Let’s hope this isn’t just a random patent, and we actually get better sticks next generation.
It is absolutely amazing that nobody seems to have clicked through to the actual article.
So for all the “just use hall effect sticks” people, the patent is apparently not just for a solution to drift but also a way to add variable pressure to sticks, kinda like what Sony does to triggers.
It took me like fifteen seconds to read deep enough to find that.
For what it’s worth, I think it could be interesting, especially if applied in a Nintendo-like way, bur proprietary stuff like that tends to go underutilized. You know, like the triggers on the PS5 controller.
For the haptic feedback? No, it’s a mechanical screw with a physical stop to keep it from turning at the right time. You can see it disassembled here. The sensor may be a hall effect sensor, I don’t actually know, but once again, the patent isn’t about drift.
Watching that video gave me flashbacks about how much of a pain in the ass these are to disassemble, too, which is why I have several of these with stick drift issues just gathering dust instead of actually repairing them.
It’s not clear, then, whether developers would be able to change the resistance of the fluid to provide some sort of force feedback, or a resistance similar to that of the triggers in the PS5‘s DualSense controller (for steering in racing games, for example).
For someone who supposedly read the article you seem to be making big assumptions
No, I read the whole thing, including that line, but that’s entirely editorializing from the reporter. The quotes from the actual patent are pretty clear, machine translation word soup aside.
You being nitpicky made me go dig up the full patent, which makes it even clearer: “(…) The intensity of the magnetic field can be designated from the application. Thus, it is possible to perform flexible control in accordance with the application”.
I don’t blame the commenters for not going that extra step, though, that’s just me being fastidious. I do blame the reporters focusing on stick drift because mah clicks for not reading the patent properly, though.
EDIT: For what it’s worth, I find the idea of a stick being full of ferrofluid or whatever else they’re using for this to be… likely finicky and potentially messy and fragile, depending on how much you need in there to make it work properly. This sounds intriguing and weirdly high-tech, but if you made me bet I wouldn’t feel comfortable putting money on this showing up on a Switch 2 just yet. Could be wrong, though.
Reading your edit here.
I won’t buy a Nintendo controller again until they’re out for awhile and I know they’re good.
The two I have are garbage and I didn’t even get drift. The stick flick makes a lot of high precision games unplayable. And most of the time I use a third party controller that’s better, more reliable, and half the price.
Jesus Christ just use the same sticks as everyone else does
I don’t know about Xbox, but drift issue is pretty common in PS5 controller too, and I recall reading that all companies uses sticks from same manufacturer.
Everyone online sings praises of ‘Hall-effect’ sticks, but no one (Sony / MS / Nintendo) is currently using them, probably because of higher cost.
If this works, this will probably solve the issue for Nintendo at least.
I’ve had far more stick issues on PS5 than Switch, but that’s probably just luck of the draw.
For the record, the patent isn’t about removing drift at all, from what I can discern, it’s about adjustable resistance sticks.
Using the larger, potentially more durable, joysticks would mean a larger potentially less portable Switch. Given that portability is the core feature of the Switch I can understand Nintendo’s reluctance to implement them. Especially when other companies are experiencing similar issues with their sticks. In my opinion a novel approach is the way to go here. Hall effect is nice, but it is costly and could potentially present some legal challenges at the moment.
@JonDorfman, what legal challenges?
A company already makes hall effect joysticks that are JoyCon sized and they claim to hold a patent for them. I haven’t taken the time to verify, but even if they don’t have a leg to stand on they could still take Nintendo to court.
the problem with the current switch is that the joycona are unusablely small
Increasing the size neard the size of the steam deck really won’t decrease the portivility as your gonna carry a power adapter and a case with it anyways
I use both frequently, and the size of the switch is a big feature for me. I carry a low profile case and no power adapter. Increasing the size would be a big mistake in my opinion- it would just be a worse steam deck without some really killer new features. In my opinion they should just offer larger joycons for people who want them!
This problem is already solved, but I guess Nintendo prefers some propietary solution.
Maybe because of all those “Patented” points. It’s possible Nintendo doesn’t want to be 100% dependent on them and want an in-house solution to their problem.
They probably don’t want to use that particular design anyway. I’ve run into a good number of headaches with those joysticks. Not bad enough for me to pull them back out, but certainly enough to be annoying.
I have swapped out my Switch analogues with these, and they’re great, I also did it with my Ayn Odin, and the 2nd set had slightly stronger magnets, that caused some touch screen issues, so I swapped out my switch analogues with the odin ones. So I’m gonna guess that the next Nintendo console will be another portable, and they probably don’t want the issues of magnets near screens.
Look up “potentiometers” if you want to understand the workings behind a thumbstick as well as why drift happens.
So, drift happens because the graphite resistance element inside the potentiometers wears out over time due to friction, but these potentiometers are absurdly cheap compared to the alternatives and one company, ALPS of Japan, has dominated this market (not just for the Switch but for everybody) for 20 years that they pretty much out-prices everybody else. So, now you know why companies still use these thumbsticks despite the fact that drift always develop eventually.
Hall Effect sensors are definitely better, but also tend to be heavier and bulkier, so we’ll see if this works out.
I’ve seen them, they are an order of magnitude more expensive than the potentiometer based ones. Good for enthusiast hobbyist upgrades, but I doubt Nintendo is going to go for that considering the pricetag of the Hall Effect sticks.
That’s just because there is only one company making them so… yeah we got expensive joystick replacements. If Nintendo just paid a bit more and went with the HE joysticks in the first place they wouldn’t be in this situation. Why do you think they’re patenting these joysticks with magnetic fluid in em? They don’t want this to happen again so they do what the Japanese do best, over engineer a simple solution.
I’m just gonna sit back and eat some popcorn
It’s a tradeoff of price/size for reliability, essentially. “Better” is subjective in this case.
The hall effect sensor on my 3d printer can measure 0.01mm. Does it really need to be “more accurate” than that?
That patent doesn’t sound like it’s to eliminate drift. Besides, how would you patent something that people already do and have a name for?
It sounds more like force feedback for sticks.
