I’ve been using the PS4 controllers for my RetroPie and Batocera given the PS5 has replaced the former console.* The PS4 gave our family a solid 10 years of work (after a fix or two), but it’s now slated for the bava console museum. Unfortunately both the PS4 controllers I had been using with my retro setups stopped working recently, but luckily I’ve been down this road before. The USB port on the PS4 controller is pretty fragile, and sooner or later the wear and tear on the charging port catches up with you. That said, both going at around the same time was odd. I picked up two replacement ports (model JDS-030) for about $10 to see if my hunch was right.
The fix requires opening up your PS4 controller, but the operation is pretty simple. You’re just disconnecting a ribbon cable from the battery circuit board which allows you to remove the old USB port cleanly and replace it with a new one. There are tons of tutorials online for doing this procedure, and none I could pretend to do better. That said here’s a look at the ribbon cable on the battery board you need to simply pull on to remove.
A look at the PS4 battery and ribbon cable that connects to the USB port.
Once that’s off, the port on the bottom part of the controller needs to be removed and replaced, and once that’s done your controller should charge again.
A look at a JDS-030 port on a PS4 controller (with ribbon cable already removed)
Anyway, I replaced both charging ports on both controllers and I was 2-for-2, which felt pretty awesome. I can now dedicate one controller to the RetroPie in my home office and the other to the Batocera in bavastudio. Winning!
I used the PS3 controller on the Retropie in the interim and it was annoying because every time I plugged it in it would go into dual shock mode and shake uncontrollably until I reset it. The PS5 controller works cleanly over bluetooth with the Batocera and I’m hoping I can get the PS4 controller to work wirelessly on the Batocera as well.
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*Another thing I must add is that the stick drift on the out-of-the-box PS5 controllers is terrible, and in my mind inexcusable. I bought a setup with two controllers and both were unusable as a result of the stick drift, how is that acceptable Sony?
Q: Asking for a friend :^),… Let’s say one was on the fence of moving up to a PS5 as the PS4 became less used over time (meaning GTA V was the only game played and that was PS3 era). What games, gaming experience led you to gravitate and purchase Sony PS5?
I’m very close to ditching the PS4 as I’ve only used it for the Apps. I haven’t played a game on it since I bought it, hoping there would be a GTA release on PS in the time I had PS4 (but it didn’t happen). And the apps I’m using area already on devices like Amazon Firestick, TiVo Streamer, and similar Android TV HDMI dongles (meaning there is even MORE apps available on Android versus PS4). I just feel like the PS4 never got used as a console the way I had hoped. Maybe I’m getting OLD? That’s a different question, I’ll stick to the original Q:. Et tu PS4 ?
Yeah, if you aren’t playing games like Elden Ring, Last of Us 2 (a family favorite), God of War II, and others that require the power of a PS4 (and now PS5) than I can’t see an argument for getting a PS5. That said, GTA VI is on the way so that might be argument enough if that is your bag.
In our case, two of my kids use the PS4/PS5 for gaming and the other a PC, so it’s enough of a need to upgrade given a PS5 is much cheaper than a gaming PC. So, if you’re planning on getting back into gaming, PS5 is pretty slick and now should have a better price point under $500. Apart from that, I think most TVs can do what playstation does for streaming apps and the like.
Thanks for that quick status check. Always good to know. Game Consoles continue to be the “dollar” cost-benefit ratio champ for sure. Given astronomical off the scale GPU price ramps since 2017 and the rise of LLMs.