SlowCoder's Guide to Cleaning Up Your 2600

[SlowCoder]

I received this Sears Light 6 Switch package from eBay:

When compared to some I've received, this one really isn't in too bad of shape. No major scrapes or bruises. But I'm not happy with it. It's showing a little bit of it's cosmetic age, and needs some help. I want to make it shine.

 

I plugged it into my TV, and it works. But it's not perfect. Here are the problems I encountered:

- The switches are finicky, and are not freely sliding. Select and Reset and only register once every 4-5 times. The Color switch flickers when it's touched.

- Joysticks are both not registering button presses every time.

 

In this thread, I will go through the process I use for cleaning and rebuilding my consoles. Feel free to constructively comment on it. I'm always willing to learn other ways to do things.

[SlowCoder]

Console Disassembly:

Here is a bottom-side pic of the console screw locations. Yellow dots are case screws, and red dots are mainboard screws.

 

For now, we're just removing the case screws. Remember ... lefty-loosy, righty-tighty!

 

Remove the top:

Once the screws are removed, we need to finagle the top of the case off. You might be tempted to pull up from the back, but you could potentially break the top if you try to force it. Work the front of the top upward. Once loose, the top will come off easily.

 

 

Time to remove the switchboard. Yellow dots are screws, red dot is RF cable connection, green dot is switchboard connection cable.

Remove the 2 screws, disconnect the RF cable, and gently remove the connection cable. You can now remove the switchboard from the case.

 

Now, turn the case upside down, and remove the 2 mainboard screws. Now you will be able to remove the mainboard assembly.

[SlowCoder]

Bath Time! - Cleaning the Case:

 

Before we get to cleaning, we need to separate the bezel (the switch area) from the top of the case. Yellow dots are locations of clips holding the bezel to the case.

Gently pry the bezel apart. The clips can be easily broken, so care is the key.

 

My console looks like this on the inside:

It appears something got spilled into the console at some point.

 

And this on the outside:

 

Once apart, I put the 3 case parts into hot soapy water for a 30 minute soak. Unless it's really caked up, that generally enough to loosen the gunk.

 

Oops! Too much soap! :

 

Scrub scrub scrub.

Remember to get between all the crevices, peaks and valleys. Good hygiene is a must. The girlfriend will know.

 

Hint: During the drying process, I like to use an air can with a straw to blow out excess water hiding in all the screw holes.

 

Results:

I took the liberty of repainting the bezel border, as the original was mostly rubbed away.

Edited July 2, 2011 by SlowCoder

[Jr. Pac]

I spent half an hour taking pictures of exactly what you posted: Bath Time!.

[SlowCoder]

Cleaning the Switch Mechanism:

 

Note: At this point we have moved into the electronic parts of the system. We are no longer using water to clean. Primarily I am using 91%+ alcohol or electronics cleaner.

As I said earlier, I felt the switches were not operating at peak. They were sometimes not registering, and moving freely.

 

Time to take apart a switch. The first type we are taking apart is a toggle switch.

The yellow dots are fastening tines that we will pull out to take apart the switch. I used a flathead screwdriver to bend the tines outward just a little bit, and ONLY on one side of the switch. This allowed me to pull the switch open fairly easy.

 

Once apart you can see the components that make up the switch.

 

I took a cotton swab and alcohol and scrubbed the switch bed contacts and the slide contacts until they were shiny. If you can see any black, scrub more.

 

In this photo, the switch bed contacts have been cleaned. Of the 2 slide contacts, the one on the right is cleaned, the one on the left is not.

 

Note here the general shape of the slide contacts. If they appear different, they are misshapen and may need to be bent back.

 

I applied a SMALL amount of cilicon based dielectric grease to the bed contacts. Some people seem to think it should be slathered on, but I figure too much and you're just wasting money and making mess.

 

Next, clean the inside of the metal switch case with alcohol to remove any dirt or grime that might be affecting slide performance.

 

Put the switch back together. Pay attention to the orientation of the tines you bent. The tines only need to be slightly bent inward, snug enough to hold the switch together.

 

Now for the momentary switches. These are just a little more complicated, and include a small spring in the middle. YOU WILL NEED TO BE CAREFUL WHEN OPENING THESE SWITCHES, OR YOU MAY LOST THE SPRING.

Standard cleaning applies. But when CAREFULLY reassembling, you may want to bend all 4 sets of tines out to make it easier to reassemble. The spring lives inside the gap in the middle of the switch.

[SlowCoder]

Polishing the Switches:

 

My system is better than 30 years old (1980). With luck, it's gotten lots of use. Over time the aluminum switches have gotten dirty and corroded a bit from play.

 

 

While I had the switches apart, I went ahead and polished them with Mother's Aluminum Cleaner and Polish. Following the instructions, a lot of corrosion was removed. Once completed, the switches are just about show-room shiny.

 

Here is a comparison of 2 switches that both looked exactly the same before cleaning:

 

And the switchboard all done:

Edited July 2, 2011 by SlowCoder

[SlowCoder]

Checking the Mainboard:

 

Time to crack it open.

 

Remove the 4 screws from the bottom of the mainboard housing, yellow dots.

