Or more accurately, I gave a 360 controller a better D-pad. I have recently started playing more local coop games on my with a friend and was in need of a controller so I could sit back and play games from my steam list without needing my mouse and keyboard. And let me just say, Steam Big Picture mode is fantastic for this type of experience. So of course, being so naively seduced by Valve, I purchased their new Steam Controller. I tried really hard to defend my purchase for awhile but finally had to admit that it is a total piece of luh-suh garbage. Now the 360 controller was a treat the first time I grabbed it and still feels as comfortable as ever to me. The problem with it however, is the D-pad. your finger has the tendency, when moving between the left/right pads, to trigger either the up or down pads. This design flaw can often be the deciding factor between victory and defeat. The Playstation's D-pad however, was Just right. The actuators were separated and could easily be navigated by the players thumb. This was my motivation for giving the controller the superior D-pad. As for the eyeball where the Xbox logo is supposed to be, I don't know. Found it on ebay. Thought it was neat.
There it is. The ugly old D-pad that some engineer thought was a good idea. Honestly, how do things like this happen? I'm looking at you Valve! Haptic touch pad crap.
I apologize for not having more pictures. I thought I took more but couldn't seem to find them.
Here is my initial fit for the dpad. I Measured and cut it out directly from a ps2 controller. It fit quite well, but I didn't want it to look modded. So I pushed it up a bit and did some body work.
I'm not particularly proud of this part but I'll tell you anyway. I used a soldering iron to meld the two pieces together. It looked ugly. Didn't fuse right, and made terrible marks all over.
This is JB Weld. I didn't have any Bondo, but this seemed to do the trick just fine.
After sanding. Still had some bad marks as well as high and low spots. I sanded until I thought I worried about the controllers structural integrity, then sanded some more.
I painted it green because I like the color of trees and the grass in summertime. As well as peas, frogs, and broccoli. I had green paint.
Too many spots and craters. I sanded again.
The Ps2 controller had one of those flimsy plastic contact points that couldn't be soldered to. Luckily the Super Nintendo controller shared the same foot print. So I cut a round disc out of that which would fit nicely into the Playstation dpad well. Disclaimer: The SNES controller was a Chinese knock off that had several issues of its own to begin with. I dont go around chopping up classic hardware like that Ben Heck guy. Just kidding. I love Ben. And Road House.
I'm not really proud of this either, even though it works. I really couldn't figure out waht was going on with the common for the dpad and ended up soldering off each contact. This is more of an extension than a hack.
And Bam! Magic. It works. Sorry, no more pictures. Remember? All I can tell you is that it took patience, foam. and a cotton ball to make everything fit nicely and have the right amount of pressure on the back of the added contact board. Once I finally got it right, I really didn't want to take it back apart. If I ever do this again, I can take more pictures. Also, If anyone buys that eye, I strongly suggest cutting .18 inches out of the middle and gluing it back together. Otherwise, it sticks out like Forest Whitaker.
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