Anyone good with circuit boards? Need help disabling power on a racing wheel board

I have a Thrustmaster TX base with a Ferrari 458 Italia wheel that is way out of warranty and has a faulty D-pad. Im not spending $150 for a new wheel for just a faulty D-pad when I can just use a wireless keyboard to take over its functions. Everything else works perfectly except the D-pad. Thrustmaster support is totally useless. Ok fine you cant give me the wiring diagram but just tell me how to disable the power. Im about to take a multi tool and will just cut out that section.

Anyone have any ideas on how to safely cut the power without bricking the entire wheel??

 

Gonna need a bigger, zoomed out picture before cutting anything.

Can you just desolder the D-pad and remove it from the board?



You might also look closely at those solder joints, one might be cracked and causing the problem in the first place.

 

Did Ya search the You Tube University library?

 

Problem with the D-pad is its jammed to the right, doesn't look like anything is stuck. I've already tried to move it around but the problem remains.

 

Searched everywhere, nobody has this exact issue. Im running the latest firmware for the wheel so the problem is definitely with the D-pad. I really dont care about fixing it, just want to disable it with destroying the board.

 

What power are you talking about? The D pad is probably just activated using a carbon material. You can try flipping the dpad insert and see if it has continuity that way or check and maybe clean the PCB and conductor. If that fails try to use something else as a conductor and make contact with the circuit and see if it’s responding. If that fails you can trace the circuit on the PCB and try to find the failure


Edit: just watched the video. Looks like the D pad activates micro switches. Probably a switch failure. You said it’s stick to the right? So check that micro switch. You could desolder that switch need be if you don’t care about losing the D pad. Disconnecting anything won’t bring the wheel. Just make sure it’s disconnected from whatever the power source is.

 

No idea, Im totally clueless with this stuff

 

If the D-pad has failed mechanically, I'd just cut all its pins or desolder it to remove it from the board.

 

Ok thanks, I'll try that tomorrow

 

Desolder didnt work so I just cut out that section, seems to be working in initial testing lol