Paddle maintenance

[ComputerCollector]

I know that this topic has come and gone probably dozens of times! The sad fact is, I forget! I wasnnt having paddle problems and didnt pay attention. But now that my paddles are getting figity, I need to ask the big paddle question, "How do I make jumpy paddle bars smooth and still? My Gemni paddle/joystick is having paddle problems. the greakout bar is jumpin all over!

[Mindfield]

There are two ways.

 

The Quick & Dirty Method

This method works, but is not really a long-term solution; it doesn't really clean anything out, but rather tends more to move the gunk in the potentiometer out of the way for a while.

 

1. Get yourself a can of TV tuner cleaner from Radio Shack or some other such place.

2. Remove the two screws from the bottom of the paddle.

3. Carefully remove the bottom of the paddle. Be careful; the orange trigger cap and fire button mechanism will probably come loose. More on this later.

4. Spray a small quantity of tuner cleaner directly into the center of the paddle mechanism. (It's the thing in the middle -- should be a plastic bit in the middle surrounded by the alumimum casing)

5. Turn the paddle knob back and forth for a couple of minutes to allow the cleaner to work its way in and clean off the gunk inside the potentiometer.

6. Place the orange trigger cap back in its place; you may have to re-seat the paddle trigger itself if it came loose.

7. Replace the bottom of the paddle, replace the screws.

8. Repeat for second paddle.

 

Give it a try. If it's still jittery you may have to repeat.

 

The Thorough Method

This method gets all the gunk out, but is only for the more mechanically inclined as it requires complete disassembly of the potentiometer. The same can of tuner cleaner from the first method will work here; I use rubbing alcohol myself, so whatever's handier for you.

 

1. Remove the paddle knob. (Just pull it off)

2. Remove the hex nut underneath the knob. A pair of bent or snub-nose pliers works best for this.

3. Remove the two screws from the bottom of the paddle.

4. Remove the back of the paddle.

5. Remove the trigger cap and put it aside.

6. Remove the entire paddle assembly from the top of the shell.

7. Looking at the top of the paddle mechanism (potentiometer) -- which is where the knob goes -- there will be four (sometimes six) aluminum tabs holding the top of the potentiometer together. Bend these tabs back. Bent-nose pliers work best here -- grip each tab using the tip of the pliers and pull them back.

8. PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION to the order in which the pieces are assembled from this point on, as well as their orientation.

9. Turn the pot over and remove the bottom portion. (The bit with the tabs)

10. Remove the brown board with the knob attached to it. (This is where orientation matters; this bit contains the contact combs that move over the contact strip.) You should now have the three main parts of the potentiometer disassembled: The knob with the combs, the circular circuit board with the black semicircle contact strip to which the wires are attached, and the metal cover with the threaded sleeve through which the paddle knob fits.

11. Using a Q-Tip with some rubbing alcohol or tuner cleaner applied, clean off the gunk from the black strip. It'll probably take a few Q-Tips to get it all.

12. Next, clean the gunk off the combs on the other part of the potentiometer.

13. Make sure all gunk is removed and there are no stray cotton strands sticking to the combs or any other part of the potentiometer.

14. Re-assemble the knob with the combs and the contact strip; make sure the knob is oriented such that when turned the combs move over the contact strip.

15. Replace the metal cover over the knob.

16. Replace the bottom cover, making sure that the tabs line up with the top cover such that the tabs will hold it in place properly.

17. Fasten the tabs back on to the cover -- again, bent-nose pliers work best here.

18. Replace the pot assembly back into the top shell of the paddle, orienting it with the wires down, nestled in the cutout that was made for it that prevents the whole assembly from turning when you turn the knob.

19. Put the trigger cap back on the trigger assembly and replace the trigger assembly -- again, this will nestle in a portion of the top shell such that the two leads coming out of it sit astride a post that keeps it from being pushed into the shell when the trigger is pushed.

20. Replace the bottom shell of the paddle and its screws, then turn over and replace the hex nut and the paddle knob.

 

If everything went properly it should have reassembled cleanly and it should be completely jitter-free. You'll need to repeat for the second paddle, of course.

[CPUWIZ]

Here are Milkman's instructions: Pictorial Link.

[Bryan]

A method that I'm going to try is the "better potentiometer" method. I noticed that arcade paddle games use sturdier pots (rated at 1 or 2W), that never seem to need cleaning. I pulled a Warlords out of an old warehouse and the controls worked great. Anyway, sometime I planned to try using them in my paddles.

 

-Bry

[ComputerCollector]

t5hanks guys. Im prepared to get annoyed

[keilbaca]

A method that I'm going to try is the "better potentiometer" method. I noticed that arcade paddle games use sturdier pots (rated at 1 or 2W), that never seem to need cleaning. I pulled a Warlords out of an old warehouse and the controls worked great. Anyway, sometime I planned to try using them in my paddles.

