I have difficulty reaching the right thumbstick on my Xbox/PC controller due to my lack of strength from my disability. I had the idea of making a 3D printed attachment to the joystick to help me reach it but I wasn't sure how to attach it aside from gluing or drilling a screw hole in it so I never made too much progress on it. Then I found the SCUF Gaming Controllers that have detachable faceplates and swappable thumbsticks. They make different versions that work with the Xbox, PC, or Playstation. The controller I purchased (SCUF Instinct Pro) also has extra buttons/paddles on the back that I thought I might be able to use. So I thought, “Great! I can 3D print my own thumbsticks for it.” and that is exactly what I did.
The image above shows the controller I have. It comes with extra thumbsticks so that you can choose between two different heights and concave or convex thumb pads. To change the thumbsticks all you have to do is lift off the front face which is connected magnetically and then just pull off the thumbsticks from the shaft that they are on. These extra thumbsticks are probably all a competitive gamer would need but I needed one tuned specifically for me. Disabilities and just general ergonomics are personal to each individual so this is a perfect candidate for 3D printing.
The first step was to create the part of the thumbstick that sits under the faceplate and attached to the joystick switch shaft underneath. I used Autodesk Fusion 360 to model the thumbstick. While measuring and modeling this part I made the assumption that the concave part was simply part of a sphere that was split.
Next I had to find the right shape of the hole for the shaft. The first thing I did was find the specs on the actual joystick switch that the thumbstick mounts onto. The controller is the RKJV ThumbPointerTM Stick Controller. It turns out this brand and model of switch are used all over the industry. And as a side note they are having longevity issues with these switches. Included in the specifications is a dimensioned drawing of the device. Unfortunately the dimensions of the shaft are omitted so I put the drawing in Fusion 360 and brought it to scale and found the approximate dimensions using that scaled picture. The shafts are slightly tapered. I made the mounting hole in the thumbstick slightly larger than the dimensions I found for the shaft and tapered the hole to match the shaft. The depth of the mounting hole I set as 9mm. The exact size of the hole and the taper required a bit of trial and error to get right. Usually all I had to do was file it down a bit. And of course the size of the hole depends on the 3D printing method and material.
After all of this was determined I was able to add the custom portion of the thumb stick. The first iteration of the design is shown in the image below.
Centered above the base was a shape much like the stock thumb pad. This shape tapered down to a smaller diameter towards the end. This did allow me to reach it better slightly but my main problem with this first attempt was that it was too high. I had measured the height of the taller extra thumbsticks that came with the controller instead of the shorter ones. Another issue with my design is that the smaller end was too small for my thumb. Also the little bump that I put on the top surface of the grip did not help at all.
Above is the second iteration of the design. This iteration was a considerable improvement above the stock thumb stick. It allowed me to play the game that I was having difficulty with. One issue though is that it was much easier to pull the thumbstick to the right and backwards than to the left or forward. In attempt to solve this I added a vertical paddle shape that I could push against. This is shown in the image below
This additional paddle did help make it easier move the thumbstick forward and to the left but it was not as easy to reach as I would like. When testing this I also noticed that the joystick didn't go all the way to the edges. It appeared as though that concave part of the base was hitting somewhere inside the controller so I trimmed this part down to keep this from happening.
In the fourth iteration, shown in the image below, I tried a different shape for the vertical component and I moved the thumbpad forward slightly.
This iteration turned out to be a step backwards in functionality. This new design interfered with my ability to press the X Button. The position of the thumbpad was actually better with the third iteration so I went back to that and have been using it for several months. It has been very useful to me but I still believe that I can improve it so I am currently working on a 5th and hopefully final version.
Without this custom thumbstick I don't believe I would have ever finished the Jedi Fallen Order game I was playing when I started this project.
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