Hardware Joycons grips should have electronics in them to mark L and R as a pair

[pelago]

Please note that in the below I've only had experience of the non-charging Joycon grip that comes with the console:

At the moment, if you have your Joycon L and Joycon R as two individual controllers, e.g. held sideways for multiplayer, then insert them into the grip, the Switch doesn't "know" that you've done so. Each controller still has its own controller number, and the console doesn't know that you're now using them together and not horizontally. You have to go into Joycon settings and press L+R to reassign them.

I know that the non-charging grip is basically hollow inside. It seems to me that it would have been nice if there was some simple electronics inside the grip (it could be as simple as just joining one or two pins of Joycon L to another one or two pins of Joycon R), which would allow each Joycon to talk to each other and find out that they must be in a grip and tell the console appropriately, reassign the controller numbers etc. The console could also on the main menu show icons of the controllers in a grip rather than two separate held in each hand, which would be a nice little touch. It could also tell games that certain motion control features aren't possible, i.e. ones where you have to move one Joycon separately to the other.

As I say, I know the non-charging grip doesn't have any electronics in it to make this possible. But what about the charging grip, which I do not have? Does that work as described above?

 

[Futurdreamz]

Honestly I think it would be better if Nintendo just made it easier to change the config on the fly. Like when you are on the home screen you can press and hold the bumper buttons until the controller menu pops up.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

The charging grip actually does join the two Joycon together if I understand correctly*, but only if you plug the USB cable into the device you're trying to connect to

*I say this because I recall that that's how most of the Joycon drivers were written in the first place, because the charge grip just presents itself plainly as a controller

 

[pelago]

The charging grip actually does join the two Joycon together if I understand correctly*, but only if you plug the USB cable into the device you're trying to connect to

Thanks, so if I had a charging grip lying around, plugged into the switch dock, and slotted two Joycons currently set as, e.g. controller 1 and controller 2, it will reassign them to one controller number? That sounds nice. Pity if it doesn't work with a unplugged charging grip, though, which is what I would more likely have to hand, if I had any that is!

 

[TotalInsanity4]

Thanks, so if I had a charging grip lying around, plugged into the switch dock, and slotted two Joycons currently set as, e.g. controller 1 and controller 2, it will reassign them to one controller number? That sounds nice.

I don't know for positive if that's how it would work, but that logically sounds like it should. Just make sure that you have the "Connect Pro Controller Over USB" (or whatever it's called) setting activated

 

[TheCyberQuake]

I don't see why they would invest time and money into a problem that isn't occurring often. how often are you switching between two separate joycon to a pair of joycon? For most they aren't rapidly going between the two making this essentially a non-issue

 

[g00s3y]

First world problems...

 

[Futurdreamz]

I don't see why they would invest time and money into a problem that isn't occurring often. how often are you switching between two separate joycon to a pair of joycon? For most they aren't rapidly going between the two making this essentially a non-issue

I would say it happens reasonably enough. Like when you're switching from a multiplayer to single player session.

 

[TheCyberQuake]

I would say it happens reasonably enough. Like when you're switching from a multiplayer to single player session.

Unless you are switching every 5 minutes for some reason, it isn't often enough to warrant changing. Takes all of 20 seconds to do it currently.