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Spanish media claims Switch's joycons can charge the battery

kulapik

Member
One of the things that most called our attention was knowing that the console in handheld mode, along with the Joy-Con will have mutual feedback.

What does this mean? Well, when we play with the Nintendo switch in handheld mode with the Joy-Con, these can charge the console and viceversa. This will happen when some of those parts have low battery, this way we will be able to play some extra time. For example, if the battery of the console is at 10% and the joycons are at 100%, these will charge the console.

https://juegosadn.eleconomista.es/n...y-con-se-retroalimentan-mutuamente-no-102940/

Also, a video showing the insides of the dock

https://twitter.com/JuegosADN/status/828899357978218498
 
Sounds dumb, especially when it's the joycons charging an almost dead console.

The difference in battery capacity and power draw is ridiculous. Like charging a laptop with your phone. Maybe not though, who knows.
 
I feel like the battery in the Joycon controllers are not enough to keep a Switch powered for long, maybe you can buy an additional 30 minutes, maybe an hour at max with both joycons at 100% and Switch at low power.
 
Assuming this ain't just conjecture, what would that change necessarily? Does that mean Zelda only lasts 3 hours max in handheld mode? And it only lasts 2.5 hours in tabletop mode because the Joycons are off of it?
 

Lom1lo

Member
And ? I imagine this "extra time" is included in "arround 3h of zelda", so it really doesnt change anything.
 
I'd imagine the amount of power the fully charged joycons could give a dying battery would be insufficent to give it any real boost. Either it implies the Joycons and the Switch will simultaneously decrease in power at a steadily lower rate, with the last bits of charge suited for putting it on a standby so the game doesn't crash.

Could be a neat way of getting around the battery life issues, but you'd think they'd be shouting it from the high heavens if that were the case.
 

Jashobeam

Member
an extra 30 minutes on fully charged 100% joycons would be worth it IMO, enough to play a few more levels of Mario, and handful of MK8 races, some quests in Zelda, etc...
 
Not saying it's wrong. But I'd say this is more of a lifesaver thing. Joycons can keep the switch alive if they're at a certain battery percentage.
 

Mivey

Member
Maybe they can share the charge but, I doubt that any juice in a Joycon is going to give you much more game time.
Maybe the Joycons are just one huge battery and weigh a ton. That way you could also get some physical exercise when using them.
 

Skronk

Banned
Not sure if I believe this, wouldn't Nintendo have mentioned it when talking about the battery life?

Or does this mean you can only get 3 hours battery life playing Zelda with the joycons giving life support to the switch tablet?
 

JP

Member
Seems pretty obvious really, both contain batteries so it would be pretty backward not to make use of the resources available to you. I'd always assumed that it would happen like this and it would seem pretty remiss if it didn't.
 

Ganondolf

Member
we know the console can charge the joycons but does the joycon battery have enough power (volts/amps??) to power/charge the unit?
 

TrutaS

Member
If true, I'm sure the battery estimates already account for this. They wouldn't lose the chance to communicate a better battery life.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
It doesn't make any sense. Especially since joycons can't be charged separately out of the box.

Plus it would hurt the MP aspect if the joycons are the first to discharge, you end up with controllers that you can't use.
 

shiyrley

Banned
And then you won't be able to use the joycons detached.
- The joycons would only charge the console when the console is about to die to give some extra game time. If the console dies, what do you want the joycon charge for?
And after the switch dies,
- Why would you charge the switch without putting the joycons on it?

Also the console would likely give you a notification when it's starting to use the joycon's battery. If you don't want the joycons to die, then just plug the console in that moment. The other option would be for the console to just die. Please explain any kind of scenario in which this latter option is superior in any kind of way.
 
While I have some mild doubts about this, it would be kind of a neat feature to either get a little extra battery life out of the console, or to provide a reserve that can sustain a suspended mode until the console is reconnected to the source.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
- The joycons would only charge the console when the console is about to die to give some extra game time. If the console dies, what do you want the joycon charge for?
And after the switch dies,
- Why would you charge the switch without putting the joycons on it?

Also the console would likely give you a notification when it's starting to use the joycon's battery. If you don't want the joycons to die, then just plug the console in that moment. The other option would be for the console to just die. Please explain any kind of scenario in which this latter option is superior in any kind of way.

if the console runs out of battery having the joycons working is not very helpful

You have over the top expectations from a Nintendo OS.
 

Enkidu

Member
I wonder how much power the joycons use when connected to the main unit? They would presumably be communicating through the connectors, so there would be no need to keep the Bluetooth chip running, but the rumble and sensors would still use some power.
 

shiyrley

Banned
You have over the top expectations from a Nintendo OS.
If you really don't think that the console would let us know then it needs the Joycon's battery, either with a notification or just the classic LED (For example, the 3DS has a red LED when it's low battery, and blinking red when it's super low. When Switch starts blinking red, you know it's using the joycon's battery) then I really don't feel like having a conversation with you. You're just assuming what you want to assume in order to somehow turn this into bad news lol
 
Nintendo invented infinity energy with this...
Just think about it: if the joycon charges the switch and the switch charges back the joy con, you get an infinite cycle of free energy and can play forever!

/j
 
I can see them having such a mechanism in place to they can sell some 'pro' Joycons at some point in the future that are mostly battery and noticeably add to the overall playtime of the console. But the ones that come with the console are surely not going to contribute meaningfully to the main unit's battery capacity.
 

DiscoJer

Member
I had grips for the PSP that did this. It had a battery in it you could charge it with the regular PSP charger and you could plug it into the PSP to give it extra jjuice.

Didn't work great (and I literally had to duct tape the PSP to them otherwise it will get loose), but it was a dodgy 3rd party add-on.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
If you really don't think that the console would let us know then it needs the Joycon's battery, either with a notification or just the classic LED (For example, the 3DS has a red LED when it's low battery, and blinking red when it's super low. When Switch starts blinking red, you know it's using the joycon's battery) then I really don't feel like having a conversation with you. You're just assuming what you want to assume in order to somehow turn this into bad news lol

It's not just about a notification, it's about balancing the battery left in the joycons with the battery left in the tablet and opening the charging circuit only under certain conditions. It could be possibly a pretty weak spot if it doesn't balance this properly.

You're just assuming that the joycons will have 100% or so battery, while under the use cases presented by Nintendo that's not always the case.

What if you just played a lot with them detached and the joycons have even lower battery left than the main unit, while main unit is under the required threshold to be charged? You practically have still some battery in the tablet and lose part of the controls.

I'm not trying to turn it into bad news. I'm just saying that it's not very likely to happen. In a way I try to avoid to turn it into bad news once this is not confirmed.

Edit: in the end trying to charge a 4300 mAh with two 500 mAh batteries might not be that efficient. Or fast enough.
 

tsab

Member
Probably the 6hr playtime figure is only accomplished when the joycons charge the main battery. Without it it may be 5:15-5:30 hours. I'll take it
 
You have got to be kidding me. What a fucking waste of a battery charge, this will only create cycles on the joycons when you don't need it.
 

acm2000

Member
holy crap what a dogshit idea if true >_<

oh damn my switch is getting low, let me dock it and carry on.... ffs... *turns it off to let the controls charge*
 
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