sudomod

Hi, I built a Freeplay Zero (aka Gameboy Advance with Pi Zero). Everything works well but I have this consistent problem where a certain direction on the d-pad gets stuck to the silicone pad. I bought both from Retro Modding and they seem like run of the mill components. I am sure I have seated the d-pad and the pad correctly in the GBA shell cavity and yes, I made sure the two posts connect through the pad (6 o clock and 2 o clock positions).

What is happening in this instance, is when I press UP, you can see the up gets "stuck" then after about 1.5 seconds, it releases. It's really awkward and sometimes results in scrolling in ES menus or other unintended behavior during gameplay.

I can't see any tolerance issues that need sanding. I can "fix" this by putting a circle with a hole in the middle between the silicone and the d-pad. This prevents the plastic from getting stuck to the silicone but as you can imagine, this greatly affects the "feel" of the d-pad. It requires a lot of force to engage it.

Has anyone seen this and does anyone have any advice? I posted this in general hardware because it's not specific to GBA. I think this could happen on any sort of console or controller that uses a d-pad and silicone pad. Thank you.

Try cleaning it with alcohol, sounds like it's sticky. You can also buy membranes cheaply on eBay. What happens if you rotate the Dpad and membrane? Does it still get stuck?

I would clean it except the pad is brand new, as is the d-pad, and there's no residue on the PCB. What's happening is the plastic in the dpad is getting pushed into the silicone and getting stuck for a bit. I think I was able to resolve it by chance after reassembling it many times ... I must have rotated the d-pad in a direction that paired with the silicone pad in a way that it's not sticking as bad anymore. I also ordered another set of buttons/pads and will try that too. Just a really unfortunate coincidence that they didn't pair well.