Steam controller Righ an Left button bumper plastic thingy broken. And i'm angry now !

[leucome]

So i got a steam controller and after 100 hours of RWBY gameplay the internal plastic link for the right and left buttons(bumpers) broke.

It look like to be a design flaw. I figured out that it was meant to protect the small electronic button but it is not that good because it can brake anyway,

So I made a repair myself with little rubber pusher instead . Still you will have to look at this issue because pretty sure many buttons will eventually fails.

[cammelspit]

Which right and left button? Do you mean the grips, bumpers? Both right and left?

[leucome]

Originally posted by cammelspit:

Which right and left button? Do you mean the grips, bumpers? Both right and left?

Yeah the bumpers and both failed in the same week .

First I remapped the them to the grips under the controller. And one day I opened it to see what was broken.. And it was the little plastic stick that link the external button to the internal switch.

[cammelspit]

Originally posted by leucome:

Originally posted by cammelspit:

Which right and left button? Do you mean the grips, bumpers? Both right and left?

Yeah the bumpers and both failed in the same week .

First I remapped the them to the grips under the controller. And one day I opened it to see what was broken.. And it was the little plastic stick that links the external button to the internal switch.

Huh, I haven't opened mine up yet so I can't speak to that personally. With my first SC, I did hear a little crunchy kinda noise one time when I pressed it WAY too hard. Still, works fine today tho so I can't complain. Most users have not reported having any issues with them either so who knows.

[leucome]

RWBY game have function that require to click them a lot more that most game. Probably why they broke faster.

But after i've seen how the link is made pretty sure it will happens to some other in a near future.


I made a picture to help visualize how it's made.

In blue we can see how the link is placed once everything is assembled.

In green we can see how the outside button is placed and how it push on the link.

The yellow dot is the real electronic button on the board.

The plastic link brake where the outside button push on it in the middle. It's obviously made to protect the little electronic switch, the pressure do not go directly on the switch, it is absorbed the plastic link.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/leucome/images/


So i've added a hot glue rubber dot inside the external button that push directly on the electronic switch to replace the link. It work and I hope it will be flexible enough to protect the small switch.


I guess they may decide to sell individual part too. It would not be that hard to fix if we could buy the plastic part.

[Da Doom Man]

You can make the Steam Controller grips be binded as the bumpers. Much easier and they're actually more sturdy than the physical bumpers.

[cammelspit]

Originally posted by Da Doom Man:

You can make the Steam Controller grips be binded as the bumpers. Much easier and they're actually more sturdy than the physical bumpers.

I do this because I actually don't like the feel of the bumpers. That's the only thing I don't care for about the SC. I still use them just not for the bumper functions just action set stuff and not oft used actions.

[leucome]

Originally posted by Da Doom Man:

You can make the Steam Controller grips be binded as the bumpers. Much easier and they're actually more sturdy than the physical bumpers.

Yeah it would work fine. I have played a wile this way.

But I try to keep one or two button lose to add modes shift.. to get the gyro volume control alt+tab and few other feature . I was not so sure where to place them with broken buttons because I used the grip for that in many game.

[☭ Little King Trashmouth ★]

I can confirm this. Right bumper broke on 2 different controllers already, due to frequent, but "normal" use, no excessive force or something, it's just the sprint button in pro evolution soccer...

[leucome]

I'm popping this post about the broken steam controller bumper.. Now my that my reparation is also broken... And there still no replacement part for sale. I mean it's by now a really common and known issue.

And it's fuc**** time they start to sell the replacement parts or replace any controller with pumper broken no question asked... If not i'm thinking about going into some legal procedure there is enough people with bumpers broken to get together and do something about it.

Damn they could just admit their desing is not strong enough and sell little bag replacement parts.

[cammelspit]

Unless you can get a few hundred or even a few thousand people together, that is just not going to be worth it for a $50 controller. I have five now, two of which are the full over two years old and I still don't have a broken bumper on any of them. Understanding that specific part is not a great design, it still seems to hold up about as well as a 360/XBONE controller bumpers do. I have plenty of those that have bad bumpers. Don't quite know what to say. You could have one 3D printed for you from a service but that won't be cheap at all.

[leucome]

Yeah i know legal way dont wort it... but I feel like it should. Because they could just sell the replacement part and everything would be fine.

I could buy a second controller and disasanble it to make a silicone mold of the original part. So that way I could make my own replacement parts. It would be cheaper and also stonger than 3d printed parts.

But still the best would be an easy way to buy the replacement part from them.

[cammelspit]

Yeah, I totally understand the frustration. There are a few very badly designed parts of the SC, especially the snap dome switches used for the grip buttons. Of course, I was able to repair two of them and the third controller with that issue was under warranty still so I just got a brand new replacement for it. I think a good part of it was the fact they had never made hardware before and didn't have as solid a grasp of some of these things that affect longevity like they would have if they were longtime experts at making hardware. To be fair though, they are still more durable than an XBOX controller so it's not like they are just falling apart every ten seconds either.

[ebzero]

I've had the same exact problem with two controllers now. I just bought a new controller the first time, but I'm going to have to try a repair myself at this point. Went to Steam Support with this just to say that I did it. Here was my message:

"A piece of plastic underneath my left bumper just broke, and now the button cannot send input. I know this because the exact same thing happened to my first controller last year. I have bought 3 Steam Controllers over the past two years or so, and only one works right now. They seem to be breaking in the order I got them. Neither this controller nor the one that broke before it are within warranty anymore. I have found several people across forums with the same issue. Does Valve have an official solution to this problem?"

And here was their response:

"Hello,

I'm sorry to hear that you are having this issue with the Steam Controller. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer replacements for devices that are out of warranty.

Steam Support is unable to comment on any potential hardware releases or revisions, but I can assure you that all Steam Hardware feedback is collected and forwarded to the appropriate department/developer. We've received reports about chronically weak trigger assemblies before, however, the vast majority of Steam Controllers produced are still being used. The same part breaking on multiple controllers during regular use is a very uncommon issue, despite the forum posts to the contrary.

Thanks for using Steam,
Cole"

To their credit, they did write back quickly. Really frustrating though.

[Dripping Cucumber]

Count me too- 2nd in a row, newest broke after 2 months of irregular use, never had any physical damageand it didnt last even 1oo gameplay hours for sure.

[•]

Yeah, bumbers quality is really bad.