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I'm open sourcing Pickaxes, a C library for calibrating and shaping analog sticks and triggers on 32-bit microcontrollers, designed for people building portables and custom controllers. github.com/loopj/pickaxes

Portablizers cobble together sticks and triggers from whatever fits the design: Joycon sticks, 3DS sliders, random ALPS sticks from Digikey. Pickaxes lets you tune the raw ADC values from these to match OEM feel, or to your own preference.

Calibration comes first. Pickaxes runs a calibration session on the firmware that captures rest position, min and max travel, and orientation. Release the stick, push it in each direction, rotate it around the rim. Drive it from a homebrew app or a button combo on the device.

Shaping comes second, and is where the feel comes from. Inner and outer deadzones in axial or radial shapes, gamma response curves, and circular, square, or octagonal virtual gates, all in one struct you can change at runtime without recalibrating.