Supaboy D-Pad fix - Cheap and easy

[Tanooki]

I posted this over at NA this evening but since I post here too and have read that huge thread here on the Supaboy going back to the original I want to mirror it here as well as I found a cure for the broken D-Pad issue.

Those who have Supaboy or steer clear of it probably do so because the D-Pad has zero restraint against mashing down all four directions at the same time due to a really stupid and bad design, lazy really. Fed up with the fact I couldn't throw a fireball in SF2, move a vic viper in Gradius III, or walk a tanooki/raccoon thing around in Pocky and Rocky and seeing the lazy crap continued with the RDP2 I decided to tear down my system tonight and find a hopeful cure. I did.

All you need is one of those plastic twist tips you use to tie off two wires safely used in electrical panels and other wiring.

The image below has a before and after. Just cut the tip off it, file it down and smooth it off with sandpaper. Make sure the end result is at or a wee bit over 1/8 of an inch over the top of the 4 pegs on the inside of the Supaboy d-pad seen in the other two pictures. That's it!

It's so dumb how they designed this that I could fix it with such a simple piece of plastic and nothing more. There's no excuse for this not to have been fixed on Supaboy or RDP v2. Lazy! As it stands now shooters like Gradius and Pocky & Rocky I can fly anywhere I like without it moving in the wrong direction, and fireballs and dragon punches do as they should in Street Fighter II as well.

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[Frankie_Says_Relax]

That is AWESOME!

I've been playing with my Supaboy a lot since I got the SUPERUFO PRO8 flash cart, and I haven't run into the full d-pad press down being a major issue, but I did it a few times just to see what would occur.

I'll totally add this mod if I find that it becomes an issue.

Do you need to glue it in or will it stay once it's all re-assembled?

[Tanooki]

Well in the two pics of the dpad upside down you can see how it is there right? I just set it there. You could glue it I suppose, but the base of the cap is wide enough it slots in there fantastic as it is.

All I did was rest it in there after fitting it for awhile to the right height, and then rested the dpad back into the groove on the system. Once you lay down the circuit board and re-set the 4 screws for that part of it in place, it's solid, it won't roll around or rattle at all even if you shake the device, it just works!

[kedawa]

That's a nice solution. It should be wide enough that it won't concentrate too much force at one point on the circuit board, which is why they made the 'floating' dpad in the first place.
Out of curiosity, does the rear casing of the system have a support that presses up against the circuit board underneath the dpad contacts?

[Tanooki]

I'm not entirely sure it does. As it sits the circuit board for this thing is in two pieces. One of them has a cable and attached are the two external SNES ports for controllers. It sits higher up (system screen down to a surface) than the other main board with the screen and buttons. As far as I can recall opening it, none of it makes direct contact with the back of the system or minimal at best along a plastic support peg or a few of them. Check the opened up pic from the ben heck forums maybe you can spot it. I only got brave enough to do this after seeing the RDP2 was crappier than the first and finding an image at the ben heck forums showing the system opened up.

Each two parts of the board are mounted tightly with 4 screws that hold it in place. It's very well measured to give a snug fit and as such the lower board with the buttons slots very firmly in there when screwed down to keep the screen super firm in its housing. I've messed with it a bit and pushing down straight on it, at the depth I set it, it really still feels like it clicks all the way down but my peg stands up just enough it won't allow it to register so, and in effect registers just like the SNES d-pad which inside has a raised bump that sits in the middle of the dpad rubber. My fix hits it the same way and in the same place with the same depth so it won't cause wear on it to kill it anytime soon.

[Jack_Burton_BYOAC]

I guess this answers my question of whether an SNES d-pad swap is possible. It's not.

Are the buttons made in the same way?