On the back shell of the controller (the rearshell), locate four screws. Two are at the top, near the triggers, and two are at the bottom, one on each handle.

Remove all four screws with a Philips #00 screwdriver.

Turn the controller sideways and upside-down, then wrap your hand around one of the handles.

Hold tight with your thumb. Next, use your fingers to firmly — but carefully — push the faceplate away from the rearshell. This will start to separate the two shells. Repeat on the other handle. See the video for help.

⚠️ CAUTION: Don't try to fully open the controller before completing Step 3.

Keep the shells only partially separated for now. Look inside the controller to find the USB ribbon cable, near the right handle.

Reach in and unplug it.

Now that the ribbon cable is free, you can safely finish opening the controller.

Set the rearshell aside for now.

Lift up the battery and maneuver the wires around the battery tray hook.

Unplug the battery.

Use the same screwdriver as before to unscrew the battery tray screw.

Remove the battery tray.

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Keep the battery tray screw to use during reassembly later.

Towards the top of the board, there's another ribbon cable. This one enables Touchpad tracking. Use your fingers or a pair of tweezers to unplug it.

This is finicky and can seem scary, but risk is low: the cable serves no purpose in the final build. If you bend or kink it, there won't be any impact.

The Touchpad ribbon cable pokes through a rectangular opening in the middle plate that holds the board (midplate). As you lift the midplate/board away from the faceplate, maneuver the ribbon cable so it doesn't catch on the midplate during
separation.

After successfully separating the parts, set the faceplate aside for later.

Each vibration motor has two wires — red and black — connecting to the board. Using a soldering iron, disconnect the wires at the board.

Alternate option: cutting the wires may make it difficult to install the vibration motors as replacement parts in another controller. If you accept this risk, however, cutting the wires off is simple. Get as close to the solder joint as you can to avoid leaving excess wire attached.

If you have one, we recommend using a soldering iron.

⚠️ WARNING: Do not yank the wires off the board using force. This action can damage the board.

There's a chance the board is already free. This is okay. If not, locate the midplate clips on either side of the board. Push the clips away lightly while prying the board up. It won't take much force.

The vibration motors are attached to the midplate via strong adhesive.

Apply firm pressure to the area shown until the motor pops out, then repeat on the other side.

Return to your rearshell. There are two pieces of plastic covering the small USB board at the top of the rearshell:

• Wide, white plastic retaining bar
• Large, transparent plastic light bar

Use your fingers to lift the white retaining bar up and out, starting at the right side (not the center). Next, lift up the transparent light bar and remove it. You may have to maneuver it to unhook it from the rearshell, though it comes out easily.

With those two pieces removed, the frosted plastic light diffuser will likely fall out. This is the final piece of the light bar hardware. Save all three pieces for later.

Follow these steps:

1. If it’s in the way for some reason, move the USB-C ribbon cable so it sits flat along the bottom of the rearshell.
2. Place the frosted plastic light diffuser in the opening at the top of the rearshell, then hold it in place.
3. On the bottom-left of the large, transparent plastic light bar, there's a piece of plastic with two prongs. Slide this into the small hook to the left of the USB-C board at an angle, then pivot it downwards until it's sitting flat.
4. To finish, push the white plastic retaining bar into the notch to the left of the diffuser, then pivot it down until it snaps into place.

Afterwards, check the outside of the controller. The frosted plastic light diffuser should sit flush to the surface of the rearshell.

While this seems complicated in text, it's simple in reality.
See the video for help.

The Touchpad has no tracking functionality in a JDM-5X controller, so the Touchpad ribbon cable is in the way.

Remove the Touchpad from the faceplate by pushing along the bottom to rotate it out. On either side of the Touchpad backing, there's a small latch. Pull the latch towards the inside of the Touchpad to free the backing piece. Lift it away from the rest of the Touchpad, guiding the ribbon cable through the opening.

Next, fold the ribbon cable so it lies flat against the Touchpad board. Re-attach the Touchpad backing piece (ribbon cable underneath), then return the Touchpad to the faceplate.

If you'd prefer a quicker and simpler option, you can cut off the ribbon cable instead.

Cutting the ribbon cable off is a destructive step that will cause the loss of Touchpad tracking functionality if you ever try to revert to a standard PS4 board. If you don't care about that loss, cutting it off simplifies the installation.

Look at the midplate area that previously held the vibration motors. Use a cutting tool to cut out the plastic shown in the video.

This doesn't need to be precise.

Removing this plastic will avoid a collision with the rear button installation during controller assembly.

Note: This step only applies to DIY Kits that include rear buttons. If yours doesn’t, skip to Step 4.

Align the openings in the midplate with the pegs on the faceplate and connect the two pieces. They won't snap together, but they should settle in and the midplate should lie flat.

For an effective check, look at the bottom-left and bottom-right of the handles. There are two large pegs there. If the midplate is correctly seated, the tip of those pegs will be flush with the circular openings in the midplate.

Each DIY Kit comes with a fresh pair of PS5 thumbsticks. You can either use these, or transfer your current controller's sticks over. Both options are fine.

