How to Replace Xbox One Controller Analog Joystick - NEW METHOD - Fix Stick Drift, Broken, & Loose

As always the links for the kits are in the description. Thanks for watching!

PS .... I am an 81 year old retired EE and ham radio guy. I still build and repair circuits that use surface mount components. I have a few medical issues but am blessed with steady hands and clear vision. I love a good project. What did we ever do before YouTube?!!

my brain: yeah i got it my hands: no you dont

"And now comes the fun part" After trying this a few times, he's not lying! Thanks, whoever you are, for legit creating a new hobby for me. I've repaired countless controllers with your help!

30 minuets of knowledge, direction and no wasted time. Your instructions are spot on, methods of indestructible and destructive are appreciated as not always can people afford a hot air gun ontop of all the other stuff. I'm about to attempt this myself and was unaware that there's a high potential that the potentiometers need ajustment. Thanks.

If you're using just a soldering iron you can remove the joysticks without damaging them. First apply some new solder to each pin. Then apply some flux to your desoldering braid, press it to the pins you want to desolder and then apply a really hot soldering iron. I used about 420+ on my iron and the solder sucks right out of the holes and into the flux coated braid. Repeat this until all the pins are loose enough to pull the joystick out in one piece. Your iron will need to be really hot and the tip will need to be cleaned occasionally during the process but it works. It will take about 6 to 10 inches of desoldering braid per joystick but don't cut it beforehand, only cut off the used pieces of braid as you go and use a fume extractor or a fan... or just don't inhale.

You're probably the most patient content creator I've ever watched. I felt the struggle when you couldn't get the results right.

Thanks for a great tutorial!! My son is heavy handed and got tired of buying new, managed to fix 2 of my controllers!! For anyone who will follow this tutorial, take your time and follow instructions , it’s not hard, just takes patience!!

Very thorough and patient with explaining every step. And being mindful with showing differences between each kind of controller. Extremely helpful and appreciated 👍

Excellent video. Just used it to repair a controller. Strictly speaking, one does not have to unsolder the motor wires. Taking care to leave the remaining half of the assembly flat on the table will prevent the headphone jack from falling out. Our calibration results were nearly perfect. The tool kit and repair parts kits were fantastic. Thanks!!

THIS IS AWESOME. I just wish I had searched for this like two weeks ago. I switched out the tension springs for my thumbsticks but the left stick was stuck down and I thought it was just broken but I guess all I had to do was recalibrate it! I supposed I can still fix em but I already bought two broken controllers that I've now fixed thanks to this vid

Top quality knowledge and instruction. I really appreciate YouTubers who don't add load music, speak clearly and show everything. I briefly considered replacing my sticks and could probably do this ok. Not the neatest at solder and the adjustment looks like a lot of effort so will look for a board instead. May be back to follow this if I start feeling cheap about it.

Just used this process today to repair my Xbox One Wireless Controller that was drifting. It was a tedious process, but the outcome was great. Thanks SOSS Gaming for sharing your video!

First time doing an in depth repair and following this guide worked perfectly! I didn’t need to calibrate the joysticks fortunately - guess I was lucky. Thanks for making this guide - very useful

I just replaced the sticks on a 360 controller, preserving the original pots but forgot I had changed the sticks previously and they wouldn't center correctly, now I can correct them with this manual calibration trick. You're the best! PD: I can't believe how well that worked. This must be my best repair so far

Thank you for this video! I used it today in an attempt to fix stick drift in my right thumbstick. I was successful in fixing the issue. I simply replaced the potentiometer for the x-axis by desoldering the old one and soldering on a new one replacing the disc as well. After looking at the inside of the old one it seems there were scuffs where the metal on the disc would be touching and creating the issue of drifting. After replacing it all is well and works just like it did the say I purchased it!! Thanks again for all your help!!

Software for calibrating controller may not exist due to the lack of USB-based debugging on these controllers. I haven't looked to see if USB debugging exists on these controllers, and I'm not sure if this varies by model but I would assume each model is fairly similar, these controllers have SWD debug pads at the bottom of the main board next to the headphone jack; the silkscreen labels are 0/NA, RES, A14, A13, and 3V3. Through software, OpenOCD is a typical choice for this, you can find chip information, which is hidden under a blob of epoxy, and these controllers seem to typically use SMT32 chips. Through the software you can also access memory, of which you can dump, modify, and reflash, which SMT32 chips require a wipe before flashing to written memory. I personally haven't done a deep dive into the firmware, but recalibration through this method shouldn't be difficult assuming you're familiar with debugging. If there is USB-based debugging, that only makes the process simpler; but I personally doubt their is considering someone can brick their controller with a bad script, and scriptkiddies run rampant these days, it's probably a failsafe to deter this behavior by outright disabling USB debugging. I wouldn't be surprised if the various hacker and modder forums have already figured this out, long ago, as it's just a simple debug job over an SWD port. I also wouldn't be surprised if some repair shops don't do this also, as making a tool for this would be fairly easy, especially if you find a way to automate the process entirely. But the only issue with this is that Microsoft is constantly coming out with new versions of these controllers, and my main source of board information is currently unavailable so I can't just reference each version at the moment; this also assumes that Microsoft hasn't drastically changed the computing hardware either. Honestly I wish controllers would move to a better method for analogue sticks, as they're proving to be plagued with issues, especially when you deviate from the standard design, like with what Nintendo does. Even a hardware based recalibration would be nice, implement limit switches to measure min/max values when a calibration button is pressed; that kind of calibration button could also be hidden in the battery tray, or easily done through software.

Damn this new method is awesome. I’m only missing a helping hand but I’ve never soldered anything in my life. I’ve replaced several bumpers but that’s way easier than what you are doing. Well done. Liked and subbed. 👍🏽✌🏽

This video is great. I'm always going to try and repair what I have first before considering buying something new. Thank you!

One little tip for manually adjusting the pots without having to bend the pins (so keeping them more or less freely rotatable (if that's even a word)) is to use BGA solder paste to connect the pot pins to the pads. This is basically solder in spreadable paste form that melts into regular solder joints when heated, but is flexible and conductive before that, allowing for testing and adjustment without having to bend the pins over (or worst case having to tack-solder them in place multiple times even). Just don't make a mess with the paste as it's positive point (being conductive) can easily turn into a negative one (shorting things out)