Repaired my joystick.

[Mendel]

Okay, first let me introduce you to my favourite joystick:
This I would call the sturdiness test: [ Show youtube player ]
Yes. It will lift a table rather than come off it.

And an autofire demo:
[ Show youtube player ]
Call me a cheater but I like it.


This is my main joystick. The one I use for single player Amiga gaming. And I´ve broken it.

Yes indeed, imagine my horror when the "down" control of the stick stopped working. No more ducking in Turrican

I think I could only blame myself though as I kind of introduced the joystick to some beverage. While I cant be certain that this is what caused the stick to die, it died only 2 days later so I guess that was at least partially the reason. Some orange-mango drink went down right through the center of the stick. Now that I think about it, it would be logical it most likely damages the "down" control as the liquid would go down the stick and down and backwards towards that microswitch. And that was the non working part so it all makes sense... Mind you I quite quickly turned the stick upside down after the incident but I guess it was either for not long enough or not fast enough.

So... I´ve never opened a joystick like this before... but I boldly go to open the screws... and open the lid...


The pcb is in two parts, luckily making my job easier




removed part of pcb that is under the stick.





So I thought maybe some people would be interested in seeing the spring.




Turned around that small pcb part, removed a microswitch and here we can see the problem. I experimented with a loose wire, joystick connected, to see in what situation the down control would work. The up, left and right wires are connected through the pcb by small holes from the other side




Okay. Let´s get this out of the way: My hands are shaky when soldering. I suck at it, really suck at it. So... I still managed to solder a blob in there and resolder the wire. At first the blob would be in wrong place causing the "down" control to be stuck on at all times. I moved the blob a bit towards the edge though and then it would not be stuck anymore.




Having put the microswitch back, it looks a bit ankward but it stays there. Tested it by pushing the switch with a finger and it works!




Putting it back together




And done. Does it feel different? It is better than ever! I think the spring wasn´t quite properly on before this fixing either because now the thing feels like new. You cant tell by using it that one microswitch is a bit wonky there inside the stick. It´s just super accurate, super stable arcade stick of awesome. Originally made for Sega Master System... but feeling right at home used with a miggy.



I hope this stays okay for the foreseeable future. I kind of ruined the internal pretty a bit there but I can play with this again!

[kipper2k]

Nice fix , One thing, always use flux when soldering, it makes the job so much easier. A little bit of practice on an old board and your soldering skills will improve immensely

[johnim]

nice work mate

[rampartsagain]

does anyone have the hires pictures of the circuit pcb of this joystick ,that can post?

Regards