Neo bean stick modding: which parts work?

lolifoxgirl

Rot., Rot., Rot.
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Yo neo tech peeps.

I have a neo bean stick that I am looking to pimp out. I have a few questions about which parts will work best for it: which ball tops will work on the stick, will 24mm snap in buttons work, and can you use a shaft cover? I know Xian Xi used to sell these as a mod service but I am looking to do this myself or guilt someone else into doing the dirty work for me. If you have any info please let me know, thanks for your time.
 

Tw3ek

69Vapelord420
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There is two ways to do it. If you use 24mm snap ins, you will need to center them in the button shaft in the housing and use a few dabs of hot glue to keep it in place. The other method is to use screw ins, you would need to cut out the button shaft completely from the controller housing, some with the start and select buttons and replace them with panel mount pushbuttons. This only applies to the bean stick.

Lifted XX's reply on this question from another thread. Best of luck!
 

nam9

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I used narrow zip ties to centre the screw ins. Fiddly af, but the perfect width:

zip_ties.jpg
 

nam9

Zero's Secretary
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It acts as a spacer as the button shafts are wider than the 24mm screw in buttons.
Screw the ends on and everything is held tightly in place.
 

nam9

Zero's Secretary
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Cut it to the circumference of the button and wrap it around it.
Should then give a good tight fit.
 

ShootTheCore

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I'm interested in upgrading my bean "Pro" Controller sticks as well. Any advice on improving the stick side of things?
 

lolifoxgirl

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Xx sells an octogate that i intend to use, you could swap the microswitches as well. I want to know if the shaft covers fit.
 

ShootTheCore

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Xx sells an octogate that i intend to use, you could swap the microswitches as well. I want to know if the shaft covers fit.

I already have Xx's GOTW on hand and ready to install. It's improving / replacing the stick microswitches I'm interested in more details for. The stock stick seems sloppy with a lot of travel. Any tips? Also, what about replacing the top with a ball or bat? It doesn't seem threaded like the traditional AES stick is.
 

lolifoxgirl

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A standard balltop will thread on, so probably just go for that. Inside the stick its got some kind of metal tab on switch arrangement. I dont know you much you could improve that beyond making a larger diameter plastic piece for the bottom.
 

ShootTheCore

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Cool - I'll order some 24mm screw in buttons and see what I can do. Please post pics of your mod if you go ahead with it lolifoxgirl - I'm intrigued to see how the zip tie thing works.
 

Xian Xi

JammaNationX,
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Xx sells an octogate that i intend to use, you could swap the microswitches as well. I want to know if the shaft covers fit.

I use the seimitsu shaft covers. In both the OSS and NSS you have to cut the shaft cover to length. The shaft on both sticks are too short for a drop in cover. On the OSS I think you need to cut of about 1/4" from the bottom. Should be slightly more on the NSS.
 

lolifoxgirl

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Thanks for the heads up on the shaft cover XX. I opened up the stick and was poking around inside. I can get buttons to replace the big ones, but what do i do about the start and select? when i put the new buttons in can i put the pcb back in there for those?
 

Xian Xi

JammaNationX,
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I use panel mount push buttons for the start and select. I don't use the PCB, just hard wire all the buttons.
 

lolifoxgirl

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Cool, do you know which size is a good fit in the bean? I really appreciate you looking in and answering these questions, hopefully the next person looking to do this will find this in the search results.
 

GohanX

Horrible Goose
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Necrobump! It only took me six years but this thread inspired me to finally mod a bean stick.

19E187F5-8751-423F-B513-8BC03A73DB0F.jpeg

Seimitsu screw in buttons, sanwa bat top on the stock stick (it’s aleady really good) and the start and select buttons Xian Xi mentioned earlier in this thread. I also used adhesive wheel weights stuck to the back shell to make it nice and heavy and not move around.

This might be me favorite Neo stick now. It took a lot more work than I expected though, big thanks to Xian Xi for the Digikey link.
 
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