In my past life as a console gamer, I was wary of any controller not bundled in with my first-party hardware. These days though, there are lots of excellent PC gamepad options—particularly in the budget category—but how cheap is too cheap?
Our current pick for the best PC controller that won’t hurt your wallet is the GameSir Nova Lite. This costs comfortably under $30 on a good day, but how low can you go in the budget realm? Well, how about a pad you can make yourself in about six hours for €10 (or about $11.22)? The catch is…uh, well, just look at it.
Dubbed the Undercooked V0.4, this thing doesn’t have a D-pad or even a full set of face buttons. Instead, this project limits itself to a single analogue stick, ‘X’ and ‘A’ inputs, a menu button, and a ‘B’ button that’s been relegated to the pad’s right shoulder.
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According to the creator, Lazy_Duck, “the idea was to make it simple, affordable and that you could get all components even in the smallest electronics shop quick and cheap.” As such, this simplified pad doesn’t even feature a full PCB.
Instead, you’ll need a protoboard with an RP2040-Zero microcontroller—that is, if you fancy DIY-ing something that looks a bit like the tech you would have seen coming out of East Germany after the wall came down. With only four buttons and a stick, it definitely gets points for novelty at the very least.
The body may also earn itself a few more points for durability. Made from 150 g of 3D printed filament, the shell is then stuck together with heat-set threaded inserts. Basically, this gamepad should be able to take a tumble, or indeed being flung across the room.
All of those 3D printed ridges don’t look like they’ll be especially comfortable in the hands over extended periods, so you may want to sand the outer parts of the shell before putting it all together. Mind you, sanding may not do much for comfort given the back side of this controller is completely flat.
My fingers are aching just looking at it. Still, if you’re looking for a cheap and cheerful electronics project, you can’t go too wrong with this, even if you don’t end up actually using it.
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