Thanks Alyinsanfran: Improve Your Mk2 Control Now


sehs33

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All credit goes to alyinsanfran:

I just followed alyinsanfran's guidance from this topic, and this is by far the easiest mod to improve your F100 MK2 joystick response.

What's so great about this mod is:
1. You wont need to open your 2X to apply it
2. Doesn't require any extra parts that you can't find anywhere
3. It only take 10 minutes :D

The whole mod revolves around the joystick cap: all what you have to do is to shave a few millimeters of it and your are done! No one has any idea why it improves the joystick's response, but it sure has a noticeable effect that I believe it will allow some people who lost hope in playing specific games that require better control change their minds.

Although it is an easy mod, but am providing a step by step guide with photos to help people understand how easy it is (am not responsible for any damage that might occur to your GP2X, your fingers, any tools you might use or to your neck if the wife caught you red handed using her nail buffer the way it's not meant to be used!):

1. Take off the joystick cap: alyinsanfran's advises that you use a fork to take the cap off, all you have to do is to stick a fork under the cap (as in the image below), place your thumb over the cap, and pull the cap off. I know some might be worried that they will break something, but worry not, it wont!


The following is a photo I have taken for the cap before shaving anything off it:


2. Use some sand paper to shave the cap, I used a paper clip to measure the depth of the hole, it is around 6.5 millimeter. I didn't find any sand paper and I was so lazy to leave home to buy some, so I used a nail buffer to shave off the plastic. I had an extra joystick cap that I will use to compare the normal and modded cap:
Half way through


The cap after I finished, I shaved around 3.5 millimeters of it, you can use the paper clip again to measure the depth:


Normal cap (left) and the cap after being shaved (right):


3. Empty the hole of the plastic dust using the same paper clip and by blowing inside the hole (leave your lips 2 to 3 centimeters away from the hole)
4. Stick the cap back, no glue is required. Once you are done it will look like this (Not that much of a difference)


Done! Congratulations, easiest solution to the toughest problem. This wont make your joystick as accurate as an actual D Pad, but it will improve control noticeably!

Thanks again to alyinsanfran for this simple mod, my GP2X controls much better now :D
 
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Can someone explain why the heck this works?
My feeling is that the 2X stick suck so bad because of the travel between switches. Would this increase travel because the stick sleeve is not butting up against the stick case hole?
 
But this way nothing gets smashed over time. I've just tried the paper trick on my spare cap, and although all roads lead to Rome (the response got better too) but not as much as with the shaved one :)

Thanks alyinsanfran ;)
 
Well I have no problem with anyone saying this has done before, I just never saw it on the board.

Like I said, I fell into it purely through tinkering, so I'm not claiming ownership of the idea

I just hope folk get to do this mod', as it's turned my GP2X from a 'meh' to a 'do I have a spare 5 minutes?"..

(Edited)
 
Very nice, thanks for (re)posting this, I'll try it out soon. Maybe there should be a sticky of all GP2X stick/dpad mods, listed in increasing order of difficulty.
 
astro said:
How can this mod make any difference at all. The cap is still sitting in the same place as standard. ;) :lol:
it seems the shaft touches the inside of the gp2x stopping it from being as responsive.
its like you can only hit 70% of the direction, then when its shaved it does 90-100%
 
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On my GP2X at least, the plastic shaft of the cap touches the sides of the hole. If you remove the cap, you have more travel for the metal stick (that is the actual joystick).

Therefore, if you shave some of the plastic shaft off, you will eventually get to a point where the plastic no longer touches the sides, thus will you have slightly more travel.
 
astro said:
The shaft touches nothing at all. :rolleyes: if you do this mod and think it works its all in your head. :D

That's is exactly what I thought at first :unsure: so I kept switching back and forth between a spare unshaved cap and the one I shaved: every time I noticed the difference :)
 
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Squidge said:
On my GP2X at least, the plastic shaft of the cap touches the sides of the hole. If you remove the cap, you have more travel for the metal stick (that is the actual joystick).

Therefore, if you shave some of the plastic shaft off, you will eventually get to a point where the plastic no longer touches the sides, thus will you have slightly more travel.
OK thats how it works. Strange how the shaft on my F100 miss the hole by miles. :huh:
 
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Squidge said:
On my GP2X at least, the plastic shaft of the cap touches the sides of the hole. If you remove the cap, you have more travel for the metal stick (that is the actual joystick).

Therefore, if you shave some of the plastic shaft off, you will eventually get to a point where the plastic no longer touches the sides, thus will you have slightly more travel.
Well that makes sense at last, thanks Squidge.

I hadn't thought my unmodded shaft was touching, but it must have been, as even playing with the metal shaft only (cap completely off) it was 100% more responsive, if ergonomically a shocker!
Playing that way was what prompted me to start tinkering.

How on earth did GP let this out with such a fundamental flaw?
 
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alyinsanfran said:
How on earth did GP let this out with such a fundamental flaw?

...one flaw of many! How about not being able to fit your GP2X into a cradle without modding it. :lol:

That's what makes this community so strong though. Adversity brings us together. We're like hurricane survivors.
 
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