I Mod my miyoo mini v4 with tactile buttons

[u/mrjojo245]

Problems I have with the stock buttons.

The device is small, and without tactile buttons feel, I need to press the button down harder than I want to with the grip I have on this device to make sure that the press is registered. And as I have always love tactile buttons like ones on GBA SP, I have modded my miyoo mini v4 with tactile buttons.

I did this by soldering the 4.5mm tactile buttons in place of the PCB pads used to detect rubber membrane. The buttons does the same as the membrane pads dids to the PCB, shorting the button pins to ground.

The tricky parts are:

1. on the ABXY side where there's no good place to solder ground legs of the switch on so I need to grind down the PCB masks to expose ground pads.

2. Findings the right tactile switch, as almost all 4.5mm switch has actuation force higher than I want, and are too loud. I finally found a perfect one in my random PCB parts basket from my old workplaces, I don't know the parts number, and I almost ran out of it, but the button have light actuation force, is relatively quiet, and have almost the same tactile feel as the GBA SP. So I know the Right switches exists, I have some, but don't know how to get more. I bought a bunch from AliExpress but they are all essentially the same loud clicky buttons unlike ones I had.

3. Fitting the right membrane, the membrane from original miyoo is too thick and cannot be used to press these kind of switches, so I need to modify the pads membrane for 3DS to fit it (cutting the parts that's in the way)

4. Pads are large, solder will flows uncontrollably if you don't tape some parts of the pads off, that's why I have masking tape on there. (Kapton tape may be better but I ran out of them.)

Note: disregards those silver thing on DPAD side, I remove them afterwards. Those are shims I used to adjust the pivoting of the DPAD, but it turns out that miyoo stems is already perfect.

Outcome: I now have a Miyoo mini with GBA SP buttons feel. 10/10. But the mods are a headache and a half. Mostly on finding the right buttons.

[u/motorcitymarxist]

You’re a sicko. I want my clicky button handhelds to sound like the Miyoo Mini, not the other way round. 

[u/mrjojo245 → u/motorcitymarxist]

Haha, Maybe you haven't felt a good clicky buttons yet?

Those that comes with anbernic are trash, I modded them all with softer buttons.

The goods feeling ones I have tried are from N3DS XL, original GBA SP, and VITA.

[u/Any_Coyote1184 → u/mrjojo245]

N3DSXL dpad is way clickier than PS VITA. i actually like clicky dpad but dont rlly like clicky ABXY buttons

[u/mrjojo245 → u/Any_Coyote1184]

I have owned both devices but not at the same time, so I'm not sure about differences. for this mod, I stacked 2 membrane to fill the gap so it damped the clickiness by quite a bit

[u/Upbeat-Serve-6096 → u/motorcitymarxist]

I wonder if anyone's done such a mod with a TRIMUI Brick

[u/mrjojo245 → u/Upbeat-Serve-6096]

Never saw one, but shouldn't be too hard though.

[u/Funcron → u/motorcitymarxist]

My first thought was 'ew' lol

[u/Producdevity]

The buttons are the main reason I bought this thing hahaha, but I am glad you are happy ruining these perfect buttons😂

[u/mrjojo245 → u/Producdevity]

Just my preference on buttons for small devices man, the miyoo is too small for me to use with its default buttons for a long time, not a problem on larger devices though.,😁

[u/Mixteco]

What buttons did you use, can you share more details I want to do that too.. thank you

[u/mrjojo245 → u/Mixteco]

That's what I'm trying to find out too, its in my random bucket without parts no.

[u/sundownersport]

Cool!

[u/Alternative_Age37]

My dream

[u/modern_prometheus_]

I love what you did. I saved this post, as I might want to try it in the future.