Hall effect stick
Also called Hall effect joystick · magnetic stick
A Hall effect stick measures position with a magnet and a sensor instead of a sliding contact. With no contact to wear it is far less prone to the drift that affects potentiometer sticks.
In practice
Hall effect sticks remove the wear that causes most drift. They have become common on third party controllers and as replacement modules. They still have springs and mechanical parts that can wear and they need calibration, but they don’t develop the slow drift of a worn potentiometer track.
How to check
A healthy Hall effect stick reads close to zero at rest in the controller test. If it shows an offset from new, look for a calibration routine in the controller’s app or manual. If the offset changes depending on which way you last pushed the stick, the centering spring is the likely cause.