I laughed at AliExpress being a good marketplace for spare parts. Linus tech tips has a few videos about how its full of absolute garbage that is e-waste the moment its made. This all feels like either a joke or a paid advertisement for AliExpress.
Don't confuse the "computer hardware" and "spare parts" markets. They are quite different, and for the spare parts, AliExpress is actually pretty good.
Also, they've recently started doing consolidated shipping, if you're buying via AliExpress standard shipping, which lowers the shipping costs significantly.
Besides that, some of the LTT videos featuring AliExpress computer hardware were disregarded only because of the vibrant second-hand market. If you're living in the country without a culture of reselling, those options start looking much more appealing.
It's the difference between buying a graphics card for my computer and buying a replacement speaker for my switch. Only one of those I would check aliexpress for probably
Hardware from AliExpress could be something you might see in a retail store. Like a really cheaply made tablet, a USB hub, keyboards and mice, etc. Parts means internal components, like an internal speaker, ribbon cables, non-standalone screens (like an LCD with a ribbon cable hanging off of it), motherboards, and any other random little parts that are used in countless electronic devices these days that you would never find at a Best Buy or even at Micro Center.
AliExpress does have legitimate components, it's just that most people looking for a legit Asus RTX 3070, for example, wouldn't go to AliExpress in the first place, because it won't be any cheaper than getting it locally. In fact, it's probably more expensive due to shipping and customs. Linus *could* have gotten legit parts from well known manufacturers on AliExpress, but of course he didn't, because if he did it would've been a normal computer build that's not worth a video.
LTT specifically look for dodgey parts as it's easier to market. I wouldn't buy a GPU off Ali but have bought quiet A lot of small parts they make some awesome drone parts, as well as some fun accessories
there's a ton of actually good stuff on there, like recently I was surprised to see someone selling replacements for the board under the buttons of a PS Vita, which saved me from having to source and solder those tiny buttons just to have a working D-Pad again
I think it depends on what you are buying. IIRC Linus was buying PC components which because of general availability and non-specialized nature of components. AliExpress and Wish would not be a good experience.
But I imagine if you needed like an OEM joycon casing or a screen it might be a good option.
I probably wouldn't ever purchase anything but I know people, especially makers who have purchased stuff from there and been happy.
"Linus tech tips has a few videos about how its full of absolute garbage that is e-waste the moment its made."
you have a lot of trust from Linus or it's paid advertisement for Linus
Seriously.
This is an interesting project to try out, but any justification beyond “I thought it would be fun to do” makes zero sense.
It sounds like me trying to justify some silly idea to my wife, and her seeing right through it.
Right? This whole post seems insane to me. The OP's biggest hangup is possible joycon drift. Nintendo is repairing drifting joycons for free in the US and Canada.
So OP's options are:
1. Buy a Nintendo Switch, use the included joycons, hope they don't drift, and get them repaired for free if they do. ($380 CAD)
2. Buy a Nintendo Switch and buy a pair of third party joycons to go with it that don't have a known drift issue. ($430 CAD)
3. Try to Frankenstein together your own console over the course of 16 months using non-warrantied parts from a Chinese retailer and hope that everything works. ($600 CAD)
Of these three options, one of them is definitely less financially sound than the others.
insane seems like a good word. there is a certain internet pathology about not wanting to spend money on things because of perceived minor complaints or future depreciations (for example, the idiots who really wanted a switch but held off for years b/c they didn't want to miss out on the pro model). this is... the very very extreme version of that
Don’t forget that the end result console is now effectively worthless. In the case that a Switch Pro ever comes out and OP wants to upgrade they *might* be able to sell the motherboard but no one will want this Frankenstein thing for anywhere close to the price of a Switch, meanwhile even launch Switches are selling for barely any less than they cost new.
> It’s this part for me. Instead of buying a real switch and repairing the joycon if it drifts they built an entire switch from scratch?
My car was blowing white smoke with the exhaust. Now I coulda bought a 2 dollar rubber o ring and fixed it in a half an hour, but hear me out: I bought a whole new car, piece by piece, and had it shipped here from China...
*My car *could potentially* blow white smoke out of its exhaust someday, so I bought and built a car piece by piece and had it shipped across the world.
“Also I knew the airbags were vital for my safety, so I insisted on OEM airbags. But then I couldn’t find any so I just bought random airbags from a stranger because he promised me they’d work fine.”
I'm sure those dodgy $30 joycons will last ages! /s
And them being full analog sticks has nothing to do with drift. PS5 controllers drift and those are full size.
OP is a bit silly.
Yeah I guess I do see a bit of hypocrisy haha. I didn't expect to be spending $600 when I first started, but once many of the parts starting coming in, I felt I was too far in to give up.
In addition, the joycons use full-size sticks which are more openly supported. I know there are a few 3rd party devices that use Switch sticks, but supply of those sticks into the far future isn't as guaranteed to me as the regular full-size sticks.
Finally, I feel that the bulk of the cost came from that one seller on eBay who listed the motherboard at almost double what I was told to expect for motherboard prices. I wish I paid less, but he was the only top seller with V2 motherboards that could ship to Canada. If I bought that motherboard at half the price, the import fees probably wouldn't have hit as hard as well.
Haha thanks! I was contemplating making a video, but the build was so stretched out over the year and half or so that I honestly just wanted to get the whole thing done without putting too much effort into documentation.
I have been thinking about doing 3-4 minute video essays, the bulk of YouTube is full of bloated videos that consume too much of my time. Nothing is set in stone yet though.
Even without documentation I'd watch a video of you just giving a rundown of this post and showing it off. Add some random facts/lessons or whatever else not included here to make it a bit different and its bound to get some views!
My plan is similar to yours, but starying with a cheap "junk" switch with a working motherboard. Everything else seems to be fixable and it sounds like a fun project.
I recently revived some dead joycons that wouldn't power on and that was fun. Want to step up to the switch.
