Does anyone sell OEM Nintendo 64 thumbsticks?

Too bad they don't sell them anymore (the converter Pcb).. If they do decide to stop making them itd be real nice if they made it open source (the IC seems to be shaved )

 

It's everything that wears. People keep thinking it's the white piece. That doesn't actually wear a whole lot... although my early repair experiments back in the day involved reprofiling them.

 

Oh? What exactly is wrong with the GC-style replacements that a new PCB is warranted? I would have thought the guts of these replacements would use the same sort of components as that PCB replacement.

 

They were just far too sensitive.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0VO46SWo2M&list=UUNVzH9f4y0-lGq490h7mgPA

They just aren't that accurate, although my personal experience is that they're still perfectly usable for most games without the added PCB (and far better than a worn out original stick).

 

Hmmm, that looks like a nice solution, it wouldn't wear out eventually either. How's it feel? Does it feel "right" or is it too springy or something?

 

I had a couple without the PCB and they felt fine to me, although it's a matter of opinion and what games you're going to be playing; some people are clearly mental and defend everything about the N64 pad design.

 

From what I remember, there were two main issues - the potentiometer has a 'wrong' degree of motion (which is why a different one is included in the replacement package) - I think this meant that the max is reached too easily. Also, the encoder is too 'steppy' - it doesn't mimic the original stick behaviour very well. In particular, people said that the quickspin in OoT was nigh-on impossible with the stock gamecube-style analog stick, but this PCB replacement fixes it.

This looks like a promising interim solution though: http://freneticrapport.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/n64-gc-replacement-stick-ic-swap.html