well, after feeling the limitations of the normal joystick quite quickly, i decided to mod the joystick.. it seemed a lot easier as a principle once my computer monitor ripped off the stock cap by accident as i pulled out my gp2x. i looked at the end.. for those of you that haven't, from the top its shaped like an O, but from the side its like this:
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| | except it's a d-shape, so that bit on the left is a semicircular prism, and the fat bit is a circular shaft extended into the dreaded joystick switch that GPH chose..
anyway, this looked pretty inoffensive. i remember someone modding a stick with a ballpoint pen, and picked up a broken biro. the ink-tube looked about right size, and i slipped a bit i cut off onto the shaft - all good. so now i had to find a way of protecting my thumb from the uncomfortable ink-tube-turned-sleeve-thing.
my first thought involved wrapping lots of thread or rubber band.. they both fell through. next i struck gold! i found a toy car from a christmas cracker with a wheel-fixed to axle arrangement - the axle and wheel were all one thing. furthermore, it slipped nicely into the sleeve! score! and i also found a bit of balloon thing that could slip over the top and act like plasticoat stuff.
then i got obsessed with making it lower, and ended up cutting too much of the sleeve and axle off, so it spun around and wasnt fixed, but i still had lots of ink tube and lots of toy car wheels.. so i made another, this time "bonding" them by melting the plastic with a soldering iron, and then melting the top to make it lower - this also made the surface uneven and bumpy, but it feels kinda grippy, and feels like a crunchie mini-bite thing.
anyway, you can see the fruits of my labour, and yes i am aware it looks TERRIBLE. but it is quite grippy and the balloon is pretty comfortable.
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| | except it's a d-shape, so that bit on the left is a semicircular prism, and the fat bit is a circular shaft extended into the dreaded joystick switch that GPH chose..
anyway, this looked pretty inoffensive. i remember someone modding a stick with a ballpoint pen, and picked up a broken biro. the ink-tube looked about right size, and i slipped a bit i cut off onto the shaft - all good. so now i had to find a way of protecting my thumb from the uncomfortable ink-tube-turned-sleeve-thing.
my first thought involved wrapping lots of thread or rubber band.. they both fell through. next i struck gold! i found a toy car from a christmas cracker with a wheel-fixed to axle arrangement - the axle and wheel were all one thing. furthermore, it slipped nicely into the sleeve! score! and i also found a bit of balloon thing that could slip over the top and act like plasticoat stuff.
then i got obsessed with making it lower, and ended up cutting too much of the sleeve and axle off, so it spun around and wasnt fixed, but i still had lots of ink tube and lots of toy car wheels.. so i made another, this time "bonding" them by melting the plastic with a soldering iron, and then melting the top to make it lower - this also made the surface uneven and bumpy, but it feels kinda grippy, and feels like a crunchie mini-bite thing.
anyway, you can see the fruits of my labour, and yes i am aware it looks TERRIBLE. but it is quite grippy and the balloon is pretty comfortable.
And that is cool that it works 
