Alternate refurbish technique for Neo Geo CD pads

Bratwurst

Rugal's Thug
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Aug 14, 2016
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I know there's an established trick for repairing the thumbstick in these things that involves dissecting the switches to clean them out:

https://gamesx.com/controldata/neopadfix.htm

But I've found of the couple I've had come through my hands lately I didn't have to do that. If you desolder the switch from the controller board you'll notice they have vents in the back, this is advantageous.

Take a shallow container and fill it with 90 proof iso alcohol, and while submerging the switch in it, click/press the button several times, facing up and upsidedown. Take the button out of the soup and click it several more times, this flushes out the nylon dust buildup inside, right out of the rear vents. Dry with a paper towel.

Alternatively, failing that, I've found the trigger switches in Konami Justifiers and Hyper Blasters use the exact same type, you just have to snip the legs on one side. They are cased in black plastic instead of blue, but functionally are the same, pictured above. Not everyone is going to want to sacrifice a light gun for a gamepad but I happen to make trigger switch kits that replace the original button with arcade microswitches, so I have a few spares kicking around.

Afterwards, lubricate the white nylon pieces and shaft with Super Lube or some other silicone based lubricant that plays well with plastics. This mitigates future dust generation.
 

HeavyMachineGoob

My poontang misses Lenn Yang's wang
10 Year Member
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Apr 3, 2011
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Awesome find here, I'll have to do this if I get a NGCD pad.
 

Bratwurst

Rugal's Thug
Joined
Aug 14, 2016
Posts
92
Wanted to add that sometimes a repeat of alcohol immersion and switch flushing is necessary, but I've had an eight out of eight switch success rate so far of the controllers I've done for myself and a friend.

Greg Collins over on Twitter is also coming up with a promising 3D printed solution that replaces the original buttons with more standard tact switches:

https://twitter.com/collingall/status/1162572962094075905
 

Abelardo

n00b
Joined
Oct 11, 2015
Posts
30
Nice solution, thanks for posting! I have a few controllers lying around that and might attempt to fix them someday, I bought a bunch of TSE 8 S switches maybe a couple of years ago with the intent of fixing these but found out they're not as clickly as the original, besides most of the time the original switches are fixable and even more so with your method.

Also has anyone tried putting the switches in a ultrasonic cleaner? I guess nylon dust will loosen up good but you'd still need to flush it.
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
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Dec 7, 2000
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11,923
Amazing! I love these controllers and have been looking for a better way to do this. Thanks for this.
 

Hawwa

B. Jenet's Firstmate
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Sep 21, 2018
Posts
408
Good to know but I think sometime you have to go de "dissasembly" way because the metallic film inside may loose the shape and not click properly (loosing the clickey sound btw).
 
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