How to mod the RG35XX's D-Pad and FIX the DIAGONALS!

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[@shearowm]

TIP: I just opened up my RG35XX for the 5th time this morning. I would make my tape adjustment, plug in the power cable and test the D-pad diagonals. Everything worked. But when I reassembled the device, some diagonals stopped working. I found the fix. Loosen the black internal screws just a bit and the diagonals started working again properly, without the false inputs!

[@L337g4m3r]

Just a tip when taking apart all of these handhelds. Those side buttons (power, vol, reset) face buttons etc. on these can fall out and sometimes get lost. Other times it is just annoying to have to try to hold them in place while putting back together without them moving around or falling out. The tip is before you take apart put a piece of tape in the areas where the buttons are on the outside of the case. That way when you take apart the tape will hold the plastic buttons in place and won't fall out.

[@jarnobot]

Great tip! Thanks!

[@namelessxsilent]

This video was just referenced in the latest Wulff Den video and his reaction is kinda funny and never realized the resemblance

[@scaryifliteral]

Yep, a friend sent that to me on Twitter. Very funny.

[@wahlenwahlen]

This is a good mod to do for another reason. Anbernic Handhelds have a fatal flaw: the d-pad's central pivot rests right on top of the PCB traces for the d-pad itself (especifically right on top of the Left directional button). Over time, this pivot starts to rub, scratch and, in some cases, completely scrape the traces to the point the d-pad no longer works and becomes pretty much unfixable. It happened to me with an old RG351V that I had poured my heart into making it the perfect emulation handheld. Needless to say I was pretty bummed about it. Anyways, doing this should probably help prevent all that rubbing from scraping and scratching the PCB and give your handheld a longer life.

[@thomaskaikonen9889]

I just wanted to add that I was happy with just covering a 1cm square in the middle of the d-pad area. If there's someone who wants a bit more sensitivity then try that. Thanks for this video Shane Craig!

[@scaryifliteral]

Good to know!

[@garykingston1662]

@@scaryifliteral I just wanted to echo his statement. I only covered up the little 'brass metal dots (if that makes sense?) that surround the directional circles, that did the trick. When I covered it using your method, it worked fine but I found I would have to press a bit too hard to register the correct input. It seems just covering up the 1cm in the middle would be enough. But thanks for the video! This was bugging the heck out of me and I never would have guessed some electrical tape would be the solution.

[@robhulson]

Gentlemen, you are amazing. I'm gonna try to fix this because I simply cannot abide an incorrect Tetris or Dr. Mario failed input.

[@endiz]

Hey Thomas, mind sharing a picture? Did you put the square diagonal (like a diamond) or horizontal (square)?

[@henrynox4244]

Same here. I put a 1cm square of tape inside the D Pad and it fixed the diagonal issue. Interesting thing was that the tape I used was thicker than electrical tape. The first time I used two layers and I couldn’t hit the diagonal at all. I took it down to a single layer and it was fine. Might shed some light on how this fix actually works.

[@RipstickRimmy]

Can confirm just did mine exactly the same as this and it works like a charm. My favorite handheld I've ever owned even better than a switch

[@tydshiin5783]

Honestly I wish more handhelds were at the same or similar Orientation as the switch

[@SWPLGAMING]

This is brilliant, I can't wait to test fireball inputs on this. Fantastic 🔥🔥👌🏾 thanks for the share👍🏾

[@Dac_vak]

Thanks for this vid. I followed your directions and the d-pad is perfect now!

[@BrunoDaSilvaLima]

Dude, thanks a lot, it got my shitty rgb20s fixed. Before the mod it was one of the worst dpads ever, now it seems like a pro control. Tip: if the dpad is a little too mushy, try adding one or two extra tape squares under the pivot point, I put 2 here and oh god, so happy.

[@microzoo3775]

I just ordered mine, can't wait for it to arrive to do surgery. Thanks for the video!

[@dankind64]

cool little tweak! i'll be getting mine this week, i may have to try this.

