Some of you may remember when we talked about this absolutely wild controller
from the same mad lad who built a DIY Steam Deck out of a framework laptop.
Well, at that time, no one knew that an official Steam Controller 2 was on the
horizon. So, one man, Tommy B, did what Valve wouldn't and diyed his own Steam
Controller 2. And [music] guess what? He's here with us today. That is so
cool. But I [music] got to ask you, how awkward is it that Valve went and
released an official Steam [music] controller 2 after you did all this
work? >> I wouldn't say it's awkward. First off, I think this was a great learning
experience for me. I learned so much about how controllers [music] work and different wireless protocols and like
building a trackpad from scratch. Second, I think mine is unique enough to
coexist [music] with the Steam product. I think it's got some features that the Steam one doesn't. Third off, we all
know that Valve products don't exist until they actually [music] exist. We
were told 2026, but >> what does that mean >> exactly? Who knows? And the last thing
is that my controller can do something that the Steam controller can't do, and
that is >> splits [music] in half >> and still works.
>> Still works. Two independent halves communicating to the same dongle.
>> That's pretty cool. And the best part is he open sourced the design, so anyone
can build one of these. I cannot wait to check this out.
>> Oh, you'll be doing more than checking it out. You're going to build one yourself today.
>> But first, I'll be building a segue to
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below.
[music]
This thing is so cool, you guys. On the surface, it's the built-in controller
from the Steam Deck, but hacked together to function standalone, which might
sound pretty simple, but in practice, it involved using a mix of official valve
parts purchased from iFixit. Third party steam deck parts, as well as fully
custom track pads and some custom PCBs
to tie the whole thing together, or [clears throat]
apart, as it were. The custom PCBs also
helped make it a bit more affordable. and all of that. That was just the
hardware. The software was a completely separate can of worms, which we'll get
to later. First, for any of the very passionate owners of the original Steam
Controller, I probably won't need to explain this, but for everybody else,
what is the appeal? [music] Because it gives me an extra option for my inputs.
So, now I can draw my tricks if I want to uh shove it.
>> Right. So, basically, you've got gesture inputs. Almost
>> gesture inputs pretty much. Exactly. games that don't have maybe native
gamepad support, right? >> You can use it as a mouse, like an actual mouse, and it's pretty accurate
to use your thumb. >> And finally, interface navigation.
Steampig picture mode, it's pretty okay, but if you ever have to leave it and go
to Windows, it can be imperfect. It's
something we've talked about extensively on our channel before, but it bears repeating. It is so cool the way that
home 3D printing allows makers to rapidly [music] prototype and experiment
with different designs. What are the pieces that I'm holding right now?
>> Well, I wanted to be able to mess with the ergonomics of the controller. This parallel controller works great if you
have a screen in between, but with it being so close together, it's not the
most ergonomic fit, right? >> So, I've brought a couple things to mess
with here. So, I can just pull that off. Slides in here. Slides in there.
>> Boom. >> It fits like that. So, you can see there's a slight angle here, and then there's an angle here. So, this actually
is probably more similar to how the the new Steam Controller will be. And then
this one is special because I added a battery inside of here. So if I put this
here, there's also a slight angle it adds. Put it in here. You see this light
turns on. There's a green light in there. So that means both halves are actually charging off of it. And then it
adds a little bit of ergonomics, too. >> What do you think is the coolest part of
your controller, though? >> Uh, well, I'm kind of a nerd. I I'm electrical engineer, so I I really like
the the fact that they are two separate controllers. I think programming them to
both send data to the dongle was one of the coolest things that I did. As well
as actually the trackpad, designing that from scratch. That was really what made
it come together. I think that's why no one's really done this project before is you can't buy Steam Deck trackpads
secondhand. >> Now, I saw some criticism on your last video that a 6x6 grid probably isn't
enough to be accurate. But can you walk people through why that's not really how
it works? >> It's a a 6x6 grid of electrodes and each
electrode has like a full analog read. And so that means a range of about a
thousand by a thousand. So it's a lot more granular than 6 by six.
>> So don't worry about it. Basically, >> yeah, don't don't worry about it at all.
You'll find these are plenty accurate. I can be very specific with my my finger
placement. >> What? What are you thinking?
>> Nothing. Nothing. Nothing at all. I'm thinking, do I get to build one now?
