Looking for 5200 Joysticks.

[Atariboy2600]

Where can I fine more 5200 joysticks?

[ignernt]

Ebay has a crapload daily. You may want to expand on that to whether or not you want them to be in working condition. Most of the joysticks on Ebay are in "As-is" condition, stating that they are untested. I bought a lot of five like this, and only one of the five worked well enough to use (the left lower fire button worked, but that's the only one I use for most games anyway.) The average rebuilt joystick is in the $30-35 range on Ebay, and the rebuild kits are $20 each.

[Lord Thag]

I've found quite a few extras. If my 5200 arcade stick ends up panning out, I'll be happy to sell a couple of them for a fair price. Give me a week or two and I'll let you know.

[Ferris]

www.atarisales.com

 

ask for lance. they have rebuilt 5200 joysticks with the gold contacts and all additional modifications and updates.

[Atariboy2600]

www.atarisales.com

 

ask for lance. they have rebuilt 5200 joysticks with the gold contacts and all additional modifications and updates.

 

Thanks man^_^

[Atariboy2600]

Oops wrong button^_^;

[Draikar]

Its been just about a year since I used my 5200 joystick, I remember I had one that did not work and got another off ebay that said it worked but did not. I took them apart to make one and it worked ok but seemed slow. About a year has passed and finally got new games to test but the joystick is dead just from sitting for a year without any gameplay...

 

I will only get a rebuilt 5200 joysticks with the gold contacts since I hear they last longer. Last I looked they go for $30.00 on ebay but that was about a year ago.

[Jerseydevil1953]

Buy your 5200 controllers from best electronics they last forever.

 

 

www.bestelectronics.com

[Jerseydevil1953]

sorry wrong link...

 

 

 

www.best-electronics-ca.com

[Bruce Tomlin]

You really want rebuilds with gold contacts.

 

The only 5200 joysticks that I have found that worked when I found them were a pair of rev 8 joysticks. What was so special about them? They had graphite on the flex circuit connectors, like modern stuff does. Graphite and gold are the only two ways to manufacture a flex circuit that I know of which aren't eventually going to have an oxidation problem.

 

The cheap way to fix them is with double-sided tape, some aluminum foil, and a hole punch. Put the double-sided tape over the foil, cut the strip out of the foil, cut a bunch of circles with the hole punch, then peel-n-stick to the circles on the rubber keypads.

 

However, the flex circuits aren't the only problem. Cramming 15 wires into a controller increases the chance that one of them will go bad. The only thing keeping the cables from being a major reliability problem is that the rest of the controller is so unreliable!

 

One big word of warning that is so significant it doesn't hurt to say it every time: if you open up a 5200 joystick, you must remove the start row bezel first before removing the screws! Failure to do this will mess up the flex circuit in a very vulnerable place, especially on rev 7 or earlier flex circuits.

 

Note also that there are two types of start row bezels. One can easily be removed with fingernails while you are in a thrift store to check on the condition of the flex circuit. The other is a pain in the butt to remove. When reubilding a bunch of controllers, you should favor the easier to remove bezels.

[JB]

You really want rebuilds with gold contacts.

 

The only 5200 joysticks that I have found that worked when I found them were a pair of rev 8 joysticks.  What was so special about them?  They had graphite on the flex circuit connectors, like modern stuff does.  Graphite and gold are the only two ways to manufacture a flex circuit that I know of which aren't eventually going to have an oxidation problem.

 

The cheap way to fix them is with double-sided tape, some aluminum foil, and a hole punch.  Put the double-sided tape over the foil, cut the strip out of the foil, cut a bunch of circles with the hole punch, then peel-n-stick to the circles on the rubber keypads.

 

However, the flex circuits aren't the only problem.  Cramming 15 wires into a controller increases the chance that one of them will go bad.  The only thing keeping the cables from being a major reliability problem is that the rest of the controller is so unreliable!

I've only had one stick with bad wires.

They seem fairly reliable to me.

 

One big word of warning that is so significant it doesn't hurt to say it every time: if you open up a 5200 joystick, you must remove the start row bezel first before removing the screws!  Failure to do this will mess up the flex circuit in a very vulnerable place, especially on rev 7 or earlier flex circuits.

 

Note also that there are two types of start row bezels.  One can easily be removed with fingernails while you are in a thrift store to check on the condition of the flex circuit.  The other is a pain in the butt to remove.  When reubilding a bunch of controllers, you should favor the easier to remove bezels.

The easy-to-remove ones also look better, IMNSHO.