Dream part with Achilles heel

I try to explain the times:

Usually, at the D-pad gamepad as a disk-shaped component (PS I / II / III, Megadrive, Super Nintendo, etc ...) directly on the board or the main housing. This means that when you press the D-pad, the player's (sometimes very high) acting on the directional pad Thumb power directly (or at most via the "detour" of the board) is supported by the stable main body.

In said Saitek gamepad the directional pad component is disk-like, but rather has the shape of a dumbbell. More specifically, there are two disks which are connected to one another via an approximately 6mm thick hollow tube. The upper plate is the actual control pad that is hingewandt to the "outside world". The lower disk accepts the actuation of the rubber keys on the board.
Actually, to the top (Steuerkreuz-) slice the plastic tube before high loads (bending moments) away by clicking on the housing, a pad is even with pressing the directional pad - but this does not work, unfortunately. The reason may lie in incorrect manufacturing tolerances (As soon as the lower disc rather than resistance meets the top, the tube is charged), similar to a soft material
All the above mentioned thumb force must sooner or later so take the path through the thin plastic tube until it finds again on the second disc in the housing end resistance. That can not be good in the long run.

The plastic from which the multi-component is made is very soft, and one in front of the variety, which discolors whitish in bending. I am sure that already find two out of three owners of this gamepad such whitish discoloration on this component when you screw her pad once. This is the precursor to cancel.

About this (from my point of view, unfortunately, totally disqualifying) Fehlkonstruktion addition, this gamepad is excellent. It is very robust, has a lot of buttons and fit even people with larger hands.

However, I can only advise against this pad. The service life of the three Saiteks this variety that I "knew" (my own and in the circle), only about one-fifth was compared with Playstation gamepads (... and always was the broken pad the "cause of death").

For PS-pads there are now also USB plug and play adapter for PC connection, so they are clearly preferable to the Saitek.