To attach a fresh PS5 thumbstick, rotate the stick so the opening on the bottom lines up with the thumbstick mechanism's grey post. Push it on until it stops moving. This typically requires firm pressure, but if it feels like you're having to force it on, pause and double-check the thumbstick's orientation.

To use your old thumbsticks, remove them from the OEM board by pulling them straight off the thumbstick mechanism, then attach them to the JDM-5X board the same way as above.

Grab the board and align the thumbsticks with the faceplate's thumbstick holes. Insert it, guiding the thumbsticks into the holes.

After, push the board the rest of the way down until it's lying flat and both side clips engage.

Use the battery tray screw to secure the JDM-5X board. Over-tightening this screw can cause various pressure-related or fitment issues.

⚠️ CAUTION: Only tighten the screw until it's snug.

Reminder: Only use the battery tray screw, NOT the battery tray itself. The battery tray isn't used in this build.

The Eagle Board enables the connection of extra buttons, often installed in the rearshell.

When you ordered a DIY Kit, you either chose a rearshell with two rear buttons, or a rearshell with no rear buttons.

Your choice will affect the next step.

Rearshell INCLUDES rear buttons:

• The Eagle Board is attached to the ends of the wires coming from the rearshell.
  ⚠️ WARNING: Do not tug on the wires.

Rearshell DOES NOT include rear buttons:

• The Eagle Board is in a small plastic bag included with your order. If you didn't grab it earlier, do so now.

The Eagle Board plugs into the back of the JDM-5X main board, near the bottom. Look for the rectangular port shown in the image. Align the Eagle Board carefully with the port, then press it in.

To check that it's fully in, examine it from the side. There should be no gap between the Eagle Board plastic and the main board's port.

This step isn't strictly necessary, but will help when closing the controller. We recommend following it.

Currently, the USB-C cable likely shoots straight off towards the right side of the rearshell. When plugging in the ribbon cable, this orientation can cause it to collide with the R2 trigger if you don't compensate for it while closing the controller.

To avoid this, fold the ribbon cable downwards, at roughly the 1-inch (~2.5cm) mark. Lightly crease the cable instead of crushing it. After roughly another inch, fold the ribbon cable towards the right.

See the image for guidance. These folds will make it much easier to avoid the collision issue.

There are two important steps coming up when closing the controller:

1. Preventing pinched wires between the shells
2. Plugging the USB-C ribbon cable into the board.

If you have rear buttons, go ahead and simulate closing the controller so you can see where the wires would poke out between the shells. Don't actually close the controller yet. We'll do that in Step 13.

To avoid pinching the wires, push them inside the controller as the shells come together — often, pushing them into the empty vibration motor area is effective. You may need to repeat this when you're actually ready to close the controller, so treat this as practice.

If you don't have rear buttons, you're unlikely to face any wiring-related issues, and you can proceed to the next step.

This step requires a series of small actions while holding the two controller shells close together and reaching inside.
See the video for help.

1. On the left of the board, locate the currently empty ribbon cable port. It has a black latch at the top.
2. Gently pull up the latch from both sides until it lifts partially away from the port.
3. Insert the USB-C ribbon cable into the port. The metal contacts should face towards the R2 side of the controller.
4. Holding the ribbon cable in place, press the black latch down. This will secure the cable.

Before moving on, check for the following:

• Black latch is all the way down
• Ribbon cable is in straight, not at an angle
• Ribbon cable is secure (GENTLE wiggle test)

Maneuver the USB-C ribbon cable so that it routes towards the middle of the controller. (If you chose to follow step 10, this essentially happens automatically.) Double-check that the wires are out of the way, then close the controller.

You may need to adjust the angle around until you find the sweet spot (guide the large transparent plastic light bar into the slot), but eventually, the rearshell will slide into the faceplate.

Apply pressure along both sides of the controller and the handles to make sure all the clips engage. If you see any misaligned plastic, something may have gone wrong, so try again.

Temporarily plug in the controller to your PC, and make sure the LED lights up. If the LED lights up, unplug the controller and proceed to the next step.

If not, check all previous steps once again to make sure you didn't skip or miss anything.

Common issues include:

• Forgetting to plug in the USB-C ribbon cable.
• Forgetting to re-latch the USB-C ribbon cable port.
• Leaving the USB-C ribbon cable at an angle instead of plugging it in straight.
• Damaged USB-C ribbon cable contacts.
• Improperly-seated Eagle Board.

If you're sure everything is correct, contact Battle Beaver Customer Support.

Screw in all four rearshell screws to finish the build. There's a screw hole at the top near each trigger, and a screw hole at the bottom of each handle.

⚠️ Only tighten the screws until they're snug.

To finish the installation process, visit https://setup.mariusheier.com, hold the PS Button, and plug in the controller. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the initial setup, then customize your controller to fit your preferences via the Settings page that comes after.

For Setup instructions, go here. For further assistance with setup or for software troubleshooting, join Marius's Discord server at https://discord.com/invite/QcCkfbkp3S and ask for help there. Alternatively, contact Battle Beaver Customer Support.

The build is complete. Enjoy your new controller!