I'll post the joycon part but the rest of the article has some interesting info like the game card reader not being modular anymore and nintendo putting tamper proof stickers in it.
The Joy-Con opening process seems straightforward from the outside, with two of Nintendo's signature tri-point screws. But that only gets us so far. A glued-on plastic rib hides more screws, including another tri-point. That's not intuitive, and it turns what should be a basic repair into a frustrating guessing game. With this reliance on adhesive, we wonder how well it'll go back together. Only time will tell.
Once inside, the battery is easy to disconnect but hard to remove, secured with more adhesive. The tray under the battery also takes some coaxing. We were able to get the joystick out by flipping the controller over, wrenching the thumbgrip off from the other side, then unclipping the housing. We can't promise this won't damage the joystick. We'll keep testing and hope to come up with a better procedure by the time we publish our official repair guides.
And after all that? Sure looks like the same old potentiometer tech. There's no sign of Hall effect or TMR sensors. Instead, we're getting more of the same.
If you've dealt with joystick drift on the original Switch, Lite, or OLED, you know what's coming. And unless Nintendo is using some miracle new material on those resistive tracks, or the change in size magically solves it, the best fix is going to come from third-party replacements like GuliKit again. And, not to brag, but those sticks paired with some iFixit guides? A match made in heaven.
35 Comments
Wouldn’t be Nintendo if they didn’t go as cheap as possible.
I’m to blame for buying one, but the switch 2 is not worth anywhere near the $450 they are charging for it.
At least it feels much nicer than the switch 1.
No hall effect sticks huh?
Are they really any more expensive at this point anymore? I usually give people/companies the benefit of the doubt but it really seems like they’re engineering to fail by not using them.
Planned obsolesce is a hell of a drug for these companies to kick.
It baffling that that they didn’t switch to Hall effect joysticks. They’re starting to become the standard for gaming handhelds and have been available even in cheap controllers for a few years now
What’s coming would be a class action. In Europe and perhaps other parts of the world, it’s not going to be accepted in court that consumers purchased a product that had been built with a known point of failure AND this information wasn’t available prior to the launch. However with the optimist hat on, I’d like to think that something in that design has changed so drift isn’t so prevalent, the last time would have cost Nintendo a lot in time and resources afterall.
Color me not surprised at fucking all.
my oled didnt have drift so my future switch 2 wont have it
(copium)
Here come the Nintendo fanboys…
This is the one thing I’ve been waiting for with the switch 2, guess I won’t be getting one
I really hope Nintendo gets sued into oblivion this time. Or the EU goes after them. It’s unacceptable that they’ve gotten away with it for this long to begin with
I played my Switch almost exclusively docked, so I was lucky enough to not deal with stick drift until about 7 years after I bought my console, but I cannot imagine how unusable that shit is when playing in handheld mode regularly. Kind of unreal it doesn’t look like they did anything to improve it after so many consoles were sent back for free repairs.
Samé thing tronicsfix said so its more people saying this. Nintendo redesinged them but not improved
Nintendo is as bad as Apple and John Deer.
Surprise surprise.
Guess how surprised I am?
I’ve owned 8 pairs of Joycon, all brand new, all had drift. 2 pro controllers, both brand new, both had drift.
I’ve played on 3 of my friends’ Switches, idk how many pro controllers and joycons between them, every single one of them either had drift or developed it.
Now granted, I’ve had some Playstation controllers Dualshocks 3-5 have drift. But like, after years of use and frankly, abuse. I’ve treated some Joycons like a glass egg and had them still get the drift and have flawed motion controls. I have been consistently disappointed by the Switch to the point of having no faith in a Switch 2. The actual hardware itself is the problem.
Thanks for the rundown OP.
Not trying to defend, but considering that the sides of the switch 2 have magnets inside to connect the joy cons, I feel that adding Hall effect would have probably messed up the sticks due to the interference.
Of course it can also just be Nintendo being greedy
Nothing in this article suggests its just as susceptible to drifting as Switch 1. these click baits are rather crazy against the Switch 2 lmao.
This seems to be intentional. How else could Nintendo milk their fans the extra $94.99?
“I heard the Switch 2 Pro will have hall effect sticks and go back to the original slide method of the OG Switch.”
I expect to see this as a post in 6 months.
Nintendo really decided a magnetic connection was more important than fixing the drift issues. 🤦♂️
Ah man so looks like sticking with that CRKD neo S is gonna be the way for switch 2, hall effect sticks and mechanical buttons by far make it the best switch controller I’ve found.
“Lawsuit payouts are cheaper than consumer-friendly and repairable design.”
–some exec at Nintendo
Time will be the only real indicator and potentially prove my musings wrong but I don’t think the conclusion they are ‘just as susceptible’ is warranted. They admit in the video that there could be more durable materials or other mitigating factors in the redesign at least but say multiple times in the video they are just as susceptible despite that.
Side note: he also briefly touches on why Hall Effects couldn’t work because of the magnetic attachment mechanism but an alternative tech is available (TMR sensors as mentioned in the OP).
I’m shocked. Shocked! Well not that shocked.
I swear I saw something about the controllers being redesigned “from the ground up” or whatever the saying is. New floor same dirt.
I have never had a controller or joy con get stick drift? Am I just lucky or are y’all just rough with your controllers?
I guess i just got extremely lucky, but somehow my joy cons still don’t have drift after like 5 years of use, while my friends ps5 controller is basically unusable due to stick drift after 2 years
Like Switch 1, just waiting for third party joycons at this point. I’ve learned my lesson
Kinda bullshit they didn’t put Hall effects in there.
Joysticks seem to be a really popular target for planned obselescence in design (looking at you, valve index controllers). Cheap joysticks can render a controller completely useless, repairing it requires fiddly soldering work and uncommon parts,the user only has to buy the controller so they’re not as mad as if the whole console broke and there’s a degree of deniability as joysticks are expected to wear and tear as a moving part.
Plus since, with the skill and parts it’s an ‘easy’ fix, it can be sent to be repaired under warranty inexpensively instead of replaced, which means you don’t necassarily get a fresh controller when the joysticks break and are more likely to need a new one after warranty
Nintendo with the anti-consumer slam-dunk as usual.
I bought Playstation’s DualEdge Pro controller and it started drifting after about a year of heavy use. But they made the controller modular so I only had to buy a $25 stick module replacement and it is as good as new. All controllers should be like this. Replacing the module doesn’t require any special tools and literally takes 2 minutes max.
When will you realise hall effect sticks aren’t some magical no drift technology. The joy cons didn’t drift because they weren’t hall effect, they were just poorly made. Previous Nintendo and other bran controllers didn’t drift either. If the actual build of the joy cons are better drift won’t be an issue
water is wet
Not surprising. Anything to cut corners and increase profits.
Let’s be real though: ifixit literally shilled their own kit to replace the joycons sticks with guilikit replacement in the teardown.They **want** you to believe your new joycons are going to drift tomorrow.
We knew they were potentiometers for the last two months, that’s nothing surprising. Let’s see if they’re particularly egregious compared to other controllers of the same type before we start scoffing.
I’m already looking forward to Hori’s offering for the new machine for when these things eventually start drifting. It’s taken me some time getting used to Joycons again, after tossing mine in favor of a 3rd party option that had a more traditional D-pad on the left when my original joycons started drifting.
Well its nintendo, people will buy it regardless