Glancing over the patent, I don’t think Hall effect sensors are used here. Note especially the use of a fluid, and the presence of variable resistors (parts that can wear out in current-gen controllers) for each axis.
Instead, this looks like an analog stick force-feedback mechanism that could also be used for automatic re-centering:
Accordingly, in the first example, control of current to be applied to the MRF is performed in the way as described below, thus achieving both presentation of a feeling using the MRF and an initial position restoration operation.
This wouldn’t keep the potentiometers from wearing out, but with the right software, I imagine it could automatically adjust the sticks to compensate for mild drift. (I don’t know if this would work any better than plain old calibration; it’s definitely more complicated.) Also, games could dynamically adjust stick resistance, like the DualSense can adjust trigger resistance, for interactivity/immersion.
I wonder how much this would affect battery life, how long the fluid mechanism would last with normal wear and tear, and how environmentally toxic it will be when it eventually becomes e-waste.
The PDF linked in the article seems to be a scanned image, so control+F doesn’t work, but the text is searchable here: patents.justia.com/patent/20230280850
Whoa, that force feedback mechanism sounds really cool! It might not be able to force movement but it would provide resistance to movement. I could imagine it as if your player character is walking into a wall and the joystick wont let you push forward.
Well cool, I hope it does. I'm not a hardcore gamer, but the Nintendo Switch interested me for the occasional mario kart session. But all the Joycon drama scared me off from buying one. I'll hold out for a few more years before splurging - I'm in no rush, I rarely game or watch television anyway lol
I upgraded my joycons to the guilykit joysticks and they are wonderful. And its not even that difficult. Took me about 30 minutes for both. But it’s a shame that I had to change them at all.
It would be 100% possible for game devs to include an option to mitigate drift (require the stick to be pushed at least ~x% to move at all, adjustable anywhere from 10 for slight drift to 50 for extreme cases). Haven’t seen the slightest effort nor heard a peep on that.
Bunch of people in the replies seemingly never tried to play puzzle games with drift and have no idea how much trouble it can cause. Do the puzzles in The Last Campfire with joycon drift and let me know how it goes.
It makes way more sense for that to be an OS level option, not per game. It also makes even more sense to have hall effect joysticks and avoid the problem entirely.
Wouldn’t solve it, drift can affect regular joystick operation as well, where pushing it all the way to the side could show up as it being stuck in the middle.
The technology is fundamentally the same but they are implemented differently. They joycon has less space so they needed a more compact layout. But both use potentiometers.
the left joycon on my switch started drifting after a couple of years, meanwhile the gamecube controller ive had and used for about 20 years still works perfectly
For me the issue was much worse than drift. One of my joy-cons, that were not really used all that much so the "abusing your controllers" would just be false, just decided that it didn't want to work on the Y axis any more, and the quick fix was the add some credit card thick cardboard behind the joystick box. The controllers were just really badly made in the first place.
Joycon drift, and all other thumbstick drift, is already a solved problem.
Use bushings that actually have some abrasive resistance and aren’t softer than a fingernail.
Use a non-contact based sensor to determine the XY position of the stick. Hall effect, optical, strain gauge, whatever, we’ve had the tech for 50 years.
The reason why they haven’t done this is one very simple reason: $$$
N64 does use optical sensors, the n64 stick is actually super precise and doesn’t suffer from drift. The n64 is a goofy controller but it is simply a great and accurate input device, and a lot of the games were really designed with that stick and notches in mind.
But it is made of all plastic and features plastic on plastic moving parts, without lubrication, so it suffers from wear of the plastic. Worn n64 sticks will actually be filled with plastic dust from the stick and gears literally sanding themselves down. The only problem with the controller is the premature wear of the stick.
It’s crazy to me that no company ever made a decent 3rd party N64 controller. The 3rd party ones were all as ridiculous as the defaults. Great console that I loved, but would have gotten a lot more out of with better controllers.
there was a hori n64 controller that looked like a normal double handle controller and it was really good, but it’s crazy expensive these days on ebay. I’ve also heard good things about the new brawl64.
The Hori Pad Mini? I had never seen that before, leagues above anything I remember being available at the time. The other looks amazing, definitely a modern controller that I would have killed for back then.
Yup. If they’d just made the bowl out of something OTHER than ABS, they would have been good. Delrin, PTFE, even a thin layer of brass or broze, and those controllers wouldn’t have had anywhere near the amount of issues they’re known for having.
There are third-party manufacturers who sell replacement bowls and sticks, made from everything from POM to steel.
the reason the n64 sticks suck is down to the stick tension construction and not really the sensing mechanism. Pretty much the thumbstick was pressed against a plastic bowl that wore away into white dust through use, making it floppy. it didn’t really have anything to do with the fact that it was an optical stick
The sensors on the N64 are basically the same kind you’d find in a mouse wheel. They work fine.
The crap part is the physical construction. There’s a lot of parts that wear down with use and cause the joystick to become loose due to the plastics wearing away.
I still wonder what was so special about my N64 joysticks that I never experienced drifting. They’d recalibrate every time you turned the console on (or held some key combination) and after that were golden.
Yeah, except they were also so horribly designed that normal use literally grinds away the plastic at the base of the stick until it starts flopping around like a wet noodle.
The N64 used optical sensors in its joysticks. If you take apart the N64 joystick you’ll see the joystick is attached to some disks with slits in them. The N64 had an optical sensor that would count how many slits passed by.
I installed these on my wife’s joycons because she mashes the sticks like Gail the Snail. So far no issues with drift! The kit comes with all the tools you need to do the swap so it’s very straightforward.
I lost four sets of Joycon to drift. I even sent two in to be “repaired”. Talking to support was worthless - I’m convinced that the people I spoke to had never seen or used a Switch before. I don’t think they did anything other than calibrate them and send them back. I ended up buying a 20 pair of knockoff Joycon that have worked perfectly ever since.
My old Amazon order says Vivefox, but they don’t seem to be for sale anymore. I’m pretty sure at the time there were a bunch of companies offering the same ones, like a Chinese dropship kind of thing.
repairing joycon drift is super easy. ifixit.com and the joystick modules are 5 bucks on amazon. People need to lose this fear over opening and repairing their own electronics.
Cause i’m never gonna let them fix it themselves after they lost one of my ($40) joycons then threw their hands up and said it was my fault. Plus it takes them 3 weeks to do it anyway which is a long time without the games console I paid for
I fixed my drift with a small piece of cardboard. I figure Nintendo could have eliminated some drift by increasing the material thickness in the cad file they use. They just choose not to.
Yeah?!?! You think so huh? I’m holding my breath on this one and keeping my interests in other game pads like ASUS ROG one, or the one that Logitech is making
None of my PS4, 5 or Switch controllers have had any drift. I even used the Joycons in Ringfit for ages, and I was sure that spending months being strapped to my leg would bugger it up.
I’m not sure if I’m the luckiest person on Earth, I just don’t use them enough, or others are doing something I’m not (smoking or vaping are possibilities here, along with greasy food fingers).
dexerto.com
Najstarsze