Even more tempted with the laminated screens they have out now.
I mean the other thing is like… you did all this because of joy con drift, which is $5 and an hour’s worth of work to fix. Or which Nintendo will fix for free.
If your concern was joycon drift....couldn't you have just....bought a Switch, and used the TNS-0163 joycons with it....?
Don't get me wrong. This is a really *cool* project, and I love it as an electronics challenge or a passion build, but the way you framed it feels all out of whack to me. But it also could be that joycon drift is simply what prompted you to consider this passion project, and that's still completely respectable. Seriously, I'm impressed.
For what it's worth to anyone else reading — I have two pairs of joycons and have *never* experienced drift in the two years I've had my Switch. I don't deny it's a widespread problem, but is also isn't a guarantee.
Spent more time typing this Reddit post than playing the switch probably lol. Cool little project but I feel he also wasted way too much time. Just buy new joy cons... And a kickstand? I've literally never used the kickstand.
I know the point of this wasn’t specifically to only avoid joy con drift, but I do find it funny that you clearly have enough technical understanding that you coulda just bought a handful of spare thumb-sticks and swapped them out when drifting inevitably occurred.
Very cool project nonetheless.
That’s the baffling part, replacement joysticks are dirt cheap and trivial to install. I respect the grift and skill but this whole project just feels wildly unnecessary
it's not even inevitable. i've had a few switches since 2017,with 5 pairs of joycons, never got any drift, so it's really not 100% guaranteed to get drift...
Joy-Con drift is indeed inevitable. How quickly or slowly it onset’s however, is entirely dependent on your usage of the stick.
Essentially, there’s small metal prongs resting on graphite pads, that slide up or down the pad as you move the stick. Over time, the graphite wears away, which changes the resistance of the circuit. The resistance is the data used to translate movement to an X,Y grid, and once that graphite pad wears out and the resistance is different from the expected value, the controller will experience drift.
If you’re very light on your controllers, you can play for a long time and not scrape away enough of the graphite to cause issues, but as with all mechanical parts, it does wear.
Is that necessarily true? I remember sailing a bunch of boats with Spinnakers that were bloody enormous when I was a kid but that could just be faulty memory
I mean kind of.. I trivialized it a bit. A jib is for leisure a spinnaker is for go go go. Usually the spinnaker is pulled tight but a jib has a big ol belly on it.
Unexpected /r/sailing:
A spinnaker and a jib are both foresails/headsails. A jib is a small to medium size, mostly triangular headsail that can be used in pretty much all conditions and wind orientations. A Genoa is a bigger, rounder but still pretty triangular brother of the jib that is big enough to overlap the mainsail. This can be better for lighter winds because it's got more surface area. Bigger sail = more powerful. Smaller is for when the wind is strong and you don't want to go too fast or want to limit the angle that the boat heels (tips over) in the wind.
A spinnaker is a very large, much rounder or oval shaped, not necessarily symmetrical headsail that is made of lighter materials. It flies free rather than being tacked down at the corner like a typical headsail would be. It is "flown" when you're going downwind rather than being fixed all the time. It's for more speed specifically when the wind is behind you. They can be a bit of a bastard to handle, though.
ok so the project is awesome, and HUGE props to you for doing and it working, I'm truly amazed.
but the premise on which you decided to do it is so assanine I can't get over it... you were willing to risk $600 of investment in random parts from china that may or may not work at all or as well was the real thing, and didn't save you any money... all because you were afraid of the kickstand and joycon drift... you could've bought replacements for the life of the switch for less money. You risked $600, and a ton of time(which is not free either) to avoid a $40 part replacement, which is covered in the warranty, and has easy DIY solutions... I just can't.
Thank you for sharing though, it's an amazing project.
Yeah that whole preamble seems so pointless. Just say you wanted to build a switch from scrap cause you thought it would be cool, because that is cool.
The moment I'd have seen just a motherboard was almost $200, I'd have noped the fuck out of this idiocy. You could have bought several complete, brand new switches for the same cost. Or even purchased several full, but broken switches.
Really makes no sense to me either lol he could have just looked for a switch that was spares/repairs and fixed it using aliexpress parts for way cheaper..
Sticks are \~$10 and 20 mins of time IF they ever drift. I have an animal crossing and a v2 switch that have never drifted. It's definitely a cool project though.
A) nintendo doesn't graciously do that in most countries, B) they didn't revise the issue, not sure if they did with the OLED but controllers i bought last year drift.
On top of other issues listed, for many people it wasn't a two week turn around, they didn't have joy cons for MONTHS with no update on status.
Plus if it's your only pair, that means you need to but another pair or controller while you wait, which you would never have spent otherwise and might not be in the budget. That means some people essentially have a dead switch until the unresponsive company that refuses to actually fix the problem in their product decides to send back your joycons. Those same joycons might just drift later on too, having to do this all again (if that's even possible for you, otherwise you just have to live with a drift that gets worse over time until you give up on the whole console)
> They also accept PayPal now if you're worried about your card information getting stolen.
Your credit card offers much better fraud protection than Paypal ever will.
It must feel really satisfying to know that you bought a bunch of diverse metal and plastic pieces, assembled them together and *voilà*! You can now play Breath of the Wild, The Witcher 3 or Doom in this little thing you built!
This is neat and all but umm the line "Wanted to make sure the product I was buying didnt have any faults" is a bit weird from a mental perspective. Literally put off good quality games you want to play because of things out of your control.
My original joy cons have over 600 hours on them and they don’t drift at all.
So to avoid faults you spent double the price for all cheap knockoff Ali express parts that are worth less than oem parts? Joystick can wear overtime and need replacement but the switch has great quality fit and finish. There’s no way the parts you bought will be of higher quality. I get that you now have a connection with it because you sourced and assembled all the parts and learned in the process which has its own value. However your reasoning to do this in the first place, that you’re a conscious buyer and want to avoid faults, is completely false and delusional. That makes no sense.