Note: When reassembling, you want to make sure you do not place screws at the red dots. Those holes are for mounting the assembly to the bottom of the case.

 

Gently remove the metal plate and set aside.

 

Next, remove the 2 screws affixing the mainboard to the housing:

 

Now you can remove the mainboard from the housing.

 

 

I checked to make sure the 3 main chips (Stella, CPU and RIOT) were well seated in the sockets. Though it doesn't happen often, expansion from heat, or transporting of the console, can cause the chips to unseat and not work properly.

 

Also, once the system is almost reassembled (top not put back on, you can adjust the color pot (green dot) for color correctness.

 

Another thing to check for, is any loose solder points. Though, if the 2600 was working, this is probably not necessary.

[SlowCoder]

All Done!

 

Now, I reassembled, and this is my refurbed and cleaned system.

 

Edited July 2, 2011 by SlowCoder

[bennybingo]

for the awesome guide. Very helpful stuff! I just got an H6 for my collection, and I am going to try to clean it up tomorrow night. Thanks again!

[Schizophretard]

Plus 1 on all of it! Fixing the switches looks easy. It reminds me of fixing paddle jitters. Can you explain more about how to adjust the color pot, what game is best to adjust with, how it should look...? Also, what does the red thing on the board do...? Please keep adding whatever you can think of because you are explaining perfectly.

[SlowCoder]

Plus 1 on all of it! Fixing the switches looks easy. It reminds me of fixing paddle jitters. Can you explain more about how to adjust the color pot, what game is best to adjust with, how it should look...? Also, what does the red thing on the board do...? Please keep adding whatever you can think of because you are explaining perfectly.

Thanks. I've done a few Atari's this way, so this isn't new to me. But I thought I'd share it for any new folks who are interested.

 

Though I'm not absolutely positive about it, I believe the pot adjusts the balance of red and blue.

 

As far as the red adjustment, I think it's for adjusting sound. FYI on that, I don't believe you'd want to shove a metal hex wrench in it. I think you're supposed to use plastic to keep from shorting it out.

 

I included the photos of the joysticks and paddles because I was planning on doing those next. Though they don't seem to have any jitters, I'm still going to part, clean and "fix" them.

[Schizophretard]

And paint them.

[+Random Terrain]

Will this void my warranty?

[bennybingo]

Do you have the instructions for this part of the procedure???

 

 

 

[+Random Terrain]

Do you have the instructions for this part of the procedure???

I think you just gave C-3PO a robo-boner.

[SlowCoder]

On to the Joysticks

 

Here they are:

 

First we need to open them. Unscrew the 4 screws on the bottom, yellow dot:

 

Pull the joystick apart:

Note the orientation of the white plastic piece in the middle (yellow dot).

You'll need to keep track of the firing button spring (green dot). The button will work without the spring, but will not be as responsive.

You can now pull the PCB board out and gently disconnect the 6 wires (red dots). Note where each of the colored wires connect. Once disconnected, you can finagle the wire out of the controller case.

 

When I disconnected my wires, I found the ground wire's clip was broken, causing intermittent functionality. Luckily I had an extra joystick cord and was able to replace it.

 

Now you remove the while plastic stick from the middle of the joystick.

 

Gently pull the flange of the rubber stick cover out of the top case:

The plastic ring that holds it in place is somewhat fragile, so you will need to be careful.

 

Now that we have our joystick apart, we can go wash:

As before with the console, I soaked in hot soapy water for 30 minutes, and brushed with a soft toothbrush.

 

While soaking, let's take a look at some of the critical problems I've found with some joysticks.

1.

One of my joysticks has the flange of the inner ring broken. This isn't necessarily critical to the operation of the joystick, but it probably means the joystick was at one point overflexed. Played normally, the joystick will still work fine.

 

2.

We need to examine the outer edge of the white stick here. You can see there are some stress points (bright white areas) where the plastic has been flexed. This is ok, as long as the plastic hasn't been broken. If broken, it will be necessary to replace the stick, as it will not be able to actuate the directional controls effectively.

 

3.

It is necessary to inspect the domes for symptoms of failure. Are there any visible cracks in the domes? Do they appear to be sunken or caved in? When pressed, and released, do they pop back to their original position, as you think they should? If they have cracks or are caved in, they need to be replaced. In that case, it would probably be easier to replaced the entire PCB board.

 

On both of my joysticks, the white sticks and domes all appear to be ok.

 

Scrub scrub ... wash wash ...

 

All cleaned up:

 

My son got in on the game at this point, and helped me repaint the arrows on the joysticks. Now they say "I am a Sears 2600, hear me roar!":

 

Now to reassemble!

 

We are going to re-insert the rubber stick cover into the top. First thing we need to do is raise the ring:

There are also a couple of small tabs that can be used to keep the ring pushed up on the underside. Now, feed the rubber stick under the ring all the way around.

 

Reinsert the white stick. Again, note the orientation:

 

Now take the cable and feed it back through the bottom of the case. When you slide it into position you want to make sure the flat part is facing up.

 

Connect the wires to the PCB:

 

Now put the fire button back in. DON'T FORGET THE LITTLE SPRING!

