Logitech Wireless Button Sensitivity Issue, Face button insensitivity. Options

[benny32]

WOW, I thought I just had an RMA unit, but WOW!

Talk about terrible hardware manufacturing!

I got the Pure White (looks like an x360 controller ) version of this controler and it has the same damn issue. Whoever is giving the controller high reviews needs to be slapped. This hardware is defective and useless.

My DPad was also REALLY loose. Cheap peice of crap. Great design, bad manufacturing.

Such a shame that a great controller is rendered useless because of terrible engineering. IDIOTS!

Racing games are rendered useless if they use the face buttons...

Just try playing Mkart or Rush 2. Logitech should be sued for this...

[benny32]

I fixed mine, its to do with the shape of the contacts on the rubbers. If your not worried about pressure sensitivity on the face buttons then this will work. Take out the button rubber and look at the shape of the black contacts on the underside. they are convex, this is supposed to assist the analogue function if the buttons but all it does is make the pad unresponsive. You need to make the pads flat, i used a knife but you could file them down. My pad has almost no analogue sensitivity on abxy buttons but it does respond to the lightest touch.
hope this helps.

CONFIRMED!

I have successfuly completed the process.

Tips.

Use a nail filer to sand the convex "black" tips.

Putting the back peice of the controller on requires that you line up the battery connectors on the front peice with the back peice. The L and R button will snap inward when you close.

Do not press the Vibra, back, start when the controller is opened. If you do, you will have to allign the place rubber for that button again before assembly. Otherwise the buttons will push in.

Dont be scared to file those black peices of #### down. If you look at the Back/Start buttons THEY ARE FLAT.

The idiots that devaloped this knew that flat surfaces create quicker reaction. They were stupid and made the face buttons supposedly more anlogue. Screw that and sand those black ##### down.

The black pads DO NOT flatten over time. I had to sand a ton of the surface off of these things to get them working properly. So you can either fix the controller, or keep your unresponsive controller and not be able to use them to their full potential.

If you want to be able to use this controller with emulators, this procedure is a must. Shmups are unplayable and racing games do not work without responsive face buttons.

I tested the fix with Star Fox, Contra, Sonic, and Mario Kart 64. The difference was night and day

I can now play shmups, fighting, platformers, and everything else with responsive face buttons!

Good Luck on your operation

This post has been edited by benny32: Mar 8 2006, 10:14 AM

[serpicomyhero]

I have gotten the X button to work! I didn't know how much to sand it down, so i just made it completely flat.
benny32 and laurie, thanks for your help . I will sand down the other buttons today and unlock the potential of the Logi-wireless. What a bad decision on Logitechs part to try to make the buttons so analogous.
The next time i take apart the controller, im going to shoot some pics and hopefully make a mini-faq detailing the opertion in hopes of helping out other people with the same problem.

[serpicomyhero]

Logitech Wireless "Usability Mod" Mini-FAQ

Items List:
-Philips Head Screwdriver
-Fine Grit Sandpaper or Nail File or X-acto Knife

1. Flip the controller over, you will see 6 screws on the back, take them out using a Philips head screw driver


2. Remove the battery cover and both batteries. You will see 2 screws, take them out.


3. Now its just a matter of seperating the controller. Pull each end of it until the back comes off. Pull the triggers to ease it along. You will see 1 screw on the green board. Take that off.


4. Tilt the green board up towards you, being carefull not to screw anything up (you might want to also ground yourself btw) You will see the Blue Rubber peice that will ultimately change the way this controller works .


5. Gently take out the blue rubber "thing" and get ready to go to town on those carbon contacts.


6. Get your nail file or fine grit sand paper (you could even use an X-acto knife if you skills are up to par) and begin to flatten the black carbon contacts that are on the blue rubber. Make sure not to sand the blue rubber.


7. Put it all back together, making sure the Rubber pads are correctly lined up (be sure that the sstart and select pads are lined up also. 9 Screws in all: 6 in the back, 2 in the battery slot and 1 on the green board.
SIDE NOTE: If you hate the rumble function, and want to lighten up your controller, heres your chance to remove the two rumble units- SNIP SNIP, done deal.

8. Enjoy playing xbox with your logitech wireless without breaking your thumbs!

[benny32]

I highly reccomend the pearl white color. If you want to pretend you have an xb360:)

Cant wait for mc 360

[Silverscape]

@serpicomyhero

GREAT Tutorial! I will try this mod as soon as possible!

Thank you very much.

[serpicomyhero]

Benny32, i have to admit the white logi does look cool, especially with a matching white xbox. If i didnt mind the big "EA Sports" logo or the extra 10 bucks, i would have gotten it. Black is beautiful right?
Silverscape thanks, and good luck. Let me know if you have any questions, i will gladly answer them.

[Agrooreo]

Just found this. Thanks for the tut.

[col_klink]

I did this to my logitech wireless (I wish I would have seen this before, or I wouldnt have bought the thing) and although it helped, it still didnt have the postive feel that I expect out of a controller (especially for emulators). So what I ended up doing was take a pair of scissors, and a broken S controller. I took the rubber piece for the D-Pad in the S controller, trimmed it up to fit in place of the face button one inside the logitech, and it works SOO much better than the original, even sanded. You have to cut the botton two contacts off of the original one for the white and black button, but their responsiveness isnt as important as the main buttons. Face buttons register every time for me. Now if only someone can figure out how to make the D-pad a little more responsive....

