This topic has been brought to you by the number 7

[+atari2600land]

My 7 button on my Kid's Controller is broken. Is there a way I could fix it?

[55five66six]

OK that's kinda funny. 🙂 That's all I had to say, I have no idea how to fix it. 

[55five66six]

2 hours ago, SoilentGreen said:

OK that's kinda funny. 🙂 That's all I had to say, I have no idea how to fix it. 

Ok. Reading back, that sounds horrible.. I meant the subject being brought to us by the #7 not the controller being broken. Sorry about that. 

[Video]

I think all those keypad/ keyboard controllers use the silicone (rubber) contact types. You likely have a corroded contact, or the graphite rubber contact may be worn or missing.

 

You can take it apart, their just held together with screws, it'll have a pcb with a grid of contacts, you can clean the dirty ones with alcohol and a qtip or paper towel. If it's extremely corroded, like green rusty stuff, an eraser works good too. You can use high grit sand paper, but he careful as you can strip the circuitry or contact itself if your to aggressive.

 

For the rubber button part, if the graphite dot is still there, you can lightly rub it with an eraser or sand paper, that will rough up the surface a bit to make better contact as well as removing dirt and oxidation. If the dot is missing, you can glue a foil dot there. Typical kitchen foil works well, if you have a hole ponch, they come about the right size. Glue the foil dot on the little standoff rubber peg and let it dry before reassembling the controller.

 

I say it's likely corrosion or a contact problem, because it the cord or a trace was bad, you'd likely have more buttons not working.

[high voltage]

Just use number 6

[roadrunner]

If u have a keypad controller, use that instead
 

[+atari2600land]

Hi. I went and used the keypad test binary and they all work. As it turned out, the problem was not the button, but my code.

There's no embarrassed emoji?