Any user of a current Nintendo Switch (in any of its models) knows that one of the most annoying and recurring problems is known as drifting on your joysticks, a problem that consists of the mechanism wearing out over time and the joysticks beginning to deviate even when you are not even touching them. Aware of this, it seems that in Nintendo they have put in the batteries since they have proprietary a new magnetic system for the joysticks of their consoles, something that we will presumably see in the next version that we know for now as Switch 2.
Actually, the drifting It is a problem that affects practically any type of controller, whether it is a PC or any console. Since joysticks have a mechanical mechanism, there is friction and friction necessarily implies wear, so in the end they all end up failing over time, without exception.
Goodbye to drifting on the Switch 2 joysticks
Users who use the Nintendo Switch regularly are surely aware of this problem, and that is why it is quite common to have to send the Joy-cons for repair, process their warranty or even have to change them because they have stopped working properly. Nintendo has always been aware of this problem and, to date, has never done anything to fix it, although fortunately this could change when the company launches its next portable console…
For this reason that we have just told you, a magnetic system could be a definitive solution to the problem of driftingsince, as happens with magnetic levitation fans, wear is completely avoided because there is no physical contact and therefore no friction.
Recently, Nintendo has filed several new patents, one of which involves a joystick that uses a magnetic system to register movement (well, actually the patent even talks about a fluid, but if it were something watertight like the oil in the shock absorbers of a car or motorcycle, friction and wear would also be significantly minimized). The exact technical details are still not very clear, but some media are already defining this system as “Hall Effect”, or Hall effect.
To explain this in a simple way, we will tell you that a Hall effect joystick uses magnetic fields to detect movement without any physical contact, and in short what happens is what we explained to you a moment ago: without physical contact There is no friction and therefore no wear. Of course, we must keep in mind that at the moment there is still no original console controller that has implemented this technology and, therefore, we cannot know if it is something that really works well to avoid the drifting.
Something that does seem quite clear is that despite the patent, Nintendo is not going to launch a new version of the Joy-con with this technology, at least not for its current Switch console. It is something that will obviously be saved for the next Super Switch, Switch 2 or whatever they end up calling it, since in fact it would be a fairly noticeable attraction to encourage its purchase.
