Driftbusters: Improving Analog Joysticks

[@-abacchus]

Yup, I don't disbelieve problems with the ALPS controllers. I've used a lot of ALPS slide potentiometers for several projects and the fault is always the carbon film!

[@absalomdraconis]

Honestly, all potentiometers have... erosion? problems with the contact area, but especially the carbon ones. Back in the heyday of the IBM joystick port, you'd occasionally have to replace the things because they'd worn down too much. I'm honestly a bit surprised that noone's developed a quadrature photonic one based on a transparency gradient.

[@noveganpowers5604]

@@absalomdraconis let's do that

[@Keepskatin]

@@absalomdraconis Follow the money, Capit8 demands more profits, more inflation. Why make the controllers last longer, less people buyig new controllers is bad for profits ❗🌹❓🙄

[@justovision]

Great video! Starting it off talking about people putting microcontrollers into refrigerator magnets and then replacing two potentiometers with microcontrollers was a nice touch.

[@michaelcalvin42]

I honestly hadn't even thought about the irony of that until I read your comment. Good catch.

[@akaHarvesteR]

It honestly baffles me that latest gen console controllers are still using these cheapo pots for the thumb sticks, while contactless Hall effect sensors are just as readily available. Are console makers trying to optimize for cost that badly?

[@JoeWayne84]

Controlled Obsolescence… they are designed to break so they can sell $70 controllers to people every year. When you have 4 controllers for your console it becomes not worth it fast … It should be class action lawsuit material but suing Microsoft in the US would be tuff haha It’s main share holder gets to issue health care Policy’s for fuck sake

[@CheatingSoi]

That Story Tim Ben voice was legit good. Would honestly listen to an entire audiobook with that.

[@OMGnotThatGuy]

I really enjoy Ben’s impromptu one-man audio dramas, but I also worry that he doesn’t interact with other humans frequently enough.

[@Lion_McLionhead]

A rotary hall effect sensor can be dropped in place of a pot. The AS5600 is still being made. The tricky part is fastening a magnet to the joystick shaft. Since the joystick only goes 90 degrees, you could make a home made rotation sensor with 1 magnet & 1 hall effect sensor for each axis. Rotation is easier to sense than distance.

[@izzieb]

That thumbnail. It needs to be in an art gallery. You are truly a great artist.

[@StezStixFix]

Easily the best thumbnail I've ever seen.

[@shanepython]

LOL! Explaining how you were drunk on a couple past videos. My respect for you, which was already through the roof, has reached new heights! Your channel is one of the very best uses of "internetting". :)

[@justinnamilee]

I absolutely live for your Dave Jones impressions. Someday I pray that the world will be blessed by a Ben Heck and Dave Jones collaboration video. Now THAT would be a winner winner chicken dinner right there.

[@BenHeckHacks]

If I'm ever in Oz.....

[@brandobatel]

Watching Ben makes me feel smarter. I dont become smarter, but i FEEL SMARTER

[@eDoc2020]

You can achieve the same signal conversion using an opamp which will likely perform a bit better and which will be more resistant to supply problems. Connect one sensor's output to the + input and connect two resistors (maybe 10-100k) to the - input. Attach one of these to the other sensor and the other to the opamp's output pin. Now the opamp output will be a nice analog signal which can be divided by a pair of resistors or a potentiometer to obtain the voltage range the controller expects. You can probably put all of this onto a small custom circuit board to make it nice and easy to install.

[@DarkBlast47]

Hey Ben, just wanted to say your video helped me get my Xbox elite 2 controller back up and running, just ended up replacing one of the potentiometers and everything works. Appreciate your videos and analysis.

[@BillyEilish]

The storytelling was quite excellent, my dear sir. Utmost entertaining.

[@bubberiffic]

Ben, you’re awesome and I just want to say how much I love of what you’ve done and how you’ve inspired me to build my own portables and to learn how to solder!

[@artybombardi]

Bubberiffic and Benheck sitting in a tree...

