The benefit of purchasing a JDM-5X board from Battle Beaver means receiving a ready-to-play controller.

We remove all of the required equipment and technical soldering experience to make use of the parts you'd get from Marius, and offer our own patented and signature modifications that professional and casual players enjoy to build a uniquely competitive PC-Only controller.

To setup, recalibrate, remap, and more:

https://setup.mariusheier.com/
For update notifications please use Marius' Official Channels:
Firmware Updates: https://update.mariusheier.com/

The board requires a wired connection to a Rear I/O port with a USB-C to A cable. Connections to a case USB port or a USB hub are incompatible. All new Battle Beaver x Marius controllers are bundled with a generic 10ft USB-A to USB-C for use.

As this is a custom board, it is important to note that controllers built with this WILL NOT HAVE the following:

• Console connectivity
• Bluetooth connection
• Macros / Keybinding
• Rumble / Vibration
• Touchpad Tracking
• Battery

MIDAS Mechs (HE) are the custom 5 pin Hall Effect thumbstick for the PS4 JDM-5X by Marius Heier.

MIDAS stands for Magnetic Integrated Digital Array Sensors, and are only compatible with the PS4 JDM-5X board. Unfortunately the 5 pin connectors are not compatible with 1st Party boards from Sony or Microsoft.

These unique Hall Effect thumbsticks overcome the issue you see in traditional 3 pin HE sticks other 3rd party controllers have by utilizing a fully circular magnet sensor for wider signal coverage, and an additional 2 pins of signal transference for improved accuracy and stability.

All of our modifications were built and developed on the ALPS platform, but after testing the Ginful stick boxes we believe that they have a significant enough difference in the return-to-center feeling that we decided to stick with what we know.

The JDM-5X board is a custom PC only controller board developed by Marius Heier, matching the form factor of a PlayStation 4 board. It's one of the fastest boards available on the market: GPDL testing shows a button latency of 1.43ms at 8KHz, which is faster than an overclocked 8KHz DualSense controller (2.11ms) and is roughly twice as fast as a max-overclocked PlayStation 4 controller (2.89ms).

Click here for Average Latency Comparison by Controller.

The JDM-5X also reaches that 8KHz polling rate without having to install separate overclock drivers like hidusbf. With this board in your hands, you'll never have to doubt whether or not your controller is keeping up with you.

Alps OEM thumbstick mechs are the standard mechs used on PlayStation controllers. They'll act and feel just like a stock controller, because they're stock parts. However, due to how carbon-track potentiometers work, they will almost always develop stick drift over time.

This is an unavoidable limitation of the physical hardware. If you're okay with that risk, nothing will perform or feel more like the controllers you're used to than OEM thumbstick mechs.

If you want to avoid thumbstick drift for as long as possible, though, MIDAS HE 5-pin and Magneto TMR 3-pin both fulfill that role.

They both have upgraded sensors that use magnets to generate thumbstick input values instead of a carbon track that wears down over time. Both offer superior performance compared to OEM, and both are highly drift-resistant.

Where they differ is in the technology:

MIDAS HE 5-pin
MIDAS Mechs use an array of Hall Effect magnetic sensors combined with two extra pins for signal validation, so they're capturing more reliable data from more areas of the magnetic field as the thumbsticks move. Hall Effect technology is older than TMR, but the sensor array setup is fundamentally different than most Hall Effect mechs, which usually only use a single sensor.

Magneto TMR 3-pin
Magneto Mechs use TMR (Tunnel Magnetoresistance) sensors, the highest-precision magnetic single-sensor technology available in a controller. They lack the extra validation pins and sensor array of the MIDAS mechs, but precision is still high and drift is still rare. Common feedback is that they feel closer to OEM handling.

So are MIDAS mechs or Magneto mechs the better magnetic sensor option?
This will fundamentally come down to personal taste. Both magnetic sensors are extremely accurate and highly drift-resistant. TMR is generally better technology than Hall Effect, but the MIDAS Mechs have the extra sensors and pins for a cleaner and more complete signal. Magneto Mechs, on the other hand, can feel closer to an OEM controller, and they perform at a similar level for a lower cost.

Either choice is excellent.

Yes, your controller is ready to go out of the box, set up and calibrated in-house by our technicians before shipping.

Note: We calibrate every controller to match our optimal settings, but those settings may not match your preferences. Customize at https://setup.mariusheier.com.

Stick Configuration
Inner Deadzone: 2%
Outer Deadzone: 5%

Raising the Outer Deadzone helps push the Circularity Error Rate to a range closer to OEM, reducing the likelihood of sluggish diagonals. We also fine-tune the thumbstick values in Advanced mode to make sure each cardinal direction (up, down, left, right) easily reaches a maximum value. Exact fine-tune numbers vary.

Trigger Configuration
Mode: Analog for all trigger types. (See "Should I choose Analog or Digital for
triggers?" for more explanation.)

