If you've ever replaced a thumbstick, you might notice something extra here: there's a little red wire connecting the top of the thumbstick to the circuit board down below. That's for the capacitive touch sensor in the top of the thumbstick—so the Steam Deck knows if your thumb is resting there. (It could be anybody's thumb resting there, but you can't expect your Steam Deck to know that. It's just checking for thumbs.
Switch sticks were easy to replace, and no assembly required.These are the same alps analogue units every other controller on the market uses with different caps. The Steam Deck is the same price as a Switch, there were sure to have been corners cut to do that. At least these are easily replaceable, even the units themselves are easy to remove from the board if you have the tools.
I've had controller stick issues on a gazillion xbox controllers.What's up with modern gaming devices and drifting? I don't remember this being an issue in the past.
Hell, my Gamecube controllers still work like a charm.
I hear he will show up at your house with some tools and fix it for you.Hopefully Gabe is picking them back up as well. Might save on return shipping.
It has nothing to do with this. You can play for one hour gently and get drift or slam the sticks for 2 years and be perfectly fine. Alps potentiometers are just completely unreliable.I feel like the same people who complain and get sore thumbs playing videogames, especially fighting games, are the same people getting stick drift. This hasn't happened to me. Ever. Be gentle with the controller lol
Not trueSwitch sticks were easy to replace, and no assembly required.
It has nothing to do with this. You can play for one hour gently and get drift or slam the sticks for 2 years and be perfectly fine. Alps potentiometers are just completely unreliable.
Drifting has always happen since analog. The Switch joycons were much higher than the normal failure rate.What's up with modern gaming devices and drifting? I don't remember this being an issue in the past.
Hell, my Gamecube controllers still work like a charm.
Drift is not related to pressure at all unless we're talking about the L3 / R3 buttons breaking which is a different thing. The sticks have an unreliable potentiometer whose function is very easily disrupted by dirt buildup over time or its moving parts simply reaching their end of life which isn't very long to begin with. And by dirt I don't mean people eating doritos, we're talking about tiny dirt particles that end up obstructing the sensor.Hmm, I doubt that. If you tend to put a lot of pressure on the sticks, it has nothing to do with it? I guess I've been really lucky for 37 years of gaming.
I don't know man. I have 3 cube controllers, two of them from the year the console came out, and they work perfectly. They have also endured my friends coming home to play a thousand times.Drifting has always happen since analog. The Switch joycons were much higher than the normal failure rate.
Other than that, the difference is social media. One person got drift on PS2, no one hears about it. One person gets drift on Steam Deck and posts it online, it suddenly sounds like the failure rate is absurdly high.
I've had basically every console since Atari 2600. I've had drift 4 times - ALL joycons. Their has always been drift, it's just not common outside of whatever happened with Nintendo this gen.I don't know man. I have 3 cube controllers, two of them from the year the console came out, and they work perfectly. They have also endured my friends coming home to play a thousand times.
Out of my two PS4 controllers, one of them has a bit of drift, and the same happened with my joy cons.
I mean yeah, this issue coule be nothing new and maybe I was just lucky until now... But I still think the issue has gotten worse over the yearsn
Not true
Had mine for 3 full months and haven't experienced it.
Defects happen.
It's a very real problem; but it generally is either something that happens right away (defect) or something that happens after quite a long time of heavy use (to be expected, wearing down.)I never experienced drift but its clearly a real problem for many people.
But yeah, Valve had to cut many corners to bring the price down, IMHO they should had cut out the rumble and touch-pads in favor of hall effect sticks and better IPS panel.
What's up with modern gaming devices and drifting? I don't remember this being an issue in the past.
Hell, my Gamecube controllers still work like a charm.
In the past games had huge dead-zones. Nowadays, especially shooters have very small dead-zones, so drifting will happen more often. My PS3 controller thumbsticks are loose as hell yet no game i own has drift. If i was able to connect my PS3 constroller to my PS5 i bet alot of games will be drifting.What's up with modern gaming devices and drifting? I don't remember this being an issue in the past.
Hell, my Gamecube controllers still work like a charm.
Huh, interesting. What if you connected an old GameCube controller to a modern (PC?) game, would it be easy to test for drift?In the past games had huge dead-zones.