Re: Brontos Are Doin' It for Themselves
Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 12:45 am
So, I mentioned a few months back that I set up an emulation box for my nephew for Christmas.
I bought him two 8bitdo NES30 Pro controllers, because I was impressed with the quality of the SNES30 I'd bought for myself a few months prior, which feels just like the real thing.
First thing I noticed was, the NES30 Pro was not as big as I thought it was from the photo.
(Note for anybody viewing the site via HTTPS: you probably won't be able to see any of the following images, since my site is plain ol' unencrypted HTTP.)
So, they're smaller than I thought. Smaller D-pad, smaller buttons, closer together. I wouldn't buy them for me based on that. But hey, my nephew's 5; they're not too small for his hands.
But I wouldn't recommend giving one to a 5-year-old anyway, and here's why:
That's the microUSB connector, broken clean off the board.
Now, the nice thing is, these controllers are really easy to take apart. Back pops right off, and it's got regular old Philips screws underneath. (One of them has those damn stickers over it that's supposed to void the warranty. Which is totally not a thing, by the way.)
If I plug a cable into the port and press the pins into the board, the controller lights up. So it looks like the parts still work, they just need to be reconnected. (I guess it's possible that only power is working and not data; I haven't checked.)
Now, as I've mentioned before, I don't have any experience with soldering. I've done a bit of reading on this and since the pins are so tiny, a soldering gun is not the right tool for this job. There's a good Q&A over at Stack Exchange where somebody recommends applying solder paste and then heating it using either a hot-air gun or an oven.
So I'm thinking I'll buy a syringe of paste and a cheap toaster oven and see if I can fix it. I found a nice guide over at freetronics.com.au.
But even assuming I fix it, there's still a problem:
Just look at all that space around it. If I fix it back the way it was, "the way it was" is one good drop away from breaking.
So, a couple possibilities: I could just keep it. (My nephew doesn't need them back; his dad got him a couple cheapy USB controllers; they're not as nice as these but they're sturdier. I've already got plenty of game controllers, but I can't find my Wii Classic Controller, and apparently this'll pair with a Wii, so that'd be useful if I wanted to start playing Xenoblade again or something.)
Or, I could try and find a way to cushion it so it'll survive a drop. Carve a small piece of rubber or wood or foam (something nonconductive that can withstand whatever small amount of heat the port generates) to fit snugly around the port so it won't move if it gets dropped. (I may not know much about soldering, but I have a whole lot of experience in packing electronics, and it mostly boils down to "make sure the thing is in place tightly enough that it doesn't have anywhere to go when it gets dropped".)
Anyway, curious if anybody's got any ideas about it. I'm fighting a head cold this weekend but I might give it a shot next weekend.
I bought him two 8bitdo NES30 Pro controllers, because I was impressed with the quality of the SNES30 I'd bought for myself a few months prior, which feels just like the real thing.
First thing I noticed was, the NES30 Pro was not as big as I thought it was from the photo.
(Note for anybody viewing the site via HTTPS: you probably won't be able to see any of the following images, since my site is plain ol' unencrypted HTTP.)
So, they're smaller than I thought. Smaller D-pad, smaller buttons, closer together. I wouldn't buy them for me based on that. But hey, my nephew's 5; they're not too small for his hands.
But I wouldn't recommend giving one to a 5-year-old anyway, and here's why:
That's the microUSB connector, broken clean off the board.
Now, the nice thing is, these controllers are really easy to take apart. Back pops right off, and it's got regular old Philips screws underneath. (One of them has those damn stickers over it that's supposed to void the warranty. Which is totally not a thing, by the way.)
If I plug a cable into the port and press the pins into the board, the controller lights up. So it looks like the parts still work, they just need to be reconnected. (I guess it's possible that only power is working and not data; I haven't checked.)
Now, as I've mentioned before, I don't have any experience with soldering. I've done a bit of reading on this and since the pins are so tiny, a soldering gun is not the right tool for this job. There's a good Q&A over at Stack Exchange where somebody recommends applying solder paste and then heating it using either a hot-air gun or an oven.
So I'm thinking I'll buy a syringe of paste and a cheap toaster oven and see if I can fix it. I found a nice guide over at freetronics.com.au.
But even assuming I fix it, there's still a problem:
Just look at all that space around it. If I fix it back the way it was, "the way it was" is one good drop away from breaking.
So, a couple possibilities: I could just keep it. (My nephew doesn't need them back; his dad got him a couple cheapy USB controllers; they're not as nice as these but they're sturdier. I've already got plenty of game controllers, but I can't find my Wii Classic Controller, and apparently this'll pair with a Wii, so that'd be useful if I wanted to start playing Xenoblade again or something.)
Or, I could try and find a way to cushion it so it'll survive a drop. Carve a small piece of rubber or wood or foam (something nonconductive that can withstand whatever small amount of heat the port generates) to fit snugly around the port so it won't move if it gets dropped. (I may not know much about soldering, but I have a whole lot of experience in packing electronics, and it mostly boils down to "make sure the thing is in place tightly enough that it doesn't have anywhere to go when it gets dropped".)
Anyway, curious if anybody's got any ideas about it. I'm fighting a head cold this weekend but I might give it a shot next weekend.