Finally got around to installing Hall effect JoyCons in my handhelds

Nice!

My joycons - original ones even! - finally started to drift earlier this year, and I did the same thing replacing them with some hall effect ones. So far I've been really pleased with the results, though initially it was a little weird simply because the sticks themselves felt a tiny bit different than the original ones. But after using them for a bit they felt good.

5

My Joycons have survived BotW, AC:NH, Three Houses, Metroid Dread and Metroid Prime, which I all played religiously. But they finally started drifting during my early hours of TotK. I just bought the Gulikit ones, switched them in less than half an hour. Great experience, no complaints, just not drifting joy cons.

5
- Those are the same ones I installed in my joycons, too. And looks like the same ones in the photo on this post.
  
  I had the same experience with the usage, AND I played a lot of Smash Bros. on them which would, in theory, destroy them in no time. But they started to drift about two months before ToTK came out, and I couldn't risk playing that all janky.
  
  1

Nice. I'd replace the plastic buckle lock with metal ones, too, if you're already opening up the joycon.

5

How are they? Can you tell much of a difference in terms of fine accuracy compared to stock?

4

It’s hard to say, my old cons has been drifting for so long I’d just resorted to only playing docked with my pro controller. They definitely feel more responsive in the little testing I did though. Even just the calibration on the switch felt snappy and responsive.

8
- I switched to a Hall effect sensor featuring joystick on my pc a couple years ago and the difference in control was amazing. Fine small movements are registered perfectly and that makes such a difference to the overall effectiveness. I bet it’s awesome on the switch. Hope to see these sensors (either officially or third party) on the Xbox and PS controllers too.
  
  5
From my experience they felt a bit stiffer than the original sticks but that went away eventually. They feel just like the original sticks now. Definitely worth doing, and it’s not too hard to do, it’s just time consuming since the joycon parts are so small!

4

those are the ones without drift right??

4

Yeah the sticks use magnets rather than any physical contact to determine their positions, so there is no risk of the kind of wear that causes drift

11
- This needs to be a standard with them all, period
  
  14

Outside of drift do you notice any other difference? More precise or anything like that?

4

Not so far. It does have a different feel, but it’s not really anything huge.

5
I have Gulikit's own controller with hall effect sticks, and they feel way smoother than other controllers to me. Since it's all magnetic, there's no feeling of friction or scraping of plastic against plastic that I immediately felt after comparing to my Series X controller. I guess a good equivalent would be an on vs off air hockey table. I haven't tried their joycon replacements though, so not sure if the same feeling carries over to them. There's not much of a precision difference, but you can get the deadzones down to pretty much nothing without any rogue inputs so it helps a little in certain games.

4

Outside of drift do you notice any other difference? More precise or anything like that?

3

Not OP, but I wouldn’t say there’s any major differences. I did notice they were slightly stiffer when I first installed them, though after a week or so they feel totally smooth. Precision feels the same, definitely not worse.

2

Which handhelds? I've got 4x joycons that so need replacing but is like to do my retroid pocket 3+ too.

2

I did my Switch and my RG353v both. I’m not sure what sticks the Pocket 3+ uses, but visually it looks like it should use joycon style sticks also.

1
- Retroid sell them directly. Tbh I don't need to, I just like the tinker. Joycons are v drifty though.
  
  2

I'll have to look into these if my joycon starts drifting again. They are currently fixed with some card stock wedged under the analog stick back plate and the casing.

2

They feel really nice in the bit of testing I’ve done. I’ll play some Zelda later and see how they feel in game.

1

Anyone with experience with joysticks (these or regular ones), I have a weird backlash issue with my Steam Deck where if I pull the joystick all the way in one direction and release it, it will overshoot the center and go ever so slightly in the other direction, and weirdly enough its only a recent issue and did not crop up till this past month (after I let it sit for a month or so).

I am going to eventually swap to the hall effect sticks cuz I like the idea, so my question is: Should I try to fix this issue in software (i.e. increase deadzones, would that be effective?), is there a quick hardware fix that I can do a without taking apart the Deck, or should I just go ahead and fastforward my timeline in getting and swapping to the Hall effect sticks? I figure if I have to open the Deck I might as well do the swap, but I want to put that off as long as I can.

2

I believe this is called snap back and it's been a problem in the smash bros community with gc controllers. I don't know too much about it but I think the normal fix is installing capacitors to the sticks somehow. Probably requires soldering?

You could also try increasing the dead zones a little bit.

2
- Thanks for giving me the term for the effect, it's insanely hard to Google the issue without knowing what it is called. I have increased the deadzone a little bit and it has helped as far as I can tell. Looks like I get to put off the upgrade for a bit longer.
  
  2
I believe this is called snap back and it's been a problem in the smash bros community with gc controllers. I don't know too much about it but I think the normal fix is installing capacitors to the sticks somehow. Probably requires soldering?

You could also try increasing the dead zones a little bit.

1
I believe this is called snap back and it's been a problem in the smash bros community with gc controllers. I don't know too much about it but I think the normal fix is installing capacitors to the sticks somehow. Probably requires soldering?

You could also try increasing the dead zones a little bit.

1

I'll have to look into these if my joycon starts drifting again. They are currently fixed with some card stock wedged under the analog stick back plate and the casing.

1

Do they also have the „click“ on the up position? Amazon reviews are full of horror stories, and I hope that would get fixed.

1

Also, do they still support Amiibos?

1

Please don't put the electronics directly on the magnetic mat.

0

Wait, why?

2
- Let's be clear, it's really low risk, especially for such a low strength one, but some types of components can get damaged by it, or you could end up dislodging badly soldered or already damaged ones while you move the board around.
  
  In the worst case, if you dislodge them just enough to give you an intermittent problem, good luck debugging it.
  
  I just feel that it's not worth risking it.
  
  7