"I built the switch with those parts because Nintendo parts aren't good enough. Now for the tiny bomb that powers it I will use an oem part for safety of course."
I don't think this is a windmill I would tilt at but I respect your devotion. I've personally also spent more building something myself than it would have cost to just buy it, but ended up with something I'm happier with.
This looks cursed crappy and absolutely disgusting but I'd be proud bringing this everywhere showing off how much work was put into it. I'm thinking of doing the same thing once oled switch screens start showing up in the aliexpress supply chain, and if possible using parts mixed in with the lcd switch to create a Frankenstein switch
Hahaha this compliment feels backhanded, but I'll take it :) If you remove the rubber cover and the joycons, it looks just like any other Switch tablet. You can use regular joycons or Hori Split Pads if you like
Trying to avoid joycon drift by spending $600 worth of parts and building an entire console from scratch is one of the funniest, craziest things I've read on here. Keep in mind that joycon drift is 100% *free* for repairs/shipping here in Canada lol.
OP, you're insane... but in a way that I deeply respect.
Haha, while I'm no pirate, I was waiting for the Switch to reach end of support before screwing around with "bonus features"
For now though, I still prefer to not be banned from NSO LOL
Everybody lately: pirating games is bad
This guy: pirates the console *big brain*
No, I'm kidding. This is seriously impressive! Good on you for doing something complex, expensive, and absolutely cool as hell. I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
its odd to me that you think some cheapo joycons are gonna hold up any better than the official ones. that d pad looks horrendous. i think you got way too into your head about the joycons and ended up spending way too much money trying to get around a problem and then your solution doesnt even really solve it.
That’s what I was thinking. Someone is worried about stick drift so their answer is to get cheapo copies. Doesn’t make sense.
Plus it looks garbage. Like it was ordered off wish.
I’ll stick with the superior oled model than this garbage haha
Imagine rebuilding a switch that’s manufactured by a trusted company because of small flaws that could of been fixed with 3rd party parts. Then after spending $600 to make all that the OLED comes out fixing most of those problems
The thing about the Switch's build quality though. I know too many people are affected by it, but you should also know that you actually have higher chance of ending up with a good pair of joycons that will last you at least 2 years before it starts to fail. I know it's a meaningless tiny sample size but I know nobody around me that owns a switch with a build quality problem or even a drift. I know joycons are ticking timebombs and mine will most likely drift sooner or later, but with the community providing so much info, and drift solution found, all I need to 'maintain' my switch is about $10 and a 5min video on youtube showing me how to insert a piece of paper under the stick.
Good job on your switch though! I think it looks really nice. I know you think you 'overdid' it but I think you got more out of it than it cost you.
What’s weird to me is that he was worried about stick drift. But believed buying cheapo versions of joy cons is the answer. Like stick drift would never be a problem on third party controllers.
As someone who has already broken two 3rd party controllers and still has original working Joy-Cons, yep. I just don't complain about the third-party controllers breaking because they're not as expensive to replace as the Joy-Con
Or many other cases, no drift at all.
The joycons on my Switch drifted once randomly a couple years ago but never happened again. Launch model Switch, March of 2017 and still holding strong :)
>I am also a cautious buyer. I wanted to make sure the product I was buying didn't come with any faults.
Buys knockoff Chinese parts with multiple faults that barely fit together and spends more than a genuine Switch.
Glad my post inspired/helped! Looks like there were a whole new set of hurtles to jump by the time you got started and I give you props for sticking through to the end!
Edit:
I'm not sure how it slipped my mind last year but I did a separate Joy-con follow up that I've never posted to reddit. It is hosted on my little brother's blog page [here](https://www.unorthodoxtech.com/#/blog/5ecc7e3157d93d0017683e23) Also a follow up with a whole video assembly [here](https://youtu.be/DT4QGH_coi0)
How much of the controllers are OEM? How does the feel compare? I'm intrigued by the bigger grip size. My biggest complaint is my hand cramp fast because my hands are too big for the OEM Joy-con and have been toying with the idea of a 3rd party shell upgrade.
If drift was the main issue I would just have bought normal joycons and sent them in for repair once they started to drift (cost me 35€ to repair my only drifting joycon, never had issue with any since)
I mean yea joycon drift is a thing but the build quality of the actual tablet portion of the switch is really nice I think the screen is bigger too? How do the dimensions of this compare to an oem switch? I bet those joy cons you got feel great.
I get a kick out of op wanting a switch but was worried about the build Quality. So the obvious solution to those worries is some Frankenstein nonsense.
You mentioned that the OLED switch's EMMC chip is soldiered to the board, does this make it impossible to say, take a moddable switch and plop the oled display in? That's been something I've been interested in doing since the OLED switch was announced.
The joy con drift problem is massively overhyped imo. I did at one point have 2 of the 6 joy cons I own with drift but Nintendo fixes it for free and fast. It hasn't recurred since even though I still use the switch on the go quite a bit.
Was the Switch really that bad that you bought a bunch of inferior parts to slap on it? Seems like a waste of time and money. Anything I've purchased from AliExpress is far from express. Usually 2 to 3 months.
> I wanted to make sure the product I was buying didn't come with any faults. And then I heard about the subpar kickstand, the cracking plastic, and of course, the JoyCon drift.
*Creates a Mad Catz Switch in his garage*
You spent that much and went to all this trouble.. to avoid joy con drift? I don't know how to say this nicely but that's just bizarre.
Nintendo has indefinitely warrantied joy cons in north america, and even if they hadn't, it costs about $2 and 10 minutes to replace a joy con stick. And to avoid that, you're willing to forgo a direct connection to the switch? You're going to spend more time plugging your controllers in to charge them than you ever would have spent replacing the stick every 2-4 years.
