I fixed my paddles

[+wongojack]

Years ago, I remember hearing a rattle inside one of my Atari paddles, and as an adventurous pre-teen, I opened them up to try and figure out what could have gone wrong. The problem was one of the rods that center the pot had broken, and my attempts to repair it were unsuccessful. I managed to pretty much disconnect both wires from the pot and lose the lock washer that fastens the pot in place along with the spacer that keeps the knob on. I also disassembled the working paddle and didn't put it back together quite right.

 

Ok thats a lot of physical damage but I still had the knob and everything to put it back together. Since 11 year old me broke the things, I embarked upon an attempt to get my paddles working again.

 

My first problem was assesing if the most broken paddle would even work again. I went through several attempts to re-solder the wires to the pot, and I eventually had to remove all of the original solder, re-strip the wires and just solder new contacts. This worked great and even before I re-assembled the paddle I could tell that it was working (tested with Warlords).

 

The next issue was that I had to repair the original problem which was the plastic rod that keeps the center pot in place needed to be replaced. This is tough, and I didn't think it would be possible. Eventually, I found that if I used a plastic object with a wide base and a narrow shaft, I could just glue it over the spaced area where the original rod was connected. I ended up using a plastic piece that is used for adjusting dry-wall fastners. If you've ever used dry wall screws, they come with a plastic hanger that you put into a guide hole. You then use a narrow plastic implement that you can hammer into the plastic hanger to expand it and lock it into place. When you are done with your job, this narrow plastic implement is pretty much useless. I ended up saving one and was able to trim it to the right size and super-glue it into place. It fit nicely and is now helping to hold the pot in place.

 

Next problem - replacing the lock washer that held the pot in place when inserted into the hole in the paddle mold. This was tougher than I expected. I tried just cutting a fastener from some copper foil that I had, but it wasn't rigid enough. I bought some 5/16" internal tooth lock washers that were the same size as the old fastner, but because they were so rigid, they wouldn't fit around the threaded shaft in the paddle. That woulda worked if I coulda bent the threads on the washer. I also tried 3/8" lock washers and they were just too big. I ended up getting a fastening bolt that measured at 3/8" internal diameter. I got it in the electrical dept at Lowe's. I think its meant for ceiling fans, but it was the right size to screw around the pot and narrow enough not to impede the turning of the knob.

 

Last problem was to figure out how to make it so that the knob would stay on its post. For this I used thin copper foil. I folded it to a thikness thats hard to measure, but I bent it in the shape of the post and the put one end into the opening in the knob. I basically wrapped it around the post, forming it to the shape and then put the top into the hole that is in the knob. I left it semi-inserted into the knob and then fit the post into the exposed end of the copper foil 'sheath' that I'd created. I then fit the knob on the post and carefully pushed it down. This made it so that my copper foil was between the post and the knob, spacing things enough so that the knob doesn't come off easily.

 

So my broken paddle now works great!

 

I ended up just putting the other paddle back together and it actually doesn't seem to work as well. When I move it to the left quickly it seems that the item controlled on screen quickly moves back to the right just a slight bit. Example: Street Racer: quickly try to avoid a car by moving to the left and the car goes all the way left and then just adjusts a bit right. If I move it slowly it works exactly as expected. I can live with this, but its not a jitter and I don't really know how to fix it off the top o my head.

 

Anyway, just thought I'd share my experience. Lemme know if you have questions or observations.

[Benzman66]

Could be a short or dirty pot.

When you open the controllers and face the pot with the three legs pointed down, yellow wires should be on the left of both and the red/purple wire on the middle legs. The right end legs should be empty.

If you have all the wires correct, then it could be the dirty pot, which you could spray contact cleaner in them and work them back and forth.

You may also want to check where the paddles plug into the system. One of the wires could be loose or even one of the ports could have a solder ring crack. Wiggle the plug and see if there is any paddle jumping or movement on your tv screen.

[+wongojack]

Wires are connected to the pots as you described. If I move them ever so slightly with the paddles plugged in, nothing happens to the on-screen car in Street Racer. I also jiggled the connection in the joystick port slightly and nothing moved on screen there either.

 

I guess if it bothers me enough, I will buy the Radio Shack cleaning lube and see if that improves it. Right now they are working very well, not like new, but very well.