A bungled Hori EX2 mod!

Pyongyang

A chap on J+ sent me some Seimitsu buttons and a stick. I wanted to use them in my XBOX 360 Hori EX 2 stick. I've heard stories that this stick is a bitch to mod.... BELIEVE THESE STORIES THEY ARE ALL TRUE!

You've probably seen the mod posted countless times across the Internet, so I'll distill few points here about what happened.

The case was EASY to mod. Too easy in fact. The most time consuming part was grinding the crap out of the button surround in order for these screw-on buttons to fit.

The stick was easy to mount. Grind the nubs off, use the mount plate to mark in the new stick mount and drill new holes. Done.

The buttons were easy enough to solder, except for the fact I ***ed up the VERY LAST button and scorched the pad and ripped it clean off! After HOURS of ***ing about I just decided to solder the button wire directly on to the connector on the PCB running to the loom that connects the main board. Sorted.

The stick was a nightmare too, and still is. It mounts fine but is too tall. So currently I can't use the metal plate on the bottom. I tried grinding the plate, to no avail, so I might even just cut a square out where the shaft base moves around the square gate and leave it ghetto!

The stick is 5 Pin and has common ground, I needed to solder directly to the microswitches and take a cutting piece for my Dremel and literally cut the traces on the Seimitsu PCB, thereby breaking the common ground on the board.

Step 5 was the worst part as I had to guess and resolder each switch to check the directions were working. I also tried to cheat bit and add in screw terminals, as when you snip the leads from the main board to the stick, two of them are extremely short and a nightmare to strip. In the end I managed to solder them together and then to the microswitches.

I hate the EX2. It's a ***ing piece of ****. The Hori parts are cheap, nasty and ***ing horrible. You just don't realize it until you whip the stock parts out. Thank God they are gone!

I won't show a photo of the inside as it's an utter jungle of shameful soldering and bodge after bodge after bodge.

The good thing is, it works 110% and I have nice parts in there now. I also learned a LOT by taking this job on and now it's done I'm glad I did it.

Andrew76

That looks nice chief. Now get her painted!

What stick did you put in it btw?

Pyongyang

Haha nah I'm not painting this. It's staying as is. To paint it I'd have to desolder all the buttons and unmount the stick etc. I'm not even putting a decal on it. Just leaving it plain, to remind me of how much I ****ing hate this stick.

It's horrible, it truly is.

I'm very confident about making my own from scratch though, I learned a hell of a lot by doing this mod. At one point I got so pissed off I binned it. Took it out of the bin today, wiped it down and started to patch it up.

Never modding one of these again though, they are horrid creatures. Next stick project will be something from scratch and 100% bespoke. Acrylic or wood. I'm undecided.

Pyongyang

Small update: I fixed the bottom now. I had to literally grind the metal base to within an inch of it's life. Then, while still scorching hot, hammer the life out of it to warp the shaft base contact area just enough that it loses contact but is not warped so far that it passes the clearance height from the rubber feet.

All put back together now and she works like a bodged dream!

Pyongyang

Oh and Dunos, I think it's an LS-33, at least that is what the PCB marking says. Feels alright though, better than that Hori stock stick!

Andrew76

Wasn't 100% sure what you were on about, I have the same Hori myself so took it out for a look. You're saying that the LS shaft is too long and rubbing off the metal base of the stick? Looking at it side on it is quite shallow alright.
So basically you've had to knock a dent in the base from the inside so there's space for the bottom of the shaft to move freely? So there's a lump on the outside. :pac:

Wtf man sounds like a nightmare. Yup the stock stick is rubbish, why mine is still sitting in it's box. I couldn't even stick it (no pun intended) for use when testing things out with Mame on the pc.

Pyongyang

Yep. The Hori shaft is a lot shorter than a Sanwa or Seimitsu shaft, so when you fit it, the base of the shaft grinds against the metal base plate of the EX2.

You need to grind the metal right down then knock it with a hammer a few times to stop the stick grinding against the base plate. It doesn't look that bad, just a slight bulge. To be honest you never look at that part of the stick so it doesn't really matter. The pay off is having a nice stick and buttons. But yes, it's a nightmare to mod and I won't be doing it again. It was just a learning experience.

Glad I done it though.