working controller: to repair or to alternative ?

[lucifershalo]

Hello all,

so what is the best option that you have found for original non working controller?

to repair them or to go with another type of controller and which one?

 

I am taalking about the best working one but also at a cost that is not too high

[+x=usr(1536)]

18 hours ago, lucifershalo said:

so what is the best option that you have found for original non working controller?

to repair them or to go with another type of controller and which one?

 

I am taalking about the best working one but also at a cost that is not too high

I've found that repairing them is generally the best route to take because they can be rebuilt in stages.  This allows spreading the costs out as funds permit.

 

In general, my approach has been to replace the mylar first, fire and start / pause / reset buttons next, and the keypad last.  The mylar is generally the most failure-prone part and replacing it can result in a number of problems fixing themselves.  The fire buttons generally take more wear and tear than the keypads, which is why they (and the function key strip) are replaced next.  Keypads are generally 'fixed' by replacing the mylar (in my experience, at least), so they tend to be replaced last.

 

Clean the carbon dots on the back of the old buttons and keys before reinstalling them; window cleaner works well.  It's amazing what that can take care of.  Same with a bit of Deoxit or contact cleaner in the pots.

 

As long as the cables and / or pots are in good shape, that should pretty much take care of it.

[duckodb]

I’ve got 11 original controllers and 9 of them work of which 7 didn’t when I got them. I just took them apart and wiped everything with alcohol on a q-tip and ended up cutting out small squares of tin foil and putting a small dot of gorilla super glue on the trigger button dimples and glued the tin foil squares to them. Didn’t cost me anything since I had everything I used in the house already and they all work perfectly. So I’ve got 7 put away in a box with my 4 port and 2 out with my 2 port that actually gets used. 5200 controllers are a pain in the butt though. 

[Ecernosoft]

; That bear representing the problem many 5200 owners face, the broken controller. 

Thankfully there are smart(er than me) people out there who can remove this challenge like @x=usr(1536)! Keep up the good work.

On 12/31/2022 at 8:54 AM, duckodb said:

I’ve got 11 original controllers and 9 of them work of which 7 didn’t when I got them. I just took them apart and wiped everything with alcohol on a q-tip and ended up cutting out small squares of tin foil and putting a small dot of gorilla super glue on the trigger button dimples and glued the tin foil squares to them. Didn’t cost me anything since I had everything I used in the house already and they all work perfectly. So I’ve got 7 put away in a box with my 4 port and 2 out with my 2 port that actually gets used. 5200 controllers are a pain in the butt though. 

You do have alternatives out there though, and can't forget the converter box! (15-9 pin)

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 12/31/2022 at 10:54 AM, duckodb said:

I just took them apart and wiped everything with alcohol on a q-tip and ended up cutting out small squares of tin foil and putting a small dot of gorilla super glue on the trigger button dimples and glued the tin foil squares to them. Didn’t cost me anything since I had everything I used in the house already and they all work perfectly.

I will freely admit to having done this in the past, and may even still have a controller kicking around that still has exactly this workaround applied.  I will also freely admit that it can work in a great many cases.  However, I'm not a big fan of doing it as a long-term fix for a number of reasons:

1. Electrolytic reactions between the foil and pads on the mylar.  Depending on the chemical compositions of either one, oxidation, contamination, etc. it is possible that they can react  over time and cause further (possibly irreparable) damage to the pads.
2. Glue on the carbon dots may adversely affect them.  If the mylar is rever replaced, the carbon dots may lose some or all of their conductivity, meaning that keypads which may have had useful life remaining in them will also need to be replaced.
3. If the tin foil squares come adrift, the controller's being taken apart again to chase them down.  Each time that happens increases the risk of damage to it, particularly as plastics age.

I'm not saying that this is a bad idea, or that it won't work, or that nobody should do it: my belief is that it's up to everyone's individual discretion what they do with their systems.  Like just about everything, though, there are tradeoffs and it's good to be aware of them before making a potentially-permanent change.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

3 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

I will freely admit to having done this in the past, and may even still have a controller kicking around that still has exactly this workaround applied.  I will also freely admit that it can work in a great many cases.  However, I'm not a big fan of doing it as a long-term fix for a number of reasons:

1. Electrolytic reactions between the foil and pads on the mylar.  Depending on the chemical compositions of either one, oxidation, contamination, etc. it is possible that they can react  over time and cause further (possibly irreparable) damage to the pads.
2. Glue on the carbon dots may adversely affect them.  If the mylar is rever replaced, the carbon dots may lose some or all of their conductivity, meaning that keypads which may have had useful life remaining in them will also need to be replaced.
3. If the tin foil squares come adrift, the controller's being taken apart again to chase them down.  Each time that happens increases the risk of damage to it, particularly as plastics age.

I'm not saying that this is a bad idea, or that it won't work, or that nobody should do it: my belief is that it's up to everyone's individual discretion what they do with their systems.  Like just about everything, though, there are tradeoffs and it's good to be aware of them before making a potentially-permanent change.

I've been doing the foil tape method on my controllers for over 20 years. Aside from having to redo it every few years due to the adhesive on my foil tape wearing out, I only had to replace the mylars the first time I did it. I've not noticed any discoloration due to different metals. But then my mylars have tin alum traces on them and are basically the same material that the HVAC tape I use is. Now, I've seen people use copper tape instead and I do think that is a bad idea since that is mixing two different metals together.

