N64 controller - any new breakthroughs?

[Banana Jack]

Oh man, that's infuriating. Their reasoning for not turning over the specs is because, even with them, they are absolutely, positively sure that we will not be able to fix the stick? How can they be so sure?

That's total horse****. I bought Nintendo's products way back then, and now I own them. They are my property. What I do with them is MY business. If I fix it, good for me. If I horribly mutilate my own property, then so be it. What do they care? They have no right to care!

Now, I understand that the real reason is that they just don't want to give out their design specs, which is completely understandable, but I would have much more respect for Nintendo if they just straight up said that. Instead, they chose the condescending route and basically told us that we don't have the knowledge or expertise to actually do anything with the specs.

maybe i'm just mad

yeah, i mad

yeah, i was pretty much expecting it though...most people i contact with stuff like this say they don't know or just don't even respond. I considered responding saying pretty much what you said, but i figured if they're not giving it to me now then no matter what i say they're still not going to give it to me. the thing that confused me though, was their wording: "For this reason, we do not have the information you are looking for." so if there WEREN'T a problem, then all of a sudden you would HAVE the information, even though you don't right now?
Please understand that MY experience has demonstrated that repairs attempted by MYSELF at best solve the problem and make the entire experience better and at worst just make me disappointed.
blegh. nintendo. i should send them one when i'm finished. along with a printout of what i said and their response.

 

[Surri-Sama]

"For this reason, we do not have the information you are looking for." so if there WEREN'T a problem, then all of a sudden you would HAVE the information, even though you don't right now?

This raised my eyebrow as well lol.

"Because people generally cannot fix things on their own, we no longer have any specs or models for our product!"

wat

 

[Banana Jack]

@ sempiternity
you're totally right...i just opened up a fresh one(freshly worn, that is) and there's way more dust than i remembered...it's almost full with the stuff. and i bet the main culprit is the bowl, combined with minimal wear on black sliders/gray stick results in sloppy stick. i can see where the wear on the bowl stops, at the edges of the bowl (extreme sides of the joystick, which you aren't able to reach because of the way it's built) it's like comparing new to used...
i'm going to try swapping a new bowl into a worn stick and seeing how much difference it makes.

also, i figured out what was wrong with my other stick (thank god) it had me worried. i spent a lot of time messing around with it and thinking, why won't it reset to center when i reset power? it would make so much sense...but then i realized the x axis centers upon reset...and the y- axis DID center upon reset it just changed center really quick. as soon as i pressed a direction. pop it open again and take a good hard look: one of the optical wheels was made wrong, and won't stay centered in its position. one side is fixed, but the other side wobbles. so swapping in a new(rather, very old and very dusty) wheel should fix the problem.
results updated after test.

EDIT PROBLEM SOLVED. whoooooo!

those of you that don't understand what i just said, no i haven't made any progress on fixing sloppy sticks yet. i just fixed one of my old sticks that was acting really weird, and was making me worried that i did something wrong while having it apart.

 

[Sempiternity]

Good to hear you fixed your stick! Well, "fixed" it...

The way I see it, there are two impediments to a perfect joystick.

1) Worn out bowl makes for a loose stick.

2) Unevenly worn grey stick with nonuniform scratches and whatnot makes for a scratchy feel which adds weird resistance and just doesn't feel smooth or nice.

Swapping out for a new bowl will make it tighter, but if the ball on the bottom of the grey part isn't smooth, it'll feel ugly. I'd take that over a Mario Party stick any day, though.

I've got a few friends who work in labs here at UConn, so I'll be making inquiries to see if I can use any 3-D scanners or precise measuring devices to recreate the bowl and stick. I'm fully behind you with this endeavor and what you said about sending Nintendo a finished product of the stick really hit home with me, and I want to shove it so far into their face, it'll come out the back of their skull.

