admiralriker

I emailed Best Electronics and got no reply. I assume most people here utilize them for repair parts.

Cursor will move left and right on its own when manipulating the plug; no input made on the track ball. Rocking the plug causes the cursor to move on its own.

So. I do have one of Pete's test carts and a copy of Centipede. Here's the deal: the buttons work but the trackball doesn't. Moving the plug in the port gently, I can rock it left and right and it will make the cursor move left and right when I do that. Move the controller plug left, it will move left, rock it right, it will go right. No up or down movement.

How do I check that? I'm really fuzzy on using a multimeter (I have one). I've soldered a fair bit of stuff, but literally no clue on a multimeter. I would really appreciate any help you can lend! Same goes for the above poster about the optocouplers.

I picked up a Trak-Ball Controller, in box, great shape, for $60. Got it home and discovered...the Trak-Ball doesn't move at all. The buttons appear to function correctly, but I get nada from the trackball. I've opened it up, cleaned gently using compressed air, and checked the bearings (they all spin very freely). I could actually return the Trak-Ball Controller to the shop I got it from. My question is: how hard would it be to repair this? I get this feeling it could be ICs or the optics and judging from past posts on this board, the optics are hard to come by.

Edit: Rather than have an ego about my lack of ability and understanding on how to fix my issues, I edited this post to remove it's original contents that were filled with excuses. I just, right now, bought a Pete's Test Cart from Atari Age so I can do this the right way instead of with my own inflated ego driving the car. Thank you all for your help. I'm gonna do this the right way. I appreciate everyone who has contributed to this topic.

Do I use the same arms that are connected? I tried and feel like I got nothing. What setting on a multimeter should I use?

Hey everyone, I was previously working on three controllers with issues. The flex boards and buttons work fine, but the pots must be shot as any time a game is played, characters always run left. I finally opened my 4th controller (which I surprisingly never had to open before because it works flawlessly) and found the board says "REV 9" (compared to the "REV 7" on my others) and it has RADICALLY different potentiometers! For my other pots, they say "Made In Japan". They've been soaked in contact cleaner and shafts worked, but no luck. POKEY is fine where it's at since the one controller works fine. Is there any way to replace these pots? I have two consoles and only one controller working (out of four).

Just bought a refurb 2600 and about 55 games. Console came with two Spectravision Quickshot sticks. One works perfect. The other, the buttons don't work. Taken it apart, cleaned it, checked the connections. Zilch. Any ideas?

They did test both carts and cds, I have pictures of my console hooked up and running. Just trying to find out if anyone else has had issues like this or know the exact fix. Probably going to send it back to the repairman.

Hello everyone, I've been reading the topics here related to Genesis issues and I'm hoping someone here can help me. I recently had my X'Eye sent away to be recapped. As far as I know, before being shipped back to me (and beat up by USPS), the console worked fine. Once I received it back, it has an issue where it will only display a black screen without a cart or cd in the drive. If I put a cart in, it will boot to the "produced by" nag screen, and go black. If I then remove the cart and try to turn the console on, the system displays a random color (magenta, Blue, Yellow, or white). If I put a cart in, turn it on, turn it off, remove the cart, and turn it on again without a cart, the color is usually different. I got it to start a game once and it had no audio. I got it to boot to bios once, it had audio, but a game wouldn't boot. I'm flummoxed. Any thoughts?

Hello everyone, I have four controllers (two consoles). Out of the four controllers, three have an issue with potentiometers where they are constantly going to the right; I believe that these pots are totally dead. The buttons and flex circuits work just fine. I want to replace these three controllers pots. Is there anywhere to get replacements?

Hey everyone, Thank you all for your help. I really really appreciate it. You've been awesome and I'm glad I stumbled upon these forums!

This happens on two different generation systems too. Plug in working controller, works fine. Plug in broken one, player goes right. If I have a broken wire in a controller, that's basically it then, right? Slice open the cable and find the break?

Would this explain why one controller works 100% and the other three are borked? Button presses on the two borked controllers are spot on, but no matter how much I spin the controller pots, it's always going right. I'll try cleaning all contacts and try again...

Hey everyone! I'm new to the forums but I've been scouring for an answer to my issue. I recently got two systems, 10 games, four controllers, and two Wico Command Joysticks for $100. Out of the four controllers, after cleaning and swapping the flexboard out on one of them, two of them always make the player go to the right and the fourth controller doesn't work at all. I've completely stripped the controllers down to individual components, cleaned them, and still have the issue of the player going to the right all the time. One of these controllers worked perfect for about 30 seconds and then went nuts. I've tried swapping out the right-moving controllers mid-game with my working one to confirm its the controllers (which it is). I just can't find an answer anywhere. The player character always moves right, even if the controller is stripped down to nothing but bare plug (with no flex board or pots connected at all). The controllers do this on both consoles. Any idea?