Monday, February 22nd 2021
iFixit Teardown Reveals The Reasons Behind Joystick Drift on PS5 Controllers
We recently reported about the class action lawsuit being filed against Sony surrounding the alleged drift on their DualShock 5 controllers. We now have some new evidence from iFixit which points towards this physical issue being present on all DualShock 5 controllers. The DualShock 5 controllers use "off-the-shelf joystick hardware with a long history of predictable, preventable issues" according to iFixit. They also estimate that the life-time of these joysticks is just over 400 hours of game time which is significantly less than what would be expected on a 70 USD controller.
The controller drift will get worse as the controllers are used due to several design faults. The main issues identified by iFixit include the specific potentiometers used in the joysticks which will wear down from use quickly making the reading more unreliable. The springs used to bring the joystick to a neutral position will fatigue over time creating a new neutral point and shifting readings. The plastics used in the DualShock 5 controller will inevitably deteriorate with time. The controller will also accumulate grime and dust in the housing from use which increases the severity of drift. The best way to minimize controller drift is to clean your controller regularly; however, this will not solve the hardware faults.
Source:
iFixit
The controller drift will get worse as the controllers are used due to several design faults. The main issues identified by iFixit include the specific potentiometers used in the joysticks which will wear down from use quickly making the reading more unreliable. The springs used to bring the joystick to a neutral position will fatigue over time creating a new neutral point and shifting readings. The plastics used in the DualShock 5 controller will inevitably deteriorate with time. The controller will also accumulate grime and dust in the housing from use which increases the severity of drift. The best way to minimize controller drift is to clean your controller regularly; however, this will not solve the hardware faults.
20 Comments on iFixit Teardown Reveals The Reasons Behind Joystick Drift on PS5 Controllers
For me, the quality (much more robust to usage) used in DS3 was far superior than DS4...and it seems DS5.
Meanwhile, what you get is a glorified PC without upgrade paths, overpriced peripherals that suck harder than ever, handicapped online capabilities, no mod/homebrew freedoms whatsoever, and a high price point for games altogether, of which the vast majority is stuff you've either played or seen before or get as a remaster.
Totally worth going for if you can't get your GPU now. Right? Did I mention almost every exclusive now also eventually gets a PC release? :D
o_O
And yet, younger generations know no better than this so they take it for granted. We're moving backwards.
Hopefully Sony release a second version ASAP.
Sticky = the material is slowly degenerating = low quality plastics. You're probably getting some low dosage of carcinogen crap as well.
Sometimes it's good to be "simple".
On the subject of controllers, a good example I have of one being built like a tank is my trusty old Logitech F310. Bought it AGES ago, around 2007 I think...but today, the damn thing still works like a champ, with no stick drift to speak of!
Personally, I had drifting sticks on X360, Xb1, Dual Shock 3 and even on my PC-only Logitech Chillstream back in 2000s, so this is nothing new. Unless manufacturers invest into better tech than we have, this problem will continue to pop up again and again.
I got a "Wow!" moment followed by a "So there's no difference between this and the ol'cheap white brand controllers that you passed to younger siblings...besides price".
Guess I'm sold on using either PDP or other 20€-cheaper controllers that at least match price-point to quality.
A joystick is a joystick is a joystick, at least when it comes to modern game controllers. There isn't really any magical engineering differences between them. They all have two potentiometers for X and Y axis, and if needed, also have the push down click function. They all work exactly the same. The market seems completely dominated by two groups named ALPS and Polyshine/Favor Union.
They just make them in different sizes (so the units posts fit in different spacing/patterns on PCBs), or with metal or plastic posts for the thumb-stick cover, etc. The differences seem minor to the end user/consumer in my opinion.
Has always seemed to be a YMMV kind of thing. And also how sensitive and finicky you are. I never thought I had an issue with drifting....but after recently noticing it on a ~6 month old Xbox One controller I thought to check my ~15 yr old Xbox 360 controllers which I thought were fine and some of theirs were pretty loose too, with slight stick drift on at least one that I plugged in to try out again.
