After years of coping with Pleasure-Con drift and no passable solutions from Nintendo, we could lastly have our resolution. An organization known as Gulikit created a set of Change joystick replacements that promise to banish stick drift as soon as and for all (through Gizmodo).
Not like your customary Pleasure-Cons from Nintendo, Gulikit’s joystick replacements use one thing known as Corridor impact sensors to primarily make them drift-proof — the identical expertise utilized by Sega’s 90s-era Saturn 3D and Dreamcast controllers. As iFixit factors out, the sensors use magnets to detect the joystick’s motion, which implies not one of the parts truly rub up towards one another and put on out just like the sensors used on Pleasure-Cons do.
One of many causes Pleasure-Cons drift within the first place is that they use potentiometers. This expertise deteriorates over time, leading to incorrect readings that make your controller look like it is possessed. In 2021, Nintendo government Ko Shiota likened the issue to automotive tires that “put on out because the automotive strikes, as they’re in fixed friction with the bottom to rotate.”
That’s the place Gulikit’s joysticks are available. The sticks, which can be found for $29.70 on Amazon will presumably put an finish to frequent Pleasure-Con replacements and restore orders (that ought to completely not be the case). You’ll have to put in the substitute joysticks your self, after all, however this video from iFixit ought to level you in the correct course in terms of dismantling the Pleasure-Cons. Gulikit’s joysticks additionally include a screwdriver, substitute screws, a tweezer, and a plastic pry software that can assist you get began.
Whereas we haven’t gotten the prospect to attempt them for ourselves, customers on Amazon have left principally optimistic evaluations. Nevertheless, there are some saying they depart a small hole between the ring that’s supposed to forestall mud and different particles from getting contained in the Change, though it’s unclear how or if it will have an effect on the sticks (or the Pleasure-Cons themselves). Gulikit additionally has substitute joysticks for the Steam Deck, in addition to a full-blown KingKong 2 Professional controller with corridor impact sensors.
Needless to say including the third-party sticks may void the guarantee in your Change and Pleasure-Cons, however remains to be a possible resolution in the event you’re fed up with stick drift. It’s simply unhappy that — within the yr 2023 — we’ve to undergo all this simply to get issues to work correctly when the expertise’s already there, and has been there for many years.