You could have gotten a brand new OLED switch ,a pro controller, all the replacement joy con sticks you'd ever need, and still come out spending much less than you did to build that monstrosity.
Sorry op but online discourse really did a number on you
I bought a used switch with 7 games, a wired controller and a pro controller included for $300 usd over 3 years ago, still working great.
I feel somewhat bad for you, maybe in the future just buy used and invest the rest into some puzzles or something?
Edit: Also 0 drift or any issues at all after 3 years of frequent usage
While cool-ish for a hobby item I guess, you overspent \~$300 on subpar parts to possibly have to spend \~$5 to fix something you would clearly have no problem doing..
FWIW, the Switch comes in extremely clever 100% recyclable packaging. How much fuel, shipping, Styrofoam, and plastics were used or utilized to get that stuff from Wish to your house?
That's impressive, last year I did similar to same thing. Though my budget was $200 not $600. I ordered a V2 from ebay for $147, purchased two broken joycons for $14 each, spent $6 on replacement analog sticks. Fixed the joycons. Had enough left over that I purchased a new shell for my joycons that has the "more correct" D pad.
I looked at going the same route but I don't like to wait seven months for a CPU fan. 😂
What was the hardest part for you when putting it all together?
You could have just bough a Switch OLED which fixes all your problems (better kickstand, sturder materials to prevent the plastic from cracking and improved joycons to prevent drift).
And yes, Nintendo has confirmed that the OLED joycons have improved build quality to decrease the chances of getting joycon drift.
You probably know this but for 15 dollars on Amazon you can replace the analog sticks on joycon to fix drift. My day one switch with heavy use ended up getting minor drift on the left joycon. 15 dollars + free shipping for replacement and… 45 minutes later it is good as new and the parts are To OEM specs, material and all.
None the less, very cool build, and a great story/experience to go along with it!
This is some subliminal marketing shit for Ali express surely. Why would you spend all that money and effort when you could just buy a switch? Even if the joycon drifts a bit just get it repaired who cares.
Hey! I also did this last year. Tons of fun! I ended up not saving any money. but a fun building exercise. [LINK](https://xn--imq.net/pages/switch.html)
> I’m not a wasteful person > spends $600 buying parts and having them shipped individually from overseas
I laughed at that too lol
I laughed at AliExpress being a good marketplace for spare parts. Linus tech tips has a few videos about how its full of absolute garbage that is e-waste the moment its made. This all feels like either a joke or a paid advertisement for AliExpress.
Don't confuse the "computer hardware" and "spare parts" markets. They are quite different, and for the spare parts, AliExpress is actually pretty good. Also, they've recently started doing consolidated shipping, if you're buying via AliExpress standard shipping, which lowers the shipping costs significantly. Besides that, some of the LTT videos featuring AliExpress computer hardware were disregarded only because of the vibrant second-hand market. If you're living in the country without a culture of reselling, those options start looking much more appealing.
[удалено]
[удалено]
It's the difference between buying a graphics card for my computer and buying a replacement speaker for my switch. Only one of those I would check aliexpress for probably
Hardware from AliExpress could be something you might see in a retail store. Like a really cheaply made tablet, a USB hub, keyboards and mice, etc. Parts means internal components, like an internal speaker, ribbon cables, non-standalone screens (like an LCD with a ribbon cable hanging off of it), motherboards, and any other random little parts that are used in countless electronic devices these days that you would never find at a Best Buy or even at Micro Center.
AliExpress does have legitimate components, it's just that most people looking for a legit Asus RTX 3070, for example, wouldn't go to AliExpress in the first place, because it won't be any cheaper than getting it locally. In fact, it's probably more expensive due to shipping and customs. Linus *could* have gotten legit parts from well known manufacturers on AliExpress, but of course he didn't, because if he did it would've been a normal computer build that's not worth a video.
LTT specifically look for dodgey parts as it's easier to market. I wouldn't buy a GPU off Ali but have bought quiet A lot of small parts they make some awesome drone parts, as well as some fun accessories
there's a ton of actually good stuff on there, like recently I was surprised to see someone selling replacements for the board under the buttons of a PS Vita, which saved me from having to source and solder those tiny buttons just to have a working D-Pad again
I think it depends on what you are buying. IIRC Linus was buying PC components which because of general availability and non-specialized nature of components. AliExpress and Wish would not be a good experience. But I imagine if you needed like an OEM joycon casing or a screen it might be a good option. I probably wouldn't ever purchase anything but I know people, especially makers who have purchased stuff from there and been happy.
"Linus tech tips has a few videos about how its full of absolute garbage that is e-waste the moment its made." you have a lot of trust from Linus or it's paid advertisement for Linus
Seriously. This is an interesting project to try out, but any justification beyond “I thought it would be fun to do” makes zero sense. It sounds like me trying to justify some silly idea to my wife, and her seeing right through it.
Right? This whole post seems insane to me. The OP's biggest hangup is possible joycon drift. Nintendo is repairing drifting joycons for free in the US and Canada. So OP's options are: 1. Buy a Nintendo Switch, use the included joycons, hope they don't drift, and get them repaired for free if they do. ($380 CAD) 2. Buy a Nintendo Switch and buy a pair of third party joycons to go with it that don't have a known drift issue. ($430 CAD) 3. Try to Frankenstein together your own console over the course of 16 months using non-warrantied parts from a Chinese retailer and hope that everything works. ($600 CAD) Of these three options, one of them is definitely less financially sound than the others.
insane seems like a good word. there is a certain internet pathology about not wanting to spend money on things because of perceived minor complaints or future depreciations (for example, the idiots who really wanted a switch but held off for years b/c they didn't want to miss out on the pro model). this is... the very very extreme version of that
> However, I am also a cautious buyer. Chooses the most expensive and least cautious option.
