NES Arkanoid controller operation/repair ?

[Captain Wrong]

I finally got around to testing this thing (I've had it for months) and it appears to be dead. Either that or I'm retarted (strong possibility.) I haven't poped it open, so I don't don't know what's up inside but here's what happened. I put in Arkanoid and pulgged the controller in, turned the machine on and couldn't select the game. Are you supposed to be able to select the game with the paddle conrtoller, or do you need to have a regular controller in port 2? I didn't try to "hot swap" the controller once the game was running, I just assumed that you could start it with the paddle.

So if this isn't the case, and it is broken, is there anywhere I can get info on fixing it? Or is it a lost cause? I know these things are prone to falling apart, and I only have $2 in this so it's no big loss if it's trashed. Just curious.

[Raccoon Lad]

If I recall correctly, the paddle goes in port 2, and a regular controller goes in port 1.

[Captain Wrong]

Like I said, I may be retarted!

I'll check that out tonight.

Thanks

[CrazyImpmon]

There's really little you can do if your Arkanoud controller's busted. The knob's damned near impossible to remove and until you do get tthe knob off, you can't get the controller PCB out of the case. At best you can get the bottom case off.

[Raedon]

did you try to clean the contacts??

[CZroe]

I know that the fire button is supposed to start a 1P game on the Family Computer version.

There's really little you can do if your Arkanoud controller's busted. The knob's damned near impossible to remove and until you do get tthe knob off, you can't get the controller PCB out of the case. At best you can get the bottom case off.

That's not true. The plastic knob just pulls off so I assume you are talking about the nut that holds the potentiometer to the top half of the plastic shell.

The proper tool is either a nut driver that's deep enough to fit the shaft of the variable resistor potentiometer inside or an appropriately-sized offset box wrench. Alternatives include:
turn the nut directly with needle-nosed pliers
...or...
put an appropriately-sized socket with the potentiometer shaft going through the attachment point and then turn with whatever you have

I risked breaking it but I didn't have to do any of these things: I just held the nut with my fingers and turned the pot, PCB and all! There is a little tab that will chew a bit of the plastic but I got off without an issue.

Mine has a different problem than the OP though it seems common enough: It will not move all the way to the right. My Famicom version does not have the trim resistor/adjustment screw. I have one of those bulb desoldering irons and got the pot off the PCB easily enough that I've done it several times while experimenting. Mine is labeled "50KY" with a logo that looks like a pointy S or lightning bolt in a circle. It measures mid-40k Ohms at maximum so it seems to have lost some resistance. I soaked it in 99.9% pure electronics cleaning grade alcohol and it just made things a bit squeaky (probably dissolved some lubricant; range still limited). I bent a few tabs to take it apart and added some dielectric bulb grease and it just made the squeak go away (again: range still limited).

There is a page online about cleaning the internals of pots and raising resistance with super fine-grit sand paper but I'm going to create my own trimmer pot like the US version and test that first. I got a 10k micro trimmer pot from Radio Shack today so I'll wire that in series and let the world know how it goes.

[MetalFRO]

There's really little you can do if your Arkanoud controller's busted. The knob's damned near impossible to remove and until you do get tthe knob off, you can't get the controller PCB out of the case. At best you can get the bottom case off.

Wouldn't the inner workings below the knob just be a potentiometer, though? Assuming one can determine the type and voltage information from a working Arkanoid paddle controller, one could presumably replace that piece (assuming that was the offending part) with something aftermarket and make it work again. If the issue lies elsewhere, I guess it would depend on how complex the rest of it is.

[CZroe]

Wouldn't the inner workings below the knob just be a potentiometer, though? Assuming one can determine the type and voltage information from a working Arkanoid paddle controller, one could presumably replace that piece (assuming that was the offending part) with something aftermarket and make it work again. If the issue lies elsewhere, I guess it would depend on how complex the rest of it is.

He seemed to be stuck at a much earlier point than that.

Anyway, I repaired mine since my post a couple days ago with a 10k Ohm Micro-sized trim potentiometer from Radio Shack (271-0282). I basically just added the trimmer resistor that the Famicom version lacks. I set it to 5.5~6k Ohm and I can reach both edges in game. If it goes further out of spec adjusting the trimmer more will probably affect my ability to reach the left side so then I will have to sand the pot.

To add it without cutting traces I removed R1 and straightened the leads. I wire-wrapped one lead to my new pot and soldered the other lead back in along with the a second wire from my new pot. There's plenty of room to tweak R1 and position the pot out of the way with a short length of wire.

Before adding the trimmer I did open the original VR1 pot again and cleaned it with 99.9% electronics cleaning grade isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free cloth. I also tweaked the contacts for more tension. I did not reapply dielectric grease but the squeak did not come back. Cleaning seemed to reduce jitters even though mine weren't too bad in the first place. It did not restore range, which