Xbox Joystick Mod

[nathonix]

so i spend all day playing gpSP, draining two sets of batteries, when i start to think that my old mkII joystick isn't up to par. this happened about the time that i figured out that the little nub in the center was hurting my thumb, and the detection of the right direction (cardinal, not correct!) was just not up to snuff.

and then i remember that i have a busted xbox controller, and a dremel, so of course theres no shortage of things i could do.

i started with the wired version of this controller:

and ended here:

all you have to do is cut off the bottom dome that goes over the analog area and keeps you from pulling the stick out of the controller, and then get rid of the ridges that hold the stick to the dome. after that you take a small nail (just smaller than the gp2x's joystick mount) and pop that in your dremel (assuming you don't have the proper sized drillbit), and slowly work your way into the hole on the bottom of the joystick till its the right size.

you take that manhandled and molested bit of plastic, and you press fit it to the gp2x, and Bam! problems solved.

i'm sure you could probably substitute wirecutters for the dremel in the cutting phase, but it won't be pretty, or easy.

possibly more pics after i clean it up tomorrow

doom 2 using prboom is quite a bit easier when using the stick for moving and turning, and street fighter is a joy, also no problems hitting right on the stick anymore!

 

[quasist]

It cast that you have (dissasembled) non-functional XBox Controller. Maybe you could give a try to "place complete Gp2x inside the" Xbox controller, so take advantage of nice grips on left and right? (Not just the nice stick)

If this will sucseed then you easily can change power source from regular battery to somewhat more powerful that will help play Gp2x even much longer.

P.S: Gp2x Wiz is seems much smaller - so it will certanly fit most of gamepads shell

 

[nubie]

Say goodbye to your stick. The extra force from that huge lever will kill it, tread gingerly.

I made 3 caps for my GP2X. One was a bead of aluminium, one was the cap from an N64 knock-off controller, one was from a InterAct PS1 Barracuda (not the barracuda II either.)

If you approach it from an engineering point of view you want to decrease the distance your thumb moves and increase the "landing zone" where the contact is made so the stick won't fail as soon.

You have 'solved' the small contact zone by making both it and the total throw much much larger. I was headed the other way to preserve the life of the stick by making the throw as small as possible and relying on the better control to hit the contacts.

Either way is a trade-off, but I don't like the reduced lifespan of the stick with a longer and longer stick (the cap the GP2X comes with is far too big already if you read the PDF datasheet on the stick, it is only rated for 100,000 presses, and probably not for such a big knob.) Don't push too hard or let anybody else play unless you really trust them.


I would have probably ground off the nub in the middle, then glued some nice rubber on the original stick. (I have been getting good results with a steel mouse ball rubber covering, I cut it off and used a piece with super glue.)

 

[nathonix]

QUOTE

Say goodbye to your stick. The extra force from that huge lever will kill it, tread gingerly.



i actually went to shorten the stick quite a bit because after some extended play it became very uncomfortable, especially when i realized what happened to the deadzone.

when i did that i found that the hole wasn't deep enough, so i tried to drive a nail in it to deepen the hole (being awake for some 20+ hours does not make for good decisions.) this more or less ruined the stick.

woke up this morning, and got to work on the other stick, its much nicer, cleaner, and shorter to boot. and i don't let other people touch it on principle, other than the guy who traded it to me. this time i figured out where the drill was, so the process didnt involve applying a ton of pressure to the stick.

the camera on my phone is absolute shit, but it gets the job done.

QUOTE

It cast that you have (dissasembled) non-functional XBox Controller. Maybe you could give a try to "place complete Gp2x inside the" Xbox controller, so take advantage of nice grips on left and right? (Not just the nice stick)



i'm actually planning something of that nature, just need to get some bondo and such. i don't really want to take the gp2x out of its shell, or change the shell any, i just want to add the grips to it.

EDIT: found out that the dpad on the xbox controller is on a daughterboard and connected with ide style ribbon cable(round cables, not flat foxconn style). i think i might wire in the dpad whenever i get a new tip on my soldering iron.

 

[trooper]

Ahem!!!

:rolleyes:

Trooper

 

[nathonix]

whats the dresser have to do with anything?

 

[trooper]

Ignore me, It was just my sad attempt at a rather sad joke regarding this picture.

:rolleyes:

Trooper

 

[nathonix]

the pics of my dresser dont show it, but all my clothes are stacked on it, i use the dresser to hold spare computer parts and various electronic odds and ends.

 

[Tag5]

I'm surprised that no comments such as 'My joystick is bigger than yours!', have popped up yet.

Good joystick modification nathonix!

