GRIFTA SOLO GAMEPAD

This Grifta fills a small niche in the game pad/gaming-keyboard market and does it with much more ingenuity and finesse than you’d expect from a first time product. Its similar to the Wii nunchuk controller and is held in the left hand and equipped with a slew of buttons, triggers and directional controls. When used in tandem with a mouse, it can serve as a more capable and comfortable alternative to a bulky keyboard and allow for playing games away from a desk or other large hard surface. It’s not an unheard of idea; Ive used a Logitech game pad in my left hand and a mouse in my right. The advantage with the Grifta is that it puts all 6 of the buttons built into the right side of the standard game pad in to easily pressed positions on the left.The controller has many useful functions; DirectX and X-input compatibility modes for compatibility with several platforms. There is also a keyboard emulation mode, meaning the Grifta is detected in Windows (and all games and programs) as a keyboard device with each button assigned a key.*The joystick uses: W,S,A,D keys, like most FPS games use*ABXY buttons/d-pad: 2,3,1,T*Frontwards /back triggers : Alt, Z*b and a buttons: Q, F* x and y buttons: X, C< and> buttons: Backspace and Enter keys (Pressed simultaneously, they toggle the dysfunctional motion control system)G button: for toggling between the 3 hardware modes by holding for 8 seconds.Some other important features are a built-in lithium ion battery with micro USB charging port (charger not included), 3 color mode LED and mode-memory; you never lose you settings once you set it. It also come with an interchangeable d-pad or X-box style button arrangement and several sizes of forward trigger bumpers for fine tuning the reach. I just discovered that the handle has a rumble affect; Ive experienced it only while playing FFXV.Initial thoughts aside, I’ve been playing with it for a while and just love it in conjunction with Keyboard mode. I’ve been able to use it for ALL my games with no external software required. In fact all I had to do was plug in the wireless USB adapter then Windows detected it, self-installed everything and I was all set. The only setup necessary was to 1. Follow a guide on the Grifta website about how the top function buttons work for switching modes, and then disabling the dysfunctional motion control system. 2. Then I just setup each of my games like normal, using the game's in-game options to reassign keyboard button bindings.Some unique problems Ive run into over th course of 100's of hours of use: when the light starts to blink indicating that the batteries are low, the direction controls will started to drift forward before losing all power. Also, sometimes after charging, a blue charge light will come on and the controller will stop working -requires resetting the Grifta. Ive also had the joystick go out of calibration - also fixed by resetting.Resetting is simple but not explained anywhere; on the back of the joystick section wheres a tiny hole with a copper button inside. Poking it with a paper clip will fix just about any problem with the controller.

Original Review DeletedUPDATE: 3/23/2019So, the first Grifta I ordered has been working flawlessly. The situation with the other two is a little different. One of them has become unusable. Loses connection constantly if not held with a few inches from the dongle, the trigger button has stopped working and the analog stick moves by itself. I contacted Grifta but, my guess is this guy, Paul Weatherstone is probably just getting rid of the stock he has and when/if he ever runs out, thats it. There is no support for this thing nor it looks like there ever will be.The other one of the two I ordered has been having some connection issues as well. It will periodically lose connection (and of course at the most inopportune moment). To combat this, I have made a somewhat "hardwired" solution where I use a USB extension cable and I plug the dongle in to that. Then, I use velcro to stick the extension end and the dongle directly to the Grifta controller. Seems to be working so far.UPDATE: 2/28/2019So the other Grifta of the last 2 I ordered has also failed. The trigger button has stopped working completely and I am having connection issues. I had an extra one on hand. We'll see how that goes. The original one still working flawlessly.UPDATE: 3/10/2019So I have had to buy 7 Griftas just to get 2 to work without problems (so far over 1 month in)I ordered an 8th one and it was DOA. I ordered another one and we'll see how that goes.UPDATE: 3/23/2019So, I think I have purchased 8 or 9 Griftas already (I lost count) just to be able to get three working without problems (so far). Amazingly, the very first Grifta I bought has given me no issues at all. If this thing would have had a better build quality, different battery system (like using standard batteries or better yet hardwired) this would have been the perfect controller because when it does work, it is great.CONCLUSION: I have lowered my 5 start rating to 1 because this is ridiculous. It shouldn't be this difficult and products should not break so fast. Contacting the company is useless as Paul Weatherstone has abandoned the project and is just selling whatever stock he has.