Rest: When triggers are at rest, we make sure the Raw value under the trigger meter is slightly higher than the Rest value. Exact numbers vary.

Press: This value controls how early or late the triggers reach their maximum value. Exact numbers vary.

Hair Trigger: 100% - This slider doesn't behave as expected, so we set it to 100% to effectively disable it.

LED Control
Color: #0099FF for Battle Beaver blue.

External Input Mapping
Button assignments vary depending on customer selection. Our most common layout is Left - X (cross), Right - O (circle).

Polling Rate
Slider: 8KHz.

First, check these common factors:

• The setup configuration: make sure the polling rate slider didn't reset itself to a
  lower value, then re-save the calibration and check again.
• Your cable specs: USB-A to USB-C, USB 3.0+ for best performance.
• The USB port you're using: connect to the motherboard directly, not through a USB hub or to a front panel USB header.

If those aren't the issue, join Marius's Discord server at https://discord.com/invite/QcCkfbkp3S and ask for help there. Include as much detail as you can.

Note: to check the polling rate of your JDM-5X board more reliably, use the DEEPPOLL tool found at https://tools.mariusheier.com.

8KHz polling rate may be too much for your system (or the game you’re playing) to handle. Older CPUs, some motherboards, or certain USB ports can get overloaded by the higher polling rate.

If you don’t want to drop to a lower polling rate, try the easy options first: different cable, different USB port, different game. After that, use Marius’s CPU Direct tool to make sure you’re connected to a CPU-direct USB port.

If the issue continues, drop the polling rate to 4KHz and check again. If that isn’t it, drop to 2KHz and check again. And if that isn’t it, the most effective next step is contacting Marius via his Discord for deeper hardware troubleshooting: https://discord.com/invite/QcCkfbkp3S.

Note: Battle Beaver is unable to assist with individual motherboard-level connection issues or JDM-5X hardware issues beyond the basics.

We’re currently building an XLAT latency measuring tool from Finalmouse to provide our own robust testing numbers. However, early community testing has shown that even all the way down at 1KHz, the JDM-5X can perform faster than 8KHz OC’d DualSense/DSE controllers.

As Marius himself puts it, asking the pizza guy, “Is it done yet?” more often is less important than making sure the pizza is cooked faster.

Yes, the software can be running without causing an issue. However, using it to try to
overclock one of these boards will cause performance to degrade. Instead, make sure no overclocks are applied to the JDM-5X board or the USB port it's plugged into, then use Marius's Setup page to apply the 8KHz polling rate.

No. These boards share the PlayStation 4 form factor, but they are not a PS4 board
replacement. The JDM-5X has no console compatibility and is PC-only. Because of
this, it's plug and play on PC — no extra software required.

For all Battle Beaver JDM-5X controllers: calibrate the triggers as Analog, regardless of whether you ordered stock or Smart Triggers. During initial setup, do not click the SKIP THIS STEP button.

Smart Triggers initial setup: follow the on-screen instructions as closely as you’re able to. Since there’s no way to actually slow press a Smart Trigger, however, getting the counter to go down during that step will require some experimentation with the timing.

If you did accidentally select SKIP THIS STEP during initial setup, don't worry:
repeating the Setup or Calibration process will allow you to fix it.

In the Trigger Configuration section in the Settings Menu, make sure the triggers are set to Analog.

The reason: Selecting Digital tells the controller to look for triggers on the Eagle Board. We wire Smart Bumpers and Triggers to a separate chip.

Note: this information may change with a future board revision or software update, and it may not match if you purchased your controller from a different company.
Last updated: February 27, 2026.

3-pin and 5-pin thumbstick mechs and boards are not cross-compatible. The boards themselves are different where the mechs connect.

Swapping from 3-pin to 5-pin requires purchasing a new board of the correct variant. To purchase one from Battle Beaver, you have three options:

• Build your own: https://battlebeavercustoms.com/pages/ps4-marius-builder
• Send your existing controller in for an upgrade: https://
  battlebeavercustoms.com/pages/ps4-send-in-upgrade
• Purchase a DIY Kit to upgrade at home: https://battlebeavercustoms.com/
  collections/marius-board-kits

Costs vary depending on which option you choose. Base cost is $150 for a 5-pin board, and $120 for a 3-pin board, not including installation or other modification costs.
(Pricing info is current as of February 27, 2026, and is subject to change.)

AKNES V5/V6 TMR sensors, retrofit onto an OEM Alps frame for a drift-resistant upgrade that keeps the familiar OEM feeling under your thumbs.

Note: this information will change over time if/when AKNES releases new versions and
we receive new stock.
Last updated: February 27, 2026.

Use the DEEPPOLL tool located at https://tools.mariusheier.com.
Note: this tool does not measure input latency itself, only polling rate.

For DEEPPOLL support, join Marius's Discord server at https://discord.com/invite/QcCkfbkp3S.