Can you correct uneven deadzones on a gamepad?

[amantes]

Hello, I am the "proud" owner of a fake Xbox 360 Afterglow controller. I got it to play on my PC, but it has a serious design flaw. The thumbsticks have a different deadzone in each direction. For example, the right thumbstick has to travel more to the right before I get a reaction from it than it needs to the left. This makes it very clunky to play any games that need targeting.
I tried reconnecting, recalibrating, increasing/decreasing deadzones in xpadder, but nothing seems to have an effect. If anyone has idea what I can try, I would be very grateful. Thank you.

 

[vrumor]

As the old saying goes, "You get what you pay for."

 

[amantes]

As the old saying goes, "You get what you pay for."

I know. I have a real gamepad (most likely the xbox One gamepad) in my target to buy, but I was wondering if I can't get any use out of this in the mean time.

 

[amantes]

I tried opening the gamepad to see if I can tinker inside, but I'm not even sure it was made to be disassembled easily. Suppose it was just like a regular 360 pad, is there any kind of physical calibration I might attempt on the thumbsticks?

 

[basroil]

I tried opening the gamepad to see if I can tinker inside, but I'm not even sure it was made to be disassembled easily. Suppose it was just like a regular 360 pad, is there any kind of physical calibration I might attempt on the thumbsticks?

If you're good with a soldering iron, you can put a variable resister in the path for the direction you want to fix, and then just tune it. You can also try the pencil approach, where you draw a thin trace (and then make it larger) across the paths to change the effective resistance.

 

[amantes]

Thanks! Now it's getting interesting. I'm not really good with soldering. Call me stupid, but does the pencil approach actually work with a pencil or I still need to solder?

 

[basroil]

Thanks! Now it's getting interesting. I'm not really good with soldering. Call me stupid, but does the pencil approach actually work with a pencil or I still need to solder?

just an hb pencil. graphite in pencils is conductive (though high resistance)

you should read up on circuits first though

 

[amantes]

Hmmmm I can't exactly say I have a good idea how to do any of that... Also, looking at pictures of disassembled gamepads, mine is a little different. Instead of a green board with a bunch of visible lines, mine is white and you only see the lines under a light. I don't know if that matters... Still, thanks for the suggestions! I was taking a shot in the dark with this, I don't really have much technical know-how. I might try this pencil method sometime. If I understand correctly, the electrical circuit travels along those lines and I'll be drawing with a pencil across them to increase the resistance on the sides of the stick necessary. Now, do I need more resistance to increase or decrease a deadzone? How far from the stick should I draw? And most importantly... what's the worst case scenario? Can I short it out?

 

[basroil]

Hmmmm I can't exactly say I have a good idea how to do any of that... Also, looking at pictures of disassembled gamepads, mine is a little different. Instead of a green board with a bunch of visible lines, mine is white and you only see the lines under a light. I don't know if that matters... Still, thanks for the suggestions! I was taking a shot in the dark with this, I don't really have much technical know-how. I might try this pencil method sometime. If I understand correctly, the electrical circuit travels along those lines and I'll be drawing with a pencil across them to increase the resistance on the sides of the stick necessary. Now, do I need more resistance to increase or decrease a deadzone? How far from the stick should I draw? And most importantly... what's the worst case scenario? Can I short it out?

You clearly know nothing about electrical components, you should NOT try this method. You'll need to just buy a better gamepad. You can usually get the Xbox One controller for ~$40-50. It's far cheaper than having to replace your computer when you short out something 😉

 

[amantes]

You got that right, I know nothing! (Just don't tell my electronics teacher 😉) Wow, replace my computer? It can get THAT bad?... damn. Well, an Xbox One controller over here costs $63, and it's the old version (without the headphone jack). I was thinking to just get a wireless 360 pad for pc for $53 instead.
Marking your instructions as solution since they are such, not your fault I can't apply them properly 😛

 

[basroil]

Probably wouldn't result in replacing the computer, but I've seen people blow the polyfuse on USBs a few times, and one time a guy actually managed to destroy the port entirely (though he was pushing >10A, probably even >100A from an external battery pack).

Most of the time the deadband can be changed through the driver, but if the two axis are far enough out of sync that your driver calibration doesn't help (or no calibration can be done), then the only choice is modifying the electrical components.


By the way, did you try the default driver calibrator as well as xpadder?

 

[amantes]

Blowing the USB? Darn, that's bad enough for me.

I used joy.cpl to calibrate multiple times and reset to default, it did not make a difference. I tried increasing/decreasing the deadzone in xpadder, but that affects it evenly in all directions, so the discrepancy is still there. I also tried X360.CE, but even that didn't help. I should probably just accept my loss and keep playing with a ps2 gamepad until I can afford something better.

 

[basroil]

Guy that blew the USBs did have a high powered actuator ("motor") and external battery pack connected directly. The controller mods won't be that bad 😉

Normally there's a variable resister for each of the two outputs (there's usually three, but one is just the button), so check for those first. They will be a small (usually blue) box with a screw head. Changing that might minimize the error, if they are attached of course. Some cheaper controllers don't even bother to include them, so there might not be any.

 

[amantes]

Which side of the board should I look for those? My gamepad has a transparent casing and I don't really see anything with a screwhead inside.

 

[basroil]

It'll usually be right under or next to the joysticks. Some of these things are going to be a millimeter in diameter, so you should open the case when checking.

 

[amantes]

I opened the gamepad and removed the plastic sticks. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking at. I'd take a picture, but my camera's batteries died so that will take a while.

Edit: Here is one I took with my DS

 

[basroil]

Looks like that is one cheap controller! Perhaps they have resisters in the back, but most likely there's nothing you can do without some serious hacking

 

[amantes]

Alright, that's as far as I can go then. If I disassemble it any more I won't be able to put it back together. Thanks for all your help I guess I'll just wait until I get a new one. I'm really surprised how well an old PS2 controller holds up actually.

 

[basroil]

Old PS2 controller was amazing from an engineering standpoint, there's a few original PS2 from launch date still in my lab. That's ~15 years of abuse!

 

[amantes]

Hehe mine is not that old, but I definitely enjoy how sensitive the thumbsticks are, I have no problems playing shooting games on pc with it.