this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2025
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Do-It-Yourself, Repairs and Fixes

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Share tips and tricks to keep people from throwing out that broken item. Repair before replace!

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I'm interested in modding some old Xbox 360 and PS2 controllers. I see hall effect sticks for sale online but I'm not sure if it's as easy as replacing them and being done with it. I've read that DualSense controllers require calibration or something. Is it a difficult task to mod game controllers? I do have basic soldering skills. Thank you. Also, sorry if this isn't the best community for my question. It seemed the most relevant.

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[โ€“] steventhedev@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

From experience, dont do this unless you have a very good desoldering setup. The joysticks have 14-16 pins and you need to be able to desolder every single one perfectly to get it off the board. Getting the new one on can be similarly difficult.

I have seen some custom tips for these but haven't tried them yet.

If that hasn't dissuaded you, then calibration itself is easy. Just connect it to a computer and go to the calibration website (it's a GitHub page that does it all in JS).

[โ€“] datavoid@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

I've had a controller disassembled for a while now, haven't been brave enough to start desoldering anything yet though. That shit's tiny!