controller port trouble...

[shadow460]

On all four ports, the lower left fire button does not work. I've tried both of my controllers and several games and it doesn't register when I hit that lower left fire button.

 

What should I look for to fix this?

[holygrailvideogames.com]

On all four ports, the lower left fire button does not work. I've tried both of my controllers and several games and it doesn't register when I hit that lower left fire button.

 

What should I look for to fix this?

 

Here is a link to Best Electronics and their guide to 5200 controller repair. At minimum I would get a new flex circuit and fire buttons. You probably should get a new Auxiliary Function Keyboard as these fail all of the time.

[jsoper]

Does the lower right fire button work? If it does, the problems not the system. Both controller must have the same problem.

[shadow460]

Lower right works on both controllers. They've both been rebuilt, too. Found it. Bad flex circuits--I can see the cracks. Time for some surgery...

Edited November 18, 2006 by shadow460

[JB]

Lower right works on both controllers. They've both been rebuilt, too.

Then someone botched the rebuild.

The lower fire buttons are electrically identical. As far as the console is concerned, there's only a single top and bottom fire button. It can't see left and right.

Either your button isn't making proper contact for some reason, or the flex circuit was damaged.

 

 

For a pair to be botched identically, though... 'S very odd.

[shadow460]

They work now!

I don't think the flex circuits were replaced, what the person did was the aluminum foil trick JB is so fond of. That, and if there were any rubber boots on the sticks, they were evidently tore up pretty bad, so they were removed at some point.

 

I used some very small gauge wire to jump from circuit to circuit under the left fire buttons. You can cut the common loop that goes under the bezel completely out of the flex circuit that way, and have wires under the rubber where they never so much as twitch.

 

Now when I was inside the sticks yesterday, I hooked up a dozen small rubber bands around the metal joystick shaft. That stick is very tight and does not move easily. The bands pull on the stick a little bit so that you can kinda feel the center position by how much pressure is on the stick. It still doesn't self center, but it helps to find where the center is and it helps keep the stick from inadvertently moving up and down.

 

Anyway, the person I got this unit from did quite a bit of work to it, and I do appreciate what was done. This 5200 should have been in the dumpster long ago, but between a couple of us on here, it's been saved.

That, folks, is part of what classic gaming is all about.

 

Spoke too soon...one of the controllers just went dead. The flex circuit is so crushed in it that I can't solder it back together anymore. At least I tried.

I know I'm gonna need a couple of rubber boots. I'm going to rebuild the sticks from the ground up. I didn't find a specific rebuild kit on Best, so what do I need from them?

Edited November 18, 2006 by shadow460