5200 control problem -- sticks act as if held to right

[Big_Mo]

Hi everyone:

 

Thought I'd see if anyone here could advise me on something.

 

I have a 4-port 5200 unit with a composite video mod installed, and I've noticed that a lot of time the system acts as if the joysticks are being held to the right. For instance, I turned on Space Dungeon earlier today, parked the ship against a left-hand wall and held the 2nd stick to the right. Periodically, the ship would just start inexplicably traveling to the right, even though the stick was pegged to the left. This comes and goes during gameplay.

 

I've noticed this behavior with several different controllers, both Atari stock and Wico.

 

I opened the unit and removed the RF shielding to see if I could see anything grounding out, but could see nothing.

 

Any ideas what could be causing it?

 

Thanks in advance.

[JB]

Sounds like a bad connection to me. Right is the direction a disconnected X axis reads, and an intermittent disconnection could be caused by a solder joint on the controller connector or a damaged wire in the controller cable.

 

 

Anyone else wanna chime in? All the repairs I've had to do were cleaning and foil dots.

[vaf5136]

Sounds like a bad connection to me. Right is the direction a disconnected X axis reads, and an intermittent disconnection could be caused by a solder joint on the controller connector or a damaged wire in the controller cable.

 

 

Anyone else wanna chime in? All the repairs I've had to do were cleaning and foil dots.

 

 

It has been a while now but there is an adjustable pot inside the 5200 on the main board. It is located on the lower right hand side of the board. Connect a 5200 controller and put a game like missile command in and adjust the pot while also watching the screen and noticing how the cursor is moving. Use a small slotted screwdriver and turn the pot in small increments. Good luck

[BydoEmpire]

It has been a while now but there is an adjustable pot inside the 5200 on the main board. It is located on the lower right hand side of the board. Connect a 5200 controller and put a game like missile command in and adjust the pot while also watching the screen and noticing how the cursor is moving. Use a small slotted screwdriver and turn the pot in small increments. Good luck

That's the instructions I got from Best Electronics, and it worked great (in my case, I couldn't move to the right, but same concept).

[JB]

I don't think calibration would cause intermittent jumps, though. It should be constant if it's a calibration error.

[SINGLE TOOTH]

Did you ever fix yours? I have a 4-port that does this now. It constantly wants to go to the bottom right. Nothing I do can cause the cursor to even budge. I have even tried to adjust the pot. I swapped out every socketed chip from a 2-port I have. The problem still persists.

 

Any Help??? Please???

 

Now I have 2 5200s that wont play.

[Big_Mo]

The Pot adjust didn't help. Now, when I tried to turnt he 5200 on, if there's a cart inserted, I get a black screen. It was working before.

[SINGLE TOOTH]

Are you sure you turned the right pot? one of them is the color adjust. Try turning it, and see if you get your picture back.

 

The pot adjust didnt fix my console either.