paddles will not work

[tpetru3083@sbcglobal.net]

i have both paddles for racing and breakout that will not work on my 2600 i cleaned the pins with contact spray with no success. Would buying new plug in  ports be the next step? If so where would I be able to purchase them

[alex_79]

Replacing the ports is only needed if they're physically damaged (e.g. there are missing/broken/bent pins).

What games did you try?

[+DrVenkman]

Bear in mind, for original vintage titles, the Driving Controllers will *only* work for INDY 500. There are a few modern homebrews that use it, but only INDY 500 used it originally.

For paddles, there are a lot of common titles that use it: Breakout/Super Breakout, Kaboom, etc.

 

[emerson]

When you sprayed the controller, did you open it up and spray the inside of the potentiometer? If not then do that. Spray it and turn the knob full a bunch of times then spray it again and turn the knob a bunch of times then spray it and let it dry. When it's clean you should measure a smooth change in resistance as you turn the knob. While it's drying do a continutiy test on the wires between the potentiometer and the connector that plugs into the console.

[tpetru3083@sbcglobal.net]

I hooked the paddle and driving controllers to another system today and they worked fine.  I sprayed the ports yesterday with no success. Does anyone know if I can purchase new ports from someone Thanks

[+fdr4prez]

13 minutes ago, tpetru3083@sbcglobal.net said:

I sprayed the ports yesterday with no success. 

 

1 hour ago, emerson said:

When you sprayed the controller, did you open it up and spray the inside of the potentiometer? If not then do that. Spray it and turn the knob full a bunch of times then spray it again and turn the knob a bunch of times then spray it and let it dry. When it's clean you should measure a smooth change in resistance as you turn the knob. While it's drying do a continutiy test on the wires between the potentiometer and the connector that plugs into the console.

 

I think there is some confusion between "I sprayed the ports" and spraying the pots inside the controller - i think he is meaning the DB9 ports on the console, and not the pots into the paddle controller.

 

17 minutes ago, tpetru3083@sbcglobal.net said:

I hooked the paddle and driving controllers to another system today and they worked fine.  I sprayed the ports yesterday with no success. Does anyone know if I can purchase new ports from someone Thanks

If the controllers work fine on another console, then spraying the ports on this bad console isn't going to gain you much.

 

You are going to need to dig deeper for the issue.

[+DrVenkman]

6 minutes ago, fdr4prez said:

If the controllers work fine on another console, then spraying the ports on this bad console isn't going to gain you much.

Exactly. 

 

If joysticks work okay, then you can rule out an issue with the RIOT (6532) chip. Paddles are read by the TIA; there is a small filter capacitor on each paddle line but the odds of all of them going bad at once spontaneously are extremely low. 

 

So my off-the-cuff diagnosis is that unless there is a broken pin on the controller jack itself, there's a bad TIA chip in the system.