Is the stick supposed to move more freely left/right than up/down?

[CZroe]

I've been doing a lot of troubleshooting between my case of 4 New Old Stock controllers and a single junk controller. I've noticed on both that fully tightening the screws seems to cause left and right to move more freely than up and down. This can be advantageous for games that primarily use left and right (Super Breakout, Pole Position) and it lets you operate it a bit more like a paddle controller without inadvertent up/down inputs. Is that intentional?

 

A quarter turn back on all screws frees it up (or a half-turn in the top-most screw). The cables are all routed correctly and nothing appears to be touching that shouldn't be. The NOS controller has never had the mylar or cables removed though I did swap the pots. Unless the replacement pots sit slightly too high I don't see what it could possibly be other than an intentional design, especially because the NOS pots in the junk controller behave the same way (they wouldn't BOTH sit higher in each other's housings).

[zylon]

Nope, that's just a quirk of design and mass production. Just about every controller I've worked on did the same thing. I just tighten them and back off just about 1/4 turn. For left-right games, I just use my "paddle".

Edited May 14, 2017 by zylon

[CZroe]

Nope, that's just a quirk of design and mass production. Just about every controller I've worked on did the same thing. I just tighten them and back off just about 1/4 turn. For left-right games, I just use my "paddle".

Was worried it was something I did. Thanks for restoring my confidence! On that other note, I just ordered two more junk controllers to transplant the pots and I'll probably get some 500k ohm pots to make a legit 5200 paddle out of one of those as well. Edited May 14, 2017 by CZroe

[zylon]

Was worried it was something I did. Thanks for restoring my confidence! On that other note, I just ordered two more junk controllers to transplant the pots and I'll probably get some 500k ohm pots to make a legit 5200 paddle out of one of those as well.

 

I use 1meg for mine just like real paddles, Commodore used 750 or 700.

[CZroe]

 

I use 1meg for mine just like real paddles, Commodore used 750 or 700.

Ah, yes. That is what goes in the CX-30s, but the 5200 stops registering after 500k ohm anyway which means half the range would do nothing. Then again, that may be preferred for faster movement. Requiring more movement for the same difference in resistance may allow for finer control, so I still want to try 500k first if possible.

[zylon]

That'll be tight, if the housing and mech allow enough movement. I think you only get a half turn on the pot in normal play. I've played Kaboom using an opened controller once to see.

[CZroe]

That'll be tight, if the housing and mech allow enough movement. I think you only get a half turn on the pot in normal play. I've played Kaboom using an opened controller once to see.

Yes, but that half-turn stops at 500k unless you have bad pots. I thought that at first too because my NOS CTS pots stopped at around 380k ohm. I took them apart to adjust the calibration by forcing the pot arm to a new position on the shaft and found that they wouldn't go over ~380k ohm even when it was turned more than twice as far! It was causing horrible gameplay issue (can't reach right or bottom sides in Missile Command; Pac-Man can only move up or left; etc)

 

Three of the four pots I've measured including an in-spec Japanese pot actually stop increasing resistance at half a turn (500k ohm). The fourth hit very near 500k ohm at the same position as the others but kept on going as you kept turning. It's companion pot (identical-looking Japanese pot) would hit 504k ohm but would not increase even as you kept turning toward the physical stop/limit. instead of staying at ~490k ohm or whatever it was, this one pot continued increasing up to 700-something (spec'd for 800k ohm?). My guess is that any pot that is close enough in that position off the production line gets left alone and any pot that isn't goes though some kind of process where resistance gets adjusted and limited to ~500k.

[zylon]

Another thing you can do is adjust the console itself by using the little yellow pot near power switch.

[CZroe]

Another thing you can do is adjust the console itself by using the little yellow pot near power switch.

Yeah. I was tempted to try that but I didn't want to sacrifice left/top-most range for right/down-most range or throw it out of adjustment for good controllers. I was ready to order a full Best Electronics refurb controller to use as a reference when the Japanese pots in the junk controller answered all my questions.

[CZroe]

....

Updated my image gallery with some new info:

https://imgur.com/a/gDb9j

 

It looks like those Japanese pots from before were Panasonic/Matsushita after all (looked up the component's triangular logo). I got two more of those and two Alps JAPAN pots today. I haven't been able to measure the these yet (no time on my lunch break), but the CTS pots measure laughably low across the full pot (not even across the wiper) so it just isn't going to hit 500k:

 

I serviced with FaderLube and everything.

 

What's interesting is that the Alps pots have a very limited range of motion that barely seems to be enough to cover the actual movement inside the controller but they are also spec'd at 500k:

 

Yeah, so far only one pot measures over 504k when you keep turning (and even it is correct at the stick's maximum), these don't even keep turning, and Missile Command only worked right with 0-500k at the port so it's definitely supposed to be 500k max. It really isn't critical for a paddle as, again, it will just reach maximum when the knob turns half way, but I just wanted to be sure and leave a reference anywhere it has been discussed.

Edited May 17, 2017 by CZroe