Nognir Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 I hope the topic explains it. I still own a working console but also I have a broken Controller :/ are there any kind of fixes or replacements for the original controller? maybe also adapters to use another one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sqoon Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 Lots of answers: 1. Yes there are fixes and replacements for the stock Atari controller. How much do you want to spend. If you don't have much money or repair skills, I recommend a gold refurbished controller from Best Electronics. If you are looking to pay $50 or more, the Wico 5200 controller can be found on ebay occasionally. Just make sure the auctioner has tested the Wico stick to make sure it works alright, because the potentiometers can go out on them as well. 2. Adapters exist. If you have some money, Master Play device can be found on ebay for $80 and up. A guy named Bohoki on these forums used to make and sell an adapter for 15-pin PC sticks. Look him up as they are highly recommended. 3. If you are good with repair skills, replacement potentiometers and flex circuits are for sale at Best Electronics' website. If you go that route, then at least glue aluminum foil dots to the back of the carbon pads under the rubber buttons on each controller. With those and new pots/circuit, the controller should work good as new. Hope that is helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennybingo Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 Or, you could go with an alternative like the 5200 Wico joystick and keypad, but those are pricey too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 What's wrong with your controller? It could be easy to fix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nognir Posted February 28, 2013 Author Share Posted February 28, 2013 I think the flex circuit is broken... again .... I had someone to fix it and it worked exactly 10 Minutes before it broke again. That's why I want a replacement for the stock Atari Controller. I remember the Wico Sticks but they were always very rare. Does anybody know how the Adapter from Bohoki works? Standard and keypad controller? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sqoon Posted March 1, 2013 Share Posted March 1, 2013 Bohoki's adapter allows plug in of a PC controller and the stock 5200 controller for start/pause/reset/number pad keys. Basically, you start the game and select options with the 5200 controller, and then use the PC stick for directionals and fire buttons in-game. Only games it is not recommended for are Missile Command, Centipede, and Gyruss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadow460 Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 I have one with a Rev 9 flex circuit and foil dots. It works great. The Rev 9 circuit would cost you less than $10 on ebay. It would take an hour or so for you to add foil dots to the controller. That's maybe $10 worth of stuff instead of $50 on either a Wico or a Best stick. You might have a busted cord on yours. Also, any sharp folds will destroy the flex circuit. If you see 'em on it, then the circuit is probably done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George35 Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 there is also the redemption adapters that were sold here by AtariAge, one allowed use of 7800 controllers, and I believe there was another for sega. not sure how easy they would be to find though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bohoki Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 the adapter i made was a common known conversion as seen here http://www.atarihq.com/5200/5200faq/06_04.html with a couple minor tweaks i always added an auxillary start button and connected the y together as to make it as fool proof as possible being there are 2 15 pin female ends i prefered selling them with a pc joystick one that i have tested to work since quality and features of the pc gameport sticks are variable some are incompatable some are downright annoying with jitter i use mine with gyruss and missile command all the time but you need a good stick i prefer using a gamepad but that procludes using the analog games missilecommand,gorf,kaboom,superbreakout,star wars i got a few left but i'm not sending them to germany sorry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kensu Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 BTW, bohoki, what did you do to the female part that plugs into the 5200? I'm having trouble getting mine to go all the way in. I can't figure out what you did from the picture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bohoki Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 i cut the shielding off then using the soldering iron i kind of plastic welded the 2 pieces together a standard 15 pin d plug wont go deep enough to stay put you need to cut the 2 sides or drill the holes out so it comes apart so many little tweaks when you make one like since the pc stick only uses 6 wires i pull one pair out to hook up the start button between the pins 4 and 7 i believe i leave it out of the bunch just incase i want to splice in a long wire and run it somewhere else since instead of a shell i just goo everything with a hot glue gun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kensu Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 i just finished building one of the PC joystick convertors, and it worked with the Gravis Gamepad on the first try. The difference is like night and day! I played the best game of Berzerk and Pac-Man I've played in a long time, certainly on the actual system and not the emulator! This is one of the reasons why I really wish they would make a Flashback 5200. With a redesigned modern joystick (with a thumbstick replacing the wonky joystick) you'd end up with something which was even better than the 2600/7800 Flashback machines! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bohoki Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 its so nice to have someone who can do some work and got it right the first time heck i screwed up a couple times before i got it working right also i found out sometimes ibm pc joysticks use pin 4 or 5 as the ground so i have a jumper on them (just a big gob of solder jumping) i also a while ago i got a load of joysticks that had a throttle control (acted as joystic 2's Y axis)on the side so i rigged up a switch to use it as up down to make it a shifter in pole position you can also rig up a matrix array to be the keypad and you can avoid any oem problems altogether http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2F16-4x4-Matrix-Keyboard-Keypad-Use-Key-PIC-AVR-Stamp-Sml-%2F200720928318 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariLeaf Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 You could get one of these: Of course you'll also need this special attachment: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kensu Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 [quote name=bohoki' timestamp='1362424660' post='2708861' you can also rig up a matrix array to be the keypad and you can avoid any oem problems altogether http://rover.ebay.co...l-/200720928318 I tried that using this; in fact I was originally going to make a keypad controller that had a port on the side for a PC joystick. However the 5200 wouldn't recognize the system-button pushes, and the keypad buttons wouldn't even move the needle on my multimeter when I used it on the female plug (the keypad DOES work, though, which is what makes it so odd. If I clip it to the wires where they make they connection, it's fine. But if I connect them to the ports on the plug that said wires are connected to, nothing.) The cable itself wasn't to blame, since it's the one I used for the adapter which works fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bohoki Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 strange about your array i assume you know how the matrix works they are rows and columns and a button shorts a row and a column the atari is wired reverse of the keypad row 123 on that is pin 1 but it is pin 7 on the 5200 row 456 is pin 2 but connects to pin 6 row 789 is pin pin 3 but it goes to pin 5 row *0# is pin 4 but it goes strangely to pin 8 pin 5 to 5200 pin 3 pin 6 to 5200 pin 2 pin 7 to 5200 pin 1 try clipping a couple leads on it and try again remembering 1-2-3 are columns and the other 4-5-6-7 are the rows clip one on a row another on a column then press all the buttons till one makes it beep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadow460 Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 I just got through rebuilding a couple of stock controllers with foil dots and new rev 9 flex circuits. It's a $10 fix. Maybe I'll sell 'em both and treat myself to a Best Gold controller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Phruby Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Just got my WICO Command Stick to go with the WICO keypad. This thing is great for Star Raiders and the extra cord length lets me sit on the couch instead of two feet away from the TV like the regular controllers do. However the stick sucks when playing Tempest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIKE5200 Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 I just got through rebuilding a couple of stock controllers with foil dots and new rev 9 flex circuits. It's a $10 fix. Maybe I'll sell 'em both and treat myself to a Best Gold controller. You know Best will take your old stock controllers for the gold controllers. As for the Gold one i'm happy and yes the fire buttons still works as when i got it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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