fire buttons do not reliably work-suggestions?

[cybercylon]

I have been unloading most of my pre-crash systems and games, and the 5200 is next on the list.

 

The fire buttons do not reliably work on the controller that I have that is in the best condition (the other two have issues with the pots). A seerval years ago, I replaced the flex circuit with one of the gold plated ones from Best. By adding foil dots, I had a working controller. Then the system proceeded to gather dust....

 

Fast forward.... the fire buttons no longer reliably work. I tried replacing the foil dots, and that did not work. Also, one of the pots had failed, so I had to transfer the flex circuit to another controller.

 

At this point, start, pause, reset and the key pad work reliability and the stick works fine... well at least as good as a 5200 controller will work. Still a no go with the fire buttons. By "no longer reliably, I mean that they seem to work on Berserk, but fail in most other games. This problem was reproducible on another console, so I don't think it is a console issue.

 

Any suggestions on what I might be missing? My thought is one of the traces on the flex circuit is broken. I do not want to invest in all gold dot parts from Best. I'd do that if I was planing to keep the system, but it doesn't make sense when unloading the games and the system.

 

Thanks in advance.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

If you really think the flex circuit is the fault, there are ways to tell this easy enough using a multimeter on the continuity/diode setting, then I would suggest not buying the gold flex circuits but standard ones instead. I actually do use the foil dot method and it has lasted me well over 3/4 years on each controller I do it with. What eventually happens is the adhesive on the dots comes loose and either slips completely or...can actually be making constant contact with the circuit and trick the 5200 into thinking the button is constantly being pressed. So you might only get one shot when starting up the game and then nothing happens.

 

Do any of the games seem to start on their own or the player character fires off one shot etc..and then nothing?

 

The foil dots will require that you still have to clean the flex traces because they still corrode just being exposed to the air. I've started to use my off brand of de-ox-it to clean them up a second time after going over them initially with IPA and or a pink eraser.

 

Here is a video that I posted sometime back that documents the entire process I go through on my own 5200 controllers and of those sent to me. I even go through the meter test to check the flex circuit.