How to Replace Xbox One Controller Analog Joystick - NEW METHOD - Fix Stick Drift, Broken, & Loose

hello everyone welcome to the channel sauce gaming in this video i'm going to share with you how to install a joystick on an xbox one controller and show the new method for manually calibrating them in a prior video i shared a way to calibrate them through measurements and calculations but i'm now pleased to say that i found a less complicated and less sophisticated way to do this i'm going to try to be as thorough as i can and i'm going to include a timeline for every part of this video in the description down below before we dive in let me first address a couple misunderstandings people have about joysticks the first misunderstanding is that a joystick is assumed to be bad when it sticks when pushed all the way to one side this is completely normal with xbox one joysticks and even old joysticks that have worn down over time still typically display some type of stickiness the joystick won't be able to stick like this when the controller is put back together because the amount of rotation is limited by the thumb sticks and the front cover the next misunderstanding primarily comes from those who've already attempted to replace the joystick without doing any manual calibration the claim is usually that the joystick made their stick drift worse which is simply not the case what's really happening is that the joystick is reading off center because the new joystick that was put in doesn't match up very well with the original joystick let me explain in a little more detail no two joysticks are going to read exactly the same this is an issue that the controller manufacturer also deals with what they've decided to do though is calibrate each controller with software this calibration is ingrained into each individual controller's motherboard and as far as i'm aware since making this video there's no software to calibrate them that's been released to the public there is one exception though and that's on windows 10. this is strictly just for the pc and does not override the motherboard's inherent programming this means that while we could use it on a pc it wouldn't transfer over to the xbox fortunately we have ways to manually adjust the joysticks unlike last time i'm going to show how to do this with fairly inexpensive gear if you're just starting from scratch as if you literally have nothing this may cost just as much as the new controller would but in my opinion it's totally worth it because you'll be able to keep all these tools which can be useful for so many different things including the same repair which you could perform on other controllers moving on to the tools don't be intimidated because all of these come in just two separate kits minus the helping hands which i highly recommend getting at the time of making this video this specific one only cost me about eight dollars shipped and sold directly from amazon but i've noticed that they've had some issues keeping them in stock but hopefully that's not the case at the time of watching this video it may be possible to get by without using one but it's kind of one of those things that just make the job so much easier the first kit is going to be the joystick kit which is around 15 and this is used for taking apart the controller and obviously putting in the new joysticks be aware there are a lot of knockoff joysticks out on the market that have all sorts of problems the main one being that the responsiveness is really choppy as an example i have a side by side comparison showing a knock off on the left and an original one on the right i think it's quite evident how poorly the knockoff would perform in game especially for a first person shooter game where accuracy is of the utmost importance the ones in the kit are 100 original so you don't have to worry about any of those issues at all and i'm going to leave a link down in the description for them as well as everything else shown here the bigger purchase is going to be the soldering kit these go for around 20 to thirty dollars and this specific one cost me around thirty dollars but i like this particular one because it includes everything we need and a bunch of other stuff like multimeter that we won't be using in this new method but they're a nice little bonus that could be quite useful for other things now that we've gone over the equipment it's time to first check the controller then take it apart to test it we'll want to first go to html5gamepad.com or now known as gamepad tester.com on the computer and plug in the controller with a usb to micro usb cable the reason we want to go to this site especially is because it gives us very specific readings whereas a lot of other applications will have an integrated dead zone that hides everything within that dead zone for example the accessories app for the elite controllers is at about 10 percent and the game controller tester app is at twenty four percent on the game controller tester app however there is an option to reduce the in app dead zone down to zero and if this is done it should be possible to use this app when calibrating i haven't personally used it before for this purpose but i don't see why it shouldn't work so feel free to use that app if you prefer in the last video i showed using an elite controller this time i'm going to be giving some love to the base model controller specifically the model 1708 this particular controller has very visible stick drift on the