>> Sure. >> All right, let's do it. So the first thing we need to do then is build a
trackpad. >> Yes, we do. >> I've never done that before. >> All right, it's not too hard. The
trackpad's already designed and >> made it sound [clears throat] really hard before
>> designing the trackpad was really hard. >> Putting it together isn't to be safe.
Use some of this cap-on tape and we'll go over the parts that are already
presoldered just so you don't accidentally desolder them. >> He keeps asking me just in case the
answer will change. Um, no, I don't solder much.
>> Well, you've done like more way more intricate soldering than I've ever done. [music] >> Yeah, but here's the thing. My job is to
learn a lot about something and get good enough at it to do the video that I'm
doing >> and then by literally that afternoon I
will be working on something else that I need to know completely different things for.
>> You're running out of space. >> I Yep. Both the RAM and the long-term
storage are getting pretty tapped out these days. Okay.
>> I don't know if that's a good way to test the hot air gun. >> Prove it.
>> All right. All right. So, we're just going to melt it. Pretend those pads.
>> Yeah. >> But don't burn anything. >> Uh-huh. >> So, I will say this is definitely the
hardest part of building the controller is this part. [music] The reason it, you
know, didn't come installed is the the service I ordered my PCBs made through,
they didn't offer that chip as part of their PCB assemblies. >> Okay. Well, I'm not going to lie. I
think they're tinned, but I'm not sure. Only one way to find out, I guess. >> So, I think first thing that we can
solder here will be the MCUs. They're called the Xiao NRF [music]
52840 Sense Plus. >> Oh, cool. So, in your video, you said
you were limited to micro USB, but I see a USBC connector.
>> Yeah. So, in my original video, I used an Adafruit uh NRF 52840 [music]
board, but I've since switched to the Seed Studio one, and this one also has
battery connectors [music] so we can make use of its internal battery charging circuit. Didn't have to add
that. Uh, and then we still have a bunch of GPIO. Sick. Okay. And so, we're going
to want to keep it [music] as centered as possible. And the way that I like to
solder it is to only do one pad first. And then we're going to melt that one
on. Make sure everything is centered and then we can start all the pads. Oh, did
I mention I'm calling the project open split [music] tech? >> Oh, cool. The name can still be changed
if people have good ideas and want to let me know. But that's what I'm going with right now. That is the name on the
GitHub. This uses what they callated holes. So, the solder actually goes or
like the pads actually go all the way to the edge. [music] And that's what I'm kind of making use of here to be able to
solder it down to the PCB without the need of like through hole. Important to
mention with like the actual Steam one coming out. >> Yeah. is like [music] if you just want
to buy a controller to use, like buy that one. >> My project's great and stuff, but like
you're going to be someone who enjoys soldering. >> Definitely engineering background, [clears throat]
not sales and marketing background right here. >> So, from here, I can solder on these,
but I'm going to have you solder on that one. >> Sure. >> On the side, I can flash firmware to it.
So, we can hook up [music] your trackpad and see if it works. So, flashing firmware on this is pretty
straightforward. Uh, what you do is there's a little small reset button
[music] on here. double click it and then it'll pop up as a flash drive and
it looking for a UF2 [music] file. So I brought it with me but it's also on the
GitHub. You can just go and download it under the release section and this is my
[music] left controller and I can just copy and
paste it over and as soon as I do this will reboot and you'll see a little red
LED turn [music] on and there it is. So now this is the left controller.
>> I'm done. >> Okay, >> check my homework. >> Check your homework. Make sure you
didn't bridge anything. Looks all connected. Looks good to me. >> Okay. The one I'm less confident about,
though, the trackpad. >> Yeah. Let's check if that works. So, we're going to hook it up with the
ribbon cables. >> Okay. >> So, this one actually installs upside
down. You'll see more why later. >> Oh, that's wacky. This is the part where
we find out [music] what color the magic smoke inside it is.
>> The trackpad does take a few seconds to boot up. Let it spin a few seconds. So,
>> okay. Damn. >> Not seeing it.
>> Damn. You know what? I'm going to take one more attempt at it and then we'll
call it.
Okay, that was a pretty simple fix. I just went over the edges with the
soldering iron. Just didn't have enough solder on some of those pads. I think
even the hard stuff, I got to say, is not that hard. My soldering on this on
the first side is really, really bad. And then on the second side is only a
little bit bad. Like >> you'd be able to teach yourself how to
do this level of complexity, I think, over the course of just this project.
All right. So, we do have a little bit more soldering to do on [music] this. And then we have a really small button
for our home. It's just the only button that fits.
