15 replies to this topic

[AtariBrian]

i put one in a controller tonight, they are awesome ! i highly recomend one

[Ransom]

Oh, yeah! Those are the best. Congratulations!

[atari_envy]

Agreed. If you are going to use the stock 5200 controllers, the gold kits are the way to go.

[Mirage]

Yep, it's amazing to me how many people seem to drag their feet on this upgrade. It's a must.

[simbalion]

The rebuilt controller I have doesn't have the gold dots, but has the later carbon dots. So far it has held up well. If I ever get more of my controllers rebuilt I will go for the gold option as it does seem to be the best,

[AtariBrian]

i had the later carbon dots to... doesnt hold up. the tinfoil trick does work great to though. if someone doesnt have the funds for the gold, the tinfoil is (almost) as good.

[Gaztee]

I actually have one controller with a gold rebuild & the fire buttons have packed in! Is that unlucky??

[Cafeman]

I've been thinking about the tinfoil improvement. I cleaned my carbon dots and the mesh where a connection is made, but I still need to squeeze the buttons a bit harder than I'd like. Do you simply glue a tiny bit of tinfoil to each carbon dot? Doesn't the glue interfere with the connection?

[AtariBrian]

your fire buttons have packed in? @cafeman i have one with tinfoil i got from ebay years ago and it works great. for the fire buttons they cut a longer strip for each of sets of contacts. and yes superglue a tinfoil piece from using a hole punch. im gonna take mine apart tonight or tomorrow and check it out. or put in the gold and problems should be solved forever. it helps for when im playing koffi and adventure 2

Edited by AtariBrian, Wed Dec 28, 2011 9:10 PM.

[sdamon]

Cafeman, on Wed Dec 28, 2011 8:36 PM, said:

I've been thinking about the tinfoil improvement. I cleaned my carbon dots and the mesh where a connection is made, but I still need to squeeze the buttons a bit harder than I'd like. Do you simply glue a tiny bit of tinfoil to each carbon dot? Doesn't the glue interfere with the connection?

Yep, just glue (something stronger than Elmer's like Krazy Glue or Gorilla Glue) a bit of tin foil to the carbon dots on the fire buttons and the Start/Pause/Reset buttons. The glue doesn't interfere with the connection as it's not part of the connection... the connection is made between the foil and the flex circuit. You're just replacing the carbon dot as a conductor with the foil. Works pretty well in my experience, although for ergonomic reasons I still prefer a Wico or Competition Pro joystick over the standard 5200 stick. I just personally hate side-mounted fire buttons on all systems that feature them (5200, Colecovision, Intellivision, 7800)

[AtariBrian]

now if we just had a solution for the non centering joystick

[Cafeman]

AtariBrian, on Thu Dec 29, 2011 9:59 AM, said:

now if we just had a solution for the non centering joystick

Skill?

[Mirage]

Mirage, on Mon Dec 26, 2011 6:35 AM, said:

Yep, it's amazing to me how many people seem to drag their feet on this upgrade. It's a must.

Point proven, yet again!

[AtariBrian]

Cafeman, on Thu Dec 29, 2011 11:37 AM, said:

AtariBrian, on Thu Dec 29, 2011 9:59 AM, said:

now if we just had a solution for the non centering joystick

Skill?

wow really

[cybercylon]

I have had luck so far by going with a gold flex circuit and using the aluminum foil dots. Might be a good option if the controller is fine otherwise and saves a bit on the cost.

[Lendorien]

I did the Aluminum Foil Dots this week and it's like the controllers are completely different ones. Who would have thought such a simple solution would make such a difference. I've fot some rev 9 flex circuits on order. Current ones in my controllers are Rev 7. Since I don't play my 5200 heavily, it'll probably be more than enough for my purposes.