New Article: Cleaning a Swarf Invaded X Box 360 Controller

[rgsparber]

My Mach3 CNC set up was randomly freezing when I used my X Box 360 Controller to move any of the four axes. Replacing all related software did not solve the problem. I then turned my attention to the hardware. Upon disassembling the Controller, I found many tiny flecks of aluminum swarf.

This article explains how I cleaned the swarf out of the Controller. It is not enough to just clean swarf from the circuit board. The bits of metal hidden in and around the numerous plastic parts must also be removed.

If you are interested, please see

http://rick.sparber.org/CSIX.pdf


Your comments are welcome. All of us are smarter than any one of us.


Rick

[C-Bag]

Interesting read, great documentation.

While I appreciate the documentation and I certainly don't mean it as a ding, I wonder how it could be called a homemade tool?

I'm always trying to dive these plastic devices and find the comment that these things are assembled by unskilled workers with the idea that it is easy to reassemble not reassuring. In this case it was true and the fact the case was assembled with screws was a great bonus. Too many times though I've run into stuff that was either glued or snapped together and I can only conclude it was never meant to come apart without breaking it. They want the kids to bug their parents for a new one and to throw theirs in the waste stream.

So I'm always appreciative when I find a great doc like this that clearly shows the steps and the fix. And can help me decide if I want to tackle it or chuck it. Great job as usual.

[rgsparber]

I admit that this is a stretch, but the "home made tool" could be the procedure.

There is a class of problems that are addressed with physical tools and another class that lend themselves to just procedures. Can a logical set of steps be called a "tool". Don't know. Thankfully we have people that run this site to sort it all out. If they decide to not count this as a tool, I'm fine with that.

Rick

[C-Bag]

"the "home made tool" could be the procedure."

+1

I like that a lot. I really was not criticizing, more wondering about boundaries. There has been some critics who have said there is too much "I made a tool" with no explanation or procedure and only a small pic and other stuff that is just homemade, but lumped into tools.

Your file is the opposite of that with a thorough explanation and best of all documentation of the reason for the fix. Being able to fix a homemade tool is a worthy subject IMHO. The best part is it becomes part of the searchable body of reference that is the net.

[mklotz]

My dictionary has, among numerous definitions, this definition of a "tool"...

anything used as a means of accomplishing a task or purpose

Ideas, procedures, insights are as much a tool as the mechanical devices we employ in their implementation.

[rgsparber]

Oh Marv, you are such a tool.... ;-)

[mklotz]

Oh Marv, you are such a tool.... ;-)

That's funny. When I was serving my term at MIT (Monastic Institute of Technology), the argot for studying was "tooling" and someone who spent too much time "tooling" was described as a "tool". The term was dichotomic. To the frat-rats it was an insult; to the folks who were there to get an education it was a left-handed compliment.

Needless to say, I still regard it as complimentary.

[rgsparber]

Marv,

Yes, it was certainly meant as a compliment. My experience in college was the same.

Rick

[DIYer]

Thanks Rick! We've added your Xbox Controller Cleaning Method to our Cleaning category, as well as to your builder page: Rick's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Xbox Controller Cleaning Method by Rick Sparber

tags: cleaner, controller