These damn controllers.

[Arkhan]

this INTV1 works. It really does.

 

The controllers are fine until I reassemble them, and then they cease working.

I can hold the sheets down with my thumb on the part that contacts the wire harness, and play games perfectly...... aside from me manually poking the contacts.

 

Does anyone have some sure-fire tips for how to assemble the things so they work AFTER you screw them back together?

 

 

If I could get these going, then maybe I could get started on figuring out why the other machine doesn't work at all.

[+save2600]

The contacts from the harness that simply press themselves up against the sheet when screwed down... have you tried bending them upwards slightly? The contacts on the sheet could probably stand to be cleaned as well. Take a Q-Tip and rubbing alcohol to 'em.

[Arkhan]

I did all of that, and even used a pencil eraser to make them silvery again. Everything works perfect until I reassemble it and then buttons stop working, the disc doesnt move all 16 directions.

 

I bent the little contacts up too.

 

I dont understand wtf the problem is really.

[IntellivisionDude]

What about the spring? I hear the spring can loose tension and needs to be stretched a little. That was advice i was given for Colecovision controllers once.

[Arkhan]

would that impact the fire buttons and keypad not working too?

[IntellivisionDude]

I don't think so, i was just referring to the disc.

[Arkhan]

Ah, yeah I can't figure out why the buttons suddenly refuse to work after the whole thing has been reassembled. It really sucks though. They should be working!

[oldjd]

I have had similar situation.Works /directions/fire etc,put the cover on and little or nothing

What I found is that sometimes when popping the cover back into position,its actually misaligned.,also have had a couple cases where the screws were stripped or the holes in the cover were gutted

If everything works until you put the cover on,check that stuff/or if you have a spare cover,try switching it

[Arkhan]

Here is the steps to fixing my controller. I got the #(*%@#*@#*@#*@# to work.

 

Step 1: There is this stupid thick piece of plastic. I think it went under the keypad to make it more something. And by something I mean, I have NFI what its for so I took it out.

Step 2: There was this white ring in the spring area for the disc. It seemed stupid, so I took it out too.

Step 3: Bent all the contacts on the harness so they were practically vertical.

Step 4: eraser'd all the contacts on the mylar til they were silvery

Step 5: Yank the spring for the disc until its like 3" long

Step 6: put the sheet sans Keypad down, and align the son of a bitch nicely with the little tabs/nubs that stick up and go into the holes on the sheet.

Step 7: Put the keypad on. Holding everything in place so tightly your hand goes numb.

Step 8: Shove the rubber fire button pieces into place, praying you dont accidentally slip, if you do. Go back to Step 6 and try again.

Step 9: Its all in place! Test the buttons while still holding it all together for dear life. I suggest Astrosmash as a test cart. You can test everything without alot of interruption because the game starts so slow

Step 10: Gently let go of everything, don't move. Put the spring centered over the hole, and put the disc on top. CAREFULLY PUT THE TOP COVER ON. Otherwise, go back to step 6.

 

Screw a top and bottom screw manually while clamping the unit together. I pick diagonals. Top left, bottom right. Screw them manually until they're sort of in place, and then screw them in while still pressing the bastard together.

 

Then repeat, fire up a game, and hope its still in good shape.

 

Otherwise, Step 6.

 

Step 6 sucks.

[JacobZu7zu7]

Here is the steps to fixing my controller. I got the #(*%@#*@#*@#*@# to work.

 

Step 2: There was this white ring in the spring area for the disc. It seemed stupid, so I took it out too.

 

 

This is the only thing, that screwed up my controller... but placing the white ring, just under the spring it caused my intelli-man to run upward for no reason.

 

My controller worked perfect, when I layed that white plastic circle ring...

sandwiched inbetween the top and bottom clear plastic layers... and then put the spring on the top of the top plastic covering, then close and screw it together.

[SlowCoder]

I love reading your frustrated posts. Not that I want you to be frustrated, but it makes for a good/funny read.

 

I'm glad you finally got your controller working again. Good job!

[+save2600]

Re: your step #2... the paper white ring is supposed to separate the mylar from the contacts on the disc. Put that back in! With that out and if I recall, you're basically creating a short across varying contacts on the disc and confusing it.

 

Not sure why you're having such a difficult time, 'cept maybe you're just getting frustrated and not aligning things properly. Either that or you just happen to be sitting on a bunch of really crappy controllers. lol I've never had such a terrible go at Intellivision stuff as you're experiencing. Just a bunch of bad carts lately is all

[SlowCoder]

Re: your step #2... the paper white ring is supposed to separate the mylar from the contacts on the disc. Put that back in! With that out and if I recall, you're basically creating a short across varying contacts on the disc and confusing it.

 

Yeah, I read that, too. It's been a while since I rebuilt my controllers, but I do remember that seemingly out of place piece of paper. However I put it back in because it obviously had been put there for a reason in the first place.

 

Both of my controllers went back together without too much hassle. But I remember having to fenagle the mylar into position and make sure it didn't move while I reassembled.

[Arkhan]

I lost the white disk. Oops.

 

I might have stuck them both inthe other controller I was working on so I wouldn't lose them. I'll look eventually....

 

It works great without it though. I beat Venture on level 4, no problem.

 

 

I might put a better spring in there though. I think if theres a harder spring, the controller disc won't be so bad. Right now its too touchy. not enough resistance. I'm used to Dpads and push too hard. Demon Attack ship goes WEEEEEEEEEE! really fast haha

[zylon]

I used to fold a little piece of paper or matchbook cover and put that on top of where the harness contacts the mylar. That worked on a couple.

[Chuck D. Head]

OK, glad to find this thread. I just got acquainted with Utopia on the Aquarius, since Topdog was so awesome to send it to me a while back, and have been playing the shit out of it for a week. So, I decided I wanted to check it out on the Inty, but alas, no game would go past the title screen. No buttons did anything, so I opened it up and swapped controllers, no dice. So I opened up an Intellivision controller for the first time....holy origami batman!! That's a whole different kind of thing there!

 

After a thorough look, it seemed that the traces on the mylar looked corroded where they contact the pins from the cable. I cleaned the traces and put it together and it seemed to work until I put it together, and after a few tries it is still pretty flaky. I will try the "Arkhan Solution" tomorrow......the way you wrote that out sounds exactly like what goes through my mind when I work on something like that. Funnny! Morgan

Edited March 31, 2011 by Chuck D. Head