[@J.C.2.5]

Do you think it uses the same button rubber membrane as the switch joycons? Not expecting a 1:1 fit but maybe with a few "cuts" it might fit into the shell? I'm asking because in time, these rubber membranes tend to tear apart and it would be easy to replace if the ones for joycons can fit.

[@javilarg]

I’m expecting my RG35xx to arrive. I think it’s a really interesting mod. Thank you.

[@pepinger]

This fixed my problem perfectly, thank you

[@hanxor]

Hesitated to order this bad boy until I found your video - THANK YOU!

[@Sparky5869]

I love this little mod video! Tinkering with, and improving your electronics feels so gratifying. Just today, I opened up my microphone and shorted the power LED because it was really annoying, since it was shining too brightly near my face.

[@TheTuerespendejo]

I think, Anbernic recommended a small sticker to solve that, lol, more than one way to skin a cat ig

[@Booki89]

Is your mic a Blue Yeti by any chance ?

[@Sparky5869]

No, AT2020 Does the blue yeti also have an annoyingly bright led?

[@mmm2096]

We have the same screwdriver set! Also thanks for the mod video, Cheers!

[@Suprasicotte]

I just ordered a rg35xx , keep the videos ups👍💪🏾, hope you do a custom rg35xx video, thanks you

[@gamesmore247]

Great tutorial, just did it one mine without any issues thanks to you. I left the ribbon cable connected, as it's just long enough to allow the PCB to be flipped over.

[@g.v.a2607]

Man, this fixed it P.E.R.F.C.T.L.Y in my case. Thank you ! I'm gonna beat those freaking bosses in Super Metroid Redux much more easily now 🎉

[@scaryifliteral]

Glad to hear it

[@fellowninja]

Agree with Thomas Kaikonen. Doing it the way Shane does it, it almost prevents you from doing diagonals at all. Just cover the inside-facing half of the contact points.

[@scaryifliteral]

I can still do diagonals fine on mine, but I would encourage people to do whatever works best for them!

[@PongbyAtari]

Great video thanks 😊

[@googaboogaloo]

Sweet! I just ordered one of these after I set an alarm for 2 am and I reassessed my life. Also I saw how small the miyoo really was.

[@scottspringer6854]

LMAO. I spent way too many times in the early morning on AliExpress trying to do that same thing I gave up and bought the RG 35XX.

[@JonFromWA]

@@scottspringer6854 I chose not to give my money to them and went through Etsy. Bought the white clear design, and anxiously awaiting mine. Modding the D-pad and adding glowing rgb buttons should be easy and fun.

[@pcman3158]

Which one is better emulating the SNES games? Like Yoshi Island, Mario World and etc.?

[@commandernojj]

can you still do fireball and dragon punch motions reliably in fighting games after this mod?

[@chrisflowers-smoker154]

For the RG405V, can a Vita DPad be used as a replacement? The Stock DPad is a little too high out for me. Makes doing certain Moves hard to do.

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

What IS the right Torx size needed to take apart the 35XX? I want to do a button swap and possibly a dpad swap. You used Torx 1.5 but then said it wasn't quite right.

[@gamesmore247]

I used a Torx 1.5 and it was the perfect size on mine.

[@NaraMakesGames]

I did the same thing to my rg353m. It was ruining my Tetris scores, so I had enough.

[@DnDaan2712]

Sick bro, I'm gonna do this to mine asap

[@tiredpinata6363]

Is this a problem that will go away after long term use? I just got mine today and I have the same problem pushing left

[@Kadano]

I'm thinking that the height of the electric tape might impact click sensation by a bit. I have yet to receive my RG35XX, but once I do, if I feel that the diagonal issue bothers me, I'll try drawing the X section with an edding pen instead of using electrical tape. That also insulates the contact electrically, and I think the carbon should be soft enough not to scratch the pen marks off over time. Just need to make sure to let it dry enough before reassembly. I'll report here when I know how well this works.

