Players, have you ever encountered such a situation, obviously you haven't operated it, but the character is running by itself, and the perspective is also automatically rotating, if you have encountered it, then congratulations, your joystick has drifted. At the beginning of its release, Nintendo Switch was sued for large-scale joystick drift, and then had to provide free repair and refund services, which shows how bad the impact of controller drift is on the player's experience. So why does the handle drift, and is there a way to solve this problem completely?
01
Entering the ash, the "culprit" of the drift of the carbon film rocker
All the functions of the handle, including the buttons and joysticks, are used to judge the switch through the current signal, the button is easy to understand, press a button, the current passes, the signal is generated, the game console receives the signal, responds to the corresponding instructions, in simple terms, it is a diode that chooses between 0 and 1.
The joystick is different, it needs to determine the direction, and modern controllers are analogous joysticks, so it also needs to get information about the magnitude of the push to determine whether the character is walking or running, how much the steering wheel is turning, and so on. When we use the joystick, we are actually rotating two small wheels representing the front, back, back, left and right directions, these two small wheels will be in contact with the resistive material, the greater the amplitude of the joystick rotation, the more resistive material the current needs to pass through, the current value will change, by identifying the current value of these two small wheels, the system will know the direction and strength of the joystick rotation, and then in the game it will be reflected as the movement of the character or the change of perspective.
Disassemble the carbon film rocker, and you can see a circle of carbon film resistance
The official name of these two small wheels is potentiometer, obviously, whether the signal of the potentiometer is affected, is the fundamental reason for whether the rocker drifts, because the potentiometer needs to cooperate with the resistive material to judge the current, and when dust enters the rocker and happens to adhere to the electronic material, it will cause the current to fluctuate, and then output abnormal signal values, forming a drift phenomenon.
So where does the dust come from? It may be inhaled externally, but it is more likely to be caused by the rocker structure, the rocker we described before is called the carbon film rocker, the potentiometer needs to be in contact with the carbon film resistive material when moving, which means that there will be friction, so that the carbon layer on the carbon film wears off, thus causing drift problems, from our experience, this problem is almost unsolvable, and the probability of carbon film rocker drifting is very high after a long time.
When there is a problem with the carbon film handle, we can also try to repair it, because the reason is very simple is to enter the ash, so what to do is nothing more than cleaning the ash. Considering that the current three masters: Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo first-party controllers are all carbon film joysticks, and Sony even the elite controller is a carbon film joystick (no wonder it supports detachable replacement), most gamers may need to do their own maintenance, which can be cleaned by disassembling the controller, using WD-40 cleaner, or filling compressed air jets. However, considering the principle of carbon film rocker drift, the ash cleaning operation is often a symptom rather than a cure, and the probability of fault recurrence is high.
02
A contactless Hall stick that solves the problem at the root
Since contact friction is the main reason for the drift of the carbon film rocker, is there a rocker scheme that does not need contact friction, of course, it is the Hall rocker that has been very popular in the past two years, it judges the direction and strength of the rocker through the Hall effect, when the joystick moves, a magnetic field will be generated, and the Hall element below will detect this magnetic field and generate an electrical signal, the whole process does not need to be contacted, there is no natural drift problem, the comprehensive service life is longer, and the accuracy of magnetic field induction is much higher than that of carbon film resistance, and it is not very sensitive to temperature like carbon film resistance。
Replacing the Hall stick yourself can greatly extend the life of the handle
Hall joystick started late, but the development speed is very fast, more than a year ago it was mainly used in high-end game controllers, and now the 100-yuan handle has also begun to popularize the full Hall program, and the cost has dropped to the mainstream level. And the Hall sensor is not only used for the joystick, but also for the trigger.
Unlike the traditional linear trigger, which requires a connecting rod to push the potentiometer to generate an electrical signal, the Hall trigger, like the Hall joystick, converts the signal through a non-contact Hall effect, so it is more accurate and smoother, making it more suitable for racing games that require the use of the trigger button to accurately control the accelerator and brake.
For players with handle failure,If the handle has been insured,Confident in their hands-on ability,Instead of cleaning and maintaining,It's better to replace the Hall rocker components yourself,The handle of the royal three has a third-party Hall rocker can be bought,The author recently replaced two PS5 handles of the four joysticks,The total cost is only 52 yuan,It can be said to be a solution once and for all。