Blackthorn
"hello?" "this is vagina"
Highly scientific comparison time!
I was just sent a replacement controller from the lovely folks at Amazon, and swapped the torn thumbstick in the old controller with an authentic, standalone replacement stick (which is an easy procedure, if any of you need to do it).
This has allowed me to make some comparisons of the old vs new material used, which has hopefully fixed the problem.
HUGE IMAGE ALERT
To start with, here's the rubber which seems to cause the problems. This is from the replacement stick, so it's unused, but the material itself seems to be identical to my launch controllers. The seller did warn that as it's direct from the factory it may have the same problems but hopefully it won't fall apart.
As you can see, it's a rather gnarly looking rubber with very large grains and a slightly tacky feel.
And here's a photo of my other launch controller, which has worn down considerably but not yet torn.
That's probably how the replacement stick will look in a few months. Hopefully it never ends up looking like this:
Now, here's the brand new controller with a serial number on the back that starts with "2", whereas both launch units start with a "1" (focus kinda messed up, sorry).
It may be hard to make out from the photo but the rubber has a far smaller grain and is smoother to the touch. The controller itself has a slightly less matte appearance too.
For a clearer comparison, here's an unworn thumbstick made from the larger grained old rubber besides the smoother, newer iteration.
My hope is this smaller grained newer rubber won't have the wearing and tearing issues from the launch models. Smaller grains should mean a tighter packed, harder wearing material with less flake-inducing friction.
TL;DR: Model "2" DS4s seem to use a different material for the thumbsticks that is visibly smoother and less tacky to the touch. I may be pulling the serial number thing out my ass, but that's how it lined up with my controllers.
I was just sent a replacement controller from the lovely folks at Amazon, and swapped the torn thumbstick in the old controller with an authentic, standalone replacement stick (which is an easy procedure, if any of you need to do it).
This has allowed me to make some comparisons of the old vs new material used, which has hopefully fixed the problem.
HUGE IMAGE ALERT
To start with, here's the rubber which seems to cause the problems. This is from the replacement stick, so it's unused, but the material itself seems to be identical to my launch controllers. The seller did warn that as it's direct from the factory it may have the same problems but hopefully it won't fall apart.
As you can see, it's a rather gnarly looking rubber with very large grains and a slightly tacky feel.
And here's a photo of my other launch controller, which has worn down considerably but not yet torn.
That's probably how the replacement stick will look in a few months. Hopefully it never ends up looking like this:
Now, here's the brand new controller with a serial number on the back that starts with "2", whereas both launch units start with a "1" (focus kinda messed up, sorry).
It may be hard to make out from the photo but the rubber has a far smaller grain and is smoother to the touch. The controller itself has a slightly less matte appearance too.
For a clearer comparison, here's an unworn thumbstick made from the larger grained old rubber besides the smoother, newer iteration.
My hope is this smaller grained newer rubber won't have the wearing and tearing issues from the launch models. Smaller grains should mean a tighter packed, harder wearing material with less flake-inducing friction.
TL;DR: Model "2" DS4s seem to use a different material for the thumbsticks that is visibly smoother and less tacky to the touch. I may be pulling the serial number thing out my ass, but that's how it lined up with my controllers.
