Dead paddles Can they be brought back to life?

[Atarian7]

i got a pair of Gemini paddles and they won't even move the buckets on KAboom!.

Is there a simple repair just like the repair for jittery paddles, or are these dead?

[adams_ale]

I have 3 sets, 6 individual, 2600 paddles that don't work. I don't know if these things break easily, but it sure seems that way.

[+Omegamatrix]

They won't move the buckets at all? Sounds like the cord has separated somewhere along it’s line. I had that happen with some Atari paddles. One paddle worked and the other one didn't. I soldered on a replacement paddle that I knew worked and it still was dead. You might want to save just the paddles for spare parts, and throw away the cord. You'll need to find a new set of paddles, but at least this way you can mix & match until you have a good pair.

[Spirantho]

Atari controllers in general are so simple you can always fix them. If they're not controlling anything, it's probably just a loose/broken wire - find the break and repair it and it'll be fine again! The tricky bit is finding the break....

[Atarian7]

thanks

[MoonlightKnight]

Just an FYI, it may be something as simple as the insides being dirty.

 

In he past, I've opened up paddles, cleaned them, and put a little WD-40 on them. after putting them back together, they ended up working like they were brand new... no jitters at all. Opening them would give you a chance to check the solders as well.

[D.Yancey]

I read on a thread here that the goop everyone finds in the paddles is di-electric grease. I cleaned my paddles and got them working well, but the jitter always returns after a few days or weeks. I decided to try and replace the alleged di-electric grease inside to see if it would be helpful. They jitter worse then ever now, so unless I did something wrong, I don't recommend the grease inside the pot.