>> This guy. Don't worry. The hard part's over. Also, this guy. I've got a really
small button. >> It's not that bad, man. It's not bad. >> You're the one who said it's really
small. >> It is really small. It's that big. Now, you can solder that, right? There's
[music] just two tabs on the side. Just two little tabs. So, it's a little bit off, but actually, it does make it
easier to solder because it's on the side. >> Okay. So, it's a feature, not a bug.
>> Exactly. And [music] same thing, we'll do our best to keep it as centered as
possible when [music] we do solder it on. Next, we're moving on to assembling
the track pads. >> Cool. >> We have these little I printed them out.
They're basically the springs. Have you ever taken apart a Steam Deck before?
>> Yes. It's been a long time. >> So, I had to kind of recreate my own.
So, this is actually important that it's printed out of PETG. Uh because PETG is
a little more flexible than PLA. >> Got it. >> When you buy the case, it comes with all
the stuff you need. It's a It's a mod case for a Steam Deck which I've pre-cut
for you. >> Oh, that's so nice. >> You're welcome.
>> Thank you. Oh, damn. There's a thumb print inside this controller forever
now. >> I was thinking at the end I might leave this controller with you guys so it'll be forever imprinted with you. So, same
thing. Line up the notch. Stick it down. >> Try not to push on the chips or the
connector. Of course, you don't want to break anything. This would be the worst
place to possibly break it. And what we're going to do too is throw on the
ribbon cable or FPC if you want to be technically correct because we're not
going to be able to access this once we hot glue it to here. >> Got it.
>> Trackpad spring. [music] We're going to stick it on. You'll see one spot has a little kind of dip in it and that's
where the ribbon can cable is going to come out. >> Oh, I see it. That's crazy. We're just
going to hot glue this together. >> Going to hot glue it together. >> That's crazy.
>> There's a few reasons for it. First reason is that hot glue is [music]
easily accessible. >> And if we need to take it apart again, we can just peel off the hot glue and
take it apart. If you need to get back into it, >> sure can. >> Second reason is that there's not a lot
of force that's actually going to be pulling. There's almost no force that'll
pull the trackpad off of it. We don't need a lot to hold it on here. We could
probably get away with double-sided tape if we wanted to. I think it's funny. It's kind of a meme that you're like so
short, Lionus. But for reference, I'm 5 to say that [laughter]
>> was all a setup. >> This is a huge place where we could save a lot of money as far as the parts go.
The triggers themselves are like 20 USD, which is a lot, right? Cuz two of them
now it's $40 already, right? >> But the inside part that houses the
magnet is the part that is pretty complex and would be hard to 3D print,
which is where I [music] may be asking for help. First, we're going to focus on
the bumpers. So, you have your right bumper. I have the left bumper. Mine has
the D-pad. There is a little modification we have to make here.
>> Of course, it's extra wide on the ends, and that's actually to make it lock into
place a little better [music] for the Steam Deck, >> right? >> But I have no idea what connector they
used on the actual Steam Deck. There's like no part number for it. So,
>> and we're too wide for them. >> We're too wide. So, we got to cut off the little bit extra. >> Oh, okay.
>> And this is very easy. Like, if you're doing this, don't be scared.
>> You can see I just need to aim to cut off that little bit extra. There you go.
>> Nice quality. Same thing on the other side. I know. Quality homemade game
controllers. We're going to go ahead and install everything into the case here.
Starting with actually the trackpad. >> Oh, brilliant.
>> So, the trackpad. >> I'm going to guess it goes like that. >> It does exactly do that.
>> Nice. >> Yep. It's that small for your >> Sure do.
>> That's crazy. >> And you can get the Prismagic collection
at ltstore.com. >> Next buttons because we're going to put
in the bumpers. There's a little bit of like a clip that holds in the side. So,
you need to I have no better word to describe it other than finagle it to
[snorts] all get in place. So, now each side gets three screws.
>> There is some overlap with a couple of the things. So, there's a couple screws
we [music] don't install. And I just know this because I've memorized it.
>> Tommy B is planning to have a text version of his build guide rather than a
video version. That'll be coming >> hopefully soon.
>> He has a day job, so whenever he gets to it. [music] One thing I like to do
personally just to make my life easier is connect the the button PCB right now.
>> You don't seem like the kind of person who likes to make your life easier. >> Why not?