[@snowjohn839]

I really want to know if it works？ edding pen？

[@remmy72]

I got the same problem with the RG353v. How can they sell an obviously faulty d bad like that....?

[@Agumon5]

This seems like it would be beneficial in fighting games though, to do combos. Those are harder to do on the Miyoo Mini.

[@guest21984]

A Gamegear style 8 way D-pad would have worked wonders with the RG35XX

[@davidlayton6976]

Yea I cant wait to get mine I'm gonna replace the buttons with a more matte feel so i do get as bad of button slide on my fingers I'm looking forward to tinkering with a small toy computer

[@kjmullinz]

What if someone has the opposite problem? When the diagonal isn't sensitive enough and requires too much pressure to execute. How do I make it more sensitive?

[@cdorado1526]

Exactly my problem with left bottom diagonal

[@genesis7748]

what is the width of the electrical tape please?

[@f00fightrs]

Does this trick pass the contra test? Are you able to shoot down, diagonally while running in Contra for NES?

[@49684]

I used NES Qbert. 😂

[@bartomiejpieczka3943]

Zrobiłem jak ten koleś poleciałem po taśmę do chińczyka za 5 PLN i jest git. 😊 Naprawdę działa i jest mega , strasznie mnie to wkurzało grając w drill dozer na GBA . Nie trzeba odłączać głośnika. Polecam. 👍IT rly works, great job Man thx a lot 4tip🎉

[@badej1]

Hej, Czy Twoja konsola również nagrzewa się w lewym dolnym rogu podczas pracy i ładowania? Widzę, że tam jest chip odpowiedzialny za zarządzanie energią, ale nie wiem, czy powinien robić się tak ciepły.

[@bartomiejpieczka3943]

@@badej1 ogólnie podczas grania potrafi się nagrzać w umiarkowany sposob , ale naprzyklad jak ładowałem ja ładowarka 2A to grzała się potfornie podczas ładowania , zmniejszyłem i wziąłem inna ładowarkę na 1A. Problem z grzaniem pojawia się podczas gdy konsola jest w uśpieniu zbyt długo i np zapomnę wyłączyć grę , wtedy potrafi być bardzo gorąca , ale uznaje to o czym piszesz raczej za nic czym powinieneś się martwić. Puki co u mnie jest wszystko okej

[@duytatdt4884]

I assume the problem is in the dpad button. We should replace it with rubber dpad instead of hard plastic like stock

[@TheTurnipKing]

You can really see the issue with the d-pad in the arcade version of Irem's Kung Fu Master. The NES version works like a charm but it's damn near impossible to jump forwards or back in the arcade version.

[@cdorado1526]

Kinda weird almost every model of this brand has a problem with the d-pad. I got the new model of this rg35XX and the problem of mine is the left bottom diagonal being almost imposible to input. I either go to the left or to the bottom but hardly to left bottom. The rest of the inputs including the diagonals are perfect

[@lixnnibblez3193]

Can you still throw Hadoken in Street fighter after doing this ? Ty for your works !!

[@scaryifliteral]

Diagonal still works, you just have to be pressing both directions at the same time now. I'm not a street fighter player.

[@robhulson]

I can throw Hadokens no problem with an unmodified unit. But shoryukens are another matter and it's hard to get consistency. Planning on doing this mod to see if it improves the chances so that my dragon punch cannot be defeated, thus rendering my enemy's standing chances to zero.

[@BEANSFM]

@@robhulson How did it work out? Having issue playing Contra well due to the DPAD

[@ixoycjc5464]

Please i need your Help .. When i open my RG35xx it just shows the Logo of ambernek then the sceen be black !! can you help me please

[@hurricanewinzz]

sounds bricked just reflash the rom or find a hard reset way on google

[@mndrgs]

Never knew the dpad had this issue until now

[@emmanuelii1598]

Did your d-pad cause any problems or nothing that you noticed?

[@capulinamix2]

I wonder if the electrical tape is gonna cook inside with the heat, I use it everyday and know how sticky gooish it gets with timE...

