Is there a way to tighten loose sticks on my DS3?

[redfox45]

Getting a used PS3 controller with analouge sticks that aren't all gross and loose seems almost impossible. PS3 controllers in particular seem to really suck when it comes to this or maybe people are just too rough with them.
(Down with stick waggle escape mechanics!)

Is there some kind of modification I can do to make the thumbsticks tighter? There doesn't seem to be any inbuilt way to tweak it like with some other controllers.

 

[ElGris]

If sticks are loose, the only solution is to replace them, which is useless if you can't get an original stick, since the ones from aliexpress are replicas. Better get a used DS3 in good condition.

 

[sandungas]

The responsible to make the stick return to the center position is a big spring located at its bottom, you could stretch it to recover his strenght

But there are more pieces in the puzzle, at the bottom of the spring there is an "inverted mushroom" (with an spherical bottom) made of plastic that is constantly frictioning with a flat plastic surface
Both, the spherical surface of the mushroom, and the flat surface are going to be very degraded, the flat surface probably have a "hole" at the center and "scratches" at radial directions (specially towards the "up" direction) and the mushroom surface doesnt looks like an sphere
The spherical surface of the mushroom can be recovered a bit with sandpaper (dont abuse of it, we dont want to remove much more material), but the flatness of the other surface is imposible to recover it completly, you can sandpaper it a bit to remove the scratches (this prevents the stick to have a tendence to move along following the scratches)

In a new stick is not needed to lube it... but in this case (if the plastic sufaces im talking about are damaged and you are recovering them by removing more material) is really needed... just a couple of drops to wet the flat surface is enought
And remember to clean the shit (a brown substance created by dry factory lube + dust) of the 4 "lateral pivots" of the 2 orbital pieces... this shit acts as glue when it gets old, cleaning that substance (and replacing it by solid vaseline) does wonders

*This tricks applyes to all controllers, but you need to open the metal "body" of the stick to disassemble it completly

 

[redfox45]

The responsible to make the stick return to the center position is a big spring located at its bottom, you could stretch it to recover his strenght

But there are more pieces in the puzzle, at the bottom of the spring there is an "inverted mushroom" (with an spherical bottom) made of plastic that is constantly frictioning with a flat plastic surface
Both, the spherical surface of the mushroom, and the flat surface are going to be very degraded, the flat surface probably have a "hole" at the center and "scratches" at radial directions (specially towards the "up" direction) and the mushroom surface doesnt looks like an sphere
The spherical surface of the mushroom can be recovered a bit with sandpaper (dont abuse of it, we dont want to remove much more material), but the flatness of the other surface is imposible to recover it completly, you can sandpaper it a bit to remove the scratches (this prevents the stick to have a tendence to move along following the scratches)

In a new stick is not needed to lube it... but in this case (if the plastic sufaces im talking about are damaged and you are recovering them by removing more material) is really needed... just a couple of drops to wet the flat surface is enought
And remember to clean the shit (a brown substance created by dry factory lube + dust) of the 4 "lateral pivots" of the 2 orbital pieces... this shit acts as glue when it gets old, cleaning that substance (and replacing it by solid vaseline) does wonders

*This tricks applyes to all controllers, but you need to open the metal "body" of the stick to disassemble it completly

Thanks very much. That's very helpful.

It sounds like a very delicate procedure , I wouldn't want to wreck my controller or make the problem worse by being too heavy handed. But i'll definitely look into that. Thanks

 

[sandungas]

Dont be afraid of soldering in game controllers, i use to say thats a nice way to practise soldering because the only thing you are risking is the controller, you know... is way different than soldering in the console motherboard because a mistake in the motherboard could kill the whole console, but the controller... meh... are cheap... same rule applyes to any other peripheral (are always cheaper than the console)
Nowadays finding an official DS3 is tricky, that argument goes against what im saying, but anyway... there is a point where the sticks are going to be so damaged that you only solution is to bite the bullet and take the risk of replacing the sticks... and it seems you are close to that point

I found some photos to show you the tricky part of the procedure
This is a new stick, is like a dice made of metal (im calling that metal dice the "body" of the stick). Note at his most bottom it have 2 metal "pillars" at the corners, right ?
This 4 pillars are inserted in 4 holes in the circuit board, and are only intended to give it structural resistance

At the other sides of the body (not visibles in that photo) are the pots (potentiometers), the pots have 3 or 4 pins each (depends of the DS3 model). The pots are attached to the metal "body" by plastic clips (fragile, be careful), by pressing the clips you can pull from the pot to separate it from the body... but separating them is your decission, if you are not going to replace the stick entirelly there is no need to desolder the pots, this allows to remove the stick from the circuit board without removing the pots

And the whole thing needs to be desoldered like this
-the 4 "pillars" from the "body" (structural)
-the 8 or 6 pins from the pots (optional)
-the 4 pins from the buton (you know... is the button named L3 or R3, when we press the sticks)

