Tron Unit Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Just got a pair of these from a board member and was wondering if there is some kind of tear-down and cleaning tutorial for these somewhere. Didn't see one when I did a forum search. Always wanted these but never got them because my parents said I didn't need them. Had a hard time convincing them that certain games only worked with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariBrian Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Good luck getting those apart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tron Unit Posted February 24, 2015 Author Share Posted February 24, 2015 Good luck getting those apart That's why a repair tutorial would be helpful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chas10e Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 http://atariage.com/forums/topic/178451-super-action-controller-dis-assembly/ maybe take some pics as your doing it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tron Unit Posted February 24, 2015 Author Share Posted February 24, 2015 Thanks. That's helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tron Unit Posted February 24, 2015 Author Share Posted February 24, 2015 Got the controllers apart easily enough but the plastic white controller contact piece has several broken tabs so the directional control stick obviously would not have functioned. Is there a place that sells replacement parts for this or does anybody know of a hack to make it work again? I fixed a broken Tron M Network directional contact pad by pilfering parts from a Champion joystick and it worked. Maybe something similar could be substituted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vectorman Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Good luck getting those back together right once you've got them apart. I'd discourage taking apart Coleco controllers. Just open them up just enough to spray some contact cleaner in all the switches/contacts. It would be nice if there was some sort of maintenence kit made for Coleco controllers like Best Electronics made those gold replacement membranes for 5200 controllers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 I guess it depends how good you are with this kind of thing. I've taken apart the Coleco controllers including the Super action controllers many times without an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Got the controllers apart easily enough but the plastic white controller contact piece has several broken tabs so the directional control stick obviously would not have functioned. Is there a place that sells replacement parts for this or does anybody know of a hack to make it work again? I fixed a broken Tron M Network directional contact pad by pilfering parts from a Champion joystick and it worked. Maybe something similar could be substituted. Maybe yurkie has an idea. I can't right now but will try to take one of mine apart when possible and see if I can think of something . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tron Unit Posted February 24, 2015 Author Share Posted February 24, 2015 Contact cleaner would not have helped. Glad I discovered it now though. I only had to pay shipping for these so it's worth making a restoration attempt. Since the brittle plastic contact piece is commonly broken in SAC's I'm surprised somebody hasn't casted the part for replacement or come up with a workaround. I'm not going to give up on these though. I've waited 30 years to own a pair of SAC's. There's gotta be a way to fix it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcks73 Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 I will follow this closely, had 2 SAC's for years, never got them to work at all!!! How I wish I could repair those!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tron Unit Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 (edited) Found this on another forum. This guy simply discarded the broken contact piece though I'm not sure if that will make it more difficult to control directions or not. Fixed my CV Super Action controllers I got some "as is" super actions on an auction recently. Well when I plugged them in they didn't want to go in certain directions. Turns out there was a few arms broken on an octopus like white piece of plastick that pushes the contacts down. Well, I took that piece right out, put it back together and voila. Super Action with a very tight response. That's more than I can say for the trigger buttons though. Thought I'd post this in case someone else had a busted pair. Edited February 25, 2015 by Tron Unit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcks73 Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Surprising... leaving a piece out makes it work... weird but Worth a try!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Give it a shot, you got nothing to lose. I just took one of mine apart a minute ago and pulled that piece out. It's going to be hard to replicate it but if you guys make it work without it that would be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tron Unit Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 (edited) Well the white "octopus" piece as it were is sandwiched between the control stick and the PCB contacts and have little bulbs on the bottom so when you move the control stick in one of 8 directions it "rocks" the bulb over the contact point on the board. I'd imagine not having that piece reduces sensitivity because the control stick pressure points are always making contact on the PCB. Not an ideal solution and could damage the raised contact points of the board. Edited February 25, 2015 by Tron Unit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tron Unit Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 Give it a shot, you got nothing to lose. I just took one of mine apart a minute ago and pulled that piece out. It's going to be hard to replicate it but if you guys make it work without it that would be good. 20150224_190819.jpg20150224_190841.jpg Man if there is a way to cast that piece up with resin and make replacement pieces available you'd have your own little enterprise, man! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Tron, I removed the white piece and took a look at how it functioned without it and can say nothing will be damaged if you try it. So no worries if you'd like to give it a shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 If anything it may be too sensitive with little movement of the joystick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tron Unit Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 Hmm.. why not? Won't be able to test them until I get my console back since it is getting repaired but I'll clean these up real good and get them put back together and see what happens. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rey Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Man if there is a way to cast that piece up with resin and make replacement pieces available you'd have your own little enterprise, man! Not sure if a 3D printer could recreate this piece. Wish I could afford one, I'd make some really cool pieces. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tron Unit Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 Not sure if a 3D printer could recreate this piece. Wish I could afford one, I'd make some really cool pieces. That's a pretty good idea, actually. Think of all the broken SAC's that can be salvaged with a simple 3-D printer!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 That's a pretty good idea, actually. Think of all the broken SAC's that can be salvaged with a simple 3-D printer!!! Possibly, but the quality of the plastic may leave something to be desired. Most of the 3D printer companies advertize their services for making prototype pieces, and there's a reason for that. I can only wonder how much abuse the plastic piece can take... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tron Unit Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 By removing the white "octopus" contact piece, there's far less directional "play" in the range of movement of the joystick. You can somewhat compensate for it by either loosening the center screw on the bottom of the contact plate or just remove it completely for best range of motion and "play." The main problem I see though is the spring on the control stick keeps the directional pad constantly pressing down firmly on all of the contact points on the board at all times which could be a problem as the octopus piece functioned to not only provide some resistance against the force of the spring but also to make contact with each of the 8 directional points by "rocking" over them in correlation with the movement of the control stick. Unfortunately, I have no way to test this now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyankyfan1 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 so in short, do you think its worth buying SACs on ebay?? It seems they are all broken, and hard to fix... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcks73 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Bought 2 SAC's yesterday, both are useless... damn!!! But I'll try to make a good one out of the two by switching pieces... who know's, it might get me at least one in playing condition! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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