Posted by There is more than one website calling itself “Gamepad Tester”. The one I have been using for the past several years is https://hardwaretester.com/gamepad. It gives you all of the basic testing options. But I recently found another website called https://gamepad-tester.net/ which has the same testing options. The one difference I found is that gamepad-tester.net has a tighter dead-zone tolerance for the thumb-sticks. Anything greater than 7% off-center in the X or Y axis shows up as a drift defect. The controller may work perfectly fine, but the thumb-stick will highlight as having an issue if it is off-center by too much.
This is something that can easily be addressed on model 1914 Xbox controllers which allow thumb-stick recalibration. But on model 1708 and older, there are only two ways to calibrate an off-center thumb-stick. You can add a drift fix board to adjust X and Y back to center, or you attempt to replace the X or Y potentiometers to bring the thumb-stick back to center. This can be difficult as you have to measure the resistance of the new potentiometer to determine if it is on center before soldering it in place. In some cases, the thumb-stick springs are worn out and a new potentiometer will not help. In this case, the whole thing needs to be replaced in order to correct the issue.
Using gamepad-tester.net results in more controllers showing up as being off-center. For someone who is a perfectionist, this results in a lot of wasted time trying to bring each thumb-stick back to center. Typically, modern Xbox controllers running the latest firmware, have a factory-level hardware deadzone tolerance set at roughly 2% to 5%. Most games implement their own standard “default” deadzones to account for physical controller wear and tear. The standard default industry range for modern shooters is between 5% and 12%. In most cases, a thumb-stick that is off-center by 7 or 8 percent, would not affect gameplay. It is kind of frustrating when a controller passes all tests on one Gamepad Tester website and not the other.
I have used drift fix boards to correct centering issues on several controllers. Normally I use them after installing a new potentiometer to correct severe drift and the thumb-stick is still just a bit off center. I never use them to correct a worn-out potentiometer, only if needed to calibrate a new potentiometer on an older model controller. Drift fix boards can cause problems with range of motion and circularity. For example, the thumb-stick may not register 100% in the X or Y axis after adjusting X/Y to center. Best fix is to sort new potentiometers for matching resistance values, so you don’t have to use a drift fix board.