Controller Potentiometers: Any Replacement?

[admiralriker]

Hey everyone,

 

I was previously working on three controllers with issues. The flex boards and buttons work fine, but the pots must be shot as any time a game is played, characters always run left.

 

I finally opened my 4th controller (which I surprisingly never had to open before because it works flawlessly) and found the board says "REV 9" (compared to the "REV 7" on my others) and it has RADICALLY different potentiometers!

 

For my other pots, they say "Made In Japan". They've been soaked in contact cleaner and shafts worked, but no luck. POKEY is fine where it's at since the one controller works fine.

 

Is there any way to replace these pots? I have two consoles and only one controller working (out of four).

[+-^CrossBow^-]

There are differences between the pots that were used. So honestly speaking I was under the impression that the Japan made panasonic pots were the best between the ones used? That said, the pokey trimmer would need to be adjusted so that those 3 with those jpn pots would then likely work properly again. But doing that, could very well then cause issues for the one you have that does work to suddenly have issues.

 

The other thing you can do, is to adjust the arms on the pots themselves to try and compensate for this. The arms are just press fit onto the shafts. So if you move them to one extreme where the pot stops, but keep trying to move it, the arm itself will start to give way a little and shift on the pot shaft. So again, doing this you can make more adjustments at controller level.

 

[8bitAndy]

You can measure the resistance with a multimeter to get an idea of how bad they are. They should range from close to 0 ohm to 500Kohm, with about 250Kohm when the arm is in its centered position.

[admiralriker]

4 hours ago, 8bitAndy said:

You can measure the resistance with a multimeter to get an idea of how bad they are. They should range from close to 0 ohm to 500Kohm, with about 250Kohm when the arm is in its centered position.

Do I use the same arms that are connected? I tried and feel like I got nothing.

 

What setting on a multimeter should I use?

[Jdgreen]

Suggestion, I am not a expert in electrical, my background is mostly automotive electrical.When I measure pots, I use a old analog multimeter, the type with a needle. I run pot through it's travel range and watch the needle for smooth sweep in the range specific to the pot. With a digital you can't see drop outs because the digital display changes so fast you can't see it. I would guess it could probably be done with a scope also, but old-timers like myself are more likely to have a old analog multimeter laying around. Hope I am not steering anyone the wrong direction.

[0078265317]

Ebay a used controller with bad buttons kind working and salvage the pots.

[8bitAndy]

On 3/16/2022 at 8:10 PM, admiralriker said:

Do I use the same arms that are connected? I tried and feel like I got nothing.

 

What setting on a multimeter should I use?

Yes, use the arms that are connected - the controller works by varying the resistance between the two wires attached to each pot.

You can use the resistance measurement on your multimeter by selecting the Ohm setting that looks like a horseshoe. Measure the resistance between the tabs connected to the red and black wires. 

The top pot should read about 250K ohms when it's arm is pointed left. The bottom pot should read 250K ohms when it's arm is pointing down.

 

[dankcomputing]

There's some CO18118 POTs on eBay currently.

[+DamonicFury]

It seems pretty unlikely to me that four different pots would all have the same problem.  Much more likely is that a pot inside your 5200 needs adjusting.  Check this thread for more details:

 

 

[admiralriker]

50 minutes ago, DamonicFury said:

It seems pretty unlikely to me that four different pots would all have the same problem.  Much more likely is that a pot inside your 5200 needs adjusting.  Check this thread for more details:

 

 

Edit:

 

Rather than have an ego about my lack of ability and understanding on how to fix my issues, I edited this post to remove it's original contents that were filled with excuses.

 

I just, right now, bought a Pete's Test Cart from Atari Age so I can do this the right way instead of with my own inflated ego driving the car.

 

Thank you all for your help. I'm gonna do this the right way. I appreciate everyone who has contributed to this topic.

Edited April 4, 2022 by admiralriker