Vic 20 paddles with Wico cable?

[Swami]

I have heard you have to mod 2600 paddles to work with the wico cable of the 5200 because the 2600 pots are 1000 kohm and the 5200 controller pots are 500 kohm. However, the Vic 20 paddles are 500 kohm, so, I was curious if they would work with the wico cable without modding. I’m not curious enough to spend $50 to find out, since I have an adequate solution already with a pc paddle and bohoki adapter, but I thought it might be of interest to someone when I ran across a discussion of the difference in 2600 and Vic 20 paddles. 

[0078265317]

The pinout is probably different.

[Swami]

1 hour ago, 0078265317 said:

The pinout is probably different.

it’s the same. 

[Danjovic]

13 hours ago, Swami said:

the 2600 pots are 1000 kohm and the 5200 controller pots are 500 kohm

Just for curiosity, would the dead zone at the end, using un-modded 2600 paddles, affect so much the gameplay?

[Swami]

41 minutes ago, Danjovic said:

Just for curiosity, would the dead zone at the end, using un-modded 2600 paddles, affect so much the gameplay?

IIRC, the middle of a 2600 paddle would be far left on the 5200, and far left would be far right. The right half of the paddle movement would all be far left extreme. I don't know if the vic 20 paddle would be backwards as well.

[doubledown]

The 5200 paddle controller that I built, had a dual-deck 500k ohm potentiometer, that at a press of a button, was wired with a single deck...for 500k, or with both decks in series...for 1M, and the 1M was more appropriate for playing Kaboom! and Super Breakout.  The 500k value worked well for the first 2 or 3 levels of Kaboom!, (and for some tracks on Pole Position), but once the game gets moving, you want the quicker/faster response offered with the 1M value (or some similar value, higher than 500k).  If memory serves, the biggest issue with trying to use that same paddle (with a plug/wiring adapter) on a 2600, was that the 5200 potentioneters and 2600 potentiometers are wired opposite of each other.  So one controller built for the the 5200, when used on the 2600, will provide opposite control...where when you physically rotate the paddle knob right, your on-screen character moves left.  I believe that @Shawn built several 2600-5200 paddle conversions, he would be able to shed more light on this, with regards to wiring orientation, and what potentiometer values that he used (as maybe he was using the stock 2600 Paddle controller 1M pots).