RWAP

February 17

On 1/24/2024 at 8:29 PM, Loccy said:

A quick update - replacing the innards of the controller and reconnecting it did the trick! I now have two working controllers. Still no working reset button, but there you go, I can live with that.

Not sure if nick3092 was referring to RWAP fvrom SellMyRetro, but if so, yes, he's excellent.

Thanks for the feedback - always good to know that my customers are happy

March 9, 2022

4 minutes ago, slx said:

I would think that sending a keyboard should be sufficient. Looking at the mylar it is pretty obvious which key should short which two lines. I would be willing to send my keyboard (which worked after cleaning contacts and but given the fact that we live in two different customs areas it would probably make more sense for a UK based keyboard to take an Ayrshire vacation.

I do wonder why the spacer does not work, though.

Yes a keyboard should suffice.

March 9, 2022

The problem is that without a machine, the factory can only guess the possible problem..... It could be the thickness of the mylar, the amount of ink used, the aging capacitors and resistors, the way the membrane contacts are done - who knows...

March 9, 2022

12 minutes ago, spookt said:

BUMP

I still have two of the replacement mylars and 800s waiting for them. Was the issue ever resolved satisfactorily? The keyboard on my daily 800 is starting to go bad so it would be nice to be able to use these mylars.

Thanks for the reminder.

Do you want to try the spacers? From memory, the factory wanted to try another 800 and see what the issue was with the replacement mylar as I don't think the spacer fixed it.

We need someone to agree to send their 800 to the factory (in Ayrshire)

March 15, 2021

11 hours ago, yell0w_lantern said:

Is that £12 for a single controller’s Mylar set or for a pair of controllers?

It is £12 including UK VAT for a single controller set - so £10 if you are not in the UK.

February 25, 2021

I now have some of the spacers - who wants to try one? PM me your name & address

February 23, 2021

The Retro-Printer module is proving quite popular to offer an option to either print to PDF or print to a modern USB / Network printer - www.retroprinter.com

February 23, 2021

Following the various feedback, which has been helpful - the factory is going to produce a clear plastic overlay to go at the back of the membrane (a spacer) and an extra small piece of sticky backed plastic to go on the back of the contacts.

This appears to be the ideal solution and is very similar to the Commodore SX-64 membrane issues which the spacer resolved.

February 8, 2021

29 minutes ago, Stormbringer said:

If you dont mind me asking, what kind of time-frame do you think that would be?

No idea at the moment - it will probably be April - the factory is actually operating but just 1 person on the shop floor, worknig 3 days a week because of space. They normally have 3 people working 5 days a week!

January 30, 2021

Yes I would advise waiting. We have had this before where the factory try the membranes on a test machine without any issues, but once they reach the hands of the actual users, it is a different story.

Once the factory is operating normally, I will get a plsastic spacer made and something to put extra pressure on the back of the fingers to ensure better contact and send these out.

Rich

January 29, 2021

Great - thanks for the experimentation - do we have any ideas as to how thick the little bit of foam needs to be on the back of the fingers?

January 26, 2021

Happy for you to try different approaches - one thing which people successfully trialled on the Commodore SX-64 was to use a piece of insulating tape between each of the key pads.

If that is required, then the factory will produce a thin plastic spacer sheet which has holes for each of the key pads and sits between the keyboard and the membrane....

At the moment, the factory are not working because of Covid restrictions.

January 26, 2021

21 minutes ago, slx said:

I re-opened and re-installed the new membrane tonight and have the following observations:

BREAK key works for me, all others don't

I tested some keys (space, M) for continuity with an Ohm meter and found that the keys do make a contact

I have tested this at the motherboard connector as well, so the connector should not be at fault

pressed keys have a resistance of 12-14 Ohms

I am in no way an electronics guru so please excuse if the following question makes no sense.

Could it be that the 12-14 Ohm resistance is too high for the system to register and BREAK registers because IIRC it is connected through a different circuit than the other keys?

Hmm - it could well be that - does anyone know what the value of the pull up resistors are for the keyboard?

I can then pose the question with the factory.

January 21, 2021

3 minutes ago, Sugarland said:

Okay at first I thought I understood this but re-reading it I'm not sure. What is this plastic bar you speak of? Do they serve drinks? Do you have photos?

I don't have an Atari 800 so no photos.

Speaking with Jerzy - it looks as though the issue is more to do with the fact that the keys are wearing (the BREAK key is least used and hence why that one works in two cases) - try a couple of sheets of paper behind the whole of the membrane rather than just where the contact traces sit on the fingers.

January 21, 2021

1 hour ago, Sugarland said:

I got the replacement 800 Mitsumi keyboard mylars (thank you!!) and only the BREAK key is working with the replacement installed. All other keys (besides function keys) are not responsive. I tried removing the tape from the gold fingers connection point and cleaning the fingers well. That made no difference. Do you recommend conductive paint on the gold fingers to assist connectivity? No instructions come with the mylars.

We are not quite certain what is causing this issue - we think it is down to the amount of pressure on the mylar as it basically just sits against those fingers.

You are the second person to report that only the BREAK key is working whereas another person has about half the keys working without changing anything.

What we think is required is a small piece of material (such as a thin piece of foam as used on the Commodore SX-64) or maybe even a piece of paper folded a couple of times, between the mylar and the small plastic bar which holds the mylar down.

We have suggested this to the affected users, but not yet received any feedback as to whether this helps and if so how thick it needs to be. It might just be a matter of us provided an extra thin sheet of plastic to make the mylar that little bit thicker overall.