[@EvileDik]

As an ex-game dev who donates to SpecialEffect (a UK charity that does games accessibility work for disabled people), your doing work Ben, keep it up! I hope Microsoft sees your video and sees fit to send you another skip load of controllers for spares.

[@BenHeckHacks]

Oh yeah I've sold a lot to them over the years!

[@tekvax01]

Excellent job Ben! I always enjoy watching your build videos!

[@seanabsher5577]

tbh this is basically a slimmed down, but basically identical concept to how I foresaw a permanent fix to nintendo joycon drift. Great Job Ben! I only ever imagined it, never "did" it...

[@itfnt]

It took me too long to realize you had your own channel.... I don't know what I enjoy more, the electronics you're working on or your wild tangents. In short, I love your videos.

[@husky3g]

The PS3 still to this day is one of the craziest gaming consoles ever created. The engineering and thought of everything put into the controllers as well as the console itself is just amazing. PS3 controllers that I had typically suffered from a "loose" joystick. They still worked, but they were very "floppy". I'm assuming that the sensors for the stick position basically had no wear but the mechanical sticks themselves actually were probably very worn over time. It really is a testament to good engineers who had the forethought to think, "You know, this stick, when playing games is going to be used sometimes for hours a day at a near non-stop rate. We should probably reduce friction to zero to prevent wear on the sensor so the sticks last longer."

[@davidmcgill1000]

Still using the same DS3 after 10 years for PC gaming. Still absolutely nothing wrong with it. Companies have definitely gotten cheaper over the years.

[@twicethemegapower3995]

Ben got so hammered he forgot about the episode where he slammed beers and kept hitting the breathalyzer that was literally called Drunk Teardowns

[@AStarkSnow]

"Lol", said the scorpion. "Lmao".

[@fitingsthdown]

i just found you by checking out old tv tech and i love that i stumbled across your channel. you definitely know your stuff! my dream as a hobbyist ( and possibly at home job) is to have a skillset like yours.

[@RocketSlug]

Gulikit's King Kong Pro 2 controller has Hall effect sensors for their sticks, and they're in a housing that matches the standard Alps ones. Hopefully it can become a drop-in replacement in the future. And their Twitter just posted a prototype mini stick for Joy Cons!

[@ivanaviNiebla]

Don't know how the Joycon sticks will work, but the normal sticks still require the DAC as can be seen in their Steam Deck modules. So, there is still some work to do to get drop-in replacements, and they will be relatively expensive xd

[@RocketSlug]

@@ivanaviNiebla Relatively, yeah. Just out of curiosity I'm seeing individual ALPS modules going for as low as $1.50 each, while the Steam Deck ones are $15 ($30 for the pair). That version includes the daughter boards, though, which I assume increases costs. I can imagine having the eventual drop-in replacements hit $10 apiece would situate them really well as an aftermarket upgrade. Who knows what pricing they can provide for a larger vendor

[@ivanaviNiebla]

@@RocketSlug $10 a piece would be great I think, but who knows how much can they shave off the costs. Especially if this will be more or less niche products because of the desoldering and soldering involved for normal controllers. And if competition doesn't appear, they won't have much incentive to reduce the price :/

[@realislit8064]

@@ivanaviNiebla joycons stucks are modular just like steam deck so they just have to make it smaller

[@realislit8064]

@@RocketSlug from my understanding, aside from the obvious change needed for voltage and code, gulikit modules can't be drop in because part of the maget is soldered/built into pcb itself

[@OrinSorinson]

Hall effect analog sticks are great and all but I don't like them. What if I want to play some games when it's something like 200 degrees Celsius?

[@BenHeckHacks]

You're right this isn't an option for the residents of Mercury.

[@youkofoxy]

or play a game inside a strong magnetic field of a MRI machine?

[@Ruby_Witch]

This was a great video as always! Could you possibly have the same results with only two hall effect sensors instead of four? It was shown that the sensor measurement would increase when the magnet was moving away from it, so once you found the center value it may be possible to get by with only two sensors. From the readings shown in the video it doesn't look like there's much of a loss in sensitivity/granularity in the measurements either. At that point maybe you could get by with only one microcontroller as well?

