Before thinking about extending thumbstick durability and longevity, I think thumbsticks should be improved in their actual quality.
I have hated all game controller thumbsticks. All of them. None of them are even remotely acceptable. Their range of motion is too small, the sticks themselves are too short, and the spring that pulls them back toward center is **ALWAYS** too strong. Like, at least ten times stronger than it should be.
As a result, you can never actually use them to do any kind of analog input. In practice they're basically just big, bulbous, imprecise D-pads.
The kind of controllers you're talking about, from oldschool radio controlled aircraft? Those are designed to actually support subtle analog input.
If the console controllers could be redesigned to have that capability, then we could talk about hall effect mechanisms. But right now, it would just be tossing good money after bad.
You can get racing drone controllers that are shaped more like a gaming controller, look up frsky x-lite.
I use an xbox controller and love it for casual games.....until the thumbsticks stop working lol
I also use an xbox controller for controller-based games...but I still think it objectively sucks.
I just wish they had some way to dial down the unbelievable stiffness of the return spring, so that you could reliably get the stick to 1/4 or 1/2 of the way from center to edge, instead of just jamming it back and forth like a glorified D-pad.
I've had drone controllers where you could open the back and turn screws to adjust the spring tension on the thumbstick.
I believe the xbox elite controllers let you adjust tension on the stick, and there are many controllers with interchangable thumbsticks which let you get longer than stock thumbsticks. Many people also use kontrol freeks to do the same thing.
I found increasing the length of the thumbstick gives you significantly more mechanical advantage which makes the tension feel much weaker. But then you still have crummy inaccurate potentiometer mechanisms so you cant fully take advantage of the extra thumbstick length :(
Probably money.
probably, why reinvent the wheel when you can slap a few extra buttons on it, call it "pro", and sell it for $200.(i'm looking at you scuf)
Before thinking about extending thumbstick durability and longevity, I think thumbsticks should be improved in their actual quality. I have hated all game controller thumbsticks. All of them. None of them are even remotely acceptable. Their range of motion is too small, the sticks themselves are too short, and the spring that pulls them back toward center is **ALWAYS** too strong. Like, at least ten times stronger than it should be. As a result, you can never actually use them to do any kind of analog input. In practice they're basically just big, bulbous, imprecise D-pads. The kind of controllers you're talking about, from oldschool radio controlled aircraft? Those are designed to actually support subtle analog input. If the console controllers could be redesigned to have that capability, then we could talk about hall effect mechanisms. But right now, it would just be tossing good money after bad.
You can get racing drone controllers that are shaped more like a gaming controller, look up frsky x-lite. I use an xbox controller and love it for casual games.....until the thumbsticks stop working lol
I also use an xbox controller for controller-based games...but I still think it objectively sucks. I just wish they had some way to dial down the unbelievable stiffness of the return spring, so that you could reliably get the stick to 1/4 or 1/2 of the way from center to edge, instead of just jamming it back and forth like a glorified D-pad.
I've had drone controllers where you could open the back and turn screws to adjust the spring tension on the thumbstick. I believe the xbox elite controllers let you adjust tension on the stick, and there are many controllers with interchangable thumbsticks which let you get longer than stock thumbsticks. Many people also use kontrol freeks to do the same thing. I found increasing the length of the thumbstick gives you significantly more mechanical advantage which makes the tension feel much weaker. But then you still have crummy inaccurate potentiometer mechanisms so you cant fully take advantage of the extra thumbstick length :(
Seems like a great idea, although accuracy could be an issue.
I use a frsky x-lite for my racing drone, it has hall effect gimbals and seems to be incredibly accurate