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Broken paddle controller with weird modification


Mellotron

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Hi! Some times ago I found a magnavox odyssey 300, a coleco gemini that won't read controllers, some Atari 2600 games and a broken paddle controller. But this wasn't an ordinary broken paddle controller, it was a modified broken paddle controller! There's a weird wire that comes out of each paddle and later make contact. I opened the paddle and found that some guy soldered a wire on the first pin of the potentiometer without removing the yellow wire that's already there. My question is, what did the guy try to achieve by doing that? I tried disconnecting the wire to see if it would make the controller work but no. Are the pots fried or something?

 

Here are some pictures...

 

Weird wire

http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=608707DSC02097.jpg

Contact

http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=131463DSC02098.jpg

Inside

http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=162383DSC02099.jpg

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It may be helpful to know what it later makes contact with.

 

Not knowing that answer, my first guess was that they figured out the original wire was broken in or near the strain relief and they bypassed the broken section with this wire. (I wouldn't have expected the same wire to be broken on both controllers, though.)

 

If it were me trying to get these controllers working again, I would test continuity of the wires end-to-end with an ohmmeter to see if any of them are broken. If I suspected the pots of being "blown" (which I don't), an ohmmeter can give that answer, too.

Edited by BigO
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If

then the wire is connecting the +5 line on both pots together.

 

It may be that there are now multiple broken wires.

 

This would have zero net effect if the wiring was all intact. On that basis, I'd still say that it was an attempt to compensate for a broken wire.

A simple continuity test from the pots through to the 9 pin plug (with the wire removed) will tell you that. The schematic I referenced above can direct your efforts in that regard.

 

I'm assuming you don't have a multimeter. Around here, I can pick up a cheap Chinese digital multimeter for about $5 so you probably can get something similar. If you don't have a meter and don't want to buy one, you can use a battery and a light bulb to build your continuity tester (or battery, resistor and LED)

 

If you don't yet know how to interpret the schematic and how to trace the wires, post back here with your questions. I may not be around much while recovering from tomorrow's surgery, but somebody will help you.

Edited by BigO
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