It’s not even out yet and they redesigned the entire stick. Can we stop whining about every little detail here, we’ll find out how they perform in 2 months
Unless they change away from using cheap potentiometers, it will.
For those not aware: A potentiometer (“pot” from here on out) is effectively a resistor where you move a contact back and forth. When it is at one end, the resistance is very low because electricity barely moves through the resistive material (often graphite). When it is at the other end, the electricity needs to move throughout the entire stretch of graphite. With very basic math you can figure out what percentage X and Y you are at which translated to analog movement.
Designed well? The contact moves across the resistive material in a way where there is no damage (scraping). Given infinite time it will eventually become a problem but that is well beyond the lifecycle of the console.
So why do analog sticks wear out so fast? Because they aren’t enclosed systems. Dirt and dust WILL get into the chamber and then it gets caught between the contact and the material and scrapes up said material. This leads to drift in the sense that dirt causes the contact to stick and loss of precision as material is scraped off. That is why electric contact cleaner was a great stopgap but couldn’t actually repair any damage.
So why is the switch in particular so shit at this? Because an xbox or playstation controller has a big rigid plastic cover that more or less seals the pot off from the environment. It isn’t perfect but you are getting very little dirt and dust into the controller and up that dome.
The switch? It is a rubber flap over the joycon that you can lift up with your finger. Great for cleaning, horrible for keeping clean.
I haven’t looked too close at the new joycons but I would be shocked if they changed that design. So they will almost definitely still suffer from excessive drift REAL fast.
Why a flat stick like the one used on PSP not considered an alternative on Switch?
It seems perfect for transportability.
I said the same thing about the same type used on the 3DS but I guess for people who grew up on analog sticks, the flat design is not comfortable or lacks precision in some way, which is weird because I hate regular analog sticks because my thumbs never stay centered and I dislike the curve motion compared to the flat design which feels more akin to a mouse, which is what I primarily use on PC.
Been more than a minute since I touched my PSP but I remember the stick on that (and the Vita?) being pretty dogshit. Less of an tilting analog stick and more of a weird slidey one. It is Nintendo so whatever they do is amazing and perfect but they probably wanted to use the same parts on both the pro controller and the joycons.
It is Nintendo so whatever they do is amazing and perfect but they probably wanted to use the same parts on both the pro controller and the joycons.
What? The stick hardware on the pro controller is essentially the same thing that’s in Xbox and PlayStation controllers. The joycon stick hardware is much smaller.
I don’t trust their perfection. Their games are amazing, but their hardware and their online service is dog poop compared to other platforms.
My Switch with light usage (mostly collecting dust) have a stick drift that keep getting worse and the right joy stick keep losing connectivity.
TLDR: They’ve redesigned the sticks to drift less but they still don’t use hall effect sticks, which would completely fix the problem
I think they made their own technology which sounds kinda similar to hall effect. We’ll have to wait and see if it works but that doesn’t generate hate and clicks.
Of course they will, they make too much money off people buying replacements. Since the games also got an increase in price, I expect the joy-cons bought separately will also be marked up by a non-trivial margin.
They’ve been bumped up by ten dollars for the switch 2 vs 1 so there’s that.
Let’s hope gulikit quickly puts out a hall-effect mod for the new versions (or the new versions still use the same joystick module as the original)