While I haven't experienced stick drift on it yet, the middle selection of the trigger locks no longer works on BOTH triggers, so I can only use the tightest setting or the loosest setting...so there's that. But since I broke the sticker on the back of the controller (in order to get to the screw, so I could take some of the controller apart to clean it) I'm pretty sure Razer would just tell me to get fucked when it comes to a repair/replacement.
I made a post here hoping someone could help me find a replacement unit
www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/need-help-identifying-joystick-replacement.278768/
From what I can tell replacing buttons on the other hand is super simple! If you can open up the controller, you can replace those parts as they are literally drop in components. No soldering needed. Buttons work from having contact pads make a connection rather than wires or posts being soldering to each other. So you can easily replace the buttons themselves if they get worn like the paint rubbing off or they get cracked or damaged however. And you can also replace those rubber membrane pieces which are what have the contacts in them that "pop" back upwards when released. Those "clicks" you hear when pressing buttons down are these pieces in the controller that make this sound. They are what is inside the shoulder buttons and the backside mappable buttons on my PowerA controller I mentioned too.
The triggers themselves are a single axis potentiometer of the sorts. The triggers have some mechanical pieces connected to this potentiometer that will rotate based on how far depressed the trigger is. The trigger locks are a mechanical stopper that just prevent the trigger travel, as in, how far it can be depressed. If they work in the other positions, but not the center, that makes no sense to me, it would work in all or none I would believe because again it is just a physical prevention to the triggers travel. Literally plastic that gets pushed further to prevent more travel on the higher settings. So if it works there, no idea why it wouldn't work in the center position....maybe if it somehow got bent and in the middle position the triggers can travel past the stop point, but I bet you would feel that in their use. This really requires opening the controller to properly inspect and diagnose the issue.
I want to say there are laws in USA where those "warranty is void" stickers are not legally binding? Not sure though, but more likely, the company would claim a drifting joystick to be normal wear and tear unless it is within a very short period of time, like the return window lol
TLDR = don't get into joystick replacement unless you really want to go down the rabbit hole of soldering and possibly having to buy multiple parts because they are not universal fit/size and you might end up buying a part that doesn't fit properly (like me!). If you want to replace d-pad buttons, or A-B-X-Y buttons, that is easy if you are OK with opening the controller, there is no soldering needed for those parts. But keep in mind, those can come in different sizes too for fitting different controller models....for example, my PowerA controller uses the same rubber membrane with contact pads for the d-pad and for the ABXY buttons....but from what I can tell the Microsoft OEM controller use a VERY different looking shape rubber membrane for the ABXY buttons.
I know I'm writing a dissertation length post here lol but I like sharing my knowledge and I can only hope this situation can improve for consumers in the near future. I'm an avid guitar player and recently replaced all the electronics in one of my guitars....despite knowing how to solder wires fine I didn't want to deal with it after I found out that the pickups I have, created a "solderless system" where they opted to add easy male/female pin connections so any avg Joe and Sally could replace these parts. So bought all parts I needed which was an input jack and pickup selector switch and battery connection, and instead of soldering everything I tore out the old stuff and popped int he new stuff, and plugged them in together in the proper chain to work how I wanted them to. Way easier than soldering!!!! Literally plug and play! It's a genius idea that could be used in controller manufacturing too. Instead of having wear parts soldered directly to a PBC there should be connectors, much like for example any header on a motherboard which can accept a part from various manufacturers, which avg people can easily swap the component out as needed. Im sure costs of the controller manufacturing would increase, but think of all the $$$ those companies would make by officially selling replacement parts too.....it would be their way of eating their cake and having it too lmao! They can pretend like they give a crap about consumers and making a better product by offering replacements which will make customizations easier too, but instead just come up with a different marketing system to lock you into buying more parts from them in the long run. So of course the ultimate problem is for them to use parts that do not wear as quickly, but that is going to be up the joystick manufacturers to improve their designs, which are NOT the same groups as the ones making the controllers.