Just wanted to make this little post, as I'm happy with the work I've done. This thing was in a terrible state after using it for a decade and a half. This thing was used fairly extensively by myself and later my kids, who caused the damage to the cable. I'm not one to toss things in the garbage without seeing if I can repair them first, so here we go.
How it looked:
The messed up cable and some grime
I'll spare everyone the details, but this is after disassembling, soaking it in warm soapy water and scrubbing it up. I also replaced the thumbsticks since they'd seen better days and did a little d-pad upgrade. Always hated the dpad on these things, especially as I've grown older and started using controllers more; they're so inaccurate and it can be a severe detriment in a lot of games that require and accurate Dpad. I found some person on reddit who makes a 3d printed conversion for it, which ended-up being about $12 after shipping; it took some thinking to install, but after getting it in there, I'm very happy with it. Tested it out briefly in GTA V and it works fantastically; much more accurate, much better feel. I may buy some more in the future for the other 4 360 Gamepads I have sitting around.
Looks and feels SO much better, not only with the Dpad fix, but also the new thumbsticks. Plus it's just nice that it's cleaned-up and usable again.
However, I am sometimes very stupid and can be impatient and forgetful. This project was no exception. Rather than using a plastic tool to pry on the old cable connector where I had desoldered it, I grabbed what was easily at hand, which was my hobby knife. Unfortunately, in my prying I damaged some of the traces on the board, seen here:
Pretty stupid of me. All the buttons and everything still work, it just seems that I managed to damage the trace for the LED in the "X" at the middle of the gamepad as that no longer lights-up. Not a huge deal, considering this gamepad will probably only ever be connected by itself to my main PC, but a little disappointing that I managed that. But I do know I have another damaged 360 controller (kids, ugh), so maybe I'll desolder the new cable and swap the boards over or even try to find a damaged 360 controller on ebay with good guts that I can swap to get it back to functional. Again, not a huge deal, just a little disappointed in myself.
Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it; it looks great, functions better than ever and is still doing service after so many years.
How it looked:
The messed up cable and some grime
I'll spare everyone the details, but this is after disassembling, soaking it in warm soapy water and scrubbing it up. I also replaced the thumbsticks since they'd seen better days and did a little d-pad upgrade. Always hated the dpad on these things, especially as I've grown older and started using controllers more; they're so inaccurate and it can be a severe detriment in a lot of games that require and accurate Dpad. I found some person on reddit who makes a 3d printed conversion for it, which ended-up being about $12 after shipping; it took some thinking to install, but after getting it in there, I'm very happy with it. Tested it out briefly in GTA V and it works fantastically; much more accurate, much better feel. I may buy some more in the future for the other 4 360 Gamepads I have sitting around.
Looks and feels SO much better, not only with the Dpad fix, but also the new thumbsticks. Plus it's just nice that it's cleaned-up and usable again.
However, I am sometimes very stupid and can be impatient and forgetful. This project was no exception. Rather than using a plastic tool to pry on the old cable connector where I had desoldered it, I grabbed what was easily at hand, which was my hobby knife. Unfortunately, in my prying I damaged some of the traces on the board, seen here:
Pretty stupid of me. All the buttons and everything still work, it just seems that I managed to damage the trace for the LED in the "X" at the middle of the gamepad as that no longer lights-up. Not a huge deal, considering this gamepad will probably only ever be connected by itself to my main PC, but a little disappointing that I managed that. But I do know I have another damaged 360 controller (kids, ugh), so maybe I'll desolder the new cable and swap the boards over or even try to find a damaged 360 controller on ebay with good guts that I can swap to get it back to functional. Again, not a huge deal, just a little disappointed in myself.
Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it; it looks great, functions better than ever and is still doing service after so many years.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram