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Switch 2 Pro Controller: Built to Break? Full Teardown | iFixit

a year ago by misk to c/nintendo

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qwestjest78 40 points a year ago

It is obvious that they don't want average consumers fixing these. What parent has the time to take the controller apart like that to change the battery. Nintendo are slime

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slimerancher 11 points a year ago

I chose the appropriate name then. 😀

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moncharleskey 5 points a year ago

It's a good game!

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Narann 30 points a year ago

Years ago, controllers where almost unbreakable. Look at where we are now.

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A_Random_Idiot 4 points a year ago

Yep.

I can not tell you the level of abuse my NES controllers took from young, not-yet-emotionally-regulated idiots. All of which still work flawlessly.

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spitfire 1 point a year ago

Like the Logitech one used in that submarine? ;)

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A_Random_Idiot 3 points a year ago

The F310 is not why the submarine blew up.

honestly its decent for as cheap as it is for retropi stuff.

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spitfire 1 point a year ago

I'm not saying it was the reason. I believe it was one of the things that survived relatively unscathed;)

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Tollana1234567 1 point a year ago

and it was A USED defective line one too, from early 2010s.

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heythatsprettygood 16 points a year ago

I don't get why Sony and Nintendo refuse to follow Xbox and just have a battery door you can throw AAs or a battery pack into. It is a far better design. Still, props to Nintendo for being the only one of the big three to have modular sticks on all their regular controllers (Sony and Microsoft have soldered sticks except on their high end controllers). Disassembly seems a bit tedious on this controller but not a total nightmare. However, all of them need to have modular USB ports, as it's a common failure point that needs to be user serviceable. I do wonder how Nintendo are going to handle the new EU repairability laws when they release Switch 2 revisions.

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PraiseTheSoup 6 points a year ago

I've been arguing this point about the batteries for ages. I bought a rechargeable set from Costco for like $12. Six AA batteries on rotation in my Xbox controllers means I can game wirelessly in perpetuity. I've been using those same batteries for over 5 years now and only recently felt it could be time for some new ones.

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heythatsprettygood 7 points a year ago

If you have one nearby, get your new rechargeables from IKEA. The LADDA 2450s are far cheaper rebrands of the usually decently expensive Panasonic Eneloop Pro, and they last such a long time compared to most rechargeables.

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13igTyme 4 points a year ago

I've seen videos where people have replaced the sticks on the base sony controllers with hall effect sticks. They also have hall effect on the more expensive ones, of course.

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heythatsprettygood 2 points a year ago

You can put hall effects on the base DualSense, but it requires a lot of soldering work, putting it beyond most people's reach compared to a simple connector, and most people would get another controller. Hall effect on the Edge is very easy though, since those sticks are modular.

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spitfire 3 points a year ago

I've used both Xbox One controller (powered by AA rechargeable batteries), and Xbox Elite Series 2 (built in rechargeable battery). The battery life on the first one was really poor compared to the Elite 2. Considering the fact I did not have to charge the Elite often, I'd guess the battery might outlive the rest of the controller, and if not you could still probably find a replacement on AliExpress. Convenience of a battery that you have to charge less often than once a week is really much higher than using AA batteries.

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heythatsprettygood 0 points a year ago

What sort of AAs were you using? I used to get around at least a month or two on a set of fully charged standard Eneloop AAs. Then again, I didn't use my Xbox too intensely, maybe you had a different experience. It would make sense for the Elite to have longer battery life simply because of better battery chemistry (lithium ion on the integrated pack compared to AAs with nickel metal hydride).

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spitfire 2 points a year ago

I believe I had Eneloop Pro's (2500mAh?) in there and while the Elite would last 40h the Xbox One worked for 20-30h at most. When Elite's LED turned orange it still had enough juice for a few hours, so I could complete my gaming session easily, can't say that about the other one which was really annoying

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A_Random_Idiot 1 point a year ago

I don’t get why Sony and Nintendo refuse to follow Xbox and just have a battery door you can throw AAs or a battery pack into. It is a far better design

because when the battery takes a shit in a couple years from all the charge/discharge cycles.. You'll have to buy a whole new 60-90 dollar controller, rather than a cheap set of eneloops.

Its planned obsolescence.

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slimerancher 10 points a year ago

The only good point was sticks aren't soldered this time. Rest of the design seems overly complicated. Though, I don't really know much about these things.

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horse 6 points a year ago

Can someone explain where the assumption comes from that the sticks are definitely going to drift, just because they use potentiometers? I get that people got burned by the Switch 1 Joycons, but doesn't pretty much every other gamepad ever (except perhaps a few specialty ones) also use that technology for the sticks?

