the first gamepad is a Saitek P150, the second is a Gameon gamepad (model# FT2E92) both do not include analog.

The value is always 255 (or in the case of the code above, it always returns 1). I believe that it is only the up button that is counted as being pressed, and it's not only on the joy_raw.y value either, it's also on the joy_hat value.