Hardware 3rd party controller questions

[IceBlazeWinters]

is there a way to add nfc support to a 3rd party controller for the switch 1 and switch 2?

or a way to take controller shells and swap them out with the official controller shells?

 

[hippy dave]

There are replacement shells that are actually designed for the official controllers (definitely for the joy-cons and I'm pretty sure for the pro controller too), but it's unlikely that a 3rd party controller's shell would just fit. Maybe with sufficient modding, but probably not.

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

3rd party controllers have NFC support or not.
So if you're looking for that feature, then just buy one with NFC support.
Some of the cheaper clones do have it and they are sold for about half the price of an official controller.

Official controllers and the 3rd party controllers usually have a slightly different design so that is not going to work without heavily modding it.

 

[Nephiel]

Apart from NFC, there are many features of the official controllers that tend to be missing in most 3rd party ones:
- Bluetooth (most cheaper ones are wired or attached use only)
- HD Rumble (they usually have standard rumble, or no rumble at all)
- Wake support (only a few can wake up the Switch from sleep wirelessly)
And, in the case of right joy-con:
- IR camera (only a handful of games use it, though)

 

[l7777]

Apart from NFC, there are many features of the official controllers that tend to be missing in most 3rd party ones:
- Bluetooth (most cheaper ones are wired or attached use only)
- HD Rumble (they usually have standard rumble, or no rumble at all)
- Wake support (only a few can wake up the Switch from sleep wirelessly)
And, in the case of right joy-con:
- IR camera (only a handful of games use it, though)

This is a weird list. Unless you're going to the cheapest of the cheap you will get Bluetooth and Wake support. No one uses the IR Camera and "HD Rumble" is mostly a marketing term.

is there a way to add nfc support to a 3rd party controller for the switch 1 and switch 2?

or a way to take controller shells and swap them out with the official controller shells?

A quick amazon search yields plenty of third party controllers with NFC support. There is no magic way to "add" NFC support to a controller that doesn't have it.

 

[Nephiel]

This is a weird list. Unless you're going to the cheapest of the cheap you will get Bluetooth and Wake support.

A while ago, back when I was looking for Switch controllers, I couldn't find one that had everything the official controllers had.
I recall the d-pad joy-cons made by HORI, they weren't that cheap or bad quality, yet they had no Bluetooth, they only worked while attached to the console (also, no rumble and no NFC).
By wake support, I am referring to the feature that allows the controller to turn on a docked console from sleep/standby, wirelessly, and I remember that even pricier controllers from popular 3rd party brands (such as 8bitdo) had trouble with that.

Maybe all that was just at the beginning, and most manufacturers have things figured out by now.

No one uses the IR Camera and "HD Rumble" is mostly a marketing term.

That I can agree with. I kind of liked the heart-rate measuring in Ring Fit, though. And, while HD Rumble uses a quite different actuator (more akin to a speaker than a motor used in traditional rumble), in practice it makes little difference, since most titles didn't really take advantage of it.

 

[l7777]

A while ago, back when I was looking for Switch controllers, I couldn't find one that had everything the official controllers had.
I recall the d-pad joy-cons made by HORI, they weren't that cheap or bad quality, yet they had no Bluetooth, they only worked while attached to the console (also, no rumble and no NFC).
By wake support, I am referring to the feature that allows the controller to turn on a docked console from sleep/standby, wirelessly, and I remember that even pricier controllers from popular 3rd party brands (such as 8bitdo) had trouble with that.

Yes the HORI split pad was terrible. I don't know how it got so much attention. 8bitdo was able to add wake support long ago even to their older controllers. I have a controller addiction and have offering from 8BitDo, Gulikit, NYXI, and Manba. All have wake support and motion. The Gulikit KK2 felt premium and even has NFC but no back buttons. The KK3 added back buttons but dropped NFC. The 8BitDo offerings are very nice but they never implemented NFC and insists on only two back buttons. The Manba One feels a bit nicer than the KK3 and has a display to make config easier with four available config profiles.