Nintendo Is Repairing Left Joy-Cons With ... a Piece of Foam? (polygon.com)

While Nintendo remains silent on the issue of some left Joy-Con controllers becoming desynced from the Switch console, it appears it has a solution for those affected. No, it's not avoidance of aquariums or all other wireless devices; instead, it's apparently as simple as a foam sticker placed in the right spot. From a report: Early reviews and, later, actual retail units of the Nintendo Switch highlighted an apparent hardware flaw in the design of the left Joy-Con controller. In certain scenarios -- like when played some distance from the console using the Joy-Con Grip -- some left Joy-Cons could lose sync and players would find themselves unable to accurately control what's happening on the screen. While a day one console update fixed this issue for some, it's remained for others and Nintendo has done little to assuage would-be consumers that it's solved the issue for good. But, a Joy-Con sent in for repair by CNET's Sean Hollister was returned with one small enhancement a week later and -- lo and behold -- it works. That enhancement: A small piece of conductive foam.

Comments

What, you want a complex repair?

[Anonymous Coward]

What, is a simple, cost-effective, and suitable repair not sufficient? Do you want a huge, complex, costly repair technique used instead?

You remind me of the "programmers" (I use the term lightly!) who need to a accomplish a simple task, yet build a huge monstrosity using Ruby on Rails and JavaScript that takes a month to finish.

Meanwhile, a real programmer just writes a 10 line Python script that does the exact same thing, and is done within 5 minutes.

It's like you want the expensive, impractical, delayed, Ruby on Rails type of solution when a simple Python script will actually do much better.

Re:What, you want a complex repair?

[BronsCon]

Right? The amount of shit I take for spending an hour writing and testing Bash scripts for deployment automation, instead of spending weeks learning and implementing $ci_tool_of_the_day, is insane! In the entirety of my career, I don't think I've spent as long writing and maintaining deployment scripts, for all of my projects, combined, as I'd have spent learning, installing, configuring, tracking down plugins for, testing, and fixing $ci_tool_of_the_day just once. And that, even, is ignoring the fact that, by the time the next project rolls around, $ci_tool_of_the_day will have changed and I'll still take shit for using the old tool on the new project.

Just because something is newer, or bigger, or flashier, or more expensive does not make it better! If you have something old, well-tested, reliable, small, lightweight, efficient, even if it's boring and free, that does the job in less time than another solution, the other solution is not better.

Conductive foam is cheap, it's been around for years, we know its properties, we know how it works, and it solves this problem. Like you, I think Nintendo made the right choice in implementing this fix.

I still think the Switch is an abysmal failure in design, but that's beside the point; this fix is good.

Re:Nintendo is done

[Desler]

Excellent troll is excellent. Laughed heartily.

This is why i didn't buy day 1

[jediborg]

Statement from nintendo: "A manufacturing variation has resulted in wireless interference with a small number of the left Joy-Con. Moving forward this will not be an issue, as the manufacturing variation has been addressed and corrected at the factory level. We have determined a simple fix can be made to any affected Joy-Con to improve connectivity."

This is why i'm waiting for a 'Switch lite' or 'Switch SP', or 'NEW Switch XL' to be released before buying the console. Releasing this console in march was basically Nintendo doing a 'soft-launch' this way they sell out day one, knowing all the die hard fanboys will buy it day one, and they get to work out the kinks in the hardware before the holiday season when they have the 'Real Launch' or 'Grand Opening' of the device with less manufacturing defects, and can ensure they have adequate supply for the people who will buy it during holiday season.

Re:I don't know, are they?

[Razed By TV]

This is a common enough writing technique that I'm surprised that anyone would have a hard time understanding its use...

Yes, yes, but that's pretty much been the viral clickbait trend that won't die.
"You won't believe how THIS asshole got 1 million viewers on his website!"
"Lose 100 pounds by eating THIS! {picture of unidentifiable fruit}"
"Wow, Nintendo fixed their new console with FOAM!"

God forbid you put the word "conductive" in front of foam, lest you make things sound intelligent and scare away readers!
Tomorrow I get to hear dumbass radio jock tell the world about fixing electronics with foam. And then I'll get to hear my coworkers talk about how they wonder why nobody used foam to fix things sooner, because foam has been around forever, right?