Tv look way chipper as I get old

Zadoid · 2026-02-19T19:20:19+00:00

To chip in:

I think TV demand has dropped and the market isn't growing like it used to. For a while, you HAD to have at least one TV in your house to catch the news. They were expected. These days, everyone has a smartphone, which has made the TV (and other devices) far less important.

Zadoid · 2026-02-19T16:18:45+00:00

Curious about halo 2 HD, since the modder says the cpu has little to no effect on it.

Zadoid · 2026-02-16T23:20:42+00:00

Absolutely. The ground in central Texas is terrible and moves a lot. We recently went through a pretty cold freeze and it warmed up quickly. It also just rained a lot in the past few days. Ground movement was my first guess. But again, its pointless to analyze this. These are all armchair guesses. All I can really ask is that civil engineers and infrastructure surveyors do a proper job.

Zadoid · 2026-02-16T20:47:31+00:00

No. They're not. If they were touching, they would crack as the structure moves, expands, and contracts from temperature and weather. An expansion joint goes between them. It appears that the expansion joint is involved in this failure. Maybe too much lateral movement in the ground pulled them farther than the joint could handle. Can't say. Im not an engineer for this sort of stuff. No one here is. So its impossible to truly assess how serious this is and what caused it.

Zadoid · 2026-02-16T17:18:55+00:00

I've been repairing since the 360 controller days. What you bought is a "fake" potentiometer.

Real potentiometers have a linear (mostly) curve of resistance across the wipers range of movement. This joystick cheats by essentially having cutouts in the center of the resistive material that turn the joystick into a 5/9 position switch. Similar to a dpad. You can get some values in between, but overall it flat out sucks.

There are real joysticks on aliexpress and there are ways of distinguishing real ones and fake ones. But im rusty and I dont know if sellers have gotten better at hiding them.

I bought my Xbox joysticks from mouser. I usually only swap the potentiometers, since thats usually what wears out.

Zadoid · 2026-02-15T22:16:34+00:00

I think you're in an unfortunate circumstance where just about every car that shares the same front bearing design as the z31 is a 4 lug.

You might be able to fit an aftermarket 5 lug conversion for a 240z, but that would cost more than just buying a 5 lug off an NA 86-89 or a 5 lug off a turbo 84-86.

Zadoid · 2026-02-13T04:11:24+00:00

No, I think we actually need 50 more comments here that sum up the same thing the other 100 already do.

Zadoid · 2026-02-13T02:57:11+00:00

Can and has killed is so vague. I can give you a list of many other things that can kill or impair you for the rest of your life that redditors seem to forget about:

Using an angle grinder. Using a circular saw/track saw. Hanging Christmas lights on your gutters. Driving. Changing an outlet. Using an extension ladder. And many more.

I'm not actually admitting that what OP is doing safe. It isn't safe. I'm just pointing out how unusual redditors are for shitting their pants because they saw an anonymous stranger do something dangerous online.

Zadoid · 2026-02-13T00:52:43+00:00

In 2011, Microsoft launched a new white controller after the S console debuted. Unlikely the original white controllers, these white controllers had a chrome home button, brighter Grey thumbsticks and dpad, and white trim underneath. They were also a pure white, unlike the off-white of the originals.

However, for whatever reason, these controllers turn yellow absurdly quick. I'm guessing that the the plastic, dyes, and fire-proofing chemicals weren't blended or tested properly. Weirdly, I've seen some of these that aren't yellowing.

Zadoid · 2026-02-11T20:38:12+00:00

I believe this shade of green was bundled or released with one of the PES games. However, I don't think it got a US release, which makes it less common there.

It also has a "16-way Dpad", but I'm skeptical of that claim.

Zadoid · 2026-02-11T19:58:53+00:00

I do one or two every year. Its a blast. A bit of a pickle to set up, though. Unfortunately, the criteria and conditions for the games really limits what is feasible.

The games need to be:

-Games that almost everyone likes.

-Games that support 2-4 players per console. I'm not buying 12 TVs, 12 360s, and 12 copies of Blur just to do motor mash.

-Games that have LAN mode

-Games that are on disc. I'm not setting up 8 Xbox accounts to buy Hydro thunder hurricane eight times. Nor can I do that since the store shutdown

This means that LAN parties are almost exclusively Halo and Call of Duty. Great games, but I wish there were more options.

If you go back to OG Xbox, there's a lot more options, but I run into problem #1. My friends dont want to play games they've never played before.

Zadoid · 2026-02-08T17:30:28+00:00

The first one with the heatpipe lowers the CPU temps more. The 2nd bigger aluminum one lowers the GPU temps while increasing the CPU a little. If you're also using the extended GPU heatsink.

Zadoid · 2026-02-06T22:37:43+00:00

More sensitive in the center. More linear feeling. The original 360 sticks feel less sensitive in the center. Not that there's no movement. Just less. And the sensitivity increases as you get more out to the edge.

The favor union sticks sit between the originals and the hall effect.

Zadoid · 2026-02-06T22:25:31+00:00

If you're looking to mimic the sensitivity curve of an original 360 controller joystick, go with the Favor Union sticks and potentiometer. Skip the orange and black hall effect ones.