[SpikeMage]

After getting hooked on wireless for the 360 i went ahead and got one of these logictec as well.
Im sorry to say its been a total let down.
Its pretty much stricktly a media remote for me.

[col_klink]

Spikemage, you're right. When I got mine, I was so frustrated with it, I actually threw it across the room. I can say they are made somewhat sturdy They also have a nice shape, but the button issue is just not acceptable. Try what these guys propose by sanding the pads, if that doesnt work, do what I did in the previous post. After I changed it over to the dpad rubber out of an S controller, it works like a charm. I'm now very happy with this controller.

[SpikeMage]

Spikemage, you're right. When I got mine, I was so frustrated with it, I actually threw it across the room. I can say they are made somewhat sturdy They also have a nice shape, but the button issue is just not acceptable. Try what these guys propose by sanding the pads, if that doesnt work, do what I did in the previous post. After I changed it over to the dpad rubber out of an S controller, it works like a charm. I'm now very happy with this controller.

Ya know I think I do have a broken S...I'll give it a shot.

Thing is what Im really looking for is a 360 controller for the xbox and this just doesnt even come close. I have trouble getting used to the new shape so chances are if ive got any real gaming to do on the xbox (rare these days) Id break out the trusty old S anyway.

[col_klink]

Actually, after putting a couple evenings into this logitech controller, I actually like the way it feels even more than the "S" controller. I think it has a nice shape, and I like the extra heft.

You will have to do a fair amount of trimming on the d-pad rubber for it to fit in the controller properly. And like I said before, cut the white and black button piece off of the logitech rubber. It may be a good idea to lay the logitech rubber over top of the d-pad rubber from the s to kind of make a template to cut it to. Now, its not a perfect fit, but after you screw the board back down, you can kind of adjust the rubber around a little bit to make sure its hitting all the buttons like it should. If you put it all together, and one button doesnt work as it should, then simply take it back apart and adjust. You will have it apart a couple of times before you get it just right, but the pay-off is worth it. The buttons feel just as good if not better than the type s. The only thing is, analog functionality of the face buttons is probably compromised. But for emulators, it works great. If you want, I can send you a picture of what mine looks like inside. Let me know.

[HandledOut]

The transparent green ones do not have this issue. i have 2 green ones i bought new when they first came out, very sensitive (more than any other controller). Now, i bought 2 more BLACK ones since they are now 20usd and they have this issue.

it is not the controller contacts that are the problem. Comparing my 2 green ones that have been very good since day 1 to these new black ones that is no difference in the contacts. in fact, everything looks identical with the controllers from the eye. However, it is the controller because i have tried to use the green reciever with the black controllers and i get the same crappy button response. So i know it's not the reciever at fault and not the physical dimensions of the controller either, i've been stumped with this same problem (and suprised to see a thread on in here) for over a week.

i can semi confirm that the green ones do not have this problem. By semi i mean i know another that has 1 of the green controllers, and his aswell works just fine. _ALL_ the buttons are just fine on the green ones, super sensitive that is. In fact, the triggers i might say are too sensitive since you barely have to push them at all to get full pressure (i'd say pressing them 1/5th gets full pressure).

it has been posted that usage of these controllers is what dictates this. Now that i can see for the buttons, but for the triggers aswell? Even though usage might play a factor (i'm sure it does somehow), exactly how much usage would you have to have to get the buttons that grinded down? (maybe 5 or 6 years?).

i'm led to believe it is the contacts on the actual PCB or possible the usb controller chip itself in these non-green ones that are the problem. if you notice, pressing the button the black ones does light up the reciever at the same pressure as it does on the green ones, it just doesn't respond the same way for some unknown reason. And since i know it's not the reciever (since using the black controller with the green reciever), maybe it is a power issue in the controller.

if someone would figure out how to alter the power with a slider or something maybe we would find that the non-green ones are using a different voltage, but then again maybe not.

if you remember along time ago, the nintendo had a wireless controller. This controller came with 1 AA battery to power it. Now, in my case, when the battery died i replaced it with a rechargable battery that seem to make the controller super sensitive. Anyways, i have already tried both energiser and Duracell and a rechargable battery with this black one, no difference.

The 2 green controllers i have that do not have this problem, i was told at the time of purchase that they were a special "Halo" edition. Wether or not that is true, i do know something about those 2 controllers was designed different. Logitech would know the answer to all this, if you can get a replay (which i have not after attempting with 1 email).

God luck with this, this to me is a very serious issue with this controller because the green ones i have are the best possible controller i have ever used for any system, and the identical (or supposedly identical) black ones are probably the worst controller i have ever used...very odd.

This post has been edited by HandledOut: Dec 5 2006, 09:51 PM

[HandledOut]

Sorry, but this restruct my instrest.

Ok, i found the difference for mine. it is the PCB. i repl


Looking that PCB's in the controller i found 2 differences, but this might be the important one...


Black ones:
94V-0
3605

Green ones:
94V-0
3405

Notice one is 36 and the other is 34. Also, the contacts on the green ones seem to be more of a dull copper colour where the black ones are silver and shiny.i replaced the rubber strip (i haven't sanded/grinded anythign) from the black one and put it in the green one, and it works fine. Again though, i'm not a engineer.

The other difference is a number to the top right of the above numbers and in bigger print, one says 3 and the other says 1.