Tried swapping joystick modules and now my right stick drifts worse than before

I finally got around to swapping out the joystick modules on my old Xbox controller last weekend. Followed a YouTube guide step by step, desoldered the old ones, soldered in some new ones from a kit I got online. But now the right stick drifts hard to the left every time I let go of it. Did I mess up the soldering job or did I just buy cheap junk modules? Anyone else have this happen after a swap?

2 comments

2 Comments

jasons633d ago

Honestly, "drifts worse than before" would make me want to throw the controller across the room. That is SO frustrating, especially after you followed a guide step by step. I'd put money on it being cheap junk modules, not your soldering. A lot of those cheap kits online use low quality potentiometers that are already defective or really sensitive to any flux residue. Ngl, I've been down that road and it's almost never worth the hassle unless you get name brand replacements. You probably did a fine solder job, the parts are just garbage.

park.wyatt3d ago

@jasons63 totally called it with the cheap modules thing. My last swap ended up with the left stick drifting so bad it made my character in Elden Ring start walking in circles like he was chasing his tail. Maybe it's just me but I've learned the hard way that saving five bucks on a kit just means you're gonna be redoing the whole job in a week anyway. Your soldering is probably fine, those parts are just cursed from the factory.