[@Tr1p93]

You could but it would probably require a lot more calibration effort and positioning of the magnet and sensors. The hall effect sensor might not be perfectly linear with its response to the magnetic forces. Hall effect sensors also have a very limited range so it might completely lose sense of the magnetic field and the output becomes 0 or it gets too close and the output becomes the max voltage. Using 4 sensors is a lot easier in that regard and unless you are thinking about mass producing joysticks adding 2 more sensors to save you a headache is probably not worth it.

[@dagggon112233]

I love that bit you did about Dave from EEV blog. You and him got me into soldering

[@DrFred666]

Yo, new fan! I ran across one of your old Genesis mods and found your channel. It's pretty fascinating watching you take that DS3 joystick apart....I've been fixing them through cannibalizing OEM DS3 controllers for the past few years, but I've never been ballsy enough to take apart the actual joystick component. Appreciate what you are doing, please keep it up.

[@10100rsn]

Adjusting the center point is the most useful thing to get rid of drift. I started to design an add in board with a set of multi-turn potentiometers that go in parallel with the sticks for adjusting the center point but the jitter that shows up after wear and tear means the sticks need to be disassembled anyway. Cleaning and bending the contact pins outside the cuts in the tracks will last for a little while but eventually you need to replace the pots. Mouser and digikey carry the genuine Alps parts (and the newer versions) so I'd only order through them. And no matter what you do, unless you use a microcontroller to adjust it automatically, the drift will always make its way back and need some adjustment. If only Microsoft allowed access to the microcontrollers code so we could fix the issue in the firmware so we could adjust the center point of the stick ourselves, then we wouldn't need to constantly repair these sticks.

[@gompsie]

I love these people who fix things singing along,fixing it with love,awesome video.........

[@jonwally2002]

At my work, we use hall effect sensors which can be calibrated once installed. This allows us to some flexibility in our assembly and tolerances. One product uses only two of them to achieve a dual axis joystick.

[@PSNGormond]

The scorpion and the frog is what introduced me to Aesop's fables. Oddly enough I first heard a version of it in a Star Trek Voyager episode called Scorpion.

[@kevrosbane]

Ben have you seen the mlx90333 and similar chips u use 1 chip instead of 4 and u can place it right under the magnet.

[@arcadesunday4592]

What a great solution ! Hall effect analogue controls make the most sense to me - even from a wear point of view. Fun video as usual.

[@guerrillaradio9953]

Alps does currently make 2 axis hall effect gimbals. We use them in hobby grade RC controllers. Even trimmed down, they may still be too big for modern console controllers, but the hall effect encoders are pretty great. There are also similarly packaged optical encoders as well. There has to be a way to make an analog stick PCB with the right ICs as a retrofit kit. Whether it's worth the time or not, that's definitely a 'you' question.

[@GadgetUK164]

Very cool video Ben! The Saturn circle pad used hall effect too!

[@codebeat4192]

That is a nice repair and real fix to the problem (not just replace it).

[@keithbk]

Someone should animate your Scorpion and the Frog story with your voice from this video...

[@artybombardi]

"But Scorpion- you are a scorpion." - an unfortunate frog as narrated by Bon Hemp

[@Terreur_rose]

"This thing was rode hard and put away wet" killed me.

[@ferrumignis]

If you have a spare pin I'd use it to enable a calibration mode. When the pin is asserted sweep the X and Y over the entire range, then centre it, then deassert the cal pin. The micro will store min/max and centre values from both axis and store them to EEPROM. This means no hardcoded values that may change between joysticks.

[@fersunk]

The joysticks of the Steam Deck are hall effect if I remember correctly. Sooo, in theory they should work way longer without trouble

[@alex_cookie33]

No, it still uses potentiometer. Gulikit will be releasing a hall effect replacement for steam deck. Just search for them.

[@CallousCoder]

Yay!!!! My favorite KZbinr dropped a whole video again! Sweet!

