Repairing atari 7800 became confusing

[johannesmutlu]

I opened an atari 7800 controller to see what’s inside and see if i could clean it properly but i guess what,after opening it up, i saw 2 pieces of tape falling off along with it’s 2 round metal plates for those action buttons,i was first confused as i didn’t know those matel plates were taped to those contacts wich also get’s hold tight by 2 springs,BUT what i also found strange was that those tapes did contain holes in to it so i first tout that these were double sided tape wich sits between the metal plate and contacts along with a hole to allow conducting charging contact get’s passtrough,BUT after fiddeling for hours trying to put  the both board and those buttons back together ,i then eventually decided to replace those weared out tapes with no ones and decoded put those tapes over those metal plates instead rather then putiing it over those contacts and my 7800 controller finally works again,note that before i realized that there were metal plates in between those contacts and action buttons,i just screwed that controller back together,only to find out that it would behave like turbo buttons,

but i fixed it by using a cup to hold the controller in place and i used a magned as well to track down those metal plates by in case i dropped them by accident on the but but i really was a pain in the ass to fiddle and put everything back togethe,and because of this ii got some questions,

why was it ,if those holes in those tapes serves no purpose,then why are those holes there in the first place?

2,why are those metal plates not self explainitory,

3,why did atari used taped metal plates and springs for their action buttons,and while i  think of it,i wonder if those workers from the assambly line of the past didn’t get confused overtimes by those holes in those tapes,am mean just imagine if some workers did everything in a reverse way,(wich i almost did) sure then many controllers wouldn’t work,

besides (4) why didn’t atari just glued those plates  to those springs instead sothat you wouldn’t  need tape to hold it in place,seriously the atari 7800 controller is a fresking nightmare to repair or fix it or cleam it (in cases you don’t know what you’re doing) ,so while it looks easy on paperbto open and put everything back together, but it’s not PHEW???

 

[johannesmutlu]

Ps, i was ment to say in the title “repairing atari 7800 controller can be confusing”

now do still wonder why on earth you have to manually self centre those small metal plates with tape,rather then put them into self explainitory holes ,i guess that atari might did this on purpose to make cobsummers think that once they do open those 7800 controllers ,that they might would think that those controllers are beyond repair,where in reality you have to just zelf centre those matel plates with tape and hold the board stable in place on a cup,

those pictures do show a metal plate covered with tape to illustrate what i mean, it’s the weirdest,most annoying and confusing thing i,ve ever seen inside an controller,no rubber pads but metal plates and springs instead,and repairing such controller like this can be very frustrating if you got no knowledge and no strategy at how to do that,PHEW????

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Atari's original 2600 controllers or at least the CX-40s we are most used to...used the exact same tech using dome switch contacts for all directions plus the fire button. It worked really well back then as all of my controllers broke not from those getting out of alignment or corrosion, but because of the actual white ring and stick shaft combo breaking and not putting enough pressure on the dome switches themselves.

 

I believe the 5200 trak-ball uses the same tech on the panel buttons for it as well.