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View Full Version : Got a question for my old friends here, lol.


MonoTekETeA
05-30-2009, 01:12 AM
Yoooo guys, how are ya'll? Yeah I know I haven't been around. Work work work. Speaking of work....

Well before I get into that, let me start off with a little side note. So I recently picked up some metal polish (Brasso specifically) and have been going to town on carts and cart based systems, restoring them to full capacity with this amazing stuff! (Really, go out and buy it.) But I noticed that using it really takes the dirt off...and sometimes the finish. Specifically, there is, I guess gold?, plating over a lot of NES cart pins that rubs off when I use the Brasso. Maybe this is due to the age, I donno, because not all of it does, just the heavy traffic areas. Just a observation of mine, now on to the real question...

So I am prepping for a anime convention I help run, and I was cleaning some NES controllers. They were giving me so so results on button presses, and I pop open the controller to do my normal cleaning and realize that every contact is covered in a black coating...and then I wondered. Have the controllers been like that from day one? I think they have, but then onto the next question, what are they for, and do you think if they came off, would it improve my preformance, or just cause direct corrosion to the metal underneath (the only reason I believe the black stuff is there to prevent)?

Let me know, I really miss this place, and maybe I will post how I have been restoring my NESs and what not when I get the chance. It has worked amazingly. I repaired a beat top loader by doing it...

Jeremy out!
Spazmonkey
05-30-2009, 01:59 AM
Hmm, I think it's the same deal as atari's paddle controllers. They used a lubricant paste, that became detrimental after a while. Jiggly paddles all suffer from too much death paste. A tooth brush and some rubbing alcohol always gets my paddles working again, I'm pretty sure this is the same case.
InsaneDavid
05-30-2009, 03:46 AM
Hmm, I think it's the same deal as atari's paddle controllers. They used a lubricant paste, that became detrimental after a while. Jiggly paddles all suffer from too much death paste. A tooth brush and some rubbing alcohol always gets my paddles working again, I'm pretty sure this is the same case.

Wow, I think that's the most unrelated response ever.

Yes, the controller PCB contact patches have always been coated.
theChad
05-30-2009, 09:32 AM
Wow, I think that's the most unrelated response ever.

Garry Shandling?
Spazmonkey
05-30-2009, 07:07 PM
He said black coating..... from never having been inside an NES controller, it seemed likely that more than one company would have the same bright idea to use that graphite lubricant.
InsaneDavid
05-30-2009, 08:17 PM
Garry Shandling?

Nah, that's always relevant.
MonoTekETeA
06-04-2009, 01:19 AM
Yes, the controller PCB contact patches have always been coated.

An answer from David himself. Thank you sir!

Do you have any idea what these did? Corrosion protection? Better conduction? Or did it just prevent wear over time instead of Corrosion itself? I have been cracking open other controllers and finding this coating over the metal, and then others with out (Other systems, no NES alone). It is interesting.
Compute
06-09-2009, 07:55 AM
First of all, that IS gold plating coming off the contacts. Just like the plugs on expensive stereo cables. Gold is more conductive than copper or silver but for obvious reasons is not practical for making wires.

As for the stuff on the contact pads of the controllers, my guess is that it is some type of nonconductive coating which keeps the metal on the pad from oxidizing and becoming nonconductive.
FABombjoy
06-09-2009, 01:09 PM
First of all, that IS gold plating coming off the contacts. Just like the plugs on expensive stereo cables. Gold is more conductive than copper or silver but for obvious reasons is not practical for making wires.
Gold is used because of it's non-tarnishing properties. Both copper and silver are more electrically conductive.

http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/periodic/electrical.html
BetaWolf47
06-09-2009, 05:54 PM
Actually, since they all have the same number of valence electrons, aren't gold, silver, and copper equally conductive?
jb143
06-09-2009, 06:24 PM
I think that the contacts on HuCards are gold but I'm pretty sure that most other cartidges are just copper...possibly coated with something like tin or nickel or maybe silver but I'm pretty sure it's not gold. Anyways, I'm trying to find something to back this up but havn't been able to yet. I'm not sure about controller contacts though.