[@absalomdraconis]

Abrasion of the carbon film will indeed be the issue. It's been a thing for as long as people have been using potentiometers for joysticks- it was semi-common for PC flightsim players to have to open up their joysticks to replace the pots every once in a while. The metal ones last longer, but they still have the same problem. Honestly, I'd like to see a quadrature-output photonic replacement (use film or something to get a transparency gradient mounted to the rotary shaft, then place LEDs on one side of the disk 90 degrees away from each other, with light detectors on the opposite side from them- that gets you quadrature), just because I'd like to see that as a product, but the hall-effect route will probably be easier.

[@lachee3055]

I love story time ben! Such a soothing voice I would listen to audiables with it!

[@KyoshoLP]

Very cool. As a former portablizer, the idea of completely spoofing at traditional pot-based analog stick is really cool. I'm curious whether that solution adds any input lag. Maybe you could hook one of those up to one of your lag tester light show things (do you still make those for devs?) and hit it with a highspeed camera? Just a thought.

[@AmazingFrenchman]

Stick offset is also due to changing the pots on the stick, since these are never really zeroed (dead center) swapping a pot will change the zero value of the stick, you either fix calibration by adding resistors or try finding a similar centered stick.

[@chrisjones9193]

So true, no 2 pots are equal. Wish we could recalibrate the firmware in the pad. It must be done at the factory.

[@AmazingFrenchman]

@@chrisjones9193 wish there was a way, resistors do just fine on Xbox, on PS4 it lowere the max input range by the same amount the center is offset.

[@Cosper79]

He's alive!

[@devikwolf]

Peoople ask me, on a regular basis, "Are you drunk?" or "Are you high?" because of my nonsense rambling and tendency to sing random songs about whatever I'm currently doing. And it's really frustrating because at least 20% of the time, I'm neither drunk nor high. I feel you big time, Ben.

[@artybombardi]

Did you bump your head or something? lmao

[@JuliePGUK]

Now all we need is someone to develop a simple drop in replacement hall effect stick and finally stop microsoft, sony, and nintendo screwing their customers over to buy new controllers all the time

[@akaHarvesteR]

I've always wondered why nobody makes Hall effect sensors in the same package formats as potentiometers. Would be so useful!

[@nobodynoone2500]

Try using 'Fader Lube' It will lube and protect carbon tracks. Best used when the device is newer, or after a cleaning. Will extend the life signifigantly. I use it on all my audio gear and test equipment.

[@willyhoogs]

What about Deoxit D5?

[@DavidSprings]

That's kind of brilliant, Ben. Well done.

[@MoshiCola]

Definitely gonna have to look into that new Hall effect switch pro controller

[@xaytana]

Hey Ben. After months of looking into the PS3 modules, I've finally figured it out. They're half-bridge magnetoresistor sensors, not inductive sensors. The pulsed 2.8v VCC rail is extremely odd, no idea why it exists, the module design is also odd as it doesn't make any sense to me. Alps Alpine also has a ton of patents for MR sensors, though I haven't been able to source these modules specifically. These modules are also extremely custom, the resistance values don't match any off-the-shelf sensors I've found yet. Sad reality that we'll never see these modules again unless someone finds a treasure trove buried out in a desert. Though I'm not sure of their longevity, for example hall effect sensors have an abysmally short rating for quiescent age-related voltage drift, though I do know these modules are fairly susceptible to foreign fields just as hall sensors are; maybe an inductive stick is still an idea worth chasing due to the benefits it would have, not to mention that they'd be fairly easy to produce when you're not a major corporation.

[@ThatGuy_33]

Petition to fund a band heck audiobook

[@50shadesofbeige88]

Yes, with impromptu musical covers throughout lol

[@TboneLoyal]

Ben voice time sounds like Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy voice. Its cool.

[@420architecMindNDesign]

Bens the kind of guy I want to hang out with

[@ArrowRaider]

Your story book skills are top notch. I would seriously buy an audiobook with your narration.

[@Moxzot]

People say these joysticks just wear out but I've owned at least 20 over the years and all the old ones never have worn out like this it just wasnt a thing, now people say its normal, I think its manufactures being cheap.

