DualShock Controller Differences A - M - H

[Desz]

Hello!

I have some questions and i hope someone can help me.



When creating the controllers Sony hired different manufactures to make the Digital and DualShock controllers.
If you look at the back of the controllers you will see the letters A, M and H.

A stands for Alps, M stands for Mitsumi and H stands for Hosiden.

I know there is a difference between the internals and not the external shell.

But is one better then the other (pcb)?



the type A controller is made in Japan, Korea and China.

the type M controller is made in China.

the type H controller is made in China.



The first DualShock controllers had a screw in the middle.
Later this changed and they moved the screw to the side, also updating the pcb. (better?)

On the slagcoin website you can see the different pcb's: https://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_wiring.html

I've opened up a lot of controllers checking the pcb's, looking for revisions.
The colored DualShock PSX controllers are all made by Alps and made in Korea.
I have several colored versions but the pcb's are not the same.
Some Island Blue ones have KSA1Q19A or KSA1Q19C or KSA1Q22A.
I believe that if the pcb has KSA in front of the number it's made in Korea if it has SA it's made in China.
Does anybody know what the numbers stand for and KSA?
1Q means first Quarter, 22A latest revision?
Looking at the release dates for the controllers:

Does that mean the Island Blue has the latest pcb/revision?
I've read that most people prefer the made in Korea because it reacts faster.



Alps created the SCPH-1180 and all SCPH-1200 color variations and is also the only company making the PS4 controllers.

Mitsumi has made Nintendo controllers in the past so they had experience making controllers.

Hosiden has the most flaws i believe, random dropping inputs and controller just doesn't work altogether.

I believe that all DualShock PlayStations that were sold came with an Alps controller.
(looking at youtube video's of unpackings).

What is your experience with the DualShock controllers?

Is one company better then the other?

Does it matter in which country it was made?

A lot of questions, i know, but i love this topic and would like to know everything there is to know about the best pcb/revisions.
I know there is also the PSOne pcb but i would rather have the original PSX version.

Thanks!

[Janusz]

Everything that I know about Dual Shock variants is published on the site here:
https://strefapsx.pl/rozni-producenci-padow-do-playstation/

I also managed to determine once that it is Hosiden Company that stands for H and not Hori like it was mentioned on wiki and many other sites for a long period of time:
https://strefapsx.pl/hori-hori-hosiden/

To be honest I don't know which variant is better but for sure the last revision of Alps is the worst when we want to clean it and later assemble. I have all three variants of Alps from Japan, Korea and China so perhaps at some point I'll update this topic on the site with some nice photos of their pcbs.

From my other observations I noticed that Hosiden was usually Sony first choice as far as standard controllers are concerned. At the beginning they needed a lot of them so they contracted Mitsumi to produce controllers too and I guess Alps was the last.

As you mentioned Alps made mainly color variants. I think they all were made by Alps. On the contrary, all color variants of standard controller SCPH-1080 were made by Hosiden.

[Desz]

Cool that you got all A versions, i have the ones from Korea and China but not Japan.
l've red all your posts on this subject, you know a lot about it!
But why is the latest revision A the most difficult to clean?
It would be great if you can do a post about the different A versions from different countries.