The Ultimate Ministick Fix


Fishbong

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This fix serves people who really have severe problems with their dirpad, like me. The upper diagonals weren´t responsive at all, and the others only barely. So i tried using the quickfix and taped a lot of paper behind my ministick. At first it helped a little, and i could use the upper diagonals if i really tried. However it was still unsatisfying, the stick still felt rather loose and, worst of all, after a week it was as bad as before again. I tried using more paper, and the back of the gp32_console really bulged out... and finally got a thick fat crack
p17sj.gif

Instantly i took the Paper out as to not let the crack expand. Of course the handling of my ministick was now worser than ever, so i examined its mechanism closer and found an elegant method to improve the responsiveness and the tightness of the stick very effectively without using mechanical force that could damage the console or its case like the quickfix does. First pull out the ministick. Then unscrew all screws and remove both the front and the rear of the case (you don´t have to remove the front part completely e.g. disconnecting the display, but you should be able to easily reach the part of the board which contains the ministick mechanism from both sides) Now you have to remove the white, cross-shaped case of the mechanism on the rear (let´s call it the `shell´). It is fixated on the circuit board with four palstic "legs" which are stuck through the circuit board from the rear and molten on the front. To remove the shell you have to take a sharp knife and cut off the edges thus creating a quadratic shape that fits through the circuit board.
p29mo.gif

Now pull off the shell and you get two parts: The shell itself and, inside it, the actual stick.
p34ja.gif

That´s the moment where you have to start tinkering a bit: Take a bit of really thin cardboard (or really thick paper, if you put it that way) like it is used for visiting cards. Out of it, cut a cross with a hole in the middle that fits exactly into the shell. It should look like a Gameboy direction cross.
kreuz7qq.gif

If one of the directions of the pad (commonly the upper one) is especially unresponsive, you have to make one of the "arms" of the cross thicker than the others by applying one or two layers of duct tape to it. Now lay the cross on the black microswitches. Always bear in mind that the microswitches are arranged reverse , so if the upper direction is particularly unresponsive, the thick "arm" of the cross has to lay on the under microswitch etc. Take the white stick and insert it, through the hole in the cross, into its original spot. Also take the shell and put it into its original position. Press it against the circuit board firmly and if you hear a clicking sound, your cross is too thick, so make it thinner (if you hear a cracking sound you have pressed too hard ;-) ) if you hear no sound at all, try (whilst pressing the shell against the circuit board) to use all directions and diagonals of the white stick. If every direction and diagonal works and the stick feels tight (like it felt when it was new) everything is O.K. If not the cross (or one of its "arms") is not thick enough. If you ´re finally content with the feeling of the stick, you have to fixate the shell again. The best way is to use a hot-glue gun (or however the thing is called in english) to fixate the four pins in their holes on the circuit- board. You may, of course, use ordinary (super-)glue, but then you have no possibility of removing it again. If you use hot glue you can simply remove it by heating it up. I also recommend to tape a bit of cardboard behind the shell (the same spot as used in the quickfix) to support it against slipping back if the glue fails. Now reassemble your gp32_console . If you ´ve done everythhing correctly, the ministick should be as good as new.
 
i did the exact same thing and tried to discribe it in several threads. but without photos it was quiete impossible.
i was using pieces of a plastic-layer, which i glued on each of the 4 ends of that cross.
i'm not sure if paper will last forever....
 
i opened the white box-thingy with a soldering iron.
and i just used superglue to fix it (just a drop in each of the 4 holes).
 
IntenseWage posted on Mar 27 2005 at 05:25 PM said:
Goddammit. I don't have a hot glue gun. Someone should sticky this thread anyways.

Hot glue gun w/glue costs about 3€. And you don´t need to use glue if you just leave the cardboard in its spot (assuming you have alreadyperformed the quickfix). But it gives you a feeling of security, fixating it...
And what du you mean by "sticky"? You mean pin it? I´m not that ambitious, but well...

EDIT: OMG, you´re the fella who came up with the quickfix first, aren´t you?
 
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EDIT: OMG, you´re the fella who came up with the quickfix first, aren´t you?

No, I am.

Nice job.

I had actually thought of something similar this before inventing my paper wad fix, but I, at that time, lacked the courage to go inside my GP and start melting off those plasic posts.... Later on, after I accidentally broke the LCD, I did try melting down the posts to make the shell press down more without the paper, but I didn't actually try to take it apart for some reason, even though the idea had occured to me.

Maybe I should remove my link from my sig, since for some reason people are cracking their cases now.... I didn't, maybe I'm just lucky....
 
I really should have known better than taping exorbitant amounts of cardboard into my gp32_console . Your quickfix works just to fixate the "shell" tightly on the circuit board, so it should have been obvious that it couldn´t work better with more paper if the microswitches are weared out. Still i (and a couple of others, as you pointed out) seemed to believe it would. Instead, of course we damaged our unit. I think i´ll add a link to my sig (it sucks anyway) to not let this happen again.
 
Just a question of interest...
Why does this work? Are the microswitches getting worn out, or is the thumbstick just getting pushed further in or something?

Also, what do the microswitches look like? Is there a picture somewhere?

Does the BLU's thumbstick get worn out like this too?

My thumbstick works fine, except up+right is only just SLIGHTLY harder to get right away.

To be honest, I was surprised that paper fix actually worked. o_O
 
Just a question of interest...
Why does this work? Are the microswitches getting worn out, or is the thumbstick just getting pushed further in or something?

Also, what do the microswitches look like? Is there a picture somewhere?

Does the BLU's thumbstick get worn out like this too?

My thumbstick works fine, except up+right is only just SLIGHTLY harder to get right away.

To be honest, I was surprised that paper fix actually worked. o_O

i think the microswitches are fine and they don't get worn out.
if you open the GP32 and look at the construction of the stick with the white box (like in the picture above), you will recognize that this construction actually can't be so precise that it will work properly. if it works properly, i consider that as a coincidence.
 
I recognised that first picture straight away, my case is now cracked since I used the quickfix and I can't reach ANY diagonals anymore :(

But your fix has got me interested, I SO BADLY want to play shootemups with 8 directions again :)

I'm printing this and I might give it a go tonight, so do I need a "hot glue gun" or will superglue do?

thanks for the tips, and thanks for the quickfix jmetal, I don't hold the crack in my case against you :p
 
frolik posted on Mar 29 2005 at 11:50 PM said:
I recognised that first picture straight away, my case is now cracked since I used the quickfix and I can't reach ANY diagonals anymore :(

But your fix has got me interested, I SO BADLY want to play shootemups with 8 directions again :)

I'm printing this and I might give it a go tonight, so do I need a "hot glue gun" or will superglue do?

thanks for the tips, and thanks for the quickfix jmetal, I don't hold the crack in my case against you :p
Actually, when i first tinkered around with this fix, i just left the paper behind the stick, so it got pressed against the circuit board allright. I used the glue 2 days after i´ve done the fix, so i don´t think it´s important HOW the shell is fixated to the circuit board as long as its fixated good. Use whatever glue you like.
 
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can you post a pic or more info on this "hot glue gun" it sounds like they're cheap to buy so not what I'm thinking of - I'd like to get one to make the job cleaner, thanks
 
Hot glue gun, Hot sticky gun, or whatever- here´s an ebay offer.
The main thing when dealing with this fix is to get the cross right. Use whatever seems appropriate to you to reassemble it.
 
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