A tunnel diode is a diode that's held reversed biased, preventing any current flow through it. When the reverse bias gets high enough, though, the electrons have enough "oomph" to push, or "tunnel", through the diode. The greater it gets, the more current flow there is. A tunnel diode joystick has the diodes on each axis, rather than pots. They are held in such a state that the slightest movement of the joystick off-center increases their reverse bias slightly. The current through them is then used to just like the pot type. Essentially, you can consider them solid-state pots. Thus, no null zone needed, since there isn't one to the diode like there is to a pot. ALL pots have a "blank" range around the center position, varying in size on each pot. It's the way they're manufactured. No matter how good they are, there's still that dead zone around center. Every pot, thus, every axis, is slightly different, though. When the sim came out, that was all that was commercially available for the public to use, the potentiometer type joysticks, and thus, the null zone setting is there to compensate. It's supposed to make the sim ignore the joystick inputs until the stick has traveled far enough to get out of the pot's dead zone.
Since there isn't a dead zone to tunnel diodes, the null zone may be set to 0, so the sim receives input instantly it's generated. The only exception is the rudder axis, since the human hand isn't perfect, and sometimes it's possible that you will twist a little during other motions. You can set the null zone to protect from that, otherwise, not needed.
My joy-stick is a Thrustmaster, the HOTAS-X version. Ever since I went to tunnel diode type joysticks a while back, I will never look back. 0 null zones, darn near full sensitivity. Only time I turn the sensitivity down slightly is if the individual plane requires it. They're easy enough to find. Just Google Tunnel Diode Joystick. There's many out these days. They're the wave of the future.
Another consideration is that pots get dirty over time, as I'm sure you've found. Diodes can't. Solid-State devices, like transistors. No where for dirt to get into, no way for them to get "noisy" like pots can.
If that's the case, though, that the sensitivity needs adjusting, I usually go into the aircraft.cfg and adjust the settings in the [flight_tuning] section until it's working as I think it should. I never publish what I do, so copyrights aren't a major issue, as a rule. If it's looking like it might be, I will do everything I can to contact the author/dev, and get permission. I also always keep an untouched copy of the aircraft.cfg available, just in case. You know, good ol' Justin Case, I'm sure
A VV is the Velocity Vector. The little circle with the three lines coming out of it, one to each side, one upward. It indicates the planes path through the air (hopefully!!).
Sorry I get wordy sometimes. It's what I get for having a BSEE. Hope all my babbling helps a little...
Pat☺
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