Author Topic: D-Pad and buttons sticking issue (Read 89495 times)

Pardue · « **Reply #340 on:** April 08, 2015, 11:57:06 pm »

Quote from: Scoobysnaxx on April 08, 2015, 11:22:34 pm

I made a DPAD video of my kick starter unit (was replaced with a new unit by Justin)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o473J4Gg-Is

Holy crap!!!

Yeah, I guess I've been fortunate so far because I've never experienced anything close to that.

Xaijiqq · « **Reply #341 on:** April 09, 2015, 03:08:00 am »

sounds like when they got mass produced the dpad/face button quality went down this would actually explain early adopters (developers, etc.) having no issues and the "well nothings wrong with my buttons". all i know is something went wrong somewhere if users resort to modding their units or applying grease. and, just for example, even qbertaddict was selling them with pre-lubed dpad and buttons:

http://boards.dingoonity.org/gcw-general/black-gcw-se-for-sale/

Atlantis_Risen · « **Reply #342 on:** April 09, 2015, 04:31:35 am »

Quote from: Xaijiqq on April 09, 2015, 03:08:00 am

sounds like when they got mass produced the dpad/face button quality went down this would actually explain early adopters (developers, etc.) having no issues and the "well nothings wrong with my buttons". all i know is something went wrong somewhere if users resort to modding their units or applying grease. and, just for example, even qbertaddict was selling them with pre-lubed dpad and buttons:

http://boards.dingoonity.org/gcw-general/black-gcw-se-for-sale/

actually the earliest units had the most button and d-pad problems, the later kickstarter units were much better. Mine has had no problems.

Xaijiqq · « **Reply #343 on:** April 09, 2015, 04:37:52 am »

Quote from: Atlantis_Risen on April 09, 2015, 04:31:35 am

Quote from: Xaijiqq on April 09, 2015, 03:08:00 am
sounds like when they got mass produced the dpad/face button quality went down this would actually explain early adopters (developers, etc.) having no issues and the "well nothings wrong with my buttons". all i know is something went wrong somewhere if users resort to modding their units or applying grease. and, just for example, even qbertaddict was selling them with pre-lubed dpad and buttons:

http://boards.dingoonity.org/gcw-general/black-gcw-se-for-sale/

actually the earliest units had the most button and d-pad problems, the later kickstarter units were much better. Mine has had no problems.

thinkgeek units had the problem and those weren't 'earliest units' which is also where i got one of mine

Pardue · « **Reply #344 on:** April 09, 2015, 08:07:37 am »

I think I know what he meant, the "earliest" as in- pre production prototypes or "FrankenZeros" didn't seem to have the issues.

I too find it strange. I don't know what could have been so different in the manufacturing stage.

cruelcynic · « **Reply #345 on:** April 11, 2015, 06:11:54 am »

Quote from: Pardue on April 09, 2015, 08:07:37 am

I think I know what he meant, the "earliest" as in- pre production prototypes or "FrankenZeros" didn't seem to have the issues.

I too find it strange. I don't know what could have been so different in the manufacturing stage.

The texture of the production run vs my prototype was slightly different. Seems like it was enough to cause issues occasionally.

Baumstark · « **Reply #346 on:** April 11, 2015, 08:13:38 pm »

Quote from: wepecko on April 08, 2015, 05:16:03 pm

Hi, I'm back with yet another DPad mod.
After few weeks of testing I found out that my previous work wasn't so great. So I tried once again and this time I focused on details. I've used a bearing ball to get perfect and smooth movement and precise diagonals. So far the best feel on controls I've had on any portable...
Just get a Gameboy DPad and try for yourself.

Wow, that looks awesome! Do you know where to buy a game boy dpad / button replacements? I can't seem to find a store for that kind of stuff anywhere online

Surkow · « **Reply #347 on:** April 11, 2015, 11:19:02 pm »

Quote from: Baumstark on April 11, 2015, 08:13:38 pm

Quote from: wepecko on April 08, 2015, 05:16:03 pm
Hi, I'm back with yet another DPad mod.
After few weeks of testing I found out that my previous work wasn't so great. So I tried once again and this time I focused on details. I've used a bearing ball to get perfect and smooth movement and precise diagonals. So far the best feel on controls I've had on any portable...
Just get a Gameboy DPad and try for yourself.

Wow, that looks awesome! Do you know where to buy a game boy dpad / button replacements? I can't seem to find a store for that kind of stuff anywhere online

Search for DMG replacement cases on eBay (they include buttons). I bought a few already.

tekkaman · « **Reply #348 on:** April 12, 2015, 04:12:28 am »

While I don't regret buying the Zero. You simply can't play fighting games with it. It's not precise. And some games that are fast gameplay and require fast evasion like Shumps could make you evade a bullet but collide with something else. What I mostly play with the Zero are RPG's I never played. And it does the job well for that and no slowdowns at all.

Atlantis_Risen · « **Reply #349 on:** April 13, 2015, 02:58:36 am »

Quote from: tekkaman on April 12, 2015, 04:12:28 am

While I don't regret buying the Zero. You simply can't play fighting games with it. It's not precise. And some games that are fast gameplay and require fast evasion like Shumps could make you evade a bullet but collide with something else. What I mostly play with the Zero are RPG's I never played. And it does the job well for that and no slowdowns at all.