 

    -Bry

863965[/snapback]

 

Is there a place where I can get those kinds of paddles? I really would like a set of perfect paddles, because of kaboom

[supercat]

A method that I'm going to try is the "better potentiometer" method. I noticed that arcade paddle games use sturdier pots (rated at 1 or 2W), that never seem to need cleaning. I pulled a Warlords out of an old warehouse and the controls worked great. Anyway, sometime I planned to try using them in my paddles.

 

While I do not doubt that arcade games use better pots, another factor in reducing jitter is wiring potentiometers for 'voltage mode' rather than 'resistance mode' operation. Unfortunately, even though the electronics for voltage mode are not really more expensive than 'resistance mode', few game machines use it (though I think the Oddysey 1 may have; I'll have to check the schematic).

 

If a pot is used in voltage mode (put +5 at one end, ground at the other, and measure the voltage at the wiper), variations in wiper resistance will not affect the reading. An RC-based timing circuit may be used to measure the voltages if a cap is connected to a constant-current charging source and that voltage is fed into a quad comparator with the four voltages.

 

I would expect that it would be possible to construct a 2600-compatible paddle controller using voltage mode and a timing circuit (or--better yet--using a microcontroller to emulate one). Unfortunately, it would not be possible to construct an adapter for existing paddle controllers since they have one end of the pot disconnected.

[NightSprinter]

Mindfield.. thank you so much for this little gem of a thread. Thanks to YOUR expert-level instructions, I just got my Commodore16/Plus4 paddles to work without ANY jitter whatsoever (just tested 'em out with Video Olympics on the real 2600). Now to finish cleaning the other paddle out, and work on my Atari paddles. Once again your thread was of incredible help.

 

Btw, Good may be dumb, but at least they don't get smacked right in the face with the recording studio's camera. (I loved that scene.. "Only one man dares to give me the Raspberry.." *pulls facemask down* "LONESTARRR!!!..." *camera does too much of a closeup* *THWACK* *thud..*)

[bretthorror]

Can you use anything else to clean them other than the TV tuner cleaner?

[k8track]

I'm finding the need to have to clean my paddles and these instructions seem quite thorough and excellent. Since this will be my first attempt at something like this, however, I would find pictures most helpful. Is there a link to somewhere that would have pictures accompanying these cleaning instructions?

[Starhopper]

Mindfield.. thank you so much for this little gem of a thread. Thanks to YOUR expert-level instructions, I just got my Commodore16/Plus4 paddles to work without ANY jitter whatsoever (just tested 'em out with Video Olympics on the real 2600). Now to finish cleaning the other paddle out, and work on my Atari paddles. Once again your thread was of incredible help.

Indeed! If I don't know it, I'm guaranteed to find someone in our community who does

 

Btw, Good may be dumb, but at least they don't get smacked right in the face with the recording studio's camera. (I loved that scene.. "Only one man dares to give me the Raspberry.." *pulls facemask down* "LONESTARRR!!!..." *camera does too much of a closeup* *THWACK* *thud..*)

 

Whassamatter, Col. Sanders? Chicken?!

[AussieAtari]

Here are Milkman's instructions: Pictorial Link.

 

The link is broken, does anyone know where the file has moved to?

[homerwannabee]

Ok, I just invented the quickest method.

 

1. Take the cap off the paddles. If you pull hard enough they will come off.

2. Get a bottle of Isopropyl alchohol and take the cap off.

3. Put the top of the capless paddle on top of the isopropyl bottle. Ok, now flip the bottle upside down real quick and let the alchohol seep into the paddle for a half of second and flip the back right side up. Get a paper napkin and wipe up any liquids that seep through the paddles.

After that the paddles should work perfectly.

Edited May 22, 2007 by homerwannabee

[A.J. Franzman]

11. Using a Q-Tip with some rubbing alcohol or tuner cleaner applied, clean off the gunk from the black strip. It'll probably take a few Q-Tips to get it all.

11.5 Also clean the metal ring inside the black resistance element. I like to use a wire brush to make it nice and shiny, but this requires extreme care so as not to accidentally scratch the resistance element.

[alex_79]

I'm finding the need to have to clean my paddles and these instructions seem quite thorough and excellent. Since this will be my first attempt at something like this, however, I would find pictures most helpful. Is there a link to somewhere that would have pictures accompanying these cleaning instructions?

 

I posted some pics of the paddle disassembled in this topic.

[k8track]

I'm finding the need to have to clean my paddles and these instructions seem quite thorough and excellent. Since this will be my first attempt at something like this, however, I would find pictures most helpful. Is there a link to somewhere that would have pictures accompanying these cleaning instructions?

 

I posted some pics of the paddle disassembled in this topic.

Thanks for the link to the pictures, that will be most helpful! I did indeed try that earlier link to Milkman's pictures before posting, but the link was dead. I feel a bit more comfortable giving it a go now.