>> Because you built your own controller. >> I'm willing to do things that are difficult if they're worth it. You know
what I mean? >> Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. >> The next one goes at the bottom of my
little open split deck logo on the corner. >> And that's the long one.
>> Yeah. And that's the right hole. There you go. You caught that one.
>> Yeah. This is great. It's really coming together. Awkward question. How much am
I going to end up paying for one of these that I built myself?
>> Uh, right now you're probably sitting around 250 to 300,
>> right? >> But that would also you'd wind up with
probably enough parts to make more than one. >> I see. Right.
>> One thing that's cool about this, too, is Yeah, we're paying a lot more than we would for a regular controller, but
we're getting a high quality controller. Like, we've got the aftermarket gilly
kit sticks now. >> Mhm. Let's do a little more soldering.
Solder on the battery connector. I pre-wired them a little bit for you and
they're going to be pretty long. So, we're going to solder to We have a plus and minus. Just make sure you line up
your black to minus, your red [music] to plus. We're actually going to wind up cutting them because we're going to also
solder in a switch. We're going to also go ahead and add some safety hot glue.
>> Is that different from regular hot glue? >> Yeah. Yeah. This one keeps the [music] battery safe. We're just going to go
over it with some hot glue. This helps insulate it and also keep us from
potentially [music] accidentally ripping them off. It does lead into one of the
quirks of this device, and that it needs to be on to charge. Originally, I wasn't
going to have a power switch at all and just have it go into like a sleep mode like most electronic devices do. There's
not a physical flipping switch. But one of the issues I ran into is it's
actually the hull effect sticks. They draw power when it's in sleep mode. And
I ran out of GPIO pins to use for
something that could control the power. >> Got it. That's for future Tommy to deal
with. >> Yeah, future Tommy to deal with. >> Yeah, screw that guy. >> And we'll have a lot more pins to work
with, which will let us enable things like, you know, turning on and off
power. This is probably a little in the weeds right now. I'm thinking there
might be some extras over at LMG.gg/flat
plane that didn't make it to the YouTube cut. So, uh, maybe we'll see you guys
over there. All right. Next, I prefer to cut the red wire. That's [music] going
to be your your positive. >> Yeah. Bomb diffusal tips. >> Mhm.
>> Always cut the red wire. >> Always cut the red wire. That's what they say. Not to keep making [music] my
project sound awesome, but this is might be the most jank part. It's just lining
up the screen is really difficult. [music] Okay. >> It doesn't line up well,
>> just, you know, by default. And so, I'm going to solder one of the holes.
>> Solder a hole. >> Yeah, just one of them. >> The holes.
>> Yeah, the through hole where the uh Sorry, LIKE THESE. >> OH, YOU'RE SPIN it that way. And you
kind of have to angle it to kind of get it in there. >> Oh, yeah. >> And then it rotates down.
>> Oh, yeah. >> Make sure the pins are coming through. >> This is the part where I mean it's a
little jank, >> dude. We're close. >> Very close. >> I can I can smell it. Wait, no, that's
the leaded solder. >> Take a deep breath. [laughter] These are
cool. They're not your typical vibration motors. These are actually called LRA,
which is a linear resonating actuator. It's got a baby solenoid [music] in
there that like pushes forward and back >> rather than an offset weight on a motor.
Currently, my best place I have to install it is [music] just in between this back button and the ribbon
connector for the trackpad. >> Okay, so here's where [music] our bougie
vibration motor goes. >> It is a bougie vibration motor. They're more expensive [music] than a typical
vibration motor. We're going to install our batteries real quick. Grab a
battery. Press it into the connector. Yeah, puncture the battery first, right?
>> Don't puncture the battery. >> How do you get the energy out of it then?
>> Battery safety is a really important thing when it comes to lithium ions.
[music] I'm sure this is not the first time people have heard this, but for
these batteries that I source specifically, they're like the ones through Adafruit. [music] You're paying
more for them than like you ones you can just buy on Amazon or something, but at
least you can guarantee that they're like safe cells. [music] It's really
easy to buy knockoff cells that will just catch on fire. Got it connected.
So, I'm going to flip my switch. You should feel it vibrate in a moment.
Before that, triggers. >> Oh, yeah. We'll need those.
>> Triggers are helpful. >> Yeah. >> The little spring goes on there.
>> See that little knob? And then you got to clip [music] the two things over.
>> Sure do. One last sanity check before we screw it down. >> Yeah.
