Atari 5200 Controller Repair Videos

[peteym5]

I have been looking over these repair videos. I figured a good place to post them is here.
 

Atari 5200 Controller Refurbishing

 

Atari 5200 Joystick Gold Plated Contact Upgrade!

 

Atari 5200 Controller Repair Part 1 - Fixing Two Common Problems

 

Atari 5200 Controller Repair Part 2 - Replacing the Flex Circuit

 

 

[HDN]

Thanks! I'm not a 5200 owner myself, but I bet this would be very useful to those here on the site.

[- Ω -]

I have a rebuilt 5200 joystick, but I really never liked the 5200 non-centering stick myself.  I use mine with a Y-Cable adapter so I can use START, PAUSE and RESET and the numbers if necessary, but I use seperate joystick for game play.

[CrossBow]

2 hours ago, - Ω - said:

I have a rebuilt 5200 joystick, but I really never liked the 5200 non-centering stick myself.  I use mine with a Y-Cable adapter so I can use START, PAUSE and RESET and the numbers if necessary, but I use seperate joystick for game play.

I'm on the opposite side of this. I pretty much use the standard controllers more often than not. But that is because the games I like to play most on the 5200 actually play better with the standard controllers. That being Fractalus and The Last Starfighter. 

But, I also own one of the older AtariAge Redemption adapters that allows me to use a 7800 or sega controller with the console in combo with a CX-52 controller. I actually have a Wico command pad that I connect to it instead when I use that setup. But it doesn't get used that often.

BTW...Moderclassics video really doesn't show the proper way to take apart the 5200 controller. It is imperative to remove that top bezel for the Start, Pause, and Reset before separating the two halves. While it won't always happen you do run a large risk of the traces in the flex in that part getting broken or pulled loose from the Mylar due the friction of trying to pull it out from the 90 degree angle it has to come through. Also I believe he is using copper foil tape which, will work just as well but usually costs more than the cheaper HVAC foil tape I use. The foil tape I use is also aluminum based and isn't as likely to cause issues with mixed metals like the copper might over time.

 

Edited October 12, 2021 by CrossBow

[peteym5]

Anyone ever replace the Potentiometers inside the 5200 controllers? I found an YouTube video where Arcade USA replaced the Potentiometer inside a 2600 Paddle controller and it took away the "jitters." Had a solid metal shaft. Cut with Dremel tool. Maybe the solid metal shaft kept position in place better or blocked out some external EM interference. 5200 controllers must use 0-500 Ohms Potentiometers. I remember seeing a video that someone replaced it with a more robust potentiometer. 

With seeing all this renewed interest with the Atari 5200, I feel it is important that we have information about repairing or replacing controllers. 

[RickR]

They can be cleaned out just like 2600 paddle potentiometers.  Willie at ArcadeUSA is the only person I know that has replaced them, so I'd trust what he did in that video if it indeed needs to be replaced (meaning it still doesn't work properly after a good cleaning). 

 

[intellicolecovisonary]

I recommend aquiring a wrecking yard of parts for the 5200 like I did over the years with 7 working CX24 controllers, 2 perfectly calibrated with the Best Electronics gold rebuild and new 1/2" high rubber boots, a bag of miscellaneous CX24 parts along with 3 consoles, 1 working perfectly, 1 semi working and 1 for parts. I used the POKEY from the parts console in my Concerto.

Edited November 10, 2021 by intellicolecovisonary

[CrossBow]

Foil HVAC tape all  the way baby!!!

 

[Kid A]

I actually put those click dome things under all the buttons.

Works amazing. I put this all together about 4 years ago and not once have I had to fix it.

Also I love how clicky the buttons are!

Edited December 17, 2021 by Kid A

[Justin]

1 hour ago, Kid A said:

I actually put those click dome things under all the buttons.Works amazing. I put this all together about 4 years ago and not once have I had to fix it. Also I love how clicky the buttons are!

@Kid A Fantastic! I just worked with these 4-prong dome buttons today, haven't thought to use them on the 5200 joystick. Did you use them under the keypad as well?

[Kid A]

5 hours ago, Justin said:

@Kid A Fantastic! I just worked with these 4-prong dome buttons today, haven't thought to use them on the 5200 joystick. Did you use them under the keypad as well?

Yup. They are indeed under the keypad as well. The click when you push a button feels sooooo much better too compared to the mushy feeling from before. And the response is amazing. 

[RickR]

Where do you buy the dome things?  I've always wanted to try this, but I wasn't able to find a source (ebay or other) for those). 

Thank you -- what a great idea. 

[Justin]

18 minutes ago, RickR said:

Where do you buy the dome things?  I've always wanted to try this, but I wasn't able to find a source (ebay or other) for those). 

Thank you -- what a great idea. 