left joystick's y-axis and it appears to have some premature wear on the right joysticks y-axis as well so i'm just going to go ahead and replace both joysticks anyway which will give us more opportunities to see the process to get started taking the controller apart let's first remove the hand grips on the elite controllers i like to go from the side but on the base model controllers is usually pretty hard to do so i like to come in from the top and pry upwards there's also a little strip of adhesive tape in between the grips and the controller which can make them a little harder to remove so a little more force may be necessary after the grips are off it's time to remove the battery cover and the batteries if they're still in here's the warranty sticker that we will be removing to get to one of the five screws and it's possible to punch a hole right through it if you don't mind voiding the warranty or aesthetics and if you don't want to do that you could peel it up instead it doesn't have to be peeled all the way off we only need about two thirds of the way to get access to the screw to remove all the five screws use the t8 security torx screwdriver remove the front cover and the thumb grips and if it's the elite controller remove the profile selector as well this next part will be prying apart the back plate i like to pry near the headphone jack it should just pop right up and on the elite controller there will be a cord connecting the back plate just lift up on the black tab to disconnect it on both ends desolder the rumble packs there are eight wires total you may notice i'm using a rather large chisel tip on the soldering iron it's usually not necessary for this method nor is it optimal for most of the soldering that we will be doing but there are two instances where the chisel tip can be really useful and i'll be showing both of those later on in this video on the motherboard there are two screws unscrew those with the t6 torx screwdriver go ahead and remove the two rumble packs lift the motherboard off it might take a little bit of force to remove it just make sure that the two t6 screws are 100 removed don't forget the headphone jack and now we are left with the motherboard it's important to mention there are two types of through holes that microsoft uses for their motherboards on the motherboard with the larger through holes the joystick should be able to be removed in one piece without needing to deconstruct it and i'll briefly show how to do that in a little bit with just a soldering iron if you have a desoldering iron or a hot air gun you can simply use either one of those to remove the joystick in one piece on either of these boards on the motherboard with the smaller through holes i'm sorry to say but it's extremely difficult to do with just a soldering iron some people might be able to do it and if you're one of those people i'll be incredibly impressed however for us mortals out there i'll show a way to disassemble the joystick and remove it piece by piece in a little bit let's go ahead and put the motherboard onto the helping hands first and foremost though it's important to not have too high of a temperature on the soldering iron having too high of a temperature may be the leading cause of through hole damage on my older well or soldering iron i like to use a heat of 350 degrees celsius or 650 degrees fahrenheit but on this saturn iron i actually need to bump it up to what it indicates as 390 degrees celsius since this is a board with the larger through holes i'll be showing how to remove the joysticks without needing to chop them up i'm not a professional solder and there may be a better technique but this is just what works for me i like to put flux on all the solder points beforehand it might be unnecessary but i think it helps a little bit in melting all the solder then i remove as much solder as i can with the solder sucker after spotting the ones still connected i then add some of my own solder and try again after doing that i'll go back and test each one to see which ones are and aren't loose don't try to force them loose because this may also damage the board some of them aren't budging i'll switch back to the wick and keep going at it with both the solder sucker and the wick until i get it sometimes even these ones can be pretty difficult and if that's the case for you you may want to just try the disassembly method after all for the disassembly method i like to first pry apart the potentiometers and remove the wipers inside then cut each of the four corners of the joystick frame there's a little gray retaining clip that needs to be removed before removing the central part of the joystick then cut the top and bottom frame walls into two pieces the button piece has four posts try to cut as high up on each post as possible so that there is something to grab onto when removing them later once the button piece is removed then the plastic foundation can be removed if each of the metal pieces are straightened they will be easier to remove as well once the joystick is all chopped up we can then turn it over and get ready to remove each piece for me sometimes i like to use a bit of flux then remove each piece one by one it's very important to not try to force each piece out and only give them a gentle pull until they come out as mentioned earlier here is a way that the chisel tip can be useful it may be possible to do this with a regular tip but the chisel tip makes it fairly easy to remove a