[@jaredboehm3102]

Somebody buy this man some guitar picks! 2:10 Great tutorial - did the screwdriver mar the case at all when prying thr clips apart?

[@scaryifliteral]

Nope, I was very careful to avoid that. There was almost certainly a pick within 5 feet of me lol.

[@jaredboehm3102]

@@scaryifliteral hahahah! Glad it came out unscathed.

[@Heshh]

how would this do with diagonals on the ps1 cus sometimes ps1 needs diagonals.

[@scaryifliteral]

Diagonals are working fine in Crash. You just have to actually mean to do it now lol.

[@noenoe86]

Somehow mine is harder to do diagonal movement after this mod, especially when I compare it with my Miyoo mini

[@pcman3158]

@@noenoe86 Which do you like better? Which is better emulating SNES games like Yoshi, Mario World and etc.?

[@tiredpinata6363]

Could someone help me? My left button is only registering as a up left diagonal. I’ve fallowed the video but I can’t get my device to stop picking up

[@scaryifliteral]

Might be a hardware issue

[@HarunTerzi911]

Would kapton tape also work, instead of electrical tape?

[@scaryifliteral]

Not sure

[@scottjl]

yes.

[@49684]

Yes, even better. 😊👊

[@robhulson]

Today, I tried fixing the oversensitive d-pad. I tried your approach, I tried the "only cover the little inside squares" approach, but no matter what I tried, I couldn't consistently pull off a hadouken/shoryuken. Back to the drawing board. Hmm...

[@scaryifliteral]

Good luck!

[@robhulson]

@@scaryifliteral OK, report in and I found something I'm genuinely happy with. If each D-pad directional is a Y, I found the solution was to use tiny little rectangles that covered just half of the bottom of the stem of the Y. I didn't cover the little golden squares, I didn't use anything wider than a 2mm strip of electrical tape (and no longer than 5mm), starting at the middle of the stem of the Y, and moving towards the center. I did this on all four inputs. Now? I can throw the hadouken with impunity. I can do shoryukens with ease. And I can play Kirby's Adventure and won't accidentally inflate Kirby while I'm moving left to right. It's the best of all worlds.

[@gnawtsatyr8865]

This reply exactly answered the only question I had. I'm struggling to understand what you mean by using the Y reference. Do you mean to say that you use tiny strips to cover part of the quarter circle pie cuts but leave the tiny squares completely exposed? Kind of like making a pattern of the gaps between the leaves of a four leafed clover. I'd love to do this mod but I don't know if I'm interpreting you correctly.

[@HarunTerzi911]

​@@robhulson can you maybe share a photo of how you did what you're explaining?

[@oswaldotorre6047]

Yeah, unfortunately this approach avoids diagonals, and you must push too hard the interception to make them register, of course this is not good for motion moves

[@junherrera9343]

SIR, I HAVE A PROBLEM I ACCIDENTALLY TWEEK MY CONTROLLER SETTINGS AND NOW I CANT SCROLL MY SETTINGS..

[@epicon6]

Luckily the Plus version has the most amazing D-Pad i’ve ever used put of the box🎉

[@SnoopNukem2x]

What screw driver is that?

[@scaryifliteral]

amzn.to/3EbEFxH

[@jotamascarell]

Wouldn't be more efective the use of nail polish? You can cover selectivelly (paint) any zone and keeps well fixed.

[@scaryifliteral]

In such small spaces and with my fine motor skills, I would much rather deal with a solid than a liquid.

[@jotamascarell]

you know... once nail paint is dry it won't unstick as tape.

[@haroldcampos9661]

Only video I’ve found that deals with solving this! Playstation controllers dont have this problem and neither do rg351v’s, but retro fighters and steam deck do. I wouldnt use electrical tape though maybe. Too much residue. For me the best test is biker mice on snes and try doing a wheelie and going around a corner. If your cojtroller can’t handle it, it’s not your fault that the device is designed by a committee. I actually have very little complaints about my rg351 device though. I haven’t ahd to scrutinize the dpad and.. The buttons are quick and springy and don’t feel like they wanna break.

