this could stop stick drift, so why don't they use them? 

"if the controller last too long we won't sell enough of them"

"Why don't large companies provide quality products instead of products that break down with time so you buy more products?" The world may never know

Mr Krabs said it best “ I LIKE MONEYYY”

Two words...planned obsolescence

How to be a business man Step 1: create a problem Step 2: solve it

hey! i actually did a bit of research and the reason companies stick to potentiometers is because they are DIRT CHEAP. they take only 1.25ish to produce which is why not many big companies use hall effect sensors

22 years later and Sega still does what Nintendon't

That extra controller you give your friend when they come over

Technically speaking, even hall effect sensors can develop stick drifr via different mechanisms: the springs losing tention, or the wiper's retainer piece losing tention. Granted it is not nearly as vulnerable or ubiquitous as the graphite abrasion based stick drift that haooens on potentiometer based sticks.

The PS2 controller actually has tech in it that recalibrates it's dead zone every time your do a couple 360 turns of the joystick

SEGA being ahead of its time as always

Companies aren't here to look out for their customers. They're here to build themselves a 5th summer home...

I like how stick drift wasn't a big issue until a few years ago

“It has a tendency to get dirty and damaged” *JABS IT OUT WITH A FLATHEAD SCREWDRIVER*

I have hall effect sensors for my driving sim pedals. I chose to buy that set for the brake pedal load cell mainly, instead of using the ones that came with the wheel. Those had potentiometers.

"It's all about the money, money, money"

If u remember correctly, the patent expired recently. They have no excuse anymore.

I think all of us know why companies don't do the "unbreakable" products.

Nintendo used optical sensors for the n64 but it's pretty useless bc the stick itself wares itself of pretty quick

Casually watching videos on stick drift so that I would get pumped up about my purchase of a hall effect based contoller.

"First, we create the problem. Then, we'll sell the solution"

It has a patent that can't be used without paying the creators a huge sum of money

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One simple answer to the question... Marketing...

Pretty detailed explanation. Thanks for sharing. It’s unfortunate to think that there’s a high chance they continue using suboptimal parts for the sake of ensuring sales. As long as people keep purchasing them they won’t alter their manufacturing procedure. But bringing awareness as you mentioned is key.

this is why we NEED a sega dreamcast 2

I think you hit the nail - *planned obsolescence* 🤨

Creating a demand provides an active supply, this is purely rule 1 of marketing

"Rubbish parts" lol😂

The Nintendo 64 controller also can’t get drift but it also has its own seperate issues.

Because they want 💵 I would happily pay more for something that lasts Read the comments sorry for bro I don't play switch feel bad for all of us even, if we fix for free I just got extended warranty so I don't have to pay 90 aud, 94 pulse red 108 3 year warranty, if they even offered to fix free wouldn't there still be a problem? Shouldn't they last?

"that one controller your friend gives you when you come over"

SEGA really does what Nintendon't! Anti stick drift back in the 90s!

companies do this on purpose, not only are the potentiometer joysticks cheaper to manufacture. they are also unreliable, which inevitably leads to you buying more of their unreliable controllers. not to mention that there are practically no repair shops that can fix it. yet another way big companies screw you over

Needs its own microcontroller, using a ton more electricity

The reason is that they want us to "buy" more controllers because they keep breaking

Its not a question if every Joycon will break, its when. It'll be a fun trivia topic for future console collectors. You just know someone's gonna pay lots of money for a sealed joycon just to see what it was like at launch.

Nintendo actually intentionally used a joystick that's even worse than the regular Xbox and PlayStation ones, that's why they have such an issue with joycon drift They use graphite sensors that wear down into dust over time that just completely destroys the joystick and they have a rubber dome over the top instead of a plastic one cause it allows dust and dead skin to get in

Hall effect sensors also drift over time due to the magnetic field changing in the sensor. It happens a lot faster in environments that fluctuate a lot but over time it happens no matter what. Hall effect sensors are definitely better in my opinion but there are ups and downs with both.

They stopped using the Holofx card because it was unreliable. Magnets demagnetize over time. So instead of getting garbage input after too much use, you’d get no inputs. Worse still, they’d wear down even if not being used. Source: my father whose living has been repairing controllers for 30+ years.

I recently built myself a custom type of Gamecube controller motherboard called a phob where it uses magnets and hall effect sensors instead of the physical pots, and it's night and day. Can't tell you how relieving it is to mot have to worry about stick issues, especially as a Melee player. Would highly recommend to everyone.

There are 2 reasons this isn't used in controllers. They use ferromagnet and are expensive. Ferromagnets are fragile and can be damaged when dropped. Definitely more of the first reason than the second, but the "pro" controllers should definitely be using them.

