# Understanding Xbox pressure sensitive buttons



## GBA rocks (Oct 4, 2013)

So, I've recently started collecting xbox1 stuff, and I'm experiencing something weird with pressure sensitive face buttons on my gamepads.
I have:
- 1 microsoft model S crystal controller (used)
- 1 logitech black wireless controller with rumble (used, maybe heavily)
- 1 logitech transparent green wireless controller without rumble (brand new)

My benchmark is Dead Or Alive 3, in Sparring Mode (= training mode, with on screen button presses, including a different symbol for "button pressed ALL THE WAY").

First of all, controllers plugged in any port except Player 1 work as if the face buttons were digital instead of analog 8-bit pressure sensitive as they're supposed to be. So in a Versus battle, Player 1 will be able to perform analog button moves (i.e. if you press "Kick" all the way down, the character perform an heavy or flying kick), Player 2 will not. It's like the Xbox (or DoA 3 itself) can manage only 1 player pressure sensitive input. If that's the way it's supposed to be, it's certainly weird, especially because it puts Player 2 at a disadvantage. 

My second problem is that the heavily used wireless black controller (with rumble) fails to register quick light taps on the button. Or better, they are registered (I see the green LED on the wireless receiver blinking) but probably as a extremely light tap (like, level 16 out of 256 instead of level 128), so on the software side they're intepreted as non-intentional taps or something, whereas they're just regular taps that work on the the other controllers. This makes games that rely on quick taps of face buttons (practically any game except driving games and FPS without jump) painful or impossible (like Alien Hominid, a metal slug clone where every bullet has to be tapped on the button) to play. Even menus are annoying to navigate (often I press A but nothing happens because I didn't press hard enough). I opened it up and cleaned the contacts with alcohol, but nothing changed. So I have to choose between having rumble (black used controller with worn contacts) or having face buttons that register regular-light taps (brand new green controller without rumble). The good thing is that switching between the 2 logitech wireless controllers is as easy as tapping the pairing button on the receiver, so I can choose on a per-game basis. 

Do you have any experience of buttons losing the ability to register quick taps with time? Do you remember having to pound analog buttons like crazy on one of your controllers?

Is the first issue (Player 1 analog buttons, Player 2-3-4 digital buttons) the way things are supposed to be? If that's the case...really MS?


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## draculvadomni (Oct 17, 2013)

hi there
i'm facing the same problem with a generic game controller i configured to emulate as a xbox controller to play the witcher 2 via motionjoy. QTE ( quick time event) becomes a hassle since u need to quick tap the X button in a boss battle against the kayrane which ruins your game experience a,d more QTEs r to come in the game after this one from what i read. So it's yes quick tapping even without time unless i'm missing sth !


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## GBA rocks (Oct 19, 2013)

Interesting, thanks for signing up to share your experience.

Maybe it's not exactly the same issue causing your problem but at least we can agree that when dealing with pressure sensitive face buttons a lot of things can go terribly wrong.

Guess there's a reason Sony is going back (after 13 years) to digital buttons (except R2/L2) on the DualShock4.


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## Foxi4 (Oct 19, 2013)

It's entirely possible that your controller is simply dirty on the inside, and I don't mean due to lack of care, rather due to simply old age. My recommendation would be to grab a bottle of rubbing alcohol or any other clean, high-proof spirit and cleaning the pads and the buttons themselves and then trying again.  If it's just dirt on the PCB then this should help, if it's wear and tear then there's really nothing you can do to improve the readout.


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## GBA rocks (Oct 19, 2013)

Foxi4 said:


> It's entirely possible that your controller is simply dirty on the inside, and I don't mean due to lack of care, rather due to simply old age. My recommendation would be to grab a bottle of rubbing alcohol or any other clean, high-proof spirit and cleaning the pads and the buttons themselves and then trying again.  If it's just dirt on the PCB then this should help, if it's wear and tear then there's really nothing you can do to improve the readout.


 
Already tried alcohol, nothing changed. 
The next thing I wanna try is one of those deoxydizing products used to clean electric contacts.


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## GBA rocks (Nov 13, 2013)

http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Game-...dless-Precision-Controller-G-X3B12/td-p/13947

apparently I'm not the first one to experience the issue with the logitech controller.


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