I've personally never had any sticks develop drift, on any controller I've owned. If Xbox, Playstation, PC and older Nintendo controllers all didn't have the problems the Switch 1 Joycons did, then why the assumption the Switch 2 will be like the Switch 1 and not like all the other consoles that use potentiometer sticks with no issues?

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Grass 11 points a year ago

my joycons didn't drift but my brother's did, all of them. I gave him mine and took my sweet ass time replacing the sticks in his. I put hall effect in one pair and pots in the other. Mine came back with drift. Then his second pot stick joycons came back with drift. I put hall sticks in all of them and so far so good.

My assumption is that handling of the controllers and the game's stick use intensity come in to play.

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WolfLink 3 points a year ago

I’ve had 8 joy cons drift. 6 of them I sent in to have Nintendo fix, the last pair I fixed myself with Hall effect sticks. I’ve also replaced some friends joycons with Hall effect sticks.

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spitfire 1 point a year ago

Heavy usage and maybe more importantly dust/dirt.

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Grass 1 point a year ago

ah yeah that's likely. I keep my stuff obsessively clean

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spitfire 1 point a year ago

I prefer keeping mine in a carrying bag instead of leaving it in the dock to be constantly charging and collecting dust

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WolfLink 4 points a year ago

All potentiometer based controllers can drift eventually, the problem is the joycons are very thin and drift fairly quickly. Normally it takes years of heavy usage (think a competitive smash player jamming the thing back and forth) to become a problem. Joy cons fail under relatively average usage in a year or two, which is not normal.

Everyone assumes the Switch 2 joysticks are going to have the problem because they look almost exactly the same as the Switch 1 joysticks.

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missingno 2 points a year ago

Everyone assumes the Switch 2 joysticks are going to have the problem because they look almost exactly the same as the Switch 1 joysticks.

I suspect that the reason Switch 1 JoyCons were so brittle had to do with the flap that dust could get under. That was changed for the Switch 2, so I think people are just way too quick to assume they're one and the same.

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Phelpssan 2 points a year ago

Can someone explain where the assumption comes from that the sticks are definitely going to drift, just because they use potentiometers? I get that people got burned by the Switch 1 Joycons, but doesn’t pretty much every other gamepad ever (except perhaps a few specialty ones) also use that technology for the sticks?

Nobody really knows. But Nintendo remains silent on the topic, and combined with people looking into the controller and seeing the exacty same technology this raises a lot of concerns.

The fact that they made both Joycon and Pro Controller so much harder to repair also adds to this - one of the saving graces of the Switch 1 Joycons was how easy it was to repair. If we find out in a few months that drift remains a problem in this one it's going to be a far, far worse problem between higher costs for accessories and low repairability.

So while I agree there's plenty of speculation going on, I also think it's an important topic that should be heavily discussed so people are aware of the risks when purchasing the console.

I’ve personally never had any sticks develop drift

You're lucky. I've had two pairs of joycons drift (one of them twice) and also had this problem on both sticks of my Pro controller.

I'll probably buy a Switch 2 at some point in the future, but outside of handheld mode I'll just stick to my Switch 1 accessories which have all be modded with Hall Sticks.

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Boiglenoight 1 point a year ago

The absolute only stick drift I have ever experienced was with the Joycon. I sent it into Nintendo and got it back 2 weeks later, no more drift.

Maybe I’m lucky, but I’ve spent a lot on games over the years with dozens of controllers across various systems.

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ReasonablePea 6 points a year ago

I read steam 2 pro controller and got super excited for a sec there

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Tetsuo 2 points a year ago

Honestly get a third party HE controller and call it a day...

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victorz 3 points a year ago

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slimerancher 1 point a year ago

Are you using it? Have been meaning to get it for a little while.

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victorz 2 points a year ago

Yeah, using it right now to play Horizon Forbidden West, and I'm hard in training to transition from an Xbox Elite Controller Series 2, which has two pairs of paddles. If the 8BitDo had two pairs, it would be an end game level controller for years to come, for me.

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SculptusPoe 2 points a year ago

They will find some way to break 3rd party peripherals.

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missingno 2 points a year ago

Third party controllers work just fine. Please don't make up misinformation.

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Infinite 3 points a year ago

Are there 3pp controllers that can wake the Switch 2 yet?

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pika 3 points a year ago

Noooope!

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SculptusPoe 0 points a year ago

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missingno 2 points a year ago

So you're just making up imaginary things to get mad at?

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Tollana1234567 1 point a year ago

all the news coming out about NINTENDO, nothing has good has come out of that, seems like they are releasing in anticipation of the new pokemon console games thats going to be on switch, they are probably betting on that market.

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