I use a Razor Wolverine Ultimate to play my PC games (mostly Battlefront II), and now you got me nervous about its sticks, lol. Granted, they're swappable, so it's mainly the mechanism inside that I'm worried about. With that controller though, I tend to see most complaints being about the ABXY buttons and how they get "stuck," especially the B button.
While I haven't experienced stick drift on it yet, the middle selection of the trigger locks no longer works on BOTH triggers, so I can only use the tightest setting or the loosest setting...so there's that. But since I broke the sticker on the back of the controller (in order to get to the screw, so I could take some of the controller apart to clean it) I'm pretty sure Razer would just tell me to get fucked when it comes to a repair/replacement.
They are not exactly consumer swappable, or at least, in a user friendly way. Soldering these things isn't a normal skill an avg consumer is going to have. I've done plenty of soldering when it comes to audio gear, so basically connecting wires to posts or pads. I've never done soldering on a PCB (printed circuit board) before and it showed lol! My technique was poor and I kept getting solder leftover inside the through-holes. Not until I watched some "desoldering tips" youtube video where they suggested if possible to use the solder sucker from the opposite side of the PCB that your heating up, and it worked great for cleaning out all the remaining solder I couldn't get from going at it from the same side with the sucker or a wick. I gave up prior to that and used a heat gun on too high of setting and just yanked it out that way, but I destroyed the joystick in the process (not a huge deal, its the drifting unit I am trying to replace), i think I melted some of the plastic on a potentiometer and it seeped into actual mechanical joystick part since it now is locked in say the X axis, but still moves in the Y axis. Bigger problem, is I cannot find a replacement online that looks exactly the same. I may try buying some that have the same numbers printed on the potentiometers but they are fitted with plastic thumstick posts for the thumbstick cover instead of metal ones, and they are shaped different. Also not sure if their posts are in the right position/spacing for the PCB. But if they do fit into the PCB I can get different thumbstick covers to fit the different thumstick post shape. This problem is only happening because of it being a 3rd party controller where no one has made specific tip videos on it, which usually point out the exact replacement model you need....so I am the guinea pig going by trial and error on this specific controller. There is a lot of info out there on Microsoft OEM controllers. So you could find yourself in a similar boat with a Razor branded controller if they didn't use the same exact model of ALPS branded joysticks. My controller has Polyshine/Favor Union branded joysticks for example, and don't seem to be as popular and therefore not as easily available.
I made a post here hoping someone could help me find a replacement unit
Hi there I am trying to replace a "drifting" joystick on a PowerA wired enhanced spectra Xbox One controller. Here is a link to it...
www.techpowerup.com
From what I can tell replacing buttons on the other hand is
super simple! If you can open up the controller, you can replace those parts as they are literally drop in components. No soldering needed. Buttons work from having contact pads make a connection rather than wires or posts being soldering to each other. So you can easily replace the buttons themselves if they get worn like the paint rubbing off or they get cracked or damaged however. And you can also replace those rubber membrane pieces which are what have the contacts in them that "pop" back upwards when released. Those "clicks" you hear when pressing buttons down are these pieces in the controller that make this sound. They are what is inside the shoulder buttons and the backside mappable buttons on my PowerA controller I mentioned too.
The triggers themselves are a single axis potentiometer of the sorts. The triggers have some mechanical pieces connected to this potentiometer that will rotate based on how far depressed the trigger is. The trigger locks are a mechanical stopper that just prevent the trigger travel, as in, how far it can be depressed. If they work in the other positions, but not the center, that makes no sense to me, it would work in all or none I would believe because again it is just a physical prevention to the triggers travel. Literally plastic that gets pushed further to prevent more travel on the higher settings. So if it works there, no idea why it wouldn't work in the center position....maybe if it somehow got bent and in the middle position the triggers can travel past the stop point, but I bet you would feel that in their use. This really requires opening the controller to properly inspect and diagnose the issue.
I want to say there are laws in USA where those "warranty is void" stickers are not legally binding? Not sure though, but more likely, the company would claim a drifting joystick to be normal wear and tear unless it is within a very short period of time, like the return window lol
TLDR = don't get into joystick replacement unless you really want to go down the rabbit hole of soldering and possibly having to buy multiple parts because they are not universal fit/size and you might end up buying a part that doesn't fit properly (like me!). If you want to replace d-pad buttons, or A-B-X-Y buttons, that is easy if you are OK with opening the controller, there is no soldering needed for those parts. But keep in mind, those can come in different sizes too for fitting different controller models....for example, my PowerA controller uses the same rubber membrane with contact pads for the d-pad and for the ABXY buttons....but from what I can tell the Microsoft OEM controller use a VERY different looking shape rubber membrane for the ABXY buttons.
I know I'm writing a dissertation length post here lol but I like sharing my knowledge and I can only hope this situation can improve for consumers in the near future. I'm an avid guitar player and recently replaced all the electronics in one of my guitars....despite knowing how to solder wires fine I didn't want to deal with it after I found out that the pickups I have, created a "solderless system" where they opted to add easy male/female pin connections so any avg Joe and Sally could replace these parts. So bought all parts I needed which was an input jack and pickup selector switch and battery connection, and instead of soldering everything I tore out the old stuff and popped int he new stuff, and plugged them in together in the proper chain to work how I wanted them to. Way easier than soldering!!!! Literally plug and play! It's a genius idea that could be used in controller manufacturing too. Instead of having wear parts soldered directly to a PBC there should be connectors, much like for example any header on a motherboard which can accept a part from various manufacturers, which avg people can easily swap the component out as needed. Im sure costs of the controller manufacturing would increase, but think of all the $$$ those companies would make by officially selling replacement parts too.....it would be their way of eating their cake and having it too lmao! They can pretend like they give a crap about consumers and making a better product by offering replacements which will make customizations easier too, but instead just come up with a different marketing system to lock you into buying more parts from them in the long run. So of course the ultimate problem is for them to use parts that do not wear as quickly, but that is going to be up the joystick manufacturers to improve their designs, which are NOT the same groups as the ones making the controllers.
Didn't expect to see "ALPS" being used for the analogs.
