Tag: repair

Repairing a PS4 controller with a broken button

Above is a video of me fixing my PS4’s DualShock controller. It’s 28 minutes long so here’s a write-up:

So I bought a second hand PS4 Slim last year just in time for Persona 5. Worked great in my first run through, but eventually the circle button of the controller stopped responding.

As with any DIYer out there, I applied the first aid for unresponsive electronics: opening the thing and liberally applying contact cleaner to everything. This would clean out the gunk and hopefully make the connections work again.

This worked, but only for a few days. The circle button stopped working even after multiple applications of contact cleaner. I spent about an hour tracing leads with my multi-tester before I found out that the connection for the button in membrane film was broken, probably corroded from a combination of heat and humidity.

After shelving it for a couple of months, I finally went to Ali Express and bought some spare parts: membrane film, and new ribbon cable to replace the cable I accidentally broke during the multiple teardowns. While I was at it, I also got other cheap doodads for my PS4.

Replacement was straightforward. The only reason it took me about half an hour was my narration and relative inexperience in tinkering with controllers.

End result: I fully repaired the controller for about $30. It’s probably cheaper if I got it repaired in some random repair stall, but the extra spare parts and the experience more than made up for it.

And yes, the controller is still working. So far I’ve played over 60 hours on it while working on a 100% playthrough of Persona 5.

Fixing broken earphone plugs

Rico’s tweet a couple of days ago reminded me of my drawer full of perfectly fine earphones — the only reason I can’t use them is that they have worn connections on their plug causing only one side to work. (Actually, both sides can work but you have to hold the wire near the plug at exactly the right position. Move a bit and one side loses sound.)

This got me wondering: is it easy to replace a busted earphone plug?

A quick Google search told me the answer was “yes“. This Instructables article on replacing the jack on a pair of headphones only required a cheap replacement plug and some basic tools.

Seeing this as a good opportunity to procrastinate on my current projects, I bought a 3.5 jack at my friendly neighborhood hardware store when I went out to lunch today.

busted jack and new metal jack

Here it is beside the busted earphone jack.

soldering tools

And here are the tools I used:

  • wire cutter – for cutting and stripping the wire
  • pliers – to hold the jack in place while soldering
  • lighter – to burn the wires’ insulators prior to soldering
  • soldering iron and solder – for soldering, obv
  • tissue and water – I can’t find my soldering stand with sponge so I had to improvise the latter; it’s just a quick solder so no need for a stand

As much as the smell of molten solder can be kinda nostalgic, I moved my workspace from my enclosed air-conditioned room to the open living room for safety.

wires soldered to jack

After an hour or two of trial and error, mostly in threading the wires into the pins and testing stability of the connection, here’s the wires soldered to the pins. The actual soldering took only around 5 minutes and I was surprised that it didn’t suck like my soldering in high school.

finished product

And here’s the fully assembled jack. A quick test confirmed that both sides are working properly even when playing around with the wire.

Total cost: P25 for the plug, ~2 hours for research, prep, and assembly.