The 2024 September Controller News Digest
Hi! Here's this month's issue of the Controller News Digest (see details from the previous month here.)
This is just a collection of news items and controller-related things that caught my fancy (or was brought to my attention), so don't be surprised if I missed something that might have interested you.
New Releases
Towards the end of August, Razer released the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro, which occupies the niche of controllers in the USD 200.00 price range. It already has a firmware update that fixed inaccurate values when dead zones were set to zero.
While the BigBigWon Blitz 2 officially released last August, unfortunately shipments have been delayed. For those who ordered from GadgetHyper, due to QC issues, the Alps version will be delayed to the last week of September/early October. The TMR version will ship by the end of the month.
Upcoming Releases
The GameSir Tarantula Pro (a.k.a. GameSir T3 Pro, a.k.a. the Nine-Tailed Fox) has officially launched (The GameSir product page says "Order now for priority shipping in October 30th."), but GadgetHyper will have it available on October 8.
Nacon announced its Revolution X Unlimited for Xbox controller--competing in the same market as the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro--but so far, no release date has been confirmed outside of the (late) fourth quarter of 2024.
MSI's Force GC300 Wireless and Force Pro controllers were spotted at IFA Berlin earlier this month.
The HexGaming Phantom, which might appeal to PS5 owners looking for an expensive, high-end controller, is currently available for pre-order.
8BitDo announced two Nintendo Game Cube-related products, the 8BitDo Retro Receiver for NGC and a solder-less Mod Kit that adds Hall Effets and Bluetooth.
All Things Sony
Last month, Sony debuted its PlayStation Accessories app, which lets you customize your DualSense Edge controllers. (For DualSense owners, it just upgrades your firmware.)
PlayStation 5 DualSense Controllers have gone up in price. (Specific pricing varies from country to country, such as USD 5.00 increase in the US but Aus 10.00 in Australia.)
Vader 4 Pro Updates
Flydigi's Vader 4 Pro gets a patch update which fixes the outer dead zone and reduced joystick latency (among other things). You can view the Gamepadla results here and here.
For those who want to mod their controllers, /u/Gary_BBGames not only sells custom paddles but also has made the design publicly available here. (More details here.)
/u/Technical-Junket6091 also has something similar available.
Gamepadla Updates
You can now get Gamepadla updates via RSS.
Gamepadla Tester v.1.1.6 now includes the ability to select left or right stick for testing.
The GPDL Latency Tester has received a few updates: 3.0.6, 3.0.8, and 3.0.81.
Stick Analyzer 1.6.4 has also been updated.
The website has a separate page for all the downloads.
Tutorials and DIY
For those interested in installing their own Hall Effect joysticks, TonkaModz has posted a video on how to calibrate Favor Union Hall Effect sticks without a calibration board.
Metal Plastic Electronics, on the other hand, has a video detailing their experiences with GuliKit's TMR Joystick one month later.
iFixit has announced FixHub tools, which releases on October 15, for those interested in soldering.