The Steam Controller, albeit being discontinued in 2019 is still going strong here.
I like that you can easily replace the two AA batteries and even though the original wifi dongle broke somehow, it is possible to just link it with Bluetooth as well.
For me the secret ingredient was the goopy flux. That plus the copper wick and swish the wick around with the soldering iron and it all just reverse splooges away.
Have you tried a manual solder sucker? I'm trash at desoldering too, but a solder sucker has allowed me to complete a couple repairs I otherwise would not have.
I have, and I actually got this fancy Japanese manual solder sucker with a silicone nib. It's pretty fantastic for most things, but the analog stick is still stuck. I may try again some day, but I learned long ago that frustration and electronics projects don't mix.
For me the secret ingredient was the gel or paste flux. Not solder paste though. Flux and the copper wick and just swoosh the wick in the flux with soldering iron and it all just reverse splooges in
There seems to be murmurs of them doing steam controller 2 - just basically a controller based on what they already have on the steamdeck but as an external controller.
The buttons are just too noisy and so is the rumble if you turn it on. Overall I love mine to death and will mourn their loss when they all finally break, but I’ve gotten so much use out of them it’s crazy. I’ve done raids in WoW as MT using Steam Controller as primary input. Did that for years, got fairly decent at CS:S, racing games, even done factory building and that kerbal space launch one. Damn things are so versatile, but definitely showing their age compared to my Steam Deck. It would be nice to have a refreshed Steam Controller.
Meh,I tried it playing dead space and it wasn't working well. If course, it has less moving parts and the quality is great but the touch pads were a lot less responsive than regular analog sticks imho. But that may just be my personal taste.
That’s the biggest weakness of the controller IMO, you have to tweak in the input settings on the game, build a controller config on Steam and learn to use it. Muscle memory is a helluva thing.