The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

Joy-Con is the name for the Switch's primary game controllers. The controllers communicate to the console through bluetooth and can be disconnected from the main unit.

Hardware

The controllers themselves are simple to disassemble and identify.

Error creating thumbnail: File with dimensions greater than 12.5 MP
The front of the Joy-Con internal[1]
Error creating thumbnail: File with dimensions greater than 12.5 MP
The rear of the Joy-Con internal[2]
Color Item
Red Broadcom BCM20734 Bluetooth 4.1/2.4 GHz Transceiver
Orange STMicroelectronics NFCBEA 812006 33 (Likely NFC reader IC)
Yellow Macronix International MX25U4033E 4 Mb CMOS Flash

Firmware

See also: Joy-Con Firmware

The firmware of the Joy-Cons seems to be generic across all instances. Details such as the handedness of the controller and the color is just indicated in a configuration part of the flash. Judging by quick glance at the firmware, it's probably identical to that used on the Pro Controller as well.

Controller 1.0.0
Joy-Con Left (Blue) flash dump
Joy-Con Right (Red) flash dump

The flash is in a patch-ram format. Tools for dealing with it are available [3]. A dump of the ROM region (taken while firmware was running) can be found here. Note this is the same SoC used on the other controller models, as well.

Bluetooth HID

Commands

Command Name
0x00
0x01 PairingOut
0x02 GetDeviceInfo
0x03 SetDataFormat
0x04 LRButtonDetection
0x05 Page
0x06 Reset
0x07 ClearPairingInfo
0x08 Shipment
0x10 SerialFlashRead
0x11 SerialFlashWrite
0x12 SerialFlashSectorErase
0x20 McuReset
0x21 McuWrite
0x22 McuResume
0x23
0x24 McuPollingEnable
0x25 McuPollingDisable
0x28 AttachmentWrite
0x29
0x2A AttachmentEnable
0x2B
0x30 SetIndicatorLed
0x31 GetIndicatorLed
0x38 SetNotificationLed
0x40 SensorSleep
0x41 SensorConfig
0x42 SensorWrite
0x43 SensorRead
0x48 MotorEnable
0x50 GetBatteryVoltage
0x51 WriteChargeSetting
0x52
0x58 ExtDevWrite
0x59 GetExtDevInfo
0x5A ExtDevPollingEnable
0x5B ExtDevPollingDisable
0x5C ExtDevInFormatConfig
0x60 InternalAttachmentWrite
0x61
0x62 InternalAttachmentEnable
0x63 InternalAttachmentPollingEnable
0x64 InternalAttachmentPollingDisable
0x80 Ack
0x81 PairingIn
0x82 DeviceInfo
0x83 LRButtonElapsedTime
0x90 SerialFlashData
0xA0 McuData
0xA8 AttachmentData
0xAA InternalAttachmentRead
0xB0 IndicatorLed
0xC0 SensorData
0xD0 BatteryVoltage
0xD8 ExtDevRead
0xD9 ExtDevInfo

Left & Right Separate Joy-con

When paired directly to a computer over bluetooth, the joy-con both provide identical HID input report descriptor. This does not appear to include motion controls, IR data, or NFC. They both behave as detached single-player controllers.

HID Input Report Descriptor (Hexadecimal):