The easyer way to desolder all this is to use a "desolder pump" the goal is to "empty" the holes one by one... you heat the solder point and then with the pump you "suck" the solder in it

*Another way to do it is with "desolder braid"... same story... your goal is to "empty" all the holes one by one... but using desolder braid is a lot more tricky... the good thing is you can make your own desolder braid for free at home with any electrical copper wire (the ones with lot of thin copper threads)... this wires also have the same effect than the commercial desolder braids because they "attracts" the solder

*And btw be very careful to dont overheat the pins and the "body" with a powerful solder iron (or huge temepratures), keep in mind all this metal pieces are directly touching with plastic pieces and there is a huge amount of heat transfered from the metal ---> to the plastic
So try to do the solder job as fast as posible, and with a low power solder iron if posible, otherway you can use a powerful solder iron, but dont touch the metal with it more than a couple of seconds, this way you are reducing the heat transfered from the solder iron ---> to metal pins/body ---> to plastic pieces

 

[redfox45]

Dont be afraid of soldering in game controllers, i use to say thats a nice way to practise soldering because the only thing you are risking is the controller, you know... is way different than soldering in the console motherboard because a mistake in the motherboard could kill the whole console, but the controller... meh... are cheap... same rule applyes to any other peripheral (are always cheaper than the console)
Nowadays finding an official DS3 is tricky, that argument goes against what im saying, but anyway... there is a point where the sticks are going to be so damaged that you only solution is to bite the bullet and take the risk of replacing the sticks... and it seems you are close to that point

I found some photos to show you the tricky part of the procedure
This is a new stick, is like a dice made of metal (im calling that metal dice the "body" of the stick). Note at his most bottom it have 2 metal "pillars" at the corners, right ?
This 4 pillars are inserted in 4 holes in the circuit board, and are only intended to give it structural resistance

At the other sides of the body (not visibles in that photo) are the pots (potentiometers), the pots have 3 or 4 pins each (depends of the DS3 model). The pots are attached to the metal "body" by plastic clips (fragile, be careful), by pressing the clips you can pull from the pot to separate it from the body... but separating them is your decission, if you are not going to replace the stick entirelly there is no need to desolder the pots, this allows to remove the stick from the circuit board without removing the pots

And the whole thing needs to be desoldered like this
-the 4 "pillars" from the "body" (structural)
-the 8 or 6 pins from the pots (optional)
-the 4 pins from the buton (you know... is the button named L3 or R3, when we press the sticks)

The easyer way to desolder all this is to use a "desolder pump" the goal is to "empty" the holes one by one... you heat the solder point and then with the pump you "suck" the solder in it

*Another way to do it is with "desolder braid"... same story... your goal is to "empty" all the holes one by one... but using desolder braid is a lot more tricky... the good thing is you can make your own desolder braid for free at home with any electrical copper wire (the ones with lot of thin copper threads)... this wires also have the same effect than the commercial desolder braids because they "attracts" the solder

*And btw be very careful to dont overheat the pins and the "body" with a powerful solder iron (or huge temepratures), keep in mind all this metal pieces are directly touching with plastic pieces and there is a huge amount of heat transfered from the metal ---> to the plastic
So try to do the solder job as fast as posible, and with a low power solder iron if posible, otherway you can use a powerful solder iron, but dont touch the metal with it more than a couple of seconds, this way you are reducing the heat transfered from the solder iron ---> to metal pins/body ---> to plastic pieces

Thanks so much for going into so much detail. Thats very kind. i'd better buy a soldering iron ready to try this over the weekend . Might try it on a older more battered controller to practice with the tricky part.

I think you're definitely right about the risk/reward of going this route nowadays. I've seen brand new DS3 controllers going for up to £200. And you could buy a whole ass PS3 for that much and those "official" knockoffs you can get just feel awful to use.

Really appreciate it man. Thanks

 

[sandungas]

Usually the left stick is more damaged than the right stick, because there are lot of games where the right stick is not used, also there are some games when the player abuses of the strenght applyed to the left stick (because we are stressed and need to run)

If you have several controllers to practise with the sticks manteinance/replacement i suggest (before opening them) to check all the sticks individually and give them a qualification... lets say... in a range from 1-10 you are going to have some right sticks with a good feeling (lets say 7 or 8), and some left sticks that doesnt passes the approval (lets say 4 or 5)

So... you can "swap" the left stick by the right stick... this way the damaged stick will be at right (and it will not cause much annoyances)
Or... you can take 2 right sticks from 2 controllers (the best you have), and solder them in the same controller

And the other damaged sticks (originally located at left) are the candidates to the procedure i mentioned before, you need to open the metal "body" to take all the guts outside and inspect them carefully