[@LittleRainGames]

I remember this happening on N64 with nintendo brand and third party. If I can remember possibly the xbox 360.

[@HokusaiXL]

@@LittleRainGames N64 used rotary encoders, and it made of all plastic so that whittled itself away over time.

[@Amerikanskis]

@@LittleRainGames mario party killed so many controllers

[@suicidalbanananana]

No worries Ben, i do drink during a lot of your videos, i got you covered 👍

[@SireSquish]

The level of technical wizardry on display here is awesome.

[@CaptainXJ]

Drift killed my love of the Switch. It went from something I played all the time to something I hardly ever touch.

[@HastyRhombus760]

GuliKit King Kong Controllers

[@otopico]

These carbon film potentiometers feel a lot like an intentional failure mode. Thin layer of carbon wears out, got to buy another $65+ controller. Easy money brought to you by racing to making something cheap as possible even if it means creating a problem for everyone that uses the product. SEGA had this figured out back in the Saturn days. I miss old school SEGA. They were weird, but they were well engineered weird. I wish I had the skill to refit a SONY DS4 controller to a hall effect sensor (without needing to modify the overall shape of the og DS4, I love the hand feel) in place of the janky carbon film pots that will always fail if you use them. I love watching you dick around with things. Seeing something being remade to work better is always satisfying.

[@epindigozylacone5730]

There are two kinds of potentiometers. I believe your replacement pots are logarithmic pots. They change value faster. They're great in audio gear. What you want for an analog control are linear pots.

[@P43YM]

If i remember correctly, there was a revision of dualshock for ps3 with 4 pin "potentiometers" on hall sensors. This was a real drift killer

[@P43YM]

Damn, never write a comment at the beginning of a video... Lol

[@t0ny747]

Will game controllers ever move to hall effect sensors? RC controllers are moving over and it is so much better and doesn't wear out like POTs do.

[@vgamesx1]

Probably not, I'm sure they enjoy selling new controllers every few years, also a well-made one should last roughly the lifetime of a console anyway, so no reason for them to ever change.

[@nsshurtz]

I'd hope that a 3rd party steps up to make controllers with hall effect sensor analog sticks, really the big reason why microsoft sony and nintendo don't is because doing so increases manufacturing costs, and they want to have the console and accessories priced as low as possible to capture as much of the market while still being able to turn profits.

[@madson-web]

I like how the dreamcast controller feels. The big issue is the lack of the second stick. But it works pretty well for the library it has

[@12Mantis]

I wonder if it would be possible to "patch" those carbon rings by drawing on them with a pencil, like that project from the Forest M. Mims III engineers mini-notebooks where you make your own resistor using a piece of paper, a thick ling drawn on it with pencil lead and a couple of paperclips for the contacts.

[@artybombardi]

Somebody should try a gelatine-graphite paint job and report back.

[@evensgrey]

I'll point out that PROFESSORS tend to keep working until they die. These are the sort of people who come into their office to do some work in the afternoon on major holidays because they enjoy their work more than almost anything else.

[@calmmusicforsleep]

Great work! Thanks for sharing! Have a great new week!👍

[@cujoman187]

Gilikit makes something very similar. I know people have already said this multiple times in the comments but if they made a "pro" version of the controller with buttons on the back I would already own one. I need one for the Xbox Series X. The Elite controllers are junk the Turtle Beach controller is as well. I'm using the Thrustmaster eSwap X Pro right now but I'm on my second set of thumbsticks already which those are starting to fail as well one of them did within 2-3 months of owning them. I'm disabled so have very limited funds so I can't afford to keep buying new controllers and or thumbsticks all the time. If you could look into those Gilikit Hall Effect thumbsticks and do a video of how to get them to work in one of the mentioned controllers above that would be amazing! Or better yet what would you charge me to do the replacement to a hall effect thumbsticks in one of the controllers? IDK if they would work in the Thrustmaster one though since they use magnets to hold the thumbsticks in the controllers. I really just wish they would stop making junk you've gotta replace after a couple few months and stop filling the landfills with their junk controllers. They really should be forced to use the hall effect thumbsticks cause it's an environmental issue as well as just plain old greed. I get they need to make money but they are costing the environment a hell of a lot more money from all the waste.