 

Reassemble:

 

Tada!

 

Completed joysticks:

 

The joysticks are now working perfectly.

[Rik]

Thanx for the effort in sharing how you clean SlowCoder, cleaning and giving TLC to my classic consoles is the part of the hobby i enjoy the most.It's interesting to see how other members take care of their stuff.

[iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin]

Great thread! A+!

[Deja-Q]

Yep, very good work!

Thanks for that!

[Benzman66]

^ AGREED!

 

Your title will be the new "Atari Professor on Cleaning and Updating!"

[Schizophretard]

Either I have never seen a Sears joystick or you're an effing genius. Those are beautiful!

[zylon]

Nice to see a Sears machine getting the love.

[SlowCoder]

Who Needs a Paddling?

 

Here are the paddles and driving controllers. Unfortunately not Sears branded, but one day ...

 

Let's open up the paddles. First thing, remove the wheel by pulling straight up on it:

The small black item is a fitting that attaches the wheel to the paddle arm. Once the wheel is pulled off, it may be found still on the arm, or may be stuck inside the wheel. Either way, you'll want to remove it and set it aside. Remove the nut affixing the arm to the case.

 

Remove the 2 screws on the back:

 

Open up the paddle: and remove the electronic components.

 

Send the case, wheel and plastic button to the wash!

 

Just a side note that I must have brainfarted at this point. I forgot to take a very important picture of the next step . However, I will attempt to explain anyway ...

 

This picture is the next one in the series.

It shows the potentiometer disassembled. The parts are shown in the order and orientation they would be stacked, starting at the left, and stacking downward.

 

The part on the far right is the potentiometer casing. You can see the 4 tines pointing upward. Then the pot is assembled, these tines are bent down to hold it all together. To begin the disassembly, what you need to do is carefully pry these 4 tines upward, and into an upright position. You can then pull each part out.

 

Note that you can probably only bend these tines a few times before they begin to break. I'll make a guessture that you might be able to get away with 3 or 4 pot maintenances before the tines will fail. But if the maintenance is performed correctly, hopefully you'll be dead before that happens.

 

At this point you may be noticing the arm is now black. Well, I was apparently a bit foggy in the head while I was working on this. So some of the pics are actually from another controller I took apart for this tutorial. The only difference is the color of the arm. Everything else is exactly the same.

 

We are now primarily interested in the 2 internal parts:

You will need to clean the black and brass parts of each of these parts completely with alcohol to remove old grease and dirt. Be very careful of the little tines on the arm that look like tiny forks. They are very easy to bend.

 

Once cleaned, you'll want to apply a little bit of dielectric grease to the tracks (the black and brass parts of the other piece). Alternatively you can add a bit of grease to the "fork" tines and contact on the opposite side, as shown in the arm picture.

 

Once that is completed, it's time to reassemble the controller.

 

Done properly, your paddles should be jitter free. Mine are.

 

One of the things that gets me about the paddles is that Atari totally neglected to indicate which controller is paddle 1, and which is paddle 2. Here is a picture of my solution to this problem:

The silver one is player 1, orange is player 2. I considered doing this for a while, and thought the track I chose was reasonably out of the main finger traffic areas. My son painted the silver, I painted the orange.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Now the driving controllers.

The driving controllers are basically the same assembly as the paddle controllers, except for the pot inside.

 

Once you get inside, this is what you see:

 

Pretty simply, all you need to do is use alcohol to clean the metal tracks on the bottom, and in the middle. Again, be careful you don't snag any of the contacts. Once cleaned, apply a little bit of grease to the tracks, then reassemble the controller.

 

Due to the construction of the driving controllers, I don't believe they are really capable of getting the "jitters". At most, I think you would just get non-responsiveness caused by dirty contacts.

[SlowCoder]

From Beginning to End ...

 

Here is the completed project:

Everything is working 100%. great signal and color, controllers are all responsive, and no jitters from the paddles.

 

A couple of notes on this:

- For those of you diehard folks who don't like "modifications", and who think the 2600 should look original ... good news for you! The only thing I did to the console that MIGHT be construed as non-original is that I repainted the bezel. But the bezel was repainted because it was faded, and I used silver, the same color as oroginal. And the paint on the controllers can be easily removed with alcohol. So in the course of a few minutes and elbow grease, everything could be returned to original. I also tried to stay within the Atari theme by using Silver and Orange. I like green. I could've painted my controllers green.

- I know the way I did this project was a bit verbose. Heck, it was verbose for me, so I KNOW it almost killed some of you. But I did it with the aim of helping "first time Atari owners" with their new setups. I saw a number of you old-timers posted, and I appreciate the responses and support.

[SlowCoder]

Either I have never seen a Sears joystick or you're an effing genius. Those are beautiful!

Really appreciated. I don't think Sears ever actually had actual Sears branded joystick controller. That's why I thought it would be cool to homage Sears with the silver arrows. I could have done the whole controller silver, but I wanted some color.

 

Nice to see a Sears machine getting the love.

It's a game machine, isn't it? It's a 2600, isn't it? Of course it's gonna get the love! Besides that, the Sears was my first 2600, so it holds a little place in my heart.