00000000: 05010905 A1010601 FF852109 21750895  ....Β‘...ÿ…!.!u.β€’
00000010: 30810285 30093075 08953081 02853109  0..…0.0u.β€’0..…1.
00000020: 31750896 69018102 85320932 75089669  1u.–i...…2.2u.–i
00000030: 01810285 33093375 08966901 8102853F  ...…3.3u.–i...…?
00000040: 05091901 29101500 25017501 95108102  ....)...%.u.β€’...
00000050: 05010939 15002507 75049501 81420509  ...9..%.u.β€’..B..
00000060: 75049501 81010501 09300931 09330934  u.β€’......0.1.3.4
00000070: 16000027 FFFF0000 75109504 81020601  ...'ΓΏΓΏ..u.β€’.....
00000080: FF850109 01750895 30910285 10091075  ÿ…...u.β€’0β€˜.…...u
00000090: 08953091 02851109 11750895 30910285  .β€’0β€˜.…...u.β€’0β€˜.…
000000A0: 12091275 08953091 02C0               ...u.β€’0β€˜.Γ€
Parsed Bytes Description
0x05, 0x01, Usage Page (Generic Desktop Ctrls)
0x09, 0x05, Usage (Game Pad)
0xA1, 0x01, Collection (Application)
0x06, 0x01, 0xFF, Usage Page (Vendor Defined 0xFF01)
0x85, 0x21, Report ID (33)
0x09, 0x21, Usage (0x21)
0x75, 0x08, Report Size (8)
0x95, 0x30, Report Count (48)
0x81, 0x02, Input (Data,Var,Abs,No Wrap,Linear,Preferred State,No Null Position)
0x85, 0x30, Report ID (48)
0x09, 0x30, Usage (0x30)
0x75, 0x08, Report Size (8)
0x95, 0x30, Report Count (48)
0x81, 0x02, Input (Data,Var,Abs,No Wrap,Linear,Preferred State,No Null Position)
0x85, 0x31, Report ID (49)
0x09, 0x31, Usage (0x31)
0x75, 0x08, Report Size (8)
0x96, 0x69, 0x01, Report Count (361)
0x81, 0x02, Input (Data,Var,Abs,No Wrap,Linear,Preferred State,No Null Position)
0x85, 0x32, Report ID (50)
0x09, 0x32, Usage (0x32)
0x75, 0x08, Report Size (8)
0x96, 0x69, 0x01, Report Count (361)
0x81, 0x02, Input (Data,Var,Abs,No Wrap,Linear,Preferred State,No Null Position)
0x85, 0x33, Report ID (51)
0x09, 0x33, Usage (0x33)
0x75, 0x08, Report Size (8)
0x96, 0x69, 0x01, Report Count (361)
0x81, 0x02, Input (Data,Var,Abs,No Wrap,Linear,Preferred State,No Null Position)
0x85, 0x3F, Report ID (63)
0x05, 0x09, Usage Page (Button)
0x19, 0x01, Usage Minimum (0x01)
0x29, 0x10, Usage Maximum (0x10)
0x15, 0x00, Logical Minimum (0)
0x25, 0x01, Logical Maximum (1)
0x75, 0x01, Report Size (1)
0x95, 0x10, Report Count (16)
0x81, 0x02, Input (Data,Var,Abs,No Wrap,Linear,Preferred State,No Null Position)
0x05, 0x01, Usage Page (Generic Desktop Ctrls)
0x09, 0x39, Usage (Hat switch)
0x15, 0x00, Logical Minimum (0)
0x25, 0x07, Logical Maximum (7)
0x75, 0x04, Report Size (4)
0x95, 0x01, Report Count (1)
0x81, 0x42, Input (Data,Var,Abs,No Wrap,Linear,Preferred State,Null State)
0x05, 0x09, Usage Page (Button)
0x75, 0x04, Report Size (4)
0x95, 0x01, Report Count (1)
0x81, 0x01, Input (Const,Array,Abs,No Wrap,Linear,Preferred State,No Null Position)
0x05, 0x01, Usage Page (Generic Desktop Ctrls)
0x09, 0x30, Usage (X)
0x09, 0x31, Usage (Y)
0x09, 0x33, Usage (Rx)
0x09, 0x34, Usage (Ry)
0x16, 0x00, 0x00, Logical Minimum (0)
0x27, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0x00, 0x00, Logical Maximum (65534)
0x75, 0x10, Report Size (16)
0x95, 0x04, Report Count (4)
0x81, 0x02, Input (Data,Var,Abs,No Wrap,Linear,Preferred State,No Null Position)
0x06, 0x01, 0xFF, Usage Page (Vendor Defined 0xFF01)
0x85, 0x01, Report ID (1)
0x09, 0x01, Usage (0x01)
0x75, 0x08, Report Size (8)
0x95, 0x30, Report Count (48)
0x91, 0x02, Output (Data,Var,Abs,No Wrap,Linear,Preferred State,No Null Position,Non-volatile)
0x85, 0x10, Report ID (16)
0x09, 0x10, Usage (0x10)
0x75, 0x08, Report Size (8)
0x95, 0x30, Report Count (48)
0x91, 0x02, Output (Data,Var,Abs,No Wrap,Linear,Preferred State,No Null Position,Non-volatile)
0x85, 0x11, Report ID (17)
0x09, 0x11, Usage (0x11)
0x75, 0x08, Report Size (8)
0x95, 0x30, Report Count (48)
0x91, 0x02, Output (Data,Var,Abs,No Wrap,Linear,Preferred State,No Null Position,Non-volatile)
0x85, 0x12, Report ID (18)
0x09, 0x12, Usage (0x12)
0x75, 0x08, Report Size (8)
0x95, 0x30, Report Count (48)
0x91, 0x02, Output (Data,Var,Abs,No Wrap,Linear,Preferred State,No Null Position,Non-volatile)
0xC0, End Collection

Colors

HEX codes for the colors shown in the "Controllers" menu of the Switch UI can be found in a Joy-con SPI dump starting at offset 0x6050. Body color is first followed by button color and each is 3 bytes long. These values are able to be re-written with any HEX color value to make the Joy-cons show up as different colors in the UI. The following is a list of official HEX colors recovered from SPI dumps.

Color Name Body HEX Button HEX
Black #313131 #0F0F0F
Gray / グレー #828282 #0F0F0F
Neon Red / ネγ‚ͺンレッド #FF3C28 #1E0A0A
Neon Blue / ネγ‚ͺンブルー #0AB9E6 #001E1E
Neon Yellow / ネγ‚ͺンむエロー #E6FF00 #142800
Neon Green / ネγ‚ͺングγƒͺーン #1EDC00 #002800
Neon Pink / ネγ‚ͺンピンク #FF3278 #28001E
Red / レッド #E10F00 #280A0A
Blue / ブルー #4655F5 #00000A
Neon Purple / ネγ‚ͺンパープル #B400E6 #140014
Neon Orange / ネγ‚ͺンγ‚ͺレンジ #FAA005 #0F0A00
Pokemon: Let's Go! Eevee Left Joy-Con / γƒγ‚±γƒƒγƒˆγƒ’γƒ³γ‚Ήγ‚ΏγƒΌ Let's Go! γ‚€γƒΌγƒ–γ‚€ #C88C32 #281900
Pokemon: Let's Go! Pikachu Right Joy-Con / γƒγ‚±γƒƒγƒˆγƒ’γƒ³γ‚Ήγ‚ΏγƒΌ Let's Go! ピカチγƒ₯ウ #FFDC00 #322800
Nintendo Labo Creators Contest Edition Joy-Con #D7AA73 #1E1914
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Green Left Joy-Con #82FF96 #0A1E0A
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Blue Right Joy-Con #96F5F5 #0A1E28
Fortnite Wildcat Yellow Left Joy-Con #FFCC00 #1A1100
Fortnite Wildcat Blue Right Joy-Con #0084FF #000F1E
Mario Red & Blue Edition Joy-Con #F04614 #1E1914
Fortnite Fleet Force Blue Left Joy-Con #0084FF #000F1E
Fortnite Fleet Force Yellow Right Joy-Con #FFCC00 #1A1100

Additional Links

Reverse Engineering of the Joy-Con by Github user dekuNukem