Why do most switch joy-con drift after long-term use?

Joy-con drift phenomenon:

Most Joy-con joysticks nowadays use carbon film potentiometers, and the joysticks are more prone to drift. Joystick drift refers to the phenomenon in which the joystick of the gamepad or other controllers moves automatically or generates wrong signals without human operation. Specific manifestations include:

1. Automatic movement: – The rocker deflects by itself in a stationary state, resulting in unintended movement of the game character or interface. -The joystick does not accurately reset to the center position after release.
2. Error Signal: -The joystick sends out tiny movement signals when it is not operated, resulting in slow movement or slight wobbling of the character in the game. -The joystick is unresponsive or completely unresponsive in certain directions.

The cause of switch joy-con stick drift:

The two black pieces are carbon film, one is responsible for one axis. There is a certain resistance, similar to the winding resistance of a variable resistor. If you add a voltage on both sides, there will be a voltage gradient along the length of the carbon film (that is if the left side of the ground is set at 0V, the right side is set at 1.5V, along the length of the gradient of 0 – 1.5V), there will be a metal plate connected to the carbon film on the joystick, measure the voltage at the end of the carbon film and the metal plate is located, you will know the relative position of the joystick (for example, measured 0.75V, you know that the joystick is in the center)

This is how the inside of the joystick moves when you play the game (the Xbox kind of carbon film is on the side and doesn’t use this type of linkage structure, but it means pretty much the same thing, your movements change the position of the metal piece on the carbon film), and the double-ended fork-like thing in the center is the aforementioned metal piece.

As mentioned above, if you give a voltage, you can measure the rocker position by measuring the voltage from the metal plate to the end of the carbon film.

This kind is mainly low cost, so now all manufacturers use this design. But this design problem is also very obvious: First, the metal plate and carbon film have mechanical contact and repeated use will wear, but also easily stained interference; Second, this is not very accurate, because of the tolerance and friction and other reasons, each time the rocker back to the center of the back to the position of the little bit is not the same, there needs to be a dead zone to ensure that the rocker back to the center of the action is no longer a certain direction of the output. When players use it, they have to push out the range of the dead zone to trigger the action, and there is a sense of sluggishness.

There are several kinds of drift, the first one is not touching the joystick, the character on the screen will go by itself, this kind of calibration or increase in the range of the dead zone can be used for a while more. The main reason is that after repeated use, the carbon film is worn out, the resistance changes, the original joystick back to the center of the measurement is 0.75 V, and now back to the center may be 0.8 V. The handle will think that you are gently pushing the joystick, and has been outputting a direction of action. (It could also be spring metal fatigue, but that’s beyond the scope of this article).

The other is uneven, erratic, jumpy rocker action, which can be caused by dirt contamination, scratches, severe wear, carbon film powder, etc. Much like the above, the actual position of the joystick no longer corresponds to the measured signal, and the handle outputs all sorts of strange motions. The wear and tear is irreversible, and washing it with something like WD-40 will only remove the stains and powder, but will not fix the worn-out carbon film, so you’ll have to replace it if you want to fix it completely.

Hall Joystick is the best solution to joystick drift

Hall Joystick is a sensor based on the Hall effect, which can detect the position, speed and direction of an item by measuring the change of magnetic field. Hall rocker consists of Hall element, magnet and circuit board, which can convert the change of magnetic field into electrical signal output to detect the position of the item. The Hall Effect can be used to measure the strength and direction of a magnetic field, and can also be used to detect the position and speed of an object. There is no physical contact, so there is no drift. Not to say that Hall joystick will never drift, the sensor because of environmental reasons to change the sensitivity is very common. But this is reversible, and as long as it is recalibrated, it will not wear out like a carbon film potentiometer and have to be replaced.

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