It may be worth trying a couple of sheets of paper behind the whole of the mylar - Jerzy Dudek says some 800xl mylars have the same issue (where the keys are slightly worn).

Unfortunately, the factory (based in Scotland) is struggling with lockdown and not operational at the moment, otherwise they could borrow Adam's Atari 800 again and try a range of materials to work out what is required.

March 3, 2020

15 minutes ago, rmzalbar said:

How much thickness needs to be shaved from the pads to fix the existing kits?

It is easier to PM me with your name and address and I will send the alternative rubber pads. You just peel off the old ones slowly and then apply the new pads.

February 22, 2020

We only sell replacements for the Intellivision I - I don't believe these will fit.

Maybe someone else knows where you can get them for the Intellivision II

October 24, 2019

2 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

Absolutely I'm interested! What is the recommended way to remove the rubber pad currently on the mylar? Because it really feels 'on' there and I'm not sure it can be removed without buggering up the traces under and near it?

I just took one here and could quite easily peel a corner back with my finger tip. If it doesn't want to peel because of the pressure which has been exerted on it by the controller plastic, or you damage the mylar, let me know and I can send this one with the test pad to try.

PM me your details so I know which customer you are!

By the way, another customer has messaged me on sellmyretro to say:

Quote

To be honest, the 'bulge' in that area of the controller is something I've seen before - quite possibly from home remedy repairs. Sometimes the spring contacts go a bit ... 'flabby' and people just insert material to get the controller to 'work' it seems.

It will be interesting to see if it is the rubber itself, or possibly a combination of that and the fingers no longer being in their original position and/or differences in plastic...

Realistically, we need more feedback!

October 24, 2019

On 10/4/2019 at 11:35 PM, -^CrossBow^- said:

Received my sets in the mail today. They look great! However...

I immediately began to fold up one set for use with a Tandyvision One I have with a bad player 2 mylar. There are three issues of which 2 are pretty big.

1st issue and the biggest one by far is that the rubber pad for the contact section on the cable is simply too thick. There is a noticeable bulge at that point on the controller once reassembled. The originals I've seen (Mostly Rev 3 btw) used a thin foam pad. Had these been foam they likely would be okay as well but they are rubber so they do not compress very well when assembled. I will watch this over time, but it the bulge in the plastic at the top concerns me given that section isn't very thick there.

2nd issue is that I've had some of the blister bubbles on the new keypad overlay stick down when pressing them. Seems to mainly happen with the Zero key and others along the middle? Eventually I was able to press around it and get it to pop back up. But for now, I've got the original keypad part on this controller which takes us to..

3rd. This is a very minor issue, but the original Rev 3's I've seen actually had additional bubble dimples for each fire button on the mylar as well, that is missing on from these and is instead just flat there. It isn't really a problem, but that plain clear piece of mylar that goes between the rest of the flex and the keypad overlay is a tad too thick as well and was causing the controller to always register some direction being pressed or one of the fire buttons being pressed causing issues. I removed that and put the original rubbery overlay that goes between the flex and the keypad and it works properly now along with the buttons having a better tactile feedback again.

So they do work but in my case I really only needed just the flex circuit part itself but they are sold as complete kits and thats cool as well since plenty of Intelly's I've seen do have cracked and worn keypad overlays as well. But the rubber pad needs to be rethought since I do think it is too thick and likely to stress the plastic too much over time. Especially plastic as old as that on the Intellivision.

I have now had a response back from the factory:

Quote

Regarding the embossed overlay, I’m not sure why the switch would not return to it’s original position. All of the switches have the same embossing so should react the same.

One thing to keep in mind is that if the switch is being activated with any type of pointed instrument i.e a pen this could potentially invert the emboss & force it to remain in this position.

I guess it might just be a faulty embossed overlay, so I can send you a second one to replace it with if necessary.

The rubber pad has caused a little confusion, as the only feedback we have received so far has been from a couple of users on here where it seems to be too thick and unforgiving and Adam, who has not had a problem. I guess it might well be that the various plastics used in the controllers may vary dependent on where they were made and how the plastic has aged.

The existing pads can be peeled off carefully and the factory has sent me a sample of a neoprene rubber that is adhesive backed & overall is thinner, and gives more to pressure to try. If successful, then I can include this as an alternative to the existing rubber dependent on your controller. Do you want to try this other rubber?

October 5, 2019

I am sorry to hear that there are apparent issues and I shall investigate with the factory...

I worked with Adam1977 to create these replacement parts and between the options available for the rubber pad, the one chosen gave the best pressure on the fingers. Adam didn't report any bulge in the controller (and to be honest, other than his feedback, Crossbow, you are the first person to provide any comment. I wonder if there are variations between the controllers and plastics used?

As for the extra blank piece of plastic which goes between the layers - just check that you didn't get an extra one by mistake - they do have a tendancy to stick together and so I might have inadvertantly sent two stuck together!

October 4, 2019

19 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

15 sounds like a sweet spot.

It would be - but I have to justify getting 250 made and covering the cost!

October 3, 2019

4 minutes ago, slx said:

Pre-ordered two to have a spare and keep things moving in the right direction....

Please let us know if you'd need a higher price in case there are insufficient pre-orders to sustain production at the price quoted.

I don't think it would be worth ordering less than 100 - prices would then be:

100 membranes - £22 each + p&p

250 membranes - £15 each + p&p

500 membranes - £12 each + p&p

If I order 50 you would be looking at around £40 each !