It plays fighting games and shmups as well as any other system with a d-pad. Which is never going to be as good as a true arcade stick. But that's a d-pad problem in general, not a zero problem. As far as d-pads go, the zero's is pretty good. MUCH better than the PS/Vita split pad. But not as good as sega saturn.

tekkaman · « **Reply #350 on:** April 13, 2015, 05:03:12 am »

Actually I think it's one of the worst D-pads I've ever used. I can't do any special move besides basic Hadouken with it because unprecise diagonals. But then again Open source systems aren't without issues. The Pandora has an unavoidable video cable issue but it cost $500. I did my research before buying the Zero. I saw many reviews and I lurked around the forum for quite sometime before posting. In my opinion the reviews were a bit biased because they didn't mentioned any faults at all. Some guy in youtube even said the D-pad was comparable to a logitech D-pad. I don't know how he came up with that conclusion when I have 3 logitech pc gamepads and those are the best there is. When I searched this forum I knew I was seeing a more balanced review of the system with it pros and cons. My Caanoo broke so I needed a system to fill that gap. Android is not an option for me because I don't like SmartAss devices that track me and I hate touchscreen gaming. So basically there was only the Zero or a Pandora. The Pandora was appealing to me but I knew it was gonna break because of the video issue so I choose the Zero. Sure there are many fighting games I can't play . But those get boring quickly and I can play them on my Dreamcast or PC. I've been enjoying great classic Rpgs that I couldn't play because I never had the system or cart. and they didn't play full speed on the Caanoo. So to me it doesn't seem like I lost too much. But still the control issue should've been addressed because that makes the system lose sales. At least Evil Dragon from Pandora seem to have more comunication with his customers and does repair known issues. Here we're stuck with the crappy D-pad unless we know how to replace it ourselves.

Other than the D-pad/button issues the Zero does what it is designed to do and it does it well. Most games play fullspeed when in the Caanoo you had to frameskip or overclock. And the system itself is quite stable. With the Caanoo I had to take out the SD Card almost everyday because it didn't recognize it well even though both the system and card were new. Most programs are quite stable as well. With the exception of Genesis plus that crash sometimes. And the music player sometimes when it goes stand by the screen goes white after you press a button. Funny thing is that if you exit the player the screen goes back to normal. Oh and the storing of settings and saves in other directories is a bit annoying. it's way easier to store everything in the same emulator location like the Caanoo.

fiver · « **Reply #351 on:** April 13, 2015, 06:52:00 am »

Interesting. I haven't had any of the problems you've mentioned, but I don't play fighting games very often (usually platform, puzzle, or RPG, with the occasional shmup). There is a HWTest app which will let you test the responsiveness of the buttons, though, and that has been 100% on mine.

congusbongus · « **Reply #352 on:** April 13, 2015, 07:31:01 am »

Quote from: tekkaman on April 13, 2015, 05:03:12 am

Actually I think it's one of the worst D-pads I've ever used.

Sounds like you've never tried the Dingoo A320

I found it very hard to do diagonals at all because the d-pad was way too shallow. Even though the d-pad on the 3DS has a better action, I actually prefer the Zero's over it because the former is tiny.

Xaijiqq · « **Reply #353 on:** April 13, 2015, 08:01:11 am »

Quote from: Atlantis_Risen on April 13, 2015, 02:58:36 am

It plays fighting games and shmups as well as any other system with a d-pad. Which is never going to be as good as a true arcade stick. But that's a d-pad problem in general, not a zero problem. As far as d-pads go, the zero's is pretty good. MUCH better than the PS/Vita split pad. But not as good as sega saturn.

wepecko · « **Reply #354 on:** April 13, 2015, 12:27:04 pm »

Quote from: wepecko on April 08, 2015, 05:16:03 pm

Hi, I'm back with yet another DPad mod.
After few weeks of testing I found out that my previous work wasn't so great. So I tried once again and this time I focused on details. I've used a bearing ball to get perfect and smooth movement and precise diagonals. So far the best feel on controls I've had on any portable...
Just get a Gameboy DPad and try for yourself.

Well it's true that diagonals are the main issue of the GCW0 Dpad. When you press "down" for example, sometime it happens that when you don't press exactly in the middle of button, the cross tends to wiggle to either left or right and it might ends as diagonal by accident. I can see two possible solutions.

- when you modify GB dpad, try to leave all cross ends perfectly right-angled and avoid the rounded corners. this might reduce the wiggle.

- I would also try to reduce the "height" on dpad cross ends while keeping the correct distance between the needlepoint and cross center. That might remove the accidental press on neighbouring directions.

I might try one of these solutions in the future if I get my hands on additional GB dpads :-)

Atlantis_Risen · « **Reply #355 on:** April 13, 2015, 01:11:33 pm »

Quote from: Xaijiqq on April 13, 2015, 08:01:11 am

Quote from: Atlantis_Risen on April 13, 2015, 02:58:36 am
It plays fighting games and shmups as well as any other system with a d-pad. Which is never going to be as good as a true arcade stick. But that's a d-pad problem in general, not a zero problem. As far as d-pads go, the zero's is pretty good. MUCH better than the PS/Vita split pad. But not as good as sega saturn.