
If one of the directions of the pad (commonly the upper one) is especially unresponsive, you have to make one of the "arms" of the cross thicker than the others by applying one or two layers of duct tape to it. Now lay the cross on the black microswitches. Always bear in mind that the microswitches are arranged reverse , so if the upper direction is particularly unresponsive, the thick "arm" of the cross has to lay on the under microswitch etc. Take the white stick and insert it, through the hole in the cross, into its original spot. Also take the shell and put it into its original position. Press it against the circuit board firmly and if you hear a clicking sound, your cross is too thick, so make it thinner (if you hear a cracking sound you have pressed too hard ;-) ) if you hear no sound at all, try (whilst pressing the shell against the circuit board) to use all directions and diagonals of the white stick. If every direction and diagonal works and the stick feels tight (like it felt when it was new) everything is O.K. If not the cross (or one of its "arms") is not thick enough. If you ´re finally content with the feeling of the stick, you have to fixate the shell again. The best way is to use a hot-glue gun (or however the thing is called in english) to fixate the four pins in their holes on the circuit- board. You may, of course, use ordinary (super-)glue, but then you have no possibility of removing it again. If you use hot glue you can simply remove it by heating it up. I also recommend to tape a bit of cardboard behind the shell (the same spot as used in the quickfix) to support it against slipping back if the glue fails. Now reassemble your gp32_console . If you ´ve done everythhing correctly, the ministick should be as good as new.