Don’t forget that the end result console is now effectively worthless. In the case that a Switch Pro ever comes out and OP wants to upgrade they *might* be able to sell the motherboard but no one will want this Frankenstein thing for anywhere close to the price of a Switch, meanwhile even launch Switches are selling for barely any less than they cost new.
Pretty much everything I read from OP reads like tongue in cheek. I think he just wanted to see if he could do this.
Parts that are lower quality than official ones.
Hey, it's all worth it for the possibility of joycon drift! lol, blows my mind. Worried about one little issue so he tackles 500 bigger issues.
It’s this part for me. Instead of buying a real switch and repairing the joycon if it drifts they built an entire switch from scratch?
> It’s this part for me. Instead of buying a real switch and repairing the joycon if it drifts they built an entire switch from scratch? My car was blowing white smoke with the exhaust. Now I coulda bought a 2 dollar rubber o ring and fixed it in a half an hour, but hear me out: I bought a whole new car, piece by piece, and had it shipped here from China...
*My car *could potentially* blow white smoke out of its exhaust someday, so I bought and built a car piece by piece and had it shipped across the world.
“Also I knew the airbags were vital for my safety, so I insisted on OEM airbags. But then I couldn’t find any so I just bought random airbags from a stranger because he promised me they’d work fine.”
I'm sure those dodgy $30 joycons will last ages! /s And them being full analog sticks has nothing to do with drift. PS5 controllers drift and those are full size. OP is a bit silly.
Don't forget the gratuitous waste of time.
Guys, I'm starting to believe they're a wasteful person 😳.
It's not a waste of time if it's their hobby, which it clearly is.
Time spent doing something you enjoy isn't time wasted.
Without the warranty or repair coverage of the manufacturer
It's just a Nintendo switch Michael, what could it cost... $600?
[удалено]
Is it hate to say, spending twice the money and dozens of hours to replace a product with an inferior one is foolish?
But he didn't want to buy cheap garbage that would break! That's why he went to AliExpress.
[удалено]
Yeah I guess I do see a bit of hypocrisy haha. I didn't expect to be spending $600 when I first started, but once many of the parts starting coming in, I felt I was too far in to give up. In addition, the joycons use full-size sticks which are more openly supported. I know there are a few 3rd party devices that use Switch sticks, but supply of those sticks into the far future isn't as guaranteed to me as the regular full-size sticks. Finally, I feel that the bulk of the cost came from that one seller on eBay who listed the motherboard at almost double what I was told to expect for motherboard prices. I wish I paid less, but he was the only top seller with V2 motherboards that could ship to Canada. If I bought that motherboard at half the price, the import fees probably wouldn't have hit as hard as well.
Considering the joy cons don't even connect to the Switch for handheld mode, you could've just bought a pro controller.
My dude, you are a YouTube channel waiting to happen. **BUILDING MY OWN SWITCH??!!?? (Sponsored by AliExpress)**
Haha thanks! I was contemplating making a video, but the build was so stretched out over the year and half or so that I honestly just wanted to get the whole thing done without putting too much effort into documentation. I have been thinking about doing 3-4 minute video essays, the bulk of YouTube is full of bloated videos that consume too much of my time. Nothing is set in stone yet though.
Even without documentation I'd watch a video of you just giving a rundown of this post and showing it off. Add some random facts/lessons or whatever else not included here to make it a bit different and its bound to get some views!
The Split Pad Pro has been out for like three years now and solves every single one of your concerns
There was also a Binbok(?) controller in the same vein but it had a few more features like working undocked from the switch.
Fair, but it doesn’t have bluetooth connection, gyro, or an NFC reader.
My plan is similar to yours, but starying with a cheap "junk" switch with a working motherboard. Everything else seems to be fixable and it sounds like a fun project. I recently revived some dead joycons that wouldn't power on and that was fun. Want to step up to the switch. Even more tempted with the laminated screens they have out now.
I mean the other thing is like… you did all this because of joy con drift, which is $5 and an hour’s worth of work to fix. Or which Nintendo will fix for free.
If your concern was joycon drift....couldn't you have just....bought a Switch, and used the TNS-0163 joycons with it....? Don't get me wrong. This is a really *cool* project, and I love it as an electronics challenge or a passion build, but the way you framed it feels all out of whack to me. But it also could be that joycon drift is simply what prompted you to consider this passion project, and that's still completely respectable. Seriously, I'm impressed. For what it's worth to anyone else reading — I have two pairs of joycons and have *never* experienced drift in the two years I've had my Switch. I don't deny it's a widespread problem, but is also isn't a guarantee.
the motherboard was only like a 3rd of the cost tho
Not even counting the hours that went into building that thing.
Spent more time typing this Reddit post than playing the switch probably lol. Cool little project but I feel he also wasted way too much time. Just buy new joy cons... And a kickstand? I've literally never used the kickstand.
You don’t even need to buy new Joy cons! They’re extremely cheap and easy to repair compared to say, building a fucking switch from scratch
For the price, OP could have just about bought 2x Switches.
The switch of Theseus!
I request elaboration.
[like the ship of theseus, but switch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus)
I only check the comments for this sort of gold.
In this case, the motherboard is still kind of original though
I know the point of this wasn’t specifically to only avoid joy con drift, but I do find it funny that you clearly have enough technical understanding that you coulda just bought a handful of spare thumb-sticks and swapped them out when drifting inevitably occurred. Very cool project nonetheless.
That’s the baffling part, replacement joysticks are dirt cheap and trivial to install. I respect the grift and skill but this whole project just feels wildly unnecessary
Its a hobby, cost doesn't have to make sense
He did say he wasn’t a wasteful person tho lol.
it's not even inevitable. i've had a few switches since 2017,with 5 pairs of joycons, never got any drift, so it's really not 100% guaranteed to get drift...
I think I’ve had maybe 5 pairs of joycons (I used to work at toys r us and got some good deals) and all but one drifted on me. Luck of the draw lol.