Stick shift is the bane of my console gaming existence 🙄. I've gone through so many controllers because of it, I tolerate it for a bit but toss the damn thing once it gets real bad. Luckily I've gotten use to cheap wired controllers by now so when it does happen, it doesn't hurt as much as much as it did when my 60$ controllers went down for the count 💀

Major appliances do the same thing. The parts they use break down over time so you have no choice but to purchase a new one. My grandparents had the same refrigerator for 40 years with no issues. Ours lasted about 12 years before I couldn’t replace parts any longer.

they want us to buy controls all time

I just had to take apart my ps5 controller and fix the stick drift. We need this

I like to imagine they did it because they knew the pieces broke fast and people would have to buy more controllers.

This isnt the part that causes stick drift it is the resistive materiale that gets scraped away on the other side of the potentiometer.

two reasons: cheaper to manufacture, and it breaking will most likely result in you buying another controller. I haven't played on my Xbox in a long time, so I don't even know if they have warranty for these kinds of things, but I'm guessing if you replace the joysticks, it will void your warranty.

Disrespectful to their customers! Videos & reels like this need to be heavily addressed at product launches & these companies need to be put on the spot publicly when asked on what they will do about it!

Welcome to the game. Planned obsolescence

Same as the lightbulb scam. Almost all businesses make cheap, effective products that last long enough for you to like it until it breaks and you "need" a new one.

The quick answer to that question is money. Potentiometers are cheaper then hall effect sensors but I do agree with what you're saying, especially that Microsoft should have followed it considering the Xbox was essentially a Dreamcast 2

I find it crazy most people just throw the controller away instead of trying to repair it themselves. If its going into the trash at least take it apart and get an idea

We gotta blow this up frfr

If they made the joysticks modular, it would be so much easier to fix yourself too

The little piece of metal is not the part that causes stick drift it's actually the blueish green plastic piece, it as the metallic surface that gets scratched on the other side

POV: the extra controller your friend hands you

My brain at 2:00 am for no reason:

More money, and they don’t pick up on movement as well

Someone that has a RU-vid channel is currently developing his own, and will begin a test phase. With a Released product soon after.

They do it so they can sell you a new controller when the sticks inevitably fail.

Neodymium magnets are expensive, also the ps2 controllers as a sensor to detect stick drift and correct it. You wouldn’t even need the console, the controller itself can tell when there are inputs that don’t make sense and will automatically adjust its output. Damn things are tough as nails too. I had one that the entire front plastic part of where the left stick is got worn out, broke, fell into the controller and was like that for years before I took it apart to clean. Works just fine compared to a new out the box controller, albeit not as stiff in the sticks and triggers.

Average Fortnite players controller

Indeed, Sega already solved the problem in the 90s. I don't get it why the "new" controllers make use of potentiometers instead of Hall effect, because using magnets is the less expensive technology, with less and simpler moving parts. I'm glad the companies goin' back to the roots...

Yeah it fixes drift but the magnets itself introduce more issues like losing their magnetic field over time making them less accurate. Especially holding other magnets nearby can cause tons of issues.

1. Cost 2. Design 3. Patents Also. The metal piece you show does not fail. It's the carbon contact on the other side that wears down, inside the potentiometer housing welded to the controller. High quality magnets that don't weaken over time, are actually relatively new. Cheap ones are also rather new. The design is also something that can require *per controller* calibrations, which again, we're difficult to scale. And finally the Hall Effect sticks used in the Dream cast are patented, and I believe SEGA lost a lawsuit over it. That is likely a pending lawsuit for whoever does it as an OEM if they don't license it.

The potentiometer is what allows you to slightly move the joystick and walk for example instead of run, and gives fine control. The part you talk about that Sega has couldn’t do that, it only detected movement in binary. Meaning it was either you moved or didn’t, with no degrees of movement. But from what I understand that was on the logic of the board and modern day solutions can indeed do it with magnets instead of potentiometers but it’s not the same part you’re referencing with the sega controller. I agree though with the above comment it breaks down to planned obsolescence.

Potentiometer is not the only reason causes drift. In my experience of eliminating drift/dead zones i had to clean potentiometers, put some film between weared sliding parts (stick and this rotating part) and sensor joint. Some lube also helps extend lifetime. These actions helps to reduce dead zone to less then 1%

I feel like partly because of planned obsolescence, which makes sense business wise and also potentiometers are more accurate, hall effects are good but none are as accurate as potentiometer, maybe if we close the gap and potentially make it even better

The license to this is most likely already owned by Sega and Gulikit. They made magnet-joysticks back in the 90s and somehow their product went completely under the radar

I fix controllers for a living and the part that actually breaks that causes stick drift is the green housing not the metal piece. Through the use of the controller the middle metal piece wears down cardon contacts on the green outer parts and its the damage to the carbon contacts that results in stick drift. If you have severe stick drift replacing the little metal piece will not fix it, the whole potentiometer will need replaced

What’s wierd is Nintendo offers to fix stick drift on joycons for free including shipping so either they’re just trying to keep the illusion up or enough people don’t know about it to keep it afloat without worrying about fixing half of the the joycons that are in circulation, if not more

"Yeah I got a spare controller" the spare controller:

I never had drift, or at least I never felt I had it, in fact, the physical plastic axle inside the left stick was the first thing to fail on my 10years old controller, RIP PDP.