potentiometer in one piece and of course i say that as i struggle to remove this one if for whatever reason a piece is giving some troubles sometimes adding more solder will help the other way to remove the potentiometer is to chop them up as well as remove them in three pieces once the joystick pieces are removed it's then time to remove the solder we're almost ready now to put in the new joysticks but we need to do one more step before we do so this part right here is the main principle for manually calibrating them on the inside of the potentiometers there are three small nubs on three of the corners we'll want to cut these off be sure to not cut off the two side tabs though those are what hold the potentiometers in place if you don't have a micro cutter a regular old razor blade should do try to get them as flush as possible so that when they're on the joystick they can swivel freely then test them once they're on the joystick to make sure that they do that very small amount of movement is usually all that we need to get the joystick centered pretty well there's also a few other tricks that we can do to manipulate them a little more which i'll show in a little bit once that's all done we can go ahead and place the joystick onto the motherboard sometimes we'll need to adjust the pins so they line up with the through holes once the joystick is on it's time to solder on the base of the joystick i like to get it flush by soldering on one of the pins first and adjust it while the solder is melted do not solder on the potentiometers yet because we still need to test and calibrate them the purpose of soldering on the base is so that there isn't any movement from the base while we're twisting and testing the potentiometers it also allows us to change potentiometers easily if we need to now we're getting to the fun part in order to test the potentiometer on html5gamepad.com we need to bend the pins so they make contact with the boards through holes here i try to bend them inward and i don't know if it's just me but i believe bending them outward instead actually does a better job either way the goal here is to get a good connection once the controller is plugged in we'll likely need to fiddle the potentiometer pins a little more to get a good connection here i'm trying to get both at the same time but it's also possible to do them one at a time if preferred our main goal is to get a position within plus or minus 0.10 or plus or minus 10 on each axis to do that we'll either be moving the potentiometer clockwise or counterclockwise and this will depend on which direction it needs to go to get closer to the center to get the x-axis to go left adjust the x-axis potentiometer clockwise to get the x-axis to go right adjust the x-axis potentiometer counter-clockwise to get the y-axis to go down adjust the y-axis potentiometer clockwise and to get the y-axis to go up adjust the y-axis potentiometer counterclockwise simply put you can think of it as pushing in the opposite direction that you want it to go if needed one further trick to get the most rotation is to bend the pins sideways bend the pins a little to the right for clockwise and bend the pins a little to the left for counterclockwise if you're confused don't worry i'm going to give a lot of examples with both of the joysticks i'm replacing i'm also going to give a few other tips and tricks along the way at this moment i could actually solder on the y-axis potentiometer and it would be totally fine because it's within the parameter that we're looking for but i'm going to try to adjust it a little more in a bit instead i'm going to focus on the x-axis and try to adjust that first because we want to move to the right more i will be needing to twist the potentiometer counterclockwise which then means i will be pinning the pins to the left we still need to make sure there is good contact so once the potentiometer is back on we will be bending the pins outward as well we were able to get about 15 percent change which is great but just not quite good enough a lot of the time changing a potentiometer isn't needed but this time it is i go ahead and grab another one and remove the three corner nubs before putting it on it's still a bit to the left so i opt for bending the pins sideways once more this time it turns out to work perfectly before soldering it on i'd recommend disconnecting the controller first because i don't think electricity and heat go very well together i could be wrong but just a little precaution when i solder them on i usually don't bother with putting the motherboard back on the helping hands because once i get the potentiometer positioned well i want as little movement as possible it seems to be really good so now it's time to move on to the y-axis for this i wanted to show an optional way to adjust the potentiometer while it's soldered to the board the first step that is needed is to make sure the pins are straight and in a straight line then to make the adjustments this way all the solder on each of the three pins need to be melted at the exact same time while the solder is melted it's then possible to push the potentiometer in the direction we want it to go i accidentally pushed it in the opposite direction as we will see and it's not a big deal though because we can simply push it back in the opposite direction which is what i end up doing this is the other instance where a chisel tip can be really useful so the centering looks really good but sometimes when we