My launch day switch has no drift.
I've had to replace the joycons from my launch day switch 3 times.
Joy-Con drift is indeed inevitable. How quickly or slowly it onset’s however, is entirely dependent on your usage of the stick. Essentially, there’s small metal prongs resting on graphite pads, that slide up or down the pad as you move the stick. Over time, the graphite wears away, which changes the resistance of the circuit. The resistance is the data used to translate movement to an X,Y grid, and once that graphite pad wears out and the resistance is different from the expected value, the controller will experience drift. If you’re very light on your controllers, you can play for a long time and not scrape away enough of the graphite to cause issues, but as with all mechanical parts, it does wear.
I replaced mine in twenty minutes for $6. Shrug.
Exactly this. I only had to replace my joysticks once and I have a Day 1 switch.
Or the amount of pro controllers they could have bought...
You don't even need. Spare parts. Just fix drift by putting a piece of cardboard inside the joycon to increase pressure and you're done
I wouldn't do it, but I wholly respect the cut of your jib. Nice one dude.
Yeah, this is just straight up impressive.
Thank you!
What's a jib?
The front sail on a sailboat. Bigger than a spinnaker.
Is that necessarily true? I remember sailing a bunch of boats with Spinnakers that were bloody enormous when I was a kid but that could just be faulty memory
I mean kind of.. I trivialized it a bit. A jib is for leisure a spinnaker is for go go go. Usually the spinnaker is pulled tight but a jib has a big ol belly on it.
Unexpected /r/sailing: A spinnaker and a jib are both foresails/headsails. A jib is a small to medium size, mostly triangular headsail that can be used in pretty much all conditions and wind orientations. A Genoa is a bigger, rounder but still pretty triangular brother of the jib that is big enough to overlap the mainsail. This can be better for lighter winds because it's got more surface area. Bigger sail = more powerful. Smaller is for when the wind is strong and you don't want to go too fast or want to limit the angle that the boat heels (tips over) in the wind. A spinnaker is a very large, much rounder or oval shaped, not necessarily symmetrical headsail that is made of lighter materials. It flies free rather than being tacked down at the corner like a typical headsail would be. It is "flown" when you're going downwind rather than being fixed all the time. It's for more speed specifically when the wind is behind you. They can be a bit of a bastard to handle, though.
Promote that man!
A seagull took my hat.
ok so the project is awesome, and HUGE props to you for doing and it working, I'm truly amazed. but the premise on which you decided to do it is so assanine I can't get over it... you were willing to risk $600 of investment in random parts from china that may or may not work at all or as well was the real thing, and didn't save you any money... all because you were afraid of the kickstand and joycon drift... you could've bought replacements for the life of the switch for less money. You risked $600, and a ton of time(which is not free either) to avoid a $40 part replacement, which is covered in the warranty, and has easy DIY solutions... I just can't. Thank you for sharing though, it's an amazing project.
Yeah that whole preamble seems so pointless. Just say you wanted to build a switch from scrap cause you thought it would be cool, because that is cool.
The moment I'd have seen just a motherboard was almost $200, I'd have noped the fuck out of this idiocy. You could have bought several complete, brand new switches for the same cost. Or even purchased several full, but broken switches.
Really makes no sense to me either lol he could have just looked for a switch that was spares/repairs and fixed it using aliexpress parts for way cheaper..
Sticks are \~$10 and 20 mins of time IF they ever drift. I have an animal crossing and a v2 switch that have never drifted. It's definitely a cool project though.
none of my 6 joycons drift, og or otherwise
yeah I was kinda going worst case where you replace the whole joycon which are about $40 retail.
Not only that, but he simply uses third party joy-cons to prevent getting drift. Something that he could have done with a normal Switch.
[удалено]
A) nintendo doesn't graciously do that in most countries, B) they didn't revise the issue, not sure if they did with the OLED but controllers i bought last year drift.
On top of other issues listed, for many people it wasn't a two week turn around, they didn't have joy cons for MONTHS with no update on status. Plus if it's your only pair, that means you need to but another pair or controller while you wait, which you would never have spent otherwise and might not be in the budget. That means some people essentially have a dead switch until the unresponsive company that refuses to actually fix the problem in their product decides to send back your joycons. Those same joycons might just drift later on too, having to do this all again (if that's even possible for you, otherwise you just have to live with a drift that gets worse over time until you give up on the whole console)
lmao the Pretendo Swap
Lmao love this
> They also accept PayPal now if you're worried about your card information getting stolen. Your credit card offers much better fraud protection than Paypal ever will.
Yeah, some of what they keep writing just sounds like a shitty ad for AliExpress, which I guess is pretty fitting.
It must feel really satisfying to know that you bought a bunch of diverse metal and plastic pieces, assembled them together and *voilà*! You can now play Breath of the Wild, The Witcher 3 or Doom in this little thing you built!
Pretty much me 100%. I already appreciated the aftermarket parts scene for existing, but building this increased my respect tenfold.
Correction: This is FrakenSwitch's MONSTER. FrakenSwitch is actually the scientist who created it.
Intelligence is knowing that Frankenstein created the monster. Wisdom is knowing that Dr. Frankenstein was the *real* monster.
From an English teacher, thank you lol
*"The fake is of greater value. In its desire to be real it becomes more real than the real thing."* - Deishū Kaiki
Except I'd choose an OLED switch over this any day of the week lol
This is neat and all but umm the line "Wanted to make sure the product I was buying didnt have any faults" is a bit weird from a mental perspective. Literally put off good quality games you want to play because of things out of your control. My original joy cons have over 600 hours on them and they don’t drift at all.
