PS3 controller drift

[Byrthnoth]

Confession:
1) I still play FFXI
2) I still play with a controller
3) I still played FFXI with a PS2 controller and a USB adapter until a week ago

But now I'm in a brave new world where the first 2 confessions are still true but I'm using my newly repaired PS3 controllers to play FFXI. It took about an hour to repair my old PS3 controllers (their d-pads caused random button presses because the case's pinout wasn't making good contact with the board) and get the controllers working with my computer using adapted x-box 360 drivers. Half an hour later, I got it working with FFXI.

One of the controllers works great. The other one works mostly great, but somehow its LX analog stick axis has somehow turned into an integration circuit with an error of about +0.008/1 a second. So it works and can be reset to the minimum value (-1.000) no problem, but if left in the default position it will slowly drift positive (and eventually out of the deadzone). I hooked it up while disassembled so I could see the axis rotation both on the computer and physically at the same time. There was nothing obvious mechanically wrong with it. It slides back to the default position and doesn't move.

My only guess at the moment is that I fried or shorted something when taking it apart and somehow caused it to change so charge builds up in the LX circuit? Anyone have any ideas whether this is the case or how I could fix it?

As a disclaimer, this might not be a new problem. My PS3 controllers had been unusable for 3 years due to shimming issues and were only lightly used before that. I vaguely remember that one of them was shitty and drifty even back then, so this issue could reasonably be an old manufacturing defect that I probably should have RMAed back when they were in warranty.

[Stromgarde]

Since you have two controllers, try swapping out the left analog module from the working controller into the non-working one. If it's the circuit in question you think it is, replacements are quite cheap to come by:
http://www.miniinthebox.com/3d-analo...r_p864514.html

[Byrthnoth]

That is exactly what the working controller's sticks look like. For $4, I might as well just try the shit. It'll be fun even if it doesn't work, and if it breaks something . . . well, the controller was unusable anyway.

[Stromgarde]

Might want to try this link, you get two of them and prime free shipping for not much more:
http://www.amazon.com/Analog-Stick-T.../dp/B00B7Y5XVY
Interesting that the 360 and the PS3 use the same stick module!

[Byrthnoth]

Oh, I'm going to have to use the oven method to remove them from the board, right?

[Stromgarde]

According to http://www.instructables.com/id/Fix-...Arent-Working/ you should only need a soldering iron and some solder wick to pick it up as it comes off.