Build Instructions

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• 1

  Taking apart

  I followed this nice video guide by Colored Controllers to take Steam Controller apart. They also have a written walkthrough with pictures.
• 2

  Soldering wires to the circuit board

  To get thin wires, i've cut and dissected an old iPhone charging cable. Unfortunately i found only 4 wires there, so i had to reuse one color for the ground.
  

  I figured out with a multimeter that the outer circle is a ground terminal and the inner star is the "action" terminal. When an original button is pushed down, it's rubber pad connects both and triggers an action.

  Luckily, every inner star has one "exit" from the outer circle. This is where i could solder a wire. Soldering paste saved my life: with a regular solder i wouldn't have managed to solder in such a thin area without touching the ground too!

  I had to disable the original buttons by insulating the terminals, because they were making the controller crazy. I believe it's possible to make them work along with the "clones". This will be project's next stage. 

  For the ground, i chose a wider metal edge one the left side of the circuit board.

  This is what happens when i use a regular solder... The bump didn't seem to obstruct anything, so i left it there.
  

• 3

  Placing the front buttons

  I used a soldering iron and a pricker to make the holes.

   I chose 12 x 12 x 4.3 mm momentary switches, the thinnest buttons i could find on Ebay.

  Pins of the buttons squeezed through the holes tightly, buttons look stable after i bent the pins inwards. If it loosens up later, i'll use a glue.

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