General Category > General Discussion
N64 Analog Stick - Fix 3D printed replacement Bowl
DKBananas:
This is a little pet project I've been working on that turned out to work better than I could have hoped for.
With a little bit of skilled drilling, you can replace the bowl of once useless loose N64 sticks.
It truly works great, The fix brings the stick back to 85% or better.
http://shpws.me/LEEx
Polygon:
That's awesome, but there are many wear points in the N64 joystick that cause them to be loose. The bowl is probably the lesser of the three. The other two are the nub on the bottom of the thumbstick itself. The other is in the gear cradle. We really need all three pieces to restore these. Do you have any plans to do those as well?
I'd be a buyer if you do and they are EXACT replicas to the originals.
DKBananas:
Agreed that the bowl is not the only point of failure. The stick nub is made of a much harder plastic than the bowl. In this design all I had to do to the nub was lightly file it to a uniform shape. I have not come across any that were worn down to nothing. The replacement part has room for adjustment where you can fine tune the height to accommodate different lengths of stick nubs. The gear cradle is a problem and a difficult part to pull off in 3D printed material. There is already a Shapeways user that has modeled the X Y axis cradle, however I don't think the material is strong enough to resist bending under the spring pressure. I have come across a seller on eBay selling new 3rd party replacement that seems promising. I don't have any plans to model them at this time. While this is not a perfect solution, It does bring useless completely floppy sticks back to life. The stick snaps back to center were before it was always limp to one side. The worn down bowls are the death nail for these sticks.
wiggy:
--- Quote from: Polygon on February 14, 2016, 11:37:41 AM ---That's awesome, but there are many wear points in the N64 joystick that cause them to be loose. The bowl is probably the lesser of the three. The other two are the nub on the bottom of the thumbstick itself. The other is in the gear cradle. We really need all three pieces to restore these. Do you have any plans to do those as well?
I'd be a buyer if you do and they are EXACT replicas to the originals.
--- End quote ---
And printed parts will NOT be, no matter how good the math model is.
Polygon:
--- Quote from: wiggy on February 14, 2016, 10:06:01 PM ---And printed parts will NOT be, no matter how good the math model is.
--- End quote ---
That's unfortunate. That's the biggest problem with the 3rd party replacements. The gears teeth spacing as well as the sensor spacing is off making the joystick inaccurate. :-\