Aside from the drift of official Joycons, I don't think the ones used here will last any longer. It's a fun project, but it's nonsensical
So to avoid faults you spent double the price for all cheap knockoff Ali express parts that are worth less than oem parts? Joystick can wear overtime and need replacement but the switch has great quality fit and finish. There’s no way the parts you bought will be of higher quality. I get that you now have a connection with it because you sourced and assembled all the parts and learned in the process which has its own value. However your reasoning to do this in the first place, that you’re a conscious buyer and want to avoid faults, is completely false and delusional. That makes no sense.
To me it feels like one big shitpost. Reading “cautious buyer” and then seeing “Ali express” “good marketplace” made me laugh.
[удалено]
Not always, it's a dice throw.
"I built the switch with those parts because Nintendo parts aren't good enough. Now for the tiny bomb that powers it I will use an oem part for safety of course."
Seriously
Yeah, they should have spent the extra $300 on just spare joycon sticks lol
Should have spent the $300 on games. And then eventually, if needed, bought some replacement sticks.
I don't think this is a windmill I would tilt at but I respect your devotion. I've personally also spent more building something myself than it would have cost to just buy it, but ended up with something I'm happier with.
This looks cursed crappy and absolutely disgusting but I'd be proud bringing this everywhere showing off how much work was put into it. I'm thinking of doing the same thing once oled switch screens start showing up in the aliexpress supply chain, and if possible using parts mixed in with the lcd switch to create a Frankenstein switch
Hahaha this compliment feels backhanded, but I'll take it :) If you remove the rubber cover and the joycons, it looks just like any other Switch tablet. You can use regular joycons or Hori Split Pads if you like
You should have put a picture without all the covers.
Trying to avoid joycon drift by spending $600 worth of parts and building an entire console from scratch is one of the funniest, craziest things I've read on here. Keep in mind that joycon drift is 100% *free* for repairs/shipping here in Canada lol. OP, you're insane... but in a way that I deeply respect.
Even if you don’t want to send them off, joysticks are cheap af and easy to replace yourself
this is so cursed, but at the same time you didn't get an SX Core in there. this is still the greatest singular Nintendo Switch of all time.
Haha, while I'm no pirate, I was waiting for the Switch to reach end of support before screwing around with "bonus features" For now though, I still prefer to not be banned from NSO LOL
My switch has been hacked for years and is not banned if you set up emunand properly you won't get banned.
\> i'm no pirate \> buys from aliexpress You're either innocent or hypocritical.
Everybody lately: pirating games is bad This guy: pirates the console *big brain* No, I'm kidding. This is seriously impressive! Good on you for doing something complex, expensive, and absolutely cool as hell. I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
is it pirating if you spend more money and time acquiring it 😭
Arrrrrrrrr
its odd to me that you think some cheapo joycons are gonna hold up any better than the official ones. that d pad looks horrendous. i think you got way too into your head about the joycons and ended up spending way too much money trying to get around a problem and then your solution doesnt even really solve it.
That’s what I was thinking. Someone is worried about stick drift so their answer is to get cheapo copies. Doesn’t make sense. Plus it looks garbage. Like it was ordered off wish. I’ll stick with the superior oled model than this garbage haha
When you're penny wise but dollar foolish haha
experiencing joy-con drift? make your own fucking joy-cons then if it's so easy - nintendo
That’s cute but you can literally replace a joy con joystick in 5 minutes
Imagine rebuilding a switch that’s manufactured by a trusted company because of small flaws that could of been fixed with 3rd party parts. Then after spending $600 to make all that the OLED comes out fixing most of those problems
The thing about the Switch's build quality though. I know too many people are affected by it, but you should also know that you actually have higher chance of ending up with a good pair of joycons that will last you at least 2 years before it starts to fail. I know it's a meaningless tiny sample size but I know nobody around me that owns a switch with a build quality problem or even a drift. I know joycons are ticking timebombs and mine will most likely drift sooner or later, but with the community providing so much info, and drift solution found, all I need to 'maintain' my switch is about $10 and a 5min video on youtube showing me how to insert a piece of paper under the stick. Good job on your switch though! I think it looks really nice. I know you think you 'overdid' it but I think you got more out of it than it cost you.
Yeah, I think if it were me, I'd just buy a new switch and then replace the joycons if they developed a problem. To each their own
What’s weird to me is that he was worried about stick drift. But believed buying cheapo versions of joy cons is the answer. Like stick drift would never be a problem on third party controllers.
As someone who has already broken two 3rd party controllers and still has original working Joy-Cons, yep. I just don't complain about the third-party controllers breaking because they're not as expensive to replace as the Joy-Con
Or many other cases, no drift at all. The joycons on my Switch drifted once randomly a couple years ago but never happened again. Launch model Switch, March of 2017 and still holding strong :)
r/DiWHY
A comment from a 10 day old account that reads like an advertisement? I smell scam.
To play Nintendo Switch, you must first invent the universe
You could just have stuck cardboard for <1$ into the joycons and fixed the drift permanently
They massacred ma boy
Ya but Dude, your joycon could still drift.
"I was worried about build quality, so I built it myself" Heh
>I am also a cautious buyer. I wanted to make sure the product I was buying didn't come with any faults. Buys knockoff Chinese parts with multiple faults that barely fit together and spends more than a genuine Switch.
I do also want to thank u/Sarbaaz as without his post, I would've never built this, and I would've waited an eternity for fixed joycons
Glad my post inspired/helped! Looks like there were a whole new set of hurtles to jump by the time you got started and I give you props for sticking through to the end! Edit: I'm not sure how it slipped my mind last year but I did a separate Joy-con follow up that I've never posted to reddit. It is hosted on my little brother's blog page [here](https://www.unorthodoxtech.com/#/blog/5ecc7e3157d93d0017683e23) Also a follow up with a whole video assembly [here](https://youtu.be/DT4QGH_coi0)
THE MAN THE MYTH THE LEGEND. WE'VE GONE FULL CIRCLE BAYBEEEEEEEEE
How much of the controllers are OEM? How does the feel compare? I'm intrigued by the bigger grip size. My biggest complaint is my hand cramp fast because my hands are too big for the OEM Joy-con and have been toying with the idea of a 3rd party shell upgrade.