 

[Banana Jack]

feel free to write an angry letter to accompany said finished product.

that'd be fantastic because while i do own a digital caliper... i could probably use it to get measurements for everything except for the inside of that bowl. well...i guess if i measured the depth and diameter i could figure it out...maybe...i think that would require it to be a perfect semicircle though...damn.

i don't actually run into the scratchy feeling issue too often though, i wonder what causes it? buildup of dust i suppose? piles of dust could probably cause uneven wear. ah well, new components will fix everything. i've determined i can make everything except for the optical wheels. so fixing control sticks would require recycling old parts. more efficient i guess, but i kinda wanted to be able to say i made the entire thing. I know it's not necessary, but i do want to be able to look at a nice shiny aluminum thumbstick case through my translucent green controller.

 

[Timotheus]

Hey smashing bros. I have the same wobbly thumbstick-problem like most of you and i ordered a replica a few day ago, just for testing. In my opinion it has a really good thumbstick. Good range. The buttons are in a quite good quality. (I tried some combos and it works!) Sure it isn't the same as the original controller (lighter weight etc), but if you have some euro to spend, I would buy one. Even it's for third party.
Replica is called: Eaxus N64 Controller
Homepage: www.eaxus.com
German Ebay-Page: http://www.ebay.de/itm/EAXUS-N-64-C...nment_games&hash=item3f0b2431fd#ht_3471wt_907


Greetings from Germany. (Sorry for my bad english btw)

 

[Sangoku]

I hope you're not advertising. Because I bought the exact same **** a year or so ago. I bought 3 of that brand and none of them is working correctly. I won't go through the details, I've said it too often already.

 

[Banana Jack]

you're totally right, swapping bowls fixes about 90% of slop! hm....now to find a good way to machine that out...

 

[Sempiternity]

feel free to write an angry letter to accompany said finished product.

that'd be fantastic because while i do own a digital caliper... i could probably use it to get measurements for everything except for the inside of that bowl. well...i guess if i measured the depth and diameter i could figure it out...maybe...i think that would require it to be a perfect semicircle though...damn.

i don't actually run into the scratchy feeling issue too often though, i wonder what causes it? buildup of dust i suppose? piles of dust could probably cause uneven wear. ah well, new components will fix everything. i've determined i can make everything except for the optical wheels. so fixing control sticks would require recycling old parts. more efficient i guess, but i kinda wanted to be able to say i made the entire thing. I know it's not necessary, but i do want to be able to look at a nice shiny aluminum thumbstick case through my translucent green controller.

It's going to take some guessing and checking to get the exact measurements for the bowl depth and curvature, but I can't imagine it'd be that difficult to extrapolate the unworn bowl parts to get what it looks like new. Again, the hang-up is finding a way to visualize the bowl easier.

I figured that it would be unfeasible to recreate every part. My plan was to remake the bowl and maybe the stick and be done with it. The other parts don't need replacing, and the idea would be to distribute those parts as necessary. The metal sounds damn sexy, though!



I also had another thought. Nintendo's response seemed to be catered to the layman, so what if I emailed them from a professional address (perhaps my university domain extension?) and told them that I owned or was part of a large machining company that specializes in fabrication of small parts?

I'm genuinely curious to hear their response to that!

 

[Dingus]

you're totally right, swapping bowls fixes about 90% of slop! hm....now to find a good way to machine that out...

Perfect. Ill take 4, thanks

 

[Banana Jack]

It's going to take some guessing and checking to get the exact measurements for the bowl depth and curvature, but I can't imagine it'd be that difficult to extrapolate the unworn bowl parts to get what it looks like new. Again, the hang-up is finding a way to visualize the bowl easier.

I figured that it would be unfeasible to recreate every part. My plan was to remake the bowl and maybe the stick and be done with it. The other parts don't need replacing, and the idea would be to distribute those parts as necessary. The metal sounds damn sexy, though!



I also had another thought. Nintendo's response seemed to be catered to the layman, so what if I emailed them from a professional address (perhaps my university domain extension?) and told them that I owned or was part of a large machining company that specializes in fabrication of small parts?

I'm genuinely curious to hear their response to that!

hm. now that's an idea. hey, it's worth a shot, right? maybe wait a little so it doesn't seem sketchy...i mean, how often do they get requests like that?

Perfect. Ill take 4, thanks

hahahaha! i love your optimism.