 

[quasist]

QUOTE

It cast that you have (dissasembled) non-functional XBox Controller. Maybe you could give a try to "place complete Gp2x inside the" Xbox controller, so take advantage of nice grips on left and right? (Not just the nice stick)

i'm actually planning something of that nature, just need to get some bondo and such. i don't really want to take the gp2x out of its shell, or change the shell any, i just want to add the grips to it.

I meant that is only Xbox controller shell to be modded somehow to be placed on gp2x.

 

[nathonix]

Good joystick modification nathonix!

THANKS!

QUOTE
I meant that is only Xbox controller shell to be modded somehow to be placed on gp2x.


oh, yeah then thats the plan. but i want to get some bondo to smooth over the button holes and such so that it looks clean instead of hacked together.

 

[nubie]

QUOTE

Say goodbye to your stick. The extra force from that huge lever will kill it, tread gingerly.

i actually went to shorten the stick quite a bit because after some extended play it became very uncomfortable, especially when i realized what happened to the deadzone.

when i did that i found that the hole wasn't deep enough, so i tried to drive a nail in it to deepen the hole (being awake for some 20+ hours does not make for good decisions.) this more or less ruined the stick.

woke up this morning, and got to work on the other stick, its much nicer, cleaner, and shorter to boot. and i don't let other people touch it on principle, other than the guy who traded it to me. this time i figured out where the drill was, so the process didnt involve applying a ton of pressure to the stick.

the camera on my phone is absolute shit, but it gets the job done.

Cool, that is a little better. Looks OK too


QUOTE

EDIT: found out that the dpad on the xbox controller is on a daughterboard and connected with ide style ribbon cable(round cables, not flat foxconn style). i think i might wire in the dpad whenever i get a new tip on my soldering iron.


Cool, that would be awesome, a real D-Pad, it would make the console so much nicer.

Keep modding, keep thinking, you are doing great (just leave me some cool stuff at the second-hand shops , I like to mod too B) )

 

[nathonix]

Cool, that would be awesome, a real D-Pad, it would make the console so much nicer.

the fun parts going to be figuring out how to do diagonals. but i think i have the problem solved, instead of replacing the parts, i'm going to solder directly to the lines on the bottom where the joystick is so i can have the best of both. placements going to be a royal pain though.

 

[Orkie]

Good luck soldering onto the joystick traces. Some of them are on layers below the surface.

 

[nathonix]

Good luck soldering onto the joystick traces. Some of them are on layers below the surface.

you cant just solder to the joystick where it pokes through the other side?

 

[gaterooze]

I did the "GP2Xbox" mod a couple of years back and it made life much easier. Eventually I replaced it with a craigix cap with dabs of hot glue in the cardinal directions, which worked even better. Such simple fixes increased gameplay immensely...

 

[Orkie]

you cant just solder to the joystick where it pokes through the other side?

You can, but not the traces ('lines').

 

[quadomatic]

you cant just solder to the joystick where it pokes through the other side?

You can, but not the traces ('lines').


Don't worry about being able to solder to the traces that are "inside" the motherboard. A bunch of people told me how it was impossible to solder to and that I'd break a GP2X or 2 before finally getting it right. I removed the whole joystick assembly and had absolutely no problem soldering 30 gauge wire to the little metal rings that surround the holes the joystick pins used to sit in.

What I did since people said the traces were in the motherboard (which I meant assumed the metal rings were the traces) was take the tip of the wire I wanted to solder to the trace, and bent it into a hook shape that fit snugly in the hole, making contact with the ring. Then I soldered the wire in place. After I was done it was all good.

The traces don't seem to be TOO sensitive, since I attacked that thing forever with a 15 Watt iron trying to solder wires to it, then desoldering the joystick assembly, and finally desoldering wires and resoldering them to different traces after I found out that my pin diagram was wrong.

I do recommend not removing the assembly though, as that isn't the easiest thing to do, especially when your iron has only 15 Watts of power. Or, at least don't try desoldering the assembly. Use a nail clipper to clip the pins instead.

If you want to try something easier, try Bacteria's d-pad mod (see a video of the results in my sig, it's pretty good). It's not all that difficult. Mine got a bit messy though, so after I did it I took off Bacteria's mod and tried putting in a regular D-Pad. I took the D-Pad PCB out of a PS2 Dual-Impact 2 controller and the D-Pad of a GBA. I was soldering to the traces of the d-pad pcb when I realized that 22 gauge wire sitting on top of the PCB with the GBA D-Pad sitting on top wouldn't work since the wires would push against the d-pad, so I need to go buy some 30 gauge wire. I haven't gotten around to finishing it (my GP2X's motherboard is sitting on my desk right now), and I may never get around to it; since I pre-ordered my Pandora, there's not much point to bothering with it.

Anybody want some GP2X parts?

 

[nathonix]

i'm not planning on removing the joystick, i plan to use both in tandem, with a bit of dremeling and some bondo, but thats a while away.