Atari 5200 Analogue Controller Repair

[chas10e]

ok so traces are fine .... the rubber thing on bottom of orange button needs the silver dot it seems ( think that paint may dry black but same thing )

Edited February 8, 2015 by chas10e

[Charlie_]

Look at that! How in the world does the start, pause and reset buttons work when its wrinkled like that!

Yet both left fire bottons dont work. Wtf!

Ouch. The bezel around START PAUSE RESET needs to be removed as the 1st step to taking apart a 5200 controller. Sometimes the flex under S,P,R is taped down with double sided tape. So it needs to be GENTLY lifted before disassembly.

[+Zeptari]

All the paint peeled off after a couple days. I'm guessing the paint doesn't stick that well to the teflon/neoprene pads.

I guess I'll try the tinfoil trick next.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Tin foil does work..and works well, but I have issues with super glue also eventually just cracking and the tin foil coming off.

 

What I use, is chrome repair tape from the auto store. It is basically just metal foil tape but with a very decent adhesive applied to the back.

 

Use a piece of card stock paper and rub each of the carbon dots off the buttons at least 3 times. On each rub pass make a line of about 2 - 2 1/2 inches. This will remove the oils and gunk that have accumulated on the dots over time. Then I use some alcohol on a q-tip to rub over them to make sure all residue is off the pads.

 

Next use a hole punch and punch out the foil tape. Then carefully apply the round foil tape onto the carbon pads trying to center them as best as possible.

 

This is the method I've used for literally over 10 years now and the foil tape I bought (3M brand), only requires redoing this after about 3 or 4 years. At that point the adhesive starts to get weak and the foil dots will eventually fall off. But for about 30min of work I'll take that with not having to mess with the controller for a couple years.