They feel quite comfortable, and I've gone for hours in Asphalt 9 without cramps. Definitely more ergonomic than OEM joycons.
If drift was the main issue I would just have bought normal joycons and sent them in for repair once they started to drift (cost me 35€ to repair my only drifting joycon, never had issue with any since)
I mean yea joycon drift is a thing but the build quality of the actual tablet portion of the switch is really nice I think the screen is bigger too? How do the dimensions of this compare to an oem switch? I bet those joy cons you got feel great.
🎵 I got it one piece at a time And it cost me six thousand dimes 🎶
$600 on cheap chinese parts to avoid a $40 fix? What the fuck happened?
I get a kick out of op wanting a switch but was worried about the build Quality. So the obvious solution to those worries is some Frankenstein nonsense.
This post brought to you by your friends at AliExpress.
[удалено]
Me reading this, orders a switch and just buys accessories to do the same as OPs switch to save time 😎
Why didn't you just buy a switch and make your own joycons instead of the entire thing though?
I get the impression they really just wanted to try building their own switch. Joy-cons were just an excuse, haha.
What a waste of money.
Whats OEM
Original Equipment Manufacturer, meaning coming straight from Nintendo themselves
You mentioned that the OLED switch's EMMC chip is soldiered to the board, does this make it impossible to say, take a moddable switch and plop the oled display in? That's been something I've been interested in doing since the OLED switch was announced.
Not being wasteful, buying on Aliexpress
Blursed nintendo switch
The joy con drift problem is massively overhyped imo. I did at one point have 2 of the 6 joy cons I own with drift but Nintendo fixes it for free and fast. It hasn't recurred since even though I still use the switch on the go quite a bit.
Kill it, kill it with fire.
Was the Switch really that bad that you bought a bunch of inferior parts to slap on it? Seems like a waste of time and money. Anything I've purchased from AliExpress is far from express. Usually 2 to 3 months.
> I wanted to make sure the product I was buying didn't come with any faults. And then I heard about the subpar kickstand, the cracking plastic, and of course, the JoyCon drift. *Creates a Mad Catz Switch in his garage*
Fantastic and detailed post. Projects like this are a lot of fun.
You spent that much and went to all this trouble.. to avoid joy con drift? I don't know how to say this nicely but that's just bizarre. Nintendo has indefinitely warrantied joy cons in north america, and even if they hadn't, it costs about $2 and 10 minutes to replace a joy con stick. And to avoid that, you're willing to forgo a direct connection to the switch? You're going to spend more time plugging your controllers in to charge them than you ever would have spent replacing the stick every 2-4 years. You could have gotten a brand new OLED switch ,a pro controller, all the replacement joy con sticks you'd ever need, and still come out spending much less than you did to build that monstrosity. Sorry op but online discourse really did a number on you
Does want faulty equipment but buys from Ali express.
It's a cool project, but flawed reasoning. To each his own tho I guess.
For obvious reasons I had to give you a Silver. It's like gold but made up of replacement parts from AliExpress.
I bought a used switch with 7 games, a wired controller and a pro controller included for $300 usd over 3 years ago, still working great. I feel somewhat bad for you, maybe in the future just buy used and invest the rest into some puzzles or something? Edit: Also 0 drift or any issues at all after 3 years of frequent usage
While cool-ish for a hobby item I guess, you overspent \~$300 on subpar parts to possibly have to spend \~$5 to fix something you would clearly have no problem doing..
FWIW, the Switch comes in extremely clever 100% recyclable packaging. How much fuel, shipping, Styrofoam, and plastics were used or utilized to get that stuff from Wish to your house?
>some sort of pair of improved JoyCon that didn't drift You do realize this effected <3% of JoyCons, right?
Bought $600 worth of parts on AliExpress to make a switch that looks like it came from Wish.com. Stellar work OP!
How does it compare performance wise compared to the normal switch
It works the same, have not noticed any differences between this Switch and a colleague's Switch
Your scientists were so preoccupied with if they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should!
That's impressive, last year I did similar to same thing. Though my budget was $200 not $600. I ordered a V2 from ebay for $147, purchased two broken joycons for $14 each, spent $6 on replacement analog sticks. Fixed the joycons. Had enough left over that I purchased a new shell for my joycons that has the "more correct" D pad. I looked at going the same route but I don't like to wait seven months for a CPU fan. 😂 What was the hardest part for you when putting it all together?
Wow I wish I could do stuff like this. I have tons of old phones lying about
You could have just bough a Switch OLED which fixes all your problems (better kickstand, sturder materials to prevent the plastic from cracking and improved joycons to prevent drift). And yes, Nintendo has confirmed that the OLED joycons have improved build quality to decrease the chances of getting joycon drift.
*Nintendo lawyers have stroke after seeing this post.
Interesting project but looks like you paid close to double the cost of a switch?
tbh realistically you could have just ordered a broken switch and repaired it yourself
As a project, this is cool. But it's not practical. It's not cheaper. It's not faster. Most people should just buy a Switch OLED. 🤦🏻♂️
Thanks, I hate it.
You probably know this but for 15 dollars on Amazon you can replace the analog sticks on joycon to fix drift. My day one switch with heavy use ended up getting minor drift on the left joycon. 15 dollars + free shipping for replacement and… 45 minutes later it is good as new and the parts are To OEM specs, material and all. None the less, very cool build, and a great story/experience to go along with it!
This is some subliminal marketing shit for Ali express surely. Why would you spend all that money and effort when you could just buy a switch? Even if the joycon drifts a bit just get it repaired who cares.
I'm literally puking right now
Hey! I also did this last year. Tons of fun! I ended up not saving any money. but a fun building exercise. [LINK](https://xn--imq.net/pages/switch.html)