Understanding Your Grade
Your grade evaluates the geometric perfection of the thumbstick module's outer boundary.
A+ (Esports Ready) means the stick achieves a flawless circle, critical for consistent diagonal movement in games like Apex Legends and Rocket League.
F (Defective) indicates severe asymmetry, meaning diagonal inputs will hit their max value prematurely or not at all.
Since you're using a Generic PC Controller with a Potentiometer module, you can expect the underlying tech to be prone to slight asymmetry and physical wear.
With an unknown module, this grade combines sensor and gate behavior and we cannot separate the two — treat it as a pass/fail signal for the whole stick assembly. If you see a low grade here, the two diagnostic questions are whether the pinch is symmetric (gate friction) or one-sided (worn sensor track), and whether the ring shrinks only at one angle (a single dead sector) or everywhere (general wear).
Potentiometer (pot) sticks read position from a wiper sliding over a carbon track, and that friction is exactly where circularity degrades over time. A fresh pot module can trace a near-perfect circle, but as the track wears, the wiper loses contact at certain angles and the ring starts to pinch into a squircle — usually first visible near the 45-degree diagonals. Wear is rarely symmetric between the X and Y axes, so a lopsided grade on a pot module is the classic signal that the stick has been played past its best range and is a stronger candidate for replacement than for recalibration.
Pot modules degrade along a predictable path: the carbon track wears where the stick spends the most time, so the ring pinches first at your dominant input angles, and the wiper's lost contact produces small flats on the circle before full drift appears. Because the wear is physical, no software setting can restore the geometry — recalibration only recenters the zero point, it cannot grow the worn track back. A lopsided grade between the X and Y axes on a pot module is therefore the most reliable hardware-wear signal this tester can show, and the replacement decision is generally clear once the ring shows a visible flat.
With a generic pad there is no manufacturer baseline to compare against, so the grade should be read as absolute hardware behavior rather than deviation from a known design. The most useful diagnostic is repeating the test at different stick angles and speeds: if the ring stays consistently oval at every speed, that is gate or sensor bias; if the ring only collapses during fast movement, that is a sampling or wobble artifact and not true circularity error.
Without a known manufacturer baseline, the generic pad's grade should be read against absolute geometry rather than a design expectation: a ring that stays a consistent circle at every speed is healthy regardless of brand, while a ring that wobbles between runs is more likely a loose collar than a sensor fault. Because generic pads vary wildly in module quality, repeat the test a few times at different stick speeds and average the outcome before drawing a conclusion. The most valuable diagnostic on an unknown pad is comparing the two sticks against each other — a large gap between them points to one worn module, while an even result points to the pad's general construction.