Got my 5200 diag cart and loopback board today

[Ransom]

I came home today to find a package from Best Electronics! My 5200 diagnostics cart and loopback board had come.

 

I'd ordered them because I'd noticed that in analog games, moving all the way to the right was difficult. You basically have to jam the joystick all the way to the right to get it to move past the last twelve pixels or so.

 

And Blueprint wasn't allowing me to move down. Up, left, and right -- no problem. But down? Forget it.

 

So I popped the cart in, turned the system on and...it said I had a bad OS ROM, right off the bat.

 

I went ahead and did the rest of the diags, and my ports actually checked out fine (as did my controllers).

 

So I went down to the basement and grabbed my backup 5200. Checked it out -- no problems at all!

 

I then swapped the motherboards (my primary 5200 has a very nice case which I spent a lot of time getting all shiny and scratchless) and now have one good 5200 and one that needs at least an OS ROM (perhaps memory too...hard to tell with a bad OS ROM).

 

I think I'll kick the ROM problem down the trail until next year. I don't really need it right now, and don't want to spend more on the 5200 at this point. I have one that works, and that's what matters.

 

So did the problems go away? Well, I can easily move all the way to the right in Super Breakout, but Blue Print still won't let me move down. Is it looking for a 255 on the controller, or what?

[Rybags]

The joysticks are just analog pots in similar manner to Paddles on other systems.

 

So, the values returned should be in the 1-228 range on each axis.

[Rev]

cool

[+Mitch]

Did you read the section in the 5200 service guide on how to calibrate the 5200?

 

Mitch

[Ransom]

Did you read the section in the 5200 service guide on how to calibrate the 5200?

 

Mitch

 

About adjusting the pot until it's 112 +/- 1 on the left controller port, etc.?

 

I did read that. And the values are all within spec. I've got 112/111, and all the rest are in range (117-119, IIRC).

[+Mitch]

Did you read the section in the 5200 service guide on how to calibrate the 5200?

 

Mitch

 

About adjusting the pot until it's 112 +/- 1 on the left controller port, etc.?

 

I did read that. And the values are all within spec. I've got 112/111, and all the rest are in range (117-119, IIRC).

 

Yes, that was the section I was referring to.

 

Sounds like your controller needs to be calibrated now.

 

Mitch

[Ransom]

Yes, that was the section I was referring to.

 

Sounds like your controller needs to be calibrated now.

 

Mitch

 

Detaching the wipe arm, etc? It sounds difficult -- is it?

 

I've had the controllers apart. I've replaced buttons, flex circuits, and the cord.

 

I've also cleaned the pots for 2600 paddle controllers by fully disassembling and reassembling them.

 

But the 5200 ones daunt me. Partly because they're glued in. Will I have to break them free of the glue, then clean that glue out and re-glue them?

 

The service manual doesn't go into much detail about the procedure.

Edited March 19, 2009 by Ransom

[Tempest]

Yes, that was the section I was referring to.

 

Sounds like your controller needs to be calibrated now.

 

Mitch

 

Detaching the wipe arm, etc? It sounds difficult -- is it?

 

I've had the controllers apart. I've replaced buttons, flex circuits, and the cord.

 

I've also cleaned the pots for 2600 paddle controllers by fully disassembling and reassembling them.

 

But the 5200 ones daunt me. Partly because they're glued in. Will I have to break them free of the glue, then clean that glue out and re-glue them?

 

The service manual doesn't go into much detail about the procedure.

 

Nah it's not hard, the only tricky part is getting the whole assembly to hold together while you slap the case back together. I've don't it several times in the past. You really can't break them either, just be careful you don't put a crease in the flex circuit when moving it around.

 

Tempest

[Ransom]

Yes, that was the section I was referring to.

 

Sounds like your controller needs to be calibrated now.

 

Mitch

 

Detaching the wipe arm, etc? It sounds difficult -- is it?

 

I've had the controllers apart. I've replaced buttons, flex circuits, and the cord.

 

I've also cleaned the pots for 2600 paddle controllers by fully disassembling and reassembling them.

 

But the 5200 ones daunt me. Partly because they're glued in. Will I have to break them free of the glue, then clean that glue out and re-glue them?

 

The service manual doesn't go into much detail about the procedure.

 

Nah it's not hard, the only tricky part is getting the whole assembly to hold together while you slap the case back together. I've don't it several times in the past. You really can't break them either, just be careful you don't put a crease in the flex circuit when moving it around.

 

Tempest

 

I'm sorry, I was unclear above. What I should have said is that I've had the 5200 controllers apart many times. I've replaced flex circuits (rev 7 --> rev 9 --> rev 9 gold trace). I've replaced buttons. I've cleaned them. Etc.

 

But I've not done much with the pots, beyond taking one out and replacing it with a new one.

 

The field service manual says, "remove arm from wiper shaft on pot." But it doesn't explain how. So, how does one do that?

[82atari5200]

Yes, that was the section I was referring to.

 

Sounds like your controller needs to be calibrated now.

 

Mitch

 

Detaching the wipe arm, etc? It sounds difficult -- is it?

 

I've had the controllers apart. I've replaced buttons, flex circuits, and the cord.

 

I've also cleaned the pots for 2600 paddle controllers by fully disassembling and reassembling them.

 

But the 5200 ones daunt me. Partly because they're glued in. Will I have to break them free of the glue, then clean that glue out and re-glue them?

 

The service manual doesn't go into much detail about the procedure.

 

Nah it's not hard, the only tricky part is getting the whole assembly to hold together while you slap the case back together. I've don't it several times in the past. You really can't break them either, just be careful you don't put a crease in the flex circuit when moving it around.

 

Tempest

 

I'm sorry, I was unclear above. What I should have said is that I've had the 5200 controllers apart many times. I've replaced flex circuits (rev 7 --> rev 9 --> rev 9 gold trace). I've replaced buttons. I've cleaned them. Etc.

 

But I've not done much with the pots, beyond taking one out and replacing it with a new one.

 

The field service manual says, "remove arm from wiper shaft on pot." But it doesn't explain how. So, how does one do that?

You just gently pull them off.

[Ransom]

The field service manual says, "remove arm from wiper shaft on pot." But it doesn't explain how. So, how does one do that?

You just gently pull them off.

 

Aha! Thank you.