 

I've thought about springing for the gold plated replacement parts from Best... but then I remember that I've actually had to still take apart at least two of them that belonged to others to clean them as they still somehow had corrosion on contacts of the gold plated mylar?! So I feel, why spend that extra money when I have quite a few spare NOS mylars on hand and a whole roll of HVAC tape if even the gold plated kits from Best can still require a cleaning ever few years?

 

Oh, I also remembered that one of the 2 controllers from BEST that was sent to me to look at, wasn't calibrated to factory spec. So I had to slightly adjust the pot arms inside the controller as well. That is why it was sent to me was because on some games, the owner was having issues with it not registering properly on their console.

 

 

 

 

[+x=usr(1536)]

9 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

I've been doing the foil tape method on my controllers for over 20 years. Aside from having to redo it every few years due to the adhesive on my foil tape wearing out, I only had to replace the mylars the first time I did it. I've not noticed any discoloration due to different metals.

Which is a fair point.  Not saying that it wouldn't work, but rather that folks shouldn't just shave down a penny and cram it in there

9 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

But then my mylars have tin alum traces on them and are basically the same material that the HVAC tape I use is. Now, I've seen people use copper tape instead and I do think that is a bad idea since that is mixing two different metals together.

Yep, and this is where I see the potential for problems.

9 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

I've thought about springing for the gold plated replacement parts from Best... but then I remember that I've actually had to still take apart at least two of them that belonged to others to clean them as they still somehow had corrosion on contacts of the gold plated mylar?! So I feel, why spend that extra money when I have quite a few spare NOS mylars on hand and a whole roll of HVAC tape if even the gold plated kits from Best can still require a cleaning ever few years?

FWIW, I have their gold mylars in four of my controllers with one also containing their keypads.  All perform about equally well.  Interesting about needing to clean them; I'm wondering if the traces had impurities in the gold that was used to lay them down.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

1 hour ago, x=usr(1536) said:

FWIW, I have their gold mylars in four of my controllers with one also containing their keypads.  All perform about equally well.  Interesting about needing to clean them; I'm wondering if the traces had impurities in the gold that was used to lay them down.

The ones I had to clean and adjust had complete gold plated mylars and buttons. There was some discoloration on the pads still. Not sure if it was just gunk that still found its way into the controllers or what. IPA took care of it of course, but my point here is that even with the gold plating, I've had these controllers come to me with intermittent button response that still required cracking them open to clean them. Always fun to break that warranty seal and scoop out the hot glue that Brad uses...sigh.

 

 

[+x=usr(1536)]

6 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

hot glue

Every time I see those two words together in that sequence, I shudder a little.

 

It utterly perplexes me as to why that would be considered necessary in a 5200 controller, and it's something I've never seen in one before.  What was it used for?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

6 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Every time I see those two words together in that sequence, I shudder a little.

 

It utterly perplexes me as to why that would be considered necessary in a 5200 controller, and it's something I've never seen in one before.  What was it used for?

Bradley puts hot glue and a warranty sticker over one of the screws in his controllers as a tamper detection.

 

He does offer lifetime on those controllers, or at least the ones he sells refurbed right? And that is awesome, but then you are down waiting while you send it out and wait for it to come back etc. When it all it might need is 10min worth of cleaning internally.

 

But yeah...I've seen the hot glue in the screws holes on the Lynx systems he was selling and also on those 5200 controllers. He probably does it on the 7800s he was selling that had composite upgrades in them already. 

 

[duckodb]

On 1/3/2023 at 7:34 PM, x=usr(1536) said:

I will freely admit to having done this in the past, and may even still have a controller kicking around that still has exactly this workaround applied.  I will also freely admit that it can work in a great many cases.  However, I'm not a big fan of doing it as a long-term fix for a number of reasons:

1. Electrolytic reactions between the foil and pads on the mylar.  Depending on the chemical compositions of either one, oxidation, contamination, etc. it is possible that they can react  over time and cause further (possibly irreparable) damage to the pads.
2. Glue on the carbon dots may adversely affect them.  If the mylar is rever replaced, the carbon dots may lose some or all of their conductivity, meaning that keypads which may have had useful life remaining in them will also need to be replaced.
3. If the tin foil squares come adrift, the controller's being taken apart again to chase them down.  Each time that happens increases the risk of damage to it, particularly as plastics age.

I'm not saying that this is a bad idea, or that it won't work, or that nobody should do it: my belief is that it's up to everyone's individual discretion what they do with their systems.  Like just about everything, though, there are tradeoffs and it's good to be aware of them before making a potentially-permanent change.

No more than these 5200s will ever get played I figured having 9 controllers working would end up outlasting me, 50s getting close. If they don’t last I’ll buy the new parts from Best or just buy more controllers off eBay like i did the ones I have and do the same thing again. Having barely played a 5200 back when they were new and just buying one in the past couple months and owning a 2600 and 7800 since back then I have to admit even though the 5200 controllers are basically junk, we all know they are or we wouldn’t be having this discussion, they do actually have the best feel to them in my hand of the 3 systems, the 7800 feeling the worst in my opinion. That being said though, ive still got the original controllers that came with my 2600 in 1980 and they’ve never been worked on in any way and neither have the 7800 ones. If only they could’ve made a 5200 controller with the 2600s longevity Atari would’ve really had something.