Vince's Repair Thread - (Console Repairs & Mods)

Hi @Vince i have a few standard (not elite) Xbox series controllers with stick drift. I am tempted to get a soldering iron and try my hand at replacing the analog stick units. My question for you is it worth getting the hall effect thumbs rather than the standard ones, and are they all much of a muchness in terms of quality from Chinese sites, eBay etc?
 
I've got a friend stopping by Wednesday as his right bumper ("R1") isn't working on his Steam Deck OLED.

I've ordered the switch and a replacement button set just in case. Any tips to look out for? I've had the back off a Deck before to swap SSDs so pretty confident I can get in there!
 
Hi @Vince i have a few standard (not elite) Xbox series controllers with stick drift. I am tempted to get a soldering iron and try my hand at replacing the analog stick units. My question for you is it worth getting the hall effect thumbs rather than the standard ones, and are they all much of a muchness in terms of quality from Chinese sites, eBay etc?

Avoid halls in the xbos series pads, they dont work because of the magnets in the pads. you can get a driver board to overcome it but honestly not worth the effort.
 
I've got a friend stopping by Wednesday as his right bumper ("R1") isn't working on his Steam Deck OLED.

I've ordered the switch and a replacement button set just in case. Any tips to look out for? I've had the back off a Deck before to swap SSDs so pretty confident I can get in there!

Simple and common swap out the tactile switch and off you go :)
 
Hi @Vince i have a few standard (not elite) Xbox series controllers with stick drift. I am tempted to get a soldering iron and try my hand at replacing the analog stick units. My question for you is it worth getting the hall effect thumbs rather than the standard ones, and are they all much of a muchness in terms of quality from Chinese sites, eBay etc?

Forgot to say I hit masses of bad sticks recently for the series so careful what you buy.. huge amounts of bad ones out there.. bought 100 sticks for the 360 and they are shockingly bad then 50 I bought for series pads also do not meet my quality standards and have massive dead spaces mid stick. Mid stick dead spaces are becoming way too common on standard sticks I can do you a vid of you like but bad sticks are proper jarring
 
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Forgot to say I hit masses of bad sticks recently for the series so careful what you buy.. huge amounts of bad ones out there.. bought 100 sticks for the 360 and they are shockingly bad then 50 I bought for series pads also do not meet my quality standards and have massive dead spaces mid stick. Mid stick dead spaces are becoming way too common on standard sticks I can do you a vid of you like but bad sticks are proper jarring
That's good to know but I'm quite new to AliExpress and haven't a clue how I can ascertain what's a good batch from bad one ! Its shark infested waters on there

If you hadn't posted that I'd probably blame my soldering when the time comes :D
 
@Vince have you noticed that the Phat Nintendo DS shells from AliExpress have changed a bit since about March time this year?

I fitted a green one back December and it felt almost original, got another green one in March and when fitted the screen angle is different and the power button sticks a little unless I leave the screws in the bottom cover slightly loose - was wondering if I just got a bad one or if the manufacturer has changed them.
 
Vince have you dabbled in HDMI mods for retro consoles? I am interested in picking up a couple of PixelFX Retro Gem boards for PS2 slim and Gamecube. I have no experience soldering and it looks quite advanced, but feel I have got to start somewhere.

Any tips on how to get to that level and what gear to use?
 
@Vince Hi mate, thought I'd come to the oracle! Need to replace the thumb sticks on my Steam Deck, my initial thought was the Gulikit ones but saw some comments about them being squared outer bounds rather than round.

Are they good, or should I just try and source some original ones?
 
@Vince Hi mate, thought I'd come to the oracle! Need to replace the thumb sticks on my Steam Deck, my initial thought was the Gulikit ones but saw some comments about them being squared outer bounds rather than round.

Are they good, or should I just try and source some original ones?

They will most likely calibrate square unless the deck can calibrate them properly. I've honestly never used them and honestly it depends how sensitive you are to the calibration.. the 360 pads I sell have guli halls that calibrate square yet people seem to love em. For me I like them done properly but not everyone will even notice.
 
Vince have you dabbled in HDMI mods for retro consoles? I am interested in picking up a couple of PixelFX Retro Gem boards for PS2 slim and Gamecube. I have no experience soldering and it looks quite advanced, but feel I have got to start somewhere.

Any tips on how to get to that level and what gear to use?

Yea ice done plenty of this sort of stuff. Xstation installs, PS2 slim HDMI mods pico mods etc honestly just make sure you have a decent iron, decent craft knife and good flux and solder and you should be golden. Take your time and just have a go is my advice. For the PS2 slim make sure you have the correct model for the HDMI goodness.
 
@Vince have you noticed that the Phat Nintendo DS shells from AliExpress have changed a bit since about March time this year?

I fitted a green one back December and it felt almost original, got another green one in March and when fitted the screen angle is different and the power button sticks a little unless I leave the screws in the bottom cover slightly loose - was wondering if I just got a bad one or if the manufacturer has changed them.

I did a few about a month back and the black shells were really good. Very nice fitment tbh.
 
They will most likely calibrate square unless the deck can calibrate them properly. I've honestly never used them and honestly it depends how sensitive you are to the calibration.. the 360 pads I sell have guli halls that calibrate square yet people seem to love em. For me I like them done properly but not everyone will even notice.
Ok, you've sold me on staying original. Thanks for the feedback
 
Yea ice done plenty of this sort of stuff. Xstation installs, PS2 slim HDMI mods pico mods etc honestly just make sure you have a decent iron, decent craft knife and good flux and solder and you should be golden. Take your time and just have a go is my advice. For the PS2 slim make sure you have the correct model for the HDMI goodness.
Thanks Vince. What sort of iron would you recommend, I was looking at Hakko but don't know if it is overkill. Kind of fall down the rabbit hole of desolder stations and extractor fans etc.

Flux and solder that is good? a lot of YT channels seem to be geared towards american products.
 
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Thanks Vince. What sort of iron would you recommend, I was looking at Hakko but don't know if it is overkill. Kind of fall down the rabbit hole of desolder stations and extractor fans etc.

Flux and solder that is good? a lot of YT channels seem to be geared towards american products.

I recommend a cheap t12 station in this thread somewhere and its the iron I use for all my projects. As its t12 the element is in the tip so when the element eventually dies just replace the tip and you are golden. It's also cheap like £20 odd cheap.

for solder Im using weller 60/40 at the moment which is really good and any RMA flux but if you just want a cheap decent performing flux then this stuff does pretty well:

 
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Hey Vince,

I remember asking this before but cannot find it.

I have an old school gameboy yellow here.
I believe it needs a new screen and digitiser behind it, this is due to the image I receive to the screen is broken and a section of the external screen shows pressure damage.

Could you help me on parts to get? Tools needed/how difficult it is to do myself?
 
Hey Vince,

I remember asking this before but cannot find it.

I have an old school gameboy yellow here.
I believe it needs a new screen and digitiser behind it, this is due to the image I receive to the screen is broken and a section of the external screen shows pressure damage.

Could you help me on parts to get? Tools needed/how difficult it is to do myself?

You looking for originality or aftermarket? If you are sticking original then de-solder the screen off remove the film layers from both front and back and you can just replace all the poloriser and rear silver layers :) the burning circles tend to be on the back silver layer.

For the missing sections you can reflow the ribbon that connects to the screen where the screen meets the ribbon, this requires some practice but its absolutely do-able. There are lots of individual lines that run verticle on the screen and you can basically restore it a line at a time :)
 
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