[@gandhabba69]

Go for the 8bitdo ultimate bluetooth xD

[@cujoman187]

@Gandhabba I'm almost positive they don't use Hall Effect Joysticks in that one nor is it compatible with Xbox

[@gandhabba69]

@@cujoman187 i saw a teardown and they use the same exactly of gulikit ;)

[@cujoman187]

@Gandhabba ok thanks I'll have to look into it closer then but on their website they don't mention using them at all and normally companies who do use them use that as a selling point and they advertise it

[@gandhabba69]

@@cujoman187 you will be impressed for the quality features and price of 8bitdo ultimate bluetooth, and uses real gulikit joisticks, and the other one that is better is Flydigi apex 3 but that one doesent have hall effect joysticks.

[@xaytana]

I'd be curious to see a deeper dive into the PS3 4-pin ALPS. I've always heard they were hall-effect sensors, I've always read that they're magnetically-actuated potted carbon film potentiometers, but never had seen evidence of either as nobody with a sizable audience had torn into one. It's interesting that they're a variable inductive-hall setup, and I'm curious to see more information about it, operating model, polling rate, power requirements, etc. A deeper dive should also provide solid information for resources like the PS3 DevWiki. There also seems to be some confusion as to how the circuit actually operates, part of the devwiki has what the various chips do, but AFAIK nobody has really pieced together how the circuit as a whole works, and I believe part of this may be due to the impression that the circuit is either a carbon wiper pot with a mystery fourth leg or a true hall effect sensor; with better information the circuit can be reverse-engineered, and considering the housing-side is just a pcb, it should be a fairly easily DIY-able solution with some work. I believe the potting compound on the PCB was there to help center the magnet housing, which means the ring around the magnet and the potting compound were most likely interfacing, and getting this setup correct would be the difficult part of the DIYing, as you need to correctly center the potting compound on the PCB, you need the correct surface shape to the potting compound, and you'd need a compatible magnet housing to make the system work correctly. I'd also be curious about the feasibility of a custom IC to make this 4-pin housing into a 3-pin housing, so that it's only a signal out rather than the oddity of the controller's circuit, not really something for the DIY space but as a potential future for analog sticks if anyone were to make sticks in this way again.

[@BenHeckHacks]

The PS3 seemed like they were "rolling their own" sensors and using the dedicated TI chip to do the op-amp and sensing.

[@xaytana]

@@BenHeckHacks There seems to be a new hall effect stick on the market. GuliKit's King Kong 2, pro and non-pro. Might be worth looking into. From what I can tell, they replaced the pots in the typical pot housing and interface design with a circular piece with a couple magnets at the bottom, and using PCB-mounted hall sensors. It's an interesting design that seems to retain the same stick housing, gimbal, and push button cluster, while the only change is where the pots would be; I believe they're even using an off-the-shelf stick housing, the only modification is lack of pots and the addition of the new magnet attachment. As far as I can tell, typical controller price, $50 for the non-pro, the pro just has sensitivity adjustments and a different texture for $70. Unfortunately, it's a Switch layout controller, though it has support for Switch, Windows D and X inputs, by extension Xbox as well, and both major mobile platforms, no idea if Sony's systems can use it though it doesn't have a touchpad anyways. It seems like a fairly simple design to copy, entirely 3D printable even, if you continue down the hall effect joystick rabbit hole. Just a housing replacement with very simple internals. It also uses only two sensors, rather than the four of the Dreamcast-esque setup, so there's already a potential cost and part savings. Outside of obvious PCB issues, it seems to be an almost direct drop-in replacement. VK's Channel video "This is the First Drift-Proof 3rd Party Controller / VK Review King Kong 2 Pro" has a demonstration of the entirety of the new design roughly twenty minutes in.