Here you go @RickR, they appear to be out of stock but that happens, they will have more eventually:

https://console5.com/store/self-adhesive-dome-switches-10mm-quad-4-leg.html

[RickR]

11 minutes ago, Justin said:

Here you go @RickR, they appear to be out of stock but that happens, they will have more eventually:

https://console5.com/store/self-adhesive-dome-switches-10mm-quad-4-leg.html

Thank you!  I signed up to be notified when they are back in stock.  I'm going to buy a bunch and give this a try. 

[RickR]

Do they have self-sealing stem bolts? 

Edited December 17, 2021 by RickR

[Justin]

1 minute ago, RickR said:

Thank you!  I signed up to be notified when they are back in stock.  I'm going to buy a bunch and give this a try. 

Great! I don't know why we never thought to do this before! Or why places like Best Electronics don't sell Atari 5200 mylar button flex circuits with the dome switches already applied.

Clearly Atari had thought to do this in the pre-production stage of the Atari 5200 CX52 Joystick and backed off. Could Atari not get these to work properly for some reason? On the Best Electronics site Brad has this photo of a prototype 5200 Joystick mylar flex circuit and says:

"This is a Very rare prototype Atari CX52 Joystick Flex Circuit.  It uses the same type of Crinkle dome contact switches as used on the original Atari CX40 Joystick internal PCB board.  Unfortunately this prototype sample Flex circuit does not work properly, so it was never used on CX52 Joysticks.  Very few Atari people outside of Atari Engineering have ever seen this Rare one of a kind Prototype Atari 5200 Flex Circuit."

 

[Justin]

9 minutes ago, RickR said:

Do they have self-sealing stem bolts? 

Yes but they're FAAAAAAAKES

 

[RickR]

I would guess that it was too costly to manufacture something like that.  For example, you'd have to install the start/reset/pause domes AFTER installing the mylar on the controller or redesign the top to have a larger slot. 

[RickR]

5 minutes ago, Justin said:

Yes but they're FRAAAAAAAKES

 

 

Edited December 17, 2021 by RickR

[Justin]

36 minutes ago, RickR said:

I would guess that it was too costly to manufacture something like that.  For example, you'd have to install the start/reset/pause domes AFTER installing the mylar on the controller or redesign the top to have a larger slot. 

I'm thinking that's the case.

@Kid A How has your experience been with these 5200 mylar flex circuits using the adhesive dome switches? Have they damaged or cut through the mylar at all? I'm wondering if Atari tried this out but found that they wore down or damaged the mylar flex circuits after intense use.

@CrossBow I liked your video at the top giving an Atari 5200 Controller Refurbishing tutorial. Have you experimented with the adhesive dome switches before?

Who knows why Atari made the decisions they did with these joysticks 🤯 I think solid, intuitive, easy to use controllers and responsiveness in the games are a huge part of the success of a video game system. Look at the Atari 2600, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the original PlayStation.

[CrossBow]

I have not but I have the same fears about the corner legs eventually wearing through and causing shorts. Could mitigate that using some kapton tape that is cut to fit but over time, I still think it would wear through and cause shorts. That wouldn't really damage anything as the +5 isn't used on the stock controllers, but it would result in some very erratic behavior.

 

[Kid A]

I am not all concerned about the corners cutting into the flex circuit.

If you look closely at the domes which I actually did get from console5.com,  there's little lips that are kind of bent at the corners so I figured it wouldn't dig into the flex circuit. 

Also, instead of the three prong I used the four prong domes due to me thinking that there's less contact with the flex circuit, which means I'm able to spin the dome to avoid exposed traces on the circuit. 

I actually did get the idea of doing this by seeing the prototype circuit on best electronics website.  I just thought to myself, "how and why would that not work?"

And the reason why I actually thought of doing this is because I figured there was a cheaper solution  compared to buying the gold  contact buttons from best electronics . I figured they would work great, but I wasn't too crazy on spending that much money on those things.  And I figured that the buttons would still probably feel kind of mushy.

The snapdomes come stuck on  piece of adhesive strip. However, I felt that adhesive wasn't good enough so I actually use some packing tape to apply all the domes. 

I've had nothing but great control and responsiveness with the buttons on the controller since doing this.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Kid A

[RickR]

Making a sh@tty controller better is worth any such risk.  Thank you @Kid A.  I'm totally onboard with this idea. 

[Kid A]

43 minutes ago, RickR said:

Making a sh@tty controller better is worth any such risk.  Thank you @Kid A.  I'm totally onboard with this idea.

I really feel that the reward vastly outweighs the risk by a country mile. It's definitely worth the shot. You lay the domes just right, You'll have yourself an amazing  responsive controller.

[RickR]

And they fit on the side buttons too?