r/SteamDeckModded • u/Jcrm87 • 8d ago
Discussion Replacing joystics on LCD Deck
Hi All,
I've had my LCD Deck since launch pretty much and I love it. It hasn't given me any issues except for the little plastic ring around the joystics peeling off - which I fixed by adding some caps.
During a short trip, my right joystic started acting up: I thought it was drift but it was something else (basically it wouldn't registed complete move to the left, but everything else worked well).
Somehow I've returned from my trip and it's working now with no issues again, but I already ordered GuliKit HAL joystic replacements (for LCD) and I'm wondering if I should replace them anyway.
How hard is it? Do I risk messing up/screwing my Deck? I've fiddled with hardware before but I haven't done it in years. On one hand I look forward to opening the Deck, cleaning it inside (I have a pet dog) and installing new HAL joystics. But on the other, I'm a bit worried about not doing it right.
I've even bought a small kit of tools to do it, am I worrying too much?
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u/voidfillproduct 8d ago edited 8d ago
I replaced the sticks on my LCD model with Gulikits hall effect sticks (not HAL 🙂) in 2022 and at the time, it required a little bit of soldering, which is not necessary with the OLED model. Unless they have changed the daughterboards on the LCD Deck, this might still be necessary.
It sounds more difficult than it is (I'm terrible at soldering), only takes a couple minutes and there are excellent YouTube tutorials for this, but ofc you would need a soldering iron. Calibration can be a bit finicky, but again, no rocket science.
Opening the Deck and getting to the components is super easy in general, thanks to the service-friendly layout. Just make sure to remove your SD card beforehand.
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u/telcodan 8d ago
I have replaced them on both my lcd decks, a friend's lcd deck, and my son's oled deck. They are literally drop in replacement. Just have to unplug, unscrew old ones and put these in. It is literally the easier upgrade you can do aside from replacing the backplate.
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u/MT42019 8d ago
The joysticks themselves are pretty easy, just 3 screws and one ribbon cable that holds it. If you wanna replace the actual plastic joycon on top then you need a heat gun and a solder iron for just one pin.
The top of the sticks have captive touch, so you need to use heatgun to slowly melt the glue and expose the pin, then desolder and resolder the new one.
Total time with removing the back of the deck maybe 3-4 hours!
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u/No_Interaction_4925 8d ago
Its really easy. Buy the hall effect sticks(make sure you buy the right version. There are 2).
Remove your SD card. Pop the back of the shell open. Disconnect ribbon cable on joystick daughter boards. Unscrew them. Replace with new sticks. Plug in ribbon cable. Boot into desktop mode. Go to the Konsole and run commands to calibrate sticks(its an easy google search).
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u/Ok_Load_8794 8d ago
Had the same issue with mine. If you're happy enough taking the back off and the battery out from memory it's a very easy job. Like you said I don't remember soldering anything when I done it as they come with their own daughter boards already. As for calibration my deck saw them right off the bat and I was able to reduce the dead zone in the input menu. Loads of really good tutorials online though.