twist the potentiometers it can create a little bit of resistance and that's actually what we find going on here i notice it sticks a little bit on the bottom so i heat it up again so i can adjust it a tad more looks like it's a little too much still so i try to adjust it back a little more it's important to note that i already knew this potentiometer was fairly close to the center already so i don't recommend trying this without at least first seeing that is pretty close to the center looks like it's good to go so on to the next joystick again i'll be soldering on the base while making sure it's flush with the first solder point then bend the pins so they make contact with the board looks like this time i made pretty good contact so i don't need to bend the pins anymore and as an added bonus i get really lucky and it's centered really well because the x-axis is super close to the center already i will be soldering that on first the y-axis is also acceptable but because i like to get as close as possible i'm not going to solder it on just yet just like last time i decided to try and adjust it while it soldered to the board for whatever reason i can't quite seem to get it centered more had i just bent the pins beforehand and tested it first i think it would have worked out a lot better and this is another reason why i now like to get them centered first before soldering them on as you may notice it can be quite the trial and error process one other little trick you can try is swapping out the wiper most of the time it's not very effective but occasionally it'll be just the right amount of difference needed i will usually reserve trying it for when i'm struggling to adjust a specific potentiometer it doesn't work out so i decided to go ahead and switch potentiometers out after all again it's a little high so i decided to bend the pins just a little bit this time i wasn't thinking much here and accidentally bent the pins to the left instead of to the right not a big deal again just simply bend the pins back the other way sometimes the wiper can be misaligned so realigning it might be necessary in order for the potentiometer to snap into place here i'm bending the pins back to the right i fiddle with it for quite some time until i got a stable reading ends up being pretty good so i go ahead and solder it on i test it real quick to make sure there's no friction and everything looks great one last example i'll be showing is on the elite motherboard which has the small through holes i actually find these easier to do than the large through-hole boards i think because it has smaller through holes it's easier to make contact with the pins anyway let's go through the steps one more time cut the corner nubs off solder the base of the joystick onto the board bend the pins get a better connection if needed and adjust the potentiometer accordingly again this is where i think small through holes are beneficial because they help keep a better connection that allows us to adjust the potentiometer more easily while it's not started to the board but if you have a larger through-hole board no worries it can still be done as well the y-axis went on great but the x-axis is still pretty far off even so i'm actually able to get quite close to the center like this the only problem is that twisting the potentiometer this much usually causes more friction with the joystick and that's not what we want in this case trying out another potentiometer until one is close enough is a better choice it's a little better this time so out for bending the pins a little bit it ends up being pretty close so i soldered on and everything looks pretty good once everything is good to go i like to first clean up the board from any flux or residue and the last step is putting everything back together it's pretty much the opposite of taking everything apart the first thing i do is grab the headphone jack and pry up a little bit on each pin before putting it on this just helps give it a little better contact put on the two t6 screws on this model connect the wire with the motherboard and front circuit board then solder on each of the rumble packs when looking at the controller in the typical front-facing direction the large rumble pack goes on the left and the smaller one on the right the gray and red wires are positive and the black wires are negative there are little plus and minus symbols on the board that help indicate where they go on the elite controllers connect the cord to the motherboard and the back plate put on the thumbsticks when placing the back plate on make sure the two battery terminals fit through first also make sure that the lt and rt buttons are in place as well then place the front cover on then screw in all the five t8 security torch screws and last but not least the side grips i like to make one last test to make sure everything is okay everything seems to check out fine so we're done to those of you who've made it this far i really hope i was able to explain this process clearly enough if you have any questions or even any tips or suggestions to make this method better feel free to leave them down in the comment section below and i will do my best to respond to everyone thank you so much for watching and have a wonderful day [Music] you

Channel: SOSS GAMING

Views: 193,999

Rating: 4.8854933 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: Uoxz0oHX9TE

Length: 30min 18sec (1818 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 30 2020