How to keep my PS1 Analog Joystick from getting worse

[retromangia]

Hey Atari gang,

 

I recently purchased a well used (and abused) PS1 Analog Joystick. You know, the big jombroni flight stick with dual joysticks. Unfortunately the cord has a nice cut in it, right by the base of the joystick. Surprisingly the thing works perfectly.

 

I was wondering if anyone had a good idea on how to keep this beast from getting worse.

 

I've included a few pictures to give you a better idea.... Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

- Retromangia

Edited February 15, 2015 by retromangia

[+Stephen Moss]

From the middle image it looks like the strain relief is a moulded part of the cable, therefore your options are...

1 ) Try using a strong quick drying (as you will have to hold it in place) adhesive to glue it back in although there is no guaranteed that would last long or is possible if the cable inners are now getting in the way.

2 ) Remove the cable, cut the cable where it enters the strain relief, add a new strain relief and re-terminate the cable inside the controller.

3 ) If there is room to put a nut and bolt through the case affix a P-Clip to the same side of the case as the cable and use it to clamp the cable. Then providing the P-Clip is the correct size to strongly grip the cable all the strain will be moved to the section of wire in the P-Clip thus prevent further movement and thereby damage at the current weakpoint as the rest of cable moves.

[retromangia]

Stephen you are the man! thanks so much for the reply. As I'm not the handiest of them, I will go with option 1.

 

Is it possible for the glue to ruin the wires inside? and do you have any recommendations for the kind of glue.

 

Thanks again my friend!

[+Stephen Moss]

Personally I think option 2 would give the best results as the result of option one may not last for long however I appresicate that not everyone will have necessary skills/equipment/knowledge to do that so you might want to considerer belt and braces approach and combine options 1 and 3.

 

The glue should not damage the wires. You can see from the second image that the strain relief moulding only appears to be attached around the wire circumference and at the 4 ribs which run parallel to the cable so there not a lot of contact area, If it would not run everywhere I would try to put a little extra glue in to try and get extra contact elsewhere.

 

Personally I would start with "Super Glue" as you don't want to be holding the cable in place for hours while it sets and the nozzle is quite small so you can get the glue in there. However it will always be a weak point and prone to breaking again so you may want to add additional external reinforcement using either hot glue or a less flexible adhesive like an epoxy resin (i.e. Araldite) although I am not sure how well either would adhere to the other material.

If you want to try an keep it neat you could use something like plasticine/play doh or Blue Tack to create a little well around the cable into which to pour/contain the hot glue/epoxy until it sets but I would suggest to has to be deep enough for the adhesive to come up to at least the third strain relief rib from the controller. You can always file/sand down any rough bits afterwards.

 

Not sure it that will help but that is all I can think of to try

[retromangia]

Stephen I'm gonna send you a PM.. thanks for all the in-depth detail!