I stumbled across this video the other day and thought this was a neat idea.
In the face of the first gen plastic peeling and tearing issues finding an alternative stick seemed like a great idea. Plus different colors would look cool. So I decided to go out and give this a shot myself. Below you’ll find instructions and photos to help you do this yourself as this video leaves out a little bit of information.
Here are just a few of the stick options available on Amazon.
Red Aluminum http://amzn.to/1XFL2fx
Red Plastic http://amzn.to/1P23ld7
Black Plastic(2 pair) http://amzn.to/1XFLf28
Green Plastic http://amzn.to/1Q0yFbs
Here’s the step by step.
- Remove the 4 bottom screws.
- The bottom/top are held together with nothing but plastic clips. However they are held tightly together and it takes some work to get them pried apart. Once you have the two halves apart be careful as there will be a ribbon cable that connects the top half and bottom half.
- Carefully unplug the ribbon cable, unplug and remove the battery, there’s a third cable at the front right of the controller that needs to be unplugged as well. This cable is tucked away pretty tight so you may need a pliers to unplug it.
- In the middle of the controller under the battery you will find the only other screw in the controller. Remove it. This will make the board come loose.
- Pull the board up so the sticks pass through the holes in the top plastic piece. You should be able to tip it backwards without removing the vibration motors.
- The sticks are just friction fit to the controller so you can pull the sticks off without any extra tools or effort. Do the reverse to put the new sticks back on.
- Put the controller back together in reverse order.
While you’re at it you may consider installing some longer life batteries which you can find here http://amzn.to/1KLKQ53 The reviews seem to show the quality is hit or miss but given the potential upside and Amazon’s return policies this looks like it might not be a bad thing to try.
The end result should look something like this.
Or maybe like this.