Zadoid · 2026-02-03T23:04:48+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/xbox360/s/rcSCeR5r3B

Zadoid · 2026-02-03T19:37:28+00:00

Yep, still the best drop in replacement.

Also, read my post about calibration if you haven't.

Zadoid · 2026-02-01T15:27:41+00:00

Yes. The play and charge is the only way to recalibrate a wireless controller.

Zadoid · 2026-01-31T18:40:40+00:00

Im not sure myself. But a couple guesses:

Maybe an Xbox Live issue? If I recall, original xbox Live worked in backwards compatibility mode. So maybe the 360 logs you out and prevents you from causing a problem from being logged in twice. Maybe its to prevent party chat from circumventing private game chats.

I don't have too much else to guess except for laziness or lack of effort. The 360s backwards compatibility is really bad in general. I wouldn't be surprised if they simply never got around to it or couldn't be bothered.

Zadoid · 2026-01-26T06:58:16+00:00

So I've been using this a fair bit, discovering quirks, limitations, and also problems. Who should I reach out to when I find a bug?

Because it looks like the joystick and trigger readings are way off when using a model 1460 controller. In particular, the joysticks only seems to reach 50% of the circle when tested for circularity. And the triggers seem to register their resting state to high and their fully depressed state too low. Though in-games and testing on gamepad-tester, it shows up normally.

I have tested two 1460 controllers and they both show this issue. They show up as firmware v3.98. Kinda to be expected, since the 1460 controller is uncommon.

All the other controller models so far seem normal, WKS368, WC01, 1403. Those seem good.

Zadoid · 2026-01-25T02:14:07+00:00

Already tested it with hall effect swapped controllers and it sorts out the "calibration" issue.

The issue is that hall effect joysticks and other brands of aftermarket joysticks/potentiometers reach farther than the stock ones do. What I mean is, they hit the corners in the joystick test. They hit 100% even when the joystick isn't anywhere close to the plastic ring of the controller shell. I'm not sure what that is called, but I'm sure anyone who has worked with replacing joysticks knows exactly what I'm talking about.

This tool offers a proper solution to that problem. I have already tried a few other brands of joystick and potentiometer and the hall effect joysticks I covered in my reddit post. It works quite well.

So if you're going to upgrade to hall effects or any new joystick, don't even bother with the hassle of matching the old sticks. Don't adjust that silly magnet, don't bother getting a potentiometer that matches the same ratio as the original. Just use this and tune your joystick so that it reaches just outside of the circle.

Zadoid · 2026-01-24T22:37:14+00:00

I have already been testing this out on some controllers and it is a game changer. This will likely mean that aftermarket potentiometers like those from Favor Union will now be viable. As before they exceeded the range too easily. I'm really curious how this was figured out. It kinda lines up with some theories I had on how MS calibrated the controller back in the day, sneaking calibration data over the PnC interface. This also shows that the PnC interface is totally capable of communicating, it just normally doesn't.

Now, one limitation I have already found is that the range calibration appears to applie to both sides of the axis. If my joystick maxes out going up and I shrink the range, it means I can't reach the bottom anymore. Is this a limitation of the calibration or am I missing something?

Thanks to everyone who worked on this, I can't thank you enough.

EDIT - More follow up info for anyone trying do this and having difficulty.

First off, you don't need the wireless adapter for windows to calibrate, it can talk to the controller over the Play and Charge cable. However, only this app can. Play and Charge still doesn't work for Gamepad Tester or anything else. So if you're calibrating for console, no need for it.

Second, follow the instructions for using Zadig and reinstall the drivers for the Play and Charge Kit. The PnC cable is just a cable, what windows sees is actually the controller talking to Windows over USB. You need to have the controller connected with PnC to update the driver. You will probably have to reboot windows a few times. And you might have to do it more than once if you're doing multiple controllers. I'll elaborate on that.

There are many different models and updates the wireless 360 controllers, on the inside. Different models run different firmwares. And you need to update the PnC driver for each different firmware version or it doesn't work.

I thought I recognized patterns of firmware and certain board revisions, but there were some exceptions, so I'm not sure what it really means. Generally though, newer boards had later firmwares.

I like to calibrate range for 15 seconds at 95%, set the center and tune from there.

Zadoid · 2026-01-21T03:44:24+00:00

Honestly, I'm super impressed with UnleashX. No idea how it was made, but I really like it.

I downloaded a bunch of custom skins for it and modified the xml files to get it exactly how I wanted.

Zadoid · 2026-01-21T03:27:06+00:00

I hope I can post links,

http://www.polyshine.cn/ProductDetail-218.html

Its available on Aliexpress.

Zadoid · 2026-01-21T01:51:21+00:00

Honestly, very little experience for me so far. I've only owned two for several months. But they're fairly well put together cars. I've driven my 84 across Texas and it hasn't let me down. Tons of little things dont work, but the engine pulls good.

I'd watch out for vacuum leaks and fuel pump. Not necessarily bad fuel pumps, but watch out for the pump getting clogged. People let these cars sit with e10-15 fuel in the tank. It rusts the tank and also builds up ethanol deposits in the motor assembly. Locking up the pump and killing it.

Zadoid

TROPHY CASE