Hi folks. First post here in the forums, i usually just chat in the livestreams, so forgive me if i do something stupid.

So in today's Gears stream I brought up my recently modded PS4 controller, and some folks were interested, so here are the details. I, like a ton of folks on the internet, love the dualshock 4, but A. hate the battery life and B. break the damn triggers. Like seriously, i've broken these things 3 times on 2 separate controllers. I got a bag of replacement triggers, but what can i say, i've got big hands and im rough on these things.

Every time, its one of the little plastic pegs that snaps, which makes the trigger rock back and forth, which makes my Crucible K/D even shittier than normal. I've gotten pretty good at replacing them, but this time i wanted to do it for the LAST time, esp since im not so sure the controller can really handle being cracked open and closed so many times.

I found actual cast metal buttons on a british site called 'Zedlabz'. Dig down into their 'replacement parts' and you'll find all sorts of plastic and metal replacements. The metal kit was a bit expensive, but overall this stuff was about equal to whole new controller. I got the battery from Adafruit, which is where i buy all my raspberry pi and other electronics kit parts.

I followed https://www.ifixit.com/Device/DualShock_4 ifixit's guide to do a complete teardown (necessary for the thumbstick replacements, follow those instructions mostly to the end but you DO NOT HAVE TO desolder the thumbsticks. the plastic thumb nubs pop off with a little bit of pull) and THIS for the battery replacement https://www.reddit.com/r/PS4/comments/2rtimv/diy_double_dualshock_4_battery_capacity_internal/ .

All in all it took me about 20-30 minutes. I WOULD NOT buy shitty chinese batteries. I got mine from adafruit and while they're expensive (relatively speaking, about 15 bucks plus shipping, i bought 2) they're guaranteed to not blow up in your face or not charge or nothin. Also make sure you follow the instructions from the reddit post and SWAP THE LEADS if you get the adafruit battery, or you will blow out your controller. Also please dont touch the leads on the battery when you do it, lipo batteries exploding is insanely scary shit. Go slow. Be safe.

So far, i've just run the Titanfall 2 tutorial gauntlet to test this thing. The metal sticks feel better than i thought. The triggers are REAL NICE. I don't think its going to help my KD, but i just wanted this thing to last.

I haven't pushed the battery to its limits yet, im trying to kill the charge it came with so i can charge to full and time it properly, but its double the miliamp hours so im hoping for double the time. The reddit thread claims 12-13 hours of constant use. Downside is the PS4 battery meter seems to just be time based? so its wrong with the bigger battery.

Anyway, just wanted to share. Thanks folks. Happy modding!

Impressive! Always fun to see some moddin'.

At some point I'm confident that I'm going to need to fix my sticks on at least one of my controllers. Rocket League did a number on them, and the rubber is starting to wear off considerably.

I'll echo the point about not getting cheap batteries - I bought one which was advertised as double the mah of the stock DS4 battery and it held its charge for roughly half as long. ;)

For people not wanting to go down the aluminium route (I've got a pair of the thumbsticks and am not that keen on them), I bought this set of replacement bits & bobs from Amazon UK - Link

4 pairs of triggers (and springs), a pair of bumpers, a pair of thumbsticks and some stick covers (which aren't great) for £5.69. The quality's great.

@dave_tacitus: As someone who loves my PS4 controller and whose left thumbstick is finally beginning to rip and tear (after some fucking serious DOOM play, no less), would you recommend that I just buy some of these replacement sticks and manually switch them out? I've had no other problems with the controller in the years that I've had it. I've also never done any tinkering, so I'm a little intimidated to be opening my controller up.

@the_nubster: The only thing I'd recommend is being super careful when removing the ribbon cable for the touchpad as I managed to break the connector once when taking apart a DS4.

Fortunately, I'm one of the eleven people who bought a Playstation TV and the pad works fine with that as the touchpad isn't used.

I found the DS4 an easier pad to work on than the DS3. There are some good sets of instructions on ifixit - Link.

@dave_tacitus: I ordered a set of replacement sticks this morning so I guess we'll see how it goes! Thanks for the link.

Switching out the battery was the first thing I did when I got a DS4 for my PC. Did the same when I got my PS4 too. On PC it also gives you way better control over the light board which by my test is a huge drainage on the battery so I have it completely turned off when on active play.

Personally I haven't had any problems with the triggers but that is probably because I don't use them that often like other people. I still find it easier to use the R1/L1 but the metal replacements is something I am definitely interested in.

Nice on the mod. Hope your soldier didn't get too drunk.

Replaced my analog sticks with a set of anodized aluminum ones, and as soon as I felt how great they feel, I immediately ordered another set for my 2nd DS4.

That's a cool color combo... now I'm a little sad I went with plain Jane black on mine!