>> We'll walk over here. >> Yeah, let's do that. >> Can you trackpad click?
>> Trackpad click. >> Cool. >> Hell yeah.
>> All right, let's screw it together. >> So, this one's yours. This one's mine.
>> Mhm. This is also the part where we install some magnets to help hold it
together. >> Oh, yeah. How do they work? >> How do they work? >> Yeah.
>> I don't know how to explain how magnets work. >> Are you saying that you're not smart
enough to explain it or I'm not smart enough to understand it? >> Uh, both. And it should hold in actually
pretty solid even without the screws. >> Mhm. Yeah, it kind of snaps on there a
little. It kind of looks like there's one more hole here. >> So, that hole actually to be able to
access that reset button on the MCU. [music]
>> Got it. >> Remember, we double clicked that reset button earlier to put it into the
bootloader mode. Got it. >> You could flash firmware to it.
>> There you go. It'll uh I like the word
self clearance. They'll get better at snapping together as time goes on.
>> Yeah. Sick. I I get to use it now.
>> Yeah, let's use it. Time to play some games. >> Heck yeah. I've never played Skate. What
are the odds you think that your controller would make me good at it?
>> Very low. >> Really? >> We can try. >> Is that because your controller is not
very good? >> No, it's because you're probably not very good at skate,
>> right? Well, your coaching should make me better at it.
>> Yes, most definitely. >> Okay, cool. Oh, man. I can do like a flying sidekick.
>> Yeah, jump in the air and hold the right trigger.
>> Why would you have me do that? >> So, you could do a front flip. So, now
let go of the right trigger uh [music] at the right time and you can land it.
>> Yeah, there you go. >> Okay. All right. Okay. I got this.
>> So, the way you oy is by pressing or going down on your right stick and going
up quickly. So, if you just put your finger towards the bottom of the trackpad and hold it there, [music]
it'll you'll go into like an ollie position. And now, slide your finger up
straight up. Yeah. Kick flip.
>> Okay. >> Oh, backside crook. >> So, basically, we've just got a lot of
granularity in our controls here. >> Yes. A lot of like customization and
just like a different way to interact with the game that you wouldn't have in any other experience. Just like with the
Steam controller and the Steam Deck, if you're not that into the trackpads or
the game doesn't benefit from it, you can just completely ignore them.
>> Yeah, there's no reason you have to use them. But it's that extra layer of
interaction you get that [music] I think makes my controller stand out. >> We mentioned this very briefly earlier,
but officially there's no support for two players just yet. But you loaded a
player two firmware onto this one. >> I um [music] hardcoded in a a second
player support, so it's still very experimental. So, no promises this will work perfectly, but we can definitely
give it a try here. I did do a pre-release on the GitHub for the two
bits of firmware. Ideally, in the future, I'll have some sort of like
pairing routine where each thing will have its own unique dongle,
>> right? Yeah. >> But for right now, any dongle can talk to any controller. Okay. How do I pass?
>> Uh, I think it's B. Nice. >> Wait, I have a player down.
>> The [snorts] player down. Time out. >> Uh, sure. Hey, look at that. You have another player down. Hey, look, another
one. [laughter] Hey, look. A third one.
>> You just pushed me over. I have nobody up. How am I supposed to fight against
that? All three of my players are on the ground. >> Hey, you have all the same players I do.
You could throw the stick. Look at this replay. They're just They're all dead.
That's a cheesy goal. You know what's not cheesy is this project. Yeah, it's a
little expensive. Yeah, it's a little timeconuming, but as far as like DIY
things go, it's it's pretty polished actually. >> Thank you.
>> Good job. >> Thank you. still a lot of things that can improve. There's a whole laundry
list, but I guess one thing you could take away from this video and this [music] project is that this is actually
probably the least functional you'll see it. I have a Discord setup for this
project specifically. And then there also is a GitHub setup where you can
open issues [music] for suggestions. Let's get all of that linked down below. Thank you so much for coming up here.
This was an absolute blast. This is such a cool project. And uh who knows, maybe
by the next time we talk about it, you'll be [music] doing some pretty
crazy stuff with like controllers or >> I make lots of things. You should
subscribe to me. >> Yeah, do that. >> Thank you for bringing me out. This was a great time.
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that was pretty wild, too. >> It was a cool video. >> Yeah. Would you watch that? >> I did watch that one.
>> So smart. >> How is he so smart? Yeah. >> It's like not fair to the other people,