I know it's been mentioned a few times as a potential fix, but never found anyone who tried the 8-BitDo d-pad "paper donut" fix on their Analogue Pocket. After waffling for a while about attempting this (I am comfortable with opening electronics, but my Pocket is my baby), I decided I would bite the bullet and give the d-pad repair a shot.
I can confirm that this worked just as well for my Pocket as it did for my SNES30 8-BitDo controller. It is an absolute game changer for the Pocket. The downside is that there is not a way to access the buttons from the front, so you'll have to disassemble the entire unit to get to perform this repair.
I fixed some of the formatting on the instructions. Mixing ordered and unordered lists shows inconsistently between old and new Reddit, and different apps render the list inconsistently as well. The new format should alleviate this and show the correct numbered steps now.
As requested, I opened my Pocket up one final time to take a picture of the donut label placement. I also included the tools I used. The second picture shows the type of tweezers you should use for something like this. You want needle-nose, don't use garden-variety tweezers from the drugstore for working with electronics. This is especially important when using tweezers to move ribbons.
The first thing you will notice - the donut labels don't obstruct any part of the contact. This looks like it wouldn't work, however, I have fixed multiple 8BitDo controllers plus my Pocket using 1/4" donut labels like this. My hypothesis is that despite no part of the contacts are being obstructed directly, the stickers overlapping around the perimeter of each contact provide enough thickness to prevent accidental actuation by the rubber membrane while still being easy to press for an intentional diagonal input.
This requires opening and disassembling your Analogue Pocket, which may void your warranty. I am not responsible for any damage done to your device. These are simply the steps I took to fix my d-pad.
On my device I did NOT need to remove the warranty (QC) sticker to access the internals, but I have a first-batch model so I don't know if this was an oversight corrected in future revisions or if the QC sticker is truly useless.
To address some comments, yes, in the US it is against FTC regulations to deny warranty services because a warranty sticker is removed, however, it can still cause delays as you try to inform them of the law, and in the end they may not budge without litigation (expensive) or FTC involvement via a complaint (time consuming).
At the end of the day, it is up to you and at your own risk for whether to remove this sticker or try to preserve it. I do not know whether Analogue puts up a stink about the sticker or not. This bit is general advice about "voiding" your warranty.
- 1/4" notebook reinforcing labels (colloquially called "paper donuts" but searching for "notebook paper donuts" yields an uncomfortable amount of donut-themed notebooks and paper instead).
- Example. These should be available at any local office supply store.
- T6 Torx screwdriver or bit
- It is recommended to have a pry tool and fine tweezers to help with removing ribbons and other components from the shell.
- I followed this video by Elliot Coll to learn how to tear down the Pocket, and I simply worked in reverse to put it back together. He also goes over the tools you'll need to open the Pocket.
- Patience and caution. Seriously, you don't want to ruin any of the ribbons or boards you'll need to remove to access the buttons.
1 - At the risk of sounding obvious, make sure the SD card and cartridge slots are empty, and ensure the Pocket is powered off.
2 - Follow the video linked above to tear down your Pocket to the point where you remove the display ribbon cable from under the main PCB. You will remove the backing, the battery, the shoulder-button daughterboard, a second backing exposing the internals, and disconnect multiple ribbon cables.
Note that Elliot warns you that you will need to remove the QC sticker. This was not required for me, and I simply removed the screw it blocks after removing the second backing from the Pocket. Again, I am not sure if this was a first-batch oversight or not, so be cautious when trying to remove the second backing if you have not removed the QC sticker.
The display ribbon cable can be particularly tedious to snap back on the board later on. If you have a helper with a set of steady hands, a vice (DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN), or some other way to suspend the front-half of the Pocket above the lower-half, you can omit detaching the display ribbon, and instead gently rotate the bottom half of the Pocket a bit for the next steps.
3 - Remove the rubber membrane covering the d-pad.
4 - Very carefully (with tweezers or resting part of the paper donut on your pry tool to help with placement) place a paper donut over each of the d-pad actuators on the main board. Use your pry tool to gently press each donut label down. Here is a picture of my PCB after the stickers have been applied.
- You may want to consider cleaning the d-pad and buttons if they are dirty. Most people won't be opening this up every day, so while you're in there, not a bad idea to take care of it if it bugs you.
5 - Re-attach the rubber to the main board (or place it behind the d-pad, if that is easier for you).
- I forgot this step and had to take my Pocket apart a second time to replace the rubber. Yuck. At least the rubber goes in place without needing to remove the display ribbon again.
6 - Work in reverse to put the Pocket back together. The display ribbon and shoulder-button ribbons were the most infuriating to re-attach for me, so use caution, stay calm, and try not to get frustrated.
- Tweezers will help immensely for working with the ribbons, but you'll need to use a tiny bit of force (I used my thumb, not sure if there is a better technique) to re-attach the display ribbon with it's "lego-style" connector (as Elliot put it). Re-attaching the display ribbon was the most nerve-wracking part for me as I kept failing and was afraid to apply the necessary force.
I hope this helps others fix their Analogue Pocket d-pad. Again, practice patience, use caution, and you should get through this repair in good shape. Now your Pocket should have little issue with incorrect diagonal inputs.
Really feels like a cross between Chrono Trigger and Golden Sun
Any modern games similar to ff7 to ff10?
FinalFantasy