Of Sony PlayStation 5 It comes with a new controller called DualSense, which has a fresh design and improved touch. Both in our short test period Control unit And the ControllerWe found the console to be impressive, other than the fact that its full potential is limited to just a few PS5 titles. DualSense’s glory seems short-lived, although we are now reading posts from users complaining about joystick drift.
We’ve seen this infamous issue before, particularly on Nintendo Switch’s JoyCon controllers, but in this case it’s taken to a whole new level. to me IGNIn a class action lawsuit, a US law firm has filed a lawsuit against Sony alleging that PlayStation 5 DualSense controllers are defective and described Sony’s behavior as “fraudulent, deceptive, illegal and dishonest”.
If you don’t know what joystick or joystick drift is, this is a malfunction as the controller detects movement on one or both analog sticks on your console even if you don’t touch them. To understand more about this problem, i fix it Publish a detailed analysis of the controller by disassembling and examining the various components inside.
According to the analysis, joystick units are manufactured by a Japanese company called Alps (formerly Alps Electric, now Alps Alpine) that specializes in input and sensor equipment. This is not unique to the DualSense controller as iFixit claims to be the same hardware used in almost every popular console, including the DualShock 4, Xbox One controller, Nintendo Switch Pro controller and even the new Xbox One Elite controller .
That said, the real problem is (maybe) a smaller part called a potentiometer. Each joystick has two: one senses the up / down movement, while the other detects left / right movement. The way a potentiometer works is to take a tape of a material of known uniform resistance value with one end at each end to apply a known voltage across the entire strip. A third party called a squeegee is added that slides back and forth along the beam. Depending on the location of the scanner, the voltage reading on the scanner will change. The scanner on the potentiometer used on the DualSense controller works the same way, except that instead of moving in a straight line, it scrolls around a semicircular track made of printed carbon film. The joystick movement spins two small axes, each attached to the wiper. The position of the wipers is translated into voltage values, which are then read by the controller to determine the joystick position and movement. Aside from that, the joysticks also include a spring that returns the sticks to their original center position and a push button that most controllers have on their joysticks.
There are several reasons why these joysticks can display “drift behavior”. First of all, iFixit says that the suggested life cycle of potentiometers is out of order. The Alpen specification sheet for the RKJXV series, ThumbPointer (Stick Controller) designed for gaming purposes, indicates a lifespan of 2,000,000 cycles. Apparently variants of this model number are listed alongside several PlayStation, Xbox and Switch Pro Controller variants. An iFixit engineer went on to calculate console interactions by testing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) at ten different 30 second intervals, indicating that approximately 100 full rotations of the potentiometer were performed. If you weren’t playing the first-person shooter as aggressively as COD you would still average 80 full rotations per minute, which equates to about 2,000,000 revolutions in 25,000 minutes, dropping to just 209 days of two hours of conservative play on Today . If you lift it 120 revolutions per minute, it drops to 139 days 2 hours per day. By default, this means that Alps will rate their joystick as only 4-7 months old. While these numbers don’t really mean that every joystick on your DualSense controller is starting to drift, they could be a potential failure factor.
Several other factors may or may not cause the joystick to bend as mentioned in iFixit. One of these could be the wear of the potentiometers, as rubbing the wiper against the resistor pad causes failure, causing changes in the voltage readings across the terminals. Another cause could be resilience, as the self-centering mechanism can stretch over time, creating a new focal point. In this case, the potentiometers will continue to accurately read the relative position of the joystick, but the position itself is incorrect. Other possible factors for joystick slipping can include material expansion and contamination from dust, dirt and moisture over time.
Either way, it’s best to set your expectations and include some repairs or even replacements in your budget, in case you need one in a few months. If you’re planning to buy the new PlayStation 5, you should browse Restocking Guide
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