While technically true, you will lose the capacitive touch functionality of the sticks (the steam deck knows when your thumbs are touching the sticks) unless you desolder the old thumb caps and resolder them on the new sticks.
Edit: You’re right. It appears newer Hall Effect Sticks for the Steam Deck come with the capacitive caps pre soldered, while the OG Gulikit Sensors required desoldering the original caps and resoldering them on the replacement board.
That being said, it was super easy to do, even for my butterfingers that last touched a soldering iron in highschool more than 15 years ago.
Ah ok, so you were even earlier to the Deck modding scene than me, and it has evolved toward being even easier since.
Whew!
I appreciate your pointing this out and explanation, I wouldn’t want to have been unintentionally spreading misinfo.
… Nor would I have wanted to get my own Hall Effect ‘no soldering’ kit and then learned… actually there still is soldering in some other step or on some other component, that the ‘no soldering’ kits actually just mean ‘less soldering’.
I really wanted one of those transparent Atomic Purple shells for mine. Then thought, might as well swap the sticks since it’s already opened up.
Well the transfer into the new shell requires complete disassembly, which was quite bit more involved then I anticipated. The screen is glued to the top half of the shell. Getting a bit impatient, I shattered my screen as I was trying to pry it off.
You need to heat the adhesive and remove the screen before it cools. I had done a couple of phone screen repairs in the past, and let me tell you, they use a lot less adhesive and because they are so small, you’ll easily be able to pop it off before the adhesive starts becoming super sticky again. Not so much with the Steam Deck.
Well, the Deck HD (1200p) screen was only like 10€ more than an OEM replacement, so I might as well. (I quite like it, much sharper and more vibrant than the original and FSR can still give you good results in games that can’t hit the resolution, but the battery life did take a small hit).
Long story short, I love my Atomic Purple Steam Deck HD with Hall Effect Sticks, where one cosmetic mod led me to do two hardware upgrades. I don’t regret it, but I doubt I would do it again. I just love how much you can do it.
Or, get some third party Hall Effect sticks, and have an enjoyable afternoon or evening of tinkering.
No soldering required!
While technically true, you will lose the capacitive touch functionality of the sticks (the steam deck knows when your thumbs are touching the sticks) unless you desolder the old thumb caps and resolder them on the new sticks.Edit: You’re right. It appears newer Hall Effect Sticks for the Steam Deck come with the capacitive caps pre soldered, while the OG Gulikit Sensors required desoldering the original caps and resoldering them on the replacement board. That being said, it was super easy to do, even for my butterfingers that last touched a soldering iron in highschool more than 15 years ago.
I have heard about that being a thing, and honestly I would have no problem getting a small soldering kit and learning how to solder…
https://www.handhelddiy.com/products/steam-deck-oled-tighter-hall-joystick
https://www.amazon.com/Joysticks-Steam-Deck-OLED-Thumbstick-replacement/dp/B0D2P24S9P
So these are for the OLED, which has a very slightly different internal board layout than the LED…
But both of these say they are pre-soldered, no soldering required, and they still have capacitive touch working.
… Am I missing something?
EDIT: These seem to be basically self contained, All in One, small board, stick/base and thumbcap units.
Maybe earlier 3rd party Hall Effect sticks were… not so comprehensive, and required the soldering?
Or maybe I am confused?
With those you don’t need to solder, they come with the caps themselves.
When I did my swap (OG Deck), I couldn’t find any Gulikits that came with the caps and I bought
https://www.gulikit.com/productinfo/854122.html
Which don’t come with any caps and required soldering. Nice that there are now options that don’t require it.
Ah ok, so you were even earlier to the Deck modding scene than me, and it has evolved toward being even easier since.
Whew!
I appreciate your pointing this out and explanation, I wouldn’t want to have been unintentionally spreading misinfo.
… Nor would I have wanted to get my own Hall Effect ‘no soldering’ kit and then learned… actually there still is soldering in some other step or on some other component, that the ‘no soldering’ kits actually just mean ‘less soldering’.
The Deck is great to mod.
I really wanted one of those transparent Atomic Purple shells for mine. Then thought, might as well swap the sticks since it’s already opened up.
Well the transfer into the new shell requires complete disassembly, which was quite bit more involved then I anticipated. The screen is glued to the top half of the shell. Getting a bit impatient, I shattered my screen as I was trying to pry it off. You need to heat the adhesive and remove the screen before it cools. I had done a couple of phone screen repairs in the past, and let me tell you, they use a lot less adhesive and because they are so small, you’ll easily be able to pop it off before the adhesive starts becoming super sticky again. Not so much with the Steam Deck.
Well, the Deck HD (1200p) screen was only like 10€ more than an OEM replacement, so I might as well. (I quite like it, much sharper and more vibrant than the original and FSR can still give you good results in games that can’t hit the resolution, but the battery life did take a small hit).
Long story short, I love my Atomic Purple Steam Deck HD with Hall Effect Sticks, where one cosmetic mod led me to do two hardware upgrades. I don’t regret it, but I doubt I would do it again. I just love how much you can do it.
No soldering on the switch either though and Hall effect joysticks are a thing for it as well
I havent bothered to try taking mine apart:
Does Nintendo still insist on using the triangle screws nobody sells? Like cuntsm
Yep, but the kit includes the screwdriver