Been a while, but I decided that I wanted to talk about one of the little projects that I've done. Made my own custom Xbox 360 controller, if custom qualifies as replacing the plastic pieces. They're like Tri-tone of black-white-grey. I'll upload and attach pics onto this blog post once I have the time, it's not too mind blowing.
Doing the Ashens thing and taking pics on my nondescript couch.
I thrifted a white xbox 360 controller from a thift store, which is easier said than done, just ask for the display for the functional electronic goodies. Luckily it was one where the white didn't stain to that shade of yellow that your teeth get when you obviously don't brush them. The nasty part was cleaning the thing. Inside was absolutely caked with gunk from who knows where, probably old enough to have graduated from High School at this point. Loads of wet wipes, q-tips, and a plastic spudger got the work done, though there's still some residue in the wording indents. I'll have to work that out with a hobby toothbrush in my toolchest.
Speaking of tools, I heavily rely on iFixit's Pro Tech toolkit, not a sponsored thing, it's just really convenient to have all the potential tools to disassemble and reassemble the stuff I find. Also some of the screwdriver tips sometimes pull double duty, or triple duty if the weak magnetism gets to come in handy.
Swapping out the buttons and thumbsticks were easy enough, since they were probably manufactured with the same plastic molds. Same with the bumpers, though I wish I had some knowhow or at least some form of plastic modification knowledge to make the bumper colors inverted. Not much of a deal breaker. The triggers were the hardest one, as I followed the ifixit trigger teardown guide and an video to put the triggers back on. Lots of finnesse to move the plastic arm away from the trigger ledges, and then even more to put the arm back over the trigger ledge, felt like I was going to deform the plastic, but it's a good thing that microsoft made sure to idiot proof any potential points of failure.
I went in blind and I thought that I could just pull the plastic housing off to replace the triggers more freely. I think I almost pulled the potentiometer off the board, it's a little loose but it still works fine. Don't be like me, there's been other people who sacrificed more controllers to get the knowledge that I used on a whim.
It's not anything like custom painting the shells, placing custom buttons, or even installing a bunch of doodads like LEDS or script kiddie switches in it. It came to me when I thought, "Man, I should just buy a white controller to match my OG 360", then I figured that since it's just shell that it could be swapped no issue.
As I close out this entry, I remember finding a pink xbox 360 controller on a thrift store shelf, and it looked pretty legit to me. I dunno if it was a import thing or what, but the thought of an xbox 360 in the same coloration as the pink DS got me imagining. Pink and white seems like it could match real well.
