Summary
- 3D printing is perfect for controller mods, as it’s cheap and easy to find pre-existing mods.
- Modding my controller only took around 30 minutes.
- My face buttons have less wobble and pre‑travel now, but my D-pad mod failed because of poor print fit, though sanding may fix it.
When most people talk about controller mods, they’re usually referring to first-party gamepads. I wanted to take a different route and see what was possible with my GameSir Cyclone 2. After some digging, I found a couple of 3D-printable mods that looked promising, so I decided to try them out.
A 3D printer is perfect for controller mods
Before I dive into what I did to my controller, allow me to explain why 3D printers are one of the best tools you can have for modding controllers, or really any peripheral, including gaming mice.
Modding a controller often involves reshaping parts of the controller, such as drilling holes and removing parts using a rotary tool, or adding stuff (which is the harder part). As far as first-party controllers like the Xbox Wireless Controller, Elite 2, DualSense, and DualSense Edge are concerned, there is a bunch of cool stuff that you can do, given how many guides and custom pieces there are for them. For example, eXtremeRate sells everything from replacement action buttons to octagonal gated stick rings and back paddles.
However, with a third-party controller like my beloved GameSir Cyclone 2, my options for accessories and upgrades are rather limited.
Platform
Nintendo Switch, PC, IOS, Android
Weight
0.65 Kilograms
The GameSir Cyclone 2 is a wireless controller for PC, Switch, and mobile that’s equipped with TMR electromagnetic sticks, mechanical face buttons, and two rear paddles. The controller provides many high-end features at a reasonable price.
Fortunately, resourceful DIY enthusiasts have found workarounds for some of their gripes with the controller using custom 3D printed parts. These days, even budget 3D printers can offer surprisingly good results when printing tiny parts. It’s certainly much easier to print a small piece of plastic to mod your controller instead of trying to make something out of epoxy.
You’ll probably have to do a bit of sanding in either case to get the measurements just right, but that’s easier to do when you already have a reasonably decent bit of material to work with.
How I modded my controller
Credit: Ismar Hrnjicevic / How-To Geek
While my GameSir Cyclone 2 is a fantastic controller, especially for the price, I had two small nitpicks: the D-pad and the face buttons.
The combination of mechanical microswitches (the type you find in mouse side buttons) and rubber domes makes the D-pad and face buttons feel wobbly and inconsistent, especially when pressing at an angle. They also have a lot of pre-travel, which means there is a noticeable dead zone between when I press the button and when it starts providing resistance before registering the input.
Fortunately, I found that mankokimochi on Printables designed 3D-printed solutions for both of my problems, which are free to download and use. One mod addresses the face buttons and the other addresses the D-pad. Both reduce pre-travel, which in turn lessens the wobbliness these buttons normally suffer from.
Since I don’t own a 3D printer myself and have not designed anything for one, I asked my friend to print the parts for me. Once I had the parts in my hands, it was time for modding.
Opening up the controller to install the mods was surprisingly simple. I just had to unscrew the seven Torx screws on the back (one is hidden under the sticker) and carefully separate the face plate from the body, keeping the plate facing down to prevent the buttons from popping out.
Credit: Ismar Hrnjicevic / How-To Geek
Next, I removed the face buttons and inserted the 3D-printed plungers before returning the buttons to the face plate. The D-pad mod was also easy to install, as the designer included detailed step-by-step instructions and images.
When I was done with the mods, I reassembled the controller by reversing the steps, and that was basically it.
The mods were a success — well, kind of
Credit: Ismar Hrnjicevic / How-To Geek
As far as the face button mod goes, it was a 100 percent success. The mod did exactly what I was hoping it would do. The face buttons no longer wobble, or rather, they wobble about as much as my Xbox One Controller’s, and there is no longer any of that nasty pre-travel I was complaining about. Frankly, I don’t understand why GameSir just did not design the buttons this way in the first place.
I actually disassembled the controller one more time to try removing the rubber dome that sits between the microswitches and the face buttons to see if I could make the buttons feel just like mouse clicks, but the plungers are not long enough for that. I suppose someone creative could design a longer plunger to make this happen.
Credit: Ismar Hrnjicevic / How-To Geek
As for the D-pad, it was not as much of a success, unfortunately. While the mod did remove pre-travel, it also made the top part a bit too hard and inconsistent to press, so I ended up removing the mod.
This was entirely user error and not a problem with the mod itself. My friend’s 3D printer did not nail the accuracy of the parts, and I was unaware at the time that I could try sanding the parts to make them fit. I only learned that after seeing a comment on the designer’s Reddit post where someone had aligned everything by sanding.
I’ll probably retry this mod at a later date after sanding the 3D-printed parts. Right now, I do not actually use the D-pad in any of the games I play, which is currently mostly Hades II, so I am not too concerned with it. People who play fighting games will likely beg to differ.
All in all, I consider this little modding venture a resounding success. It was essentially free and took me only around thirty minutes from start to finish, and it fixed one of my main gripes with the GameSir Cyclone 2. If you have one of these niche controllers with a cult following, there is a good chance that someone has already found a 3D-printed solution to whatever problem you might have. Or perhaps you could be the first!