[@X_Leonhart]

Your comment made me decide to buy the RG351v. A good D-Pad is a must if I’m buying one of these kind of devices. Thanks.

[@haroldcampos9661]

@@X_Leonhart Hahaha do it! It is worth it. I used the new windows power tools to rename some of the games in bulk because they come named like "005 rushing beat 1" and stuff like that but it comes with a good deal of japanese games etc. It can run dreamcast and psx and psp pretty well (resolution ain't great but I needed the vertical handheld and I like 4:3 aspect ratio) but n64 is buggy. I found some of my favorite ps2 and gamecube games on the dreamcast anyway like evolution, grandia and skies of arcadia, etc. It really is a very cool little device. It has a rockchip arm cpu in it. If you want to keep the games that come on it but upgrade to a new sd it might not work at all until you clone it to the new one. Happened to me. I'm thinking of buying the odin to install windows on arm because it has a unique cpu, and hopefully try to play a few native windows games on that. PS. I was a bit harsh on the new style of dpad they might be okay for fighting games and stuff, but some games like biker mice on snes where you're controlling it isometrically you start to notice new dpads aren't so precise unless you appreciate being able to move your thumb over it in a circle motion for like a hadouken. New dpads are great for that. But with a ps2 dpad I can do a wheelie on biker mice and turn a corner at the same time. I had to open it and clean the contacts because I bought one recently but they really nailed it. What can I say, credit where it's due. And those thumbsticks with a huge surface area. Still my favorite! Except the back of it and the plastic just under the trigger buttons that locked your fingers over or under, not able to switch comfortably back and forth like the newer gen ones. Back to the handheld though; If you buy the grey one you can put a bezel they sell over the screen to make it look dmg and a sticker for the back too. And the purple buttons, but it's all third party. I left the black one I received stock. Dang I'm forgetting something... oh yeah! It uses a non gui os with emulation station running on top of it. It comes with very usable configs. Very nice! Wifi to scrape the game covers etc. (turn it off right after to save batt.) I suggest learning on emulation station desktop ediiton app. You can make a portable version of it too on a usb stick! Make sure you don't scape all the media types because then it's hard to erase. I scrape just the info and 2d front (and back) on the rg351. Any google answers you need type in rg351 since it's all the same family jsut different form factors. I think that's all! Good luck! My favorite part is absolutely the tactile a and b buttons. They have a good amount of travel and resistance. I push them really fast and remove my finger fast in one motion and they're just snappy and actually fun.

[@tylerdurden783]

1.5 is the correct sized bit

[@dominosnostradamus2415]

Put it in a gba sp shell

[@dragonhf]

I follow your instruction and did the same thing, now I can´t do Hadoken in Street Fighter II. I saw a Reddit post how to do it correctly, don´t cover those small squares.

[@scaryifliteral]

I've never Hadokened once in my life, so this is possible

[@javilarg]

2:09 “if you’re using something hard like this be careful not to damage anything” that’s what she said 😂

[@Bendilin]

Waited the entire video to see a comparison/you testing the game out... and then all you do is test the volume buttons and don't even demonstrate the d-pad, what the hell? You just say we're solid and end it.

[@scaryifliteral]

8:51?

[@Bendilin]

@@scaryifliteral My bad, I somehow missed that bit due to the screws not being replaced yet. Sorry about that!

[@xbradx75]

Wondering if the "3 hole binder ring" trick commonly used on older 8bitdo d-pads would work for this as well? Haven't had much issue with my RG35XX's pad yet, but may open it up just to try.

[@scaryifliteral]

I don't even know what that is, but I'm curious now lol

[@xbradx75]

@@scaryifliteral Basically, someone discovered those 3hole binder reinforcement ring stickers you can buy everywhere have holes the size of standard dpad contacts and used them to fix this issue on older 8bitdo pads. I’ve used it and it works quite well.