Testing Elite Series 1 without joysticks?

[BigMeat]

First off, this site was a great help in getting my Series 2 Elite controller back up, and running.  With that, I though I'd try fixing my Elite Series 1 that has been collecting dust for awhile.  Testing it I remembered both joysticks, and LB was bad

 Before I go ordering parts I removed both joysticks, and LB, then went to plug and test again to make sure the desoldering went well.  Here's the problem now.  It powers on fine, and gets detected, but the Right Joystick is shows as always pressed to the left.  Again this is with the parts removed.  All the other buttons are good.

i probed around, and didn't measure any shorts to ground or power.  All the desoldered  vias are clean.  Does this actually need both sticks installed to register correctly?  I can also take the two pcb's to my workplace and inspect them under a microscope to see if there's any solder balls stuck somewhere.  I just don't want to buy new parts without knowing the pcb's are bad first.

[RDC]

The sticks are going to Analog Inputs on the MCU, and they act as voltage dividers, so with the POTs removed those Inputs are 'floating' and will do whatever they feel like doing, and can sometimes make other parts of the controller act up.

As a quick and dirty test, you can just short the center spot where the POT goes to one of the outside spots with a pair of metal tweezers or a jumper wire, and that Axis should go full tilt in one direction, then short from center to the other outside spot it should go full tilt to the other direction. Never short the 2 outside spots to each other, as they are power and ground for the POT, only center to one, then center to the other.

1 2 3

Connect 2 to 1 and observe what it does. Then remove that jumper and connect 2 to 3 and it should do the opposite. That is, if it went full left or just stayed full left for the 2-1 test, then it should go full right on the 2-3 test. Then do the same test where the other 3 POTs are supposed to be.

[thyaguster]

those Inputs are 'floating' and will do whatever they feel like doing, and can sometimes make other parts of the controller act up.

I can confirm...I learned about this by not cleaning the board properly of flux after replacing pots...Or when a pad lifts