The reason is it’s dirt cheap $1.86 versus two dollars to three dollars single part

before this year, I’ve only ever heard of stick drift in context of the Switch and N64, but now it’s every where

Maybe because how horribly stiff they feel compared to the originals? In the specific case of Gullikit’s drop in replacements for the thumbsticks on the joycons for the Nintendo switch, I bought some from the early batches to try to revive a special edition pair I had. Not going to argue whether or not they work, because they do. They can take a lot of abuse too. Particularly useful for people that tend to destroy their thumb sticks on fighting, Metroidvania and racing games, but from the half dozen revisions I tried on my test-pair of the originals that came with my first switch way back when BoTW used to be a recently released game, the resistance felt when using those was not negligible. Good thing that they are consistent both on the good and the bad, almost a dozen sets tested for about 30 hours of various genres on each pair they all worked as advertised. Funny thing is, after getting the oled and pairing all my old joycons to it even the worst drifter fixed itself somehow. So now I got almost dozen sets that I can service for my friends and coworkers if one of theirs start drifting I guess.

Because companies don’t care about making quality, they want you coming back for more, every month.

That's actually good if someone isn't afraid of soldering like me. Since nowadays we can buy these sensors to solder them into the of any controller. Just sad that I don't have steady hands so I can't do something as precise as soldering.

the part you showed is the sweeper, it can get stuff gunked in it but its usually the graphite from the track pads that are on the actual potentiometers which are the green part you opened, usually theres some missing from the track when drift happens, sometimes its the spring in the stick that breaks too

Imagine making devices that lasted forever, never needed repair or replacement and can be used but newer devices of the future....... One immortal controller

Hall effect sensor: No moving parts The rest of analog stick: plenty of moving parts

Its super easy to replace those little things if they mess up that bad, thats why i always keep trash controllers i keep for parts i need

fun fact, though: traditional pots are fine if you occasionally get in there and clean them. The "drift" is because of a combination of both the springy, mechanical nature of the components wearing out over time (think like the N64 stick pieces but with a lot less slop), so the spring in the assembly can't force the other bits back to neutral/center... AND the plastic-on-plastic pieces develop lash; the post inside the actual piece your thumb touches, the tab that rotates the X and Y pots, they cam-out over time simply from use... I'm an old sega fan, I was well acquainted with the hall sensors in the Saturn 3d pad and the dreamcast pad, and I honestly kind of hated them... trying to gently transition from their neutral position into any direction resulted in a lot of very, albeit brief, twitchy stuttering movement/input as the three or two other directions you WEREN'T trying to influence had to figure out why the magnetic field suddenly changed at all... PLUS, both sticks could turn in-place about 5 or 10 degrees, which added to the subtle uncertainty of fine movement. I know i'm in the minority of regularly opening and maintaining my controllers, but aside from my original N64 and launch-model PS2 pads, all the rest of my analog controllers still have a perfectly predictable and manageable neutral dead-zone. Gamecube probably taught me the most about analog nuance after countless hours spent on Melee and F-Zero GX. The takeaway is no physical device will function perfectly forever. Those new analog stick assemblies with the hall-sensor swap-in components will still eventually develop drift as the physical moving components wear over time.

My dualsense and one joycon are the only controllers to ever have drift. I never understood why people say it’s so common.

If you were to mass produce an aftermarket controller that contained those sensors you would have a pretty good foothold in the 3rd party controller market

With any luck the inevitable Switch 2 might have Hall Effect sticks! At least they patented a Hall design not too long ago.

The frustrating thing is, Sony USED to use these types of sensors in their controllers... They must've stopped because they realised they could make extra money from people having to replace their controllers...

Same reason apple pencil doesn't have magnetically sensed pens. If it breaks, you gotta replace it. Samsung uses magnets to sense the location of the spen, so if the pen stops working, it can still be used, even some gestures could still be used close enough!

PlayStation, Microsoft, and Nintendo: *WE MUST HAVE MMMMMOOOOOOONNNNNNNEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

Along with other things people have said: "magnets expensive, we make cheap."

They want you to continuously buy more controllers. That's how the mafia works.

Planned obsolescence. It's cause of the Lightbulb Carter that things don't last anymore

I think it's because they want you to keep buying new controllers. Some of my PS4 controllers got stick drift over time. But my PS5 controller hasn't yet, probably because I haven't had it for long. And as for my PS3 controller, never had any problems with it.

Ps3 controllers also use potentiometers except a small batch with hall effect sensors yet almost none get drift because theyre better built. Its legit planned obsolescence.

Friend: my friend is so cool he lets me use the on brand controller when we play together *me with my superior off brand controller*

Planned obsolescence is why they're using it

I think you answered your own question there, bud.

Actually quite a few old consoles had more durable thumbsticks than more modern consoles. Its just that they were more expensive to produce. Kinda ironic as controllers now are more expensive than ever