When my Nintendo Switch controllers (red and blue sides) are “calibrating” what is actually happening?

Question

When my Nintendo Switch controllers (red and blue sides) are “calibrating” what is actually happening?

In: 6

Answer 1

Educated guess:
There has to be some kind of microcontroller in there that reads the raw sensor data and translates it into something usefull, then sends it to the main cpu.

However, much like the thumbstick, sensor values tend to drift over time and depending on environmental conditions.
If the values seem implausible to the microcontroler, it tells you to either hold the input axis still to observe rest drift, or to move all axis to their respective maximum to get an absolute reference.