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Super Action Controllers cleaning and repair guide


Tron Unit

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Just got a pair of these from a board member and was wondering if there is some kind of tear-down and cleaning tutorial for these somewhere. Didn't see one when I did a forum search.

 

Always wanted these but never got them because my parents said I didn't need them. Had a hard time convincing them that certain games only worked with them.

 

 

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Got the controllers apart easily enough but the plastic white controller contact piece has several broken tabs so the directional control stick obviously would not have functioned. Is there a place that sells replacement parts for this or does anybody know of a hack to make it work again? I fixed a broken Tron M Network directional contact pad by pilfering parts from a Champion joystick and it worked. Maybe something similar could be substituted.

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Good luck getting those back together right once you've got them apart. I'd discourage taking apart Coleco controllers. Just open them up just enough to spray some contact cleaner in all the switches/contacts. It would be nice if there was some sort of maintenence kit made for Coleco controllers like Best Electronics made those gold replacement membranes for 5200 controllers.

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Got the controllers apart easily enough but the plastic white controller contact piece has several broken tabs so the directional control stick obviously would not have functioned. Is there a place that sells replacement parts for this or does anybody know of a hack to make it work again? I fixed a broken Tron M Network directional contact pad by pilfering parts from a Champion joystick and it worked. Maybe something similar could be substituted.

Maybe yurkie has an idea. I can't right now but will try to take one of mine apart when possible and see if I can think of something .

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Contact cleaner would not have helped. Glad I discovered it now though. I only had to pay shipping for these so it's worth making a restoration attempt.

 

Since the brittle plastic contact piece is commonly broken in SAC's I'm surprised somebody hasn't casted the part for replacement or come up with a workaround. I'm not going to give up on these though. I've waited 30 years to own a pair of SAC's. There's gotta be a way to fix it.

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Found this on another forum. This guy simply discarded the broken contact piece though I'm not sure if that will make it more difficult to control directions or not.

 

Fixed my CV Super Action controllers

I got some "as is" super actions on an auction recently. Well when I plugged them in they didn't want to go in certain directions. Turns out there was a few arms broken on an octopus like white piece of plastick that pushes the contacts down. Well, I took that piece right out, put it back together and voila. Super Action with a very tight response. That's more than I can say for the trigger buttons though. Thought I'd post this in case someone else had a busted pair.

Edited by Tron Unit
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Give it a shot, you got nothing to lose. I just took one of mine apart a minute ago and pulled that piece out. It's going to be hard to replicate it but if you guys make it work without it that would be good.

 

 

post-38875-0-68279300-1424823442_thumb.jpgpost-38875-0-13271600-1424823451_thumb.jpg

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Well the white "octopus" piece as it were is sandwiched between the control stick and the PCB contacts and have little bulbs on the bottom so when you move the control stick in one of 8 directions it "rocks" the bulb over the contact point on the board. I'd imagine not having that piece reduces sensitivity because the control stick pressure points are always making contact on the PCB. Not an ideal solution and could damage the raised contact points of the board.

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Give it a shot, you got nothing to lose. I just took one of mine apart a minute ago and pulled that piece out. It's going to be hard to replicate it but if you guys make it work without it that would be good.

 

 

attachicon.gif20150224_190819.jpgattachicon.gif20150224_190841.jpg

 

Man if there is a way to cast that piece up with resin and make replacement pieces available you'd have your own little enterprise, man!

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Man if there is a way to cast that piece up with resin and make replacement pieces available you'd have your own little enterprise, man!

Not sure if a 3D printer could recreate this piece. Wish I could afford one, I'd make some really cool pieces.
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That's a pretty good idea, actually. Think of all the broken SAC's that can be salvaged with a simple 3-D printer!!!

Possibly, but the quality of the plastic may leave something to be desired. Most of the 3D printer companies advertize their services for making prototype pieces, and there's a reason for that. I can only wonder how much abuse the plastic piece can take...

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By removing the white "octopus" contact piece, there's far less directional "play" in the range of movement of the joystick. You can somewhat compensate for it by either loosening the center screw on the bottom of the contact plate or just remove it completely for best range of motion and "play." The main problem I see though is the spring on the control stick keeps the directional pad constantly pressing down firmly on all of the contact points on the board at all times which could be a problem as the octopus piece functioned to not only provide some resistance against the force of the spring but also to make contact with each of the 8 directional points by "rocking" over them in correlation with the movement of the control stick. Unfortunately, I have no way to test this now.

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