Tuesday 13 October 2009

Dualshock3 Limp Trigger Fix

Feeling a Little Flaccid? I know i have been lately, or to be more exact, my trusty old joypad triggers have. Not surprising after the best part of 30 months trashing around circuits and pew pew pewing people in the face in any number of FPS games the feeling finally went out of my right trigger leaving it hanging and limp and impotent.

Now not wanting to shell out for yet another Joypad i decided to figure out a cost effective solution, so i pulled the pad apart using a nice fine point mini screwdriver to see whats what. Once deep inside the problem was obvious, the small spring that returns the trigger had broken, cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but lucky for me i'm the sort of guy who likes to pull stuff apart for shits and giggles and after a bit of thought went to one of my trusty boxes of misc stuff to see what i could find.

As you have probably guessed i found the answer in an old floppy disk, this spring is almost a perfect replacement to the original Sony part and will fit straight in around the bar the broken spring was attached to with no modifications, though i guess if you were being all anal about it you could trim a few mill's off each end of the floppy disk spring, but that's really not worth the bother.

Once i got the Dualshock3 back together i gave the floppy springs a test drive using DiRT2 and i have to say i am impressed, they feel tougher for a start and the trigger return is excelent, not sure how long they will last but i'm guessing from the feel of them they're not going to be snaping anytime soon. If this info helps just one person i have done my job.

[mobiletone]

ps: do not google images 'flaccid' with safe search off!!

9 comments:

  1. Congrats Mr Tone, i'm the type of guy that enjoys taking things apart and fixing them, just I've never acctually been able to fix anything as of yet.

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  2. you'd be surprised at just how pathetic and feeble the genuine Sony springs look! (was it really worth the cost saving?) and from what i gather failing triggers is a bit of a problem after a while with the Dualshock3s, seems to effect racing game fans the most too.

    think i may try putting two springs in per trigger to see what it feels like later.

    more power ughughughughUGUGH! :D

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  3. what a dude, I've got boxes and boxes of 3.5" discs - is the ebay value going to shoot up?

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  4. @ Jimmy - see, they thought i was mad keeping hold of those windows 3.11 disks :D i wonder what people would pay on ebay for two trigger repair springs and an A4 'how to' sheet?

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  5. Better still you could offer a repair service on ebay where people send you their dualshock and a wad of cash to fix it. Awesome! By the way, does it matter which brand of disk you use or are the springs inside a standard size?

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  6. @ reakt - that sounds like actual work :) if they're not smart enough to fix 'em themselves they really shouldn't be using a PS3 -heh-

    doesn't matter what disks, i've pulled a few different brands to bits and they all look pretty much the same. must put the springs in a super special can't possibly lose them safe place, which i will total not remember in 2 weeks time.

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  7. It is probably worth mentioning that you used a 3.5-inch diskette rather than one of the larger sizes of backup storage media as they don't have anywhere near the correct size or quantity of metal inside. You could look a bit dickspringless getting your floppies out for no good reason. It is cold today... it has probably shrunk, etc.

    Also, where is the best place to jemmy open a SIXAXIS or DUALSHOCK 3? I don't want to end up looking like I've chewed my wireless controller in frustration (any more than it currently is). Bloody Johnny Foreigners (mainly the French & the Yankers) who don't realise that in order to play a "co-op" game in "Uncharted 2: Amongst the Thieves" (according to Asda's public address system) you actually need to stay in the game after you are killed.

    Oh yeah... and all those muppets who just play for their own benefit & never come to heal you when you've saved their ass from a hail of bullets that they never saw.

    Yeah… them people. The French mainly. I believe the Yankers are still winding everybody up in “.Killzone 2” Still when “Killzone 3” is released next year we can gang up & wipe the floor with their lardy bellies again.

    I only eat controllers every other day now because of this. Got to watch my figure. Nobody else does :(

    BFN,

    fp.

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  8. ...and those people who cannot put punctuation in the correct place in sentences.

    For example,...
    ---
    ...in “.Killzone 2” Still when “Killzone 3”
    ---
    Those idiots really but me.

    The.end

    BFN,

    fp.

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  9. @ fanpages, it's held together with screws but in the middle between the two grips is a sort of D lock deal in the internal case, it's not load bearing though :D

    well.. not any more.

    i have created two black and white controllers now, i mixed and matched a pair of shells, they look very Ska now. :)

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