[@joneilkimball]

A power chair I took apart had a powered coil on the stick. And four passive coils on the board.

[@osakanone]

Good to know you're alive. This is gonna be good.

[@mihumono]

gulikit makes some hall effect controllers and analog replacements for steamdeck with hall effect sensors

[@tawmifm]

Do you know if there's a way to get their joysticks to drop into a normal controller? I'd like to put them in my Switch Pro Controller

[@unkownomega]

@@tawmifm no which is why only the steam deck is the only one they offer since the analog stick is on a little pcb that plugs in. If you can find the module somewhere you could solder it in but I think there are little chips or something that make it work on the board of the guilkit controller so just soldering it in is probably not enough by itself the manufacturers would have to put it it and the only other ones doing it is 8bitdo this month they are releasing an Ultimate controller and one of them steam deck competitors can't remember if it is Aya or some other one.

[@LorikQuinn]

@@unkownomega if only we had an engineer/board designer go rogue and make universal hall effect joysticks just for fun and take revenge on his old boss. Its totally doable, Ben straight up just did it in this video. If i had the tools to build a PCB, i would prob give it a try. two north and south magnets adapted into the potentiometer's housing (2 potentiometers so thats 4 magnets for each stick), two sensors rated with minimum voltage of 1.8 or less (for xbox) by the side and a little pcb that solders into the controller with a microcontroller chip that can be programmed to translate the sensors voltage range to the controller's range. Then if you need it for another type of controller just change the microcontroller's code ayyy

[@liamsemicolon]

@@LorikQuinn phobgcc uses the base concept of an open-source hall effect joystick for a gamecube controller, pretty neat

[@Gorgutsforcongress]

Gulikit has nice sticks, but terrible QC.

[@EneRec]

Who was going to think that sonic would have a successful live-action movie right? Loving this kind of comments during the video

[@MasterofNoneTV]

"You've got it, and once you've gotten it, girl you've got it, and now I wanna give it to youuu -ouuu ouuuu!!"🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@deffnog]

Wish we could just attach a hall magnet one to it

[@donnierussellii4659]

I was just thinking, what if an AI was trained to compensate for the erratic behavior, assuming that the wear occurs in a particular way for each user/game.

[@bogard84]

A drunken repair dude gets a sub. Watching while rage drinking figuring out ways to improve Thumbstick durability. For some reason, you remind me of Ordinary Sausage and a Jeweler buddy of mine whom I used to ghost manage his business as a horologist but he died some years ago in a drunken motorcycle accident so it's good to see your cheer! Man, when will Hall Sensors like the Paradise Arcade Magenta and Dreamcast be industry standard so we don't have to be screwing around with this Pot junk?? Yes, Zoomers: Stay off Pots, get in the Hall! Woo Doo Doo!

[@artybombardi]

Ben, make an alternate channel called Bjorn Hecho Hucks and fill it with unedited, low effort (drunk) videos of your story narrations and impersonations. I'd buy that for a dollar.

[@BreakingYTown]

I love story time Ben

[@jjjacer]

NGL i would listen story time ben as an audiobook no problem

[@electromaniacal]

"Do you know how many cars you could actually finish with this chip?!" LOL

[@agenericaccount3935]

Your septagenarian Indiana Jones impression gives me goosebumps. WHY 😄

[@McTroyd]

You should do an audiobook with the story time voice.

[@allluckyseven]

If only Editing Ben could go back in time and warn Fixing Ben of his mistakes...

[@whitelined2]

What a video! I just wonder why switch controllers are so expensive - they should be built with hall effect sensors at those prices. Part of me wants to channel your DIY approach to this and do something about it - unfortunately the day job of designing fire sprinkler systems continues and for some reason it's still getting busier and worse.

[@BenHeckHacks]

Nintendo tax

[@seanabsher5577]

@@BenHeckHacks if you get a replacement stick for $10, you're payng *probably* for patent or trademark on the modified dual pot analog stick design. short version: Nintendo TAX ... gotta love it

[@Regular6782]

Couldn't you just use on hall effect sensor for H and one for V if the value is increasing as it gets further away? That would save one uC and 2 sensors.

[@absalomdraconis]

Innately vulnerable to external magnetic fields.

[@DarkoPetreski]

Gulikit have made a controller that uses hall effect sensors for the sticks and the triggers and it great.

[@DarkoPetreski]

@@absalomdraconis It's not that big of a problem, unless you live next to a giant magnet, it should work fine. The dreamcast controller used hall effect sensors for the joysticks.

[@ElectroBotVideo]

Storytime Ben: "Don't shut up and do take my money!"

[@carrik_caser]

I'm sure you're aware, but for others, you can get original ALPS joysticks from Mouser. They have an extra little plastic nub on the bottom that has to be trimmed, but otherwise they are drop in replacements for the Xbox. I recently put some in a controller and they feel great and I haven't had any issues yet.

[@BenHeckHacks]

I'll have to check it out thanks! By nub you mean the 2 little posts that are meant to go through the PCB?

[@carrik_caser]

@@BenHeckHacks That's what they look like. They sit just taller than the other raised parts on the bottom plastic. Part# RKJXV122400R Edit: Spelling

[@battra92]

Ben singing"Knock three times" and "The Ghetto Avenue Boys." How I've missed your videos!

[@hh4hooch]

I haven't had any luck buying replacements from alps either FYI. I ordered genuine alps assemblies to fix Nintendo switch procontrollers and the footprint is identical and they wont calibrate properly in the controllers. As far as I know the version of the assembly is not listed under digikey/mouser or are old stock or something? Either way I tried 4 different sets in a controller and no dice. I manually cleaned the pots on the old sticks and put them back in and they worked. I don't know how source the correct pots lol as far as I could tell they were all just 10k pots. I don't really have insight as to why they wouldn't work. If you have any knowledge as to why a 10k pot of the same shape acts different I'd love to know.

[@swifdy6855]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/i6Dbq2Olfb1siqc this guy has another video where you test each pot with a multimeter and find ones that match so that they center

[@troy17981]

Here for the thumbnail. Sticking around for the singing. :)

[@troy17981]

Had to get nearly 3 minutes before the singing kicked in.

[@RicoElectrico]

I use XB1 controller to play Switch games (there's an adapter) with my brother. I didn't experience any drift and he bought the controller a few years ago. I guess they wear down more with more abuse? I'm pretty gentle on it, well, except all the analog spinning minigames in Mario Party Superstars.

[@slegendary6003]

27:58 Dave Jones to Vinnie Jones in .5 secs

[@Scrogan]

Wouldn’t it be possible to replace the MCU with a differential amplifier? Maybe you’d need a little lead-screw to adjust the position of the sensors for zeroing, but I don’t think it would be too bad.

[@mr.9931]

I've never heard of hall effect sensors until now, and I'm surprised that every company is not using these for analog sticks. Probably because of price reasons... but still, I think these should be the future for analog sticks.

[@Ben-do1bf]

I think Alps Electronics (largest controller component supplier, or at least analog stick supplier for game consoles) has some recent patents using the technology, so well see if they get used.

[@Porygonal64]

Sega Saturn 3D controller has a Hall Effect stick

[@mr.9931]

@@Ben-do1bf I'm just thinking, that if Nintendo is willing to pay for parent rights, maybe we could eliminate switch drift once and for all.

[@mr.9931]

@@Porygonal64 I understand that they've been used in the past, (Sega Dreamcast) But I wish all modern consoles used these amazing things.

[@Ben-do1bf]

@@mr.9931 lets hope it happens

[@wolfnails666]

Was the customer using the return for repair controller as a hammer? Great work on driftbusting!

[@BenHeckHacks]

Consider how rough some people are with controllers, then realize my mods use weaker 3D printed parts... So....

[@pikadroo]

How many pins do you see? “THERE ARE FOUR PINS!”

[@seanabsher5577]

LMFAO great tng episode

[@blueskin1978]

Me when I got to the programming bit in your vid: "This man is a god!" ALso: I love bedtimestory Ben's voice!