Help Repairing A Colecovision Controller

[mharnisch]

Hi,

I am new to this forum. I recently bought an old Colecovision with the standard controllers. I find that the controllers do not respond well when trying to move the joystick in the four different directions. I took them apart and sprayed electrical contact cleaner on the contacts and dried them out with compressed air, but it didn't make a big difference. Has anyone figured out how to repair these controllers?

[+5-11under]

Hi mharnisch,

 

Welcome to the forums.

 

I don't have too much experience with these yet, but I would de-solder and remove the top half of the switches, leaving the "rivet" on the PCB, of course. They're pretty easy to remove. I'm guessing the removed portion looks nice and shiny, but the "rivet" on the PCB is dull. Use an eraser (pink?) to get it looking shiny again, then use contact cleaner to keep it nice. DeoxIT might work well here as an alternative to the eraser and contact cleaner. You might also consider adding dielectric grease to keep the contact free from moisture. I've also added extra thickness (with tape?) to the white ring, in the hopes of making the switches make contact earlier.

 

Hopefully someone else, with more experience, will reply with their own methods.

 

Thanks,

5-11under

[doubledown]

Figured I'd bump this, the oldest ColecoVision thread...because this is what we do now!  I have nothing new to add, no stupid comment to post, nor did I even read the topic.  Happy reading!

[NIAD]

20 hours ago, doubledown said:

Figured I'd bump this, the oldest ColecoVision thread...because this is what we do now!  I have nothing new to add, no stupid comment to post, nor did I even read the topic.  Happy reading!

But you didn't quote the original post or better yet, mult-quote all the posts in this thread (thankfully it's a short one) before making your point! ?

 

Wonder what ever happened to mharnisch? He hasn't been on AtariAge since 8/8/2011? Hope he's OK!