5200 Controller help please!

[jetset]

Ok, a coworker of mine said he has 4 sticks he needs fixing. He said hes not sure if they even work since on all of them none of the start/pause/reset or fire buttons worked. Well that was easily fixed, even I could figure than one out!

 

HOWEVER....

 

The controller movement isnt right. That is...the onscreen character will not go in all four directions all the way.

Example...missile command. The crosshairs will go to the very top of the screen, but not all the way down. The crosshairs will go all the way to the left, but not all the way to the right side of the screen. Now, games like Centipede, galaxian, etc seem fine since they ONLY need to recognize right (or left) and the character "rolls" that way.

 

What I did discover (and yes I tried adjusting the pots by "forcing" them so as to better center them) is that if I touch the contacts just beneath the horizontal pot and justto the left of the vertical...the onscreen character "jumps" one way or another, telling me that something with those need adjusting or SOMEthing...

 

Heres a snap, I circled the connections I mentioned that seem "jumpy" Sometimes, when keep a finger on one of them it moves perfectly on that axis (as in left<>right or up<>down) but when I take my finger away it goes right back...

 

Any help is greatly appreceated!!!

[82atari5200]

Just buy new ones from Best Electronics. You can't go wrong they even give you trade in credit for the broken ones.

[JB]

Just a thought, but maybe the connectors have gotten loose or corroded with age?

 

Could pull 'em off and clean 'em(though I only see a good way to clean the "blade"), or just solder 'em down(that'd fix it GOOD if it's a flaky connection).

[jetset]

Thanks, I actually figured what the hell...I totally removed the pots, and cleaned the hell out of 'em (Jesus it took like an hour!) It seems to be working better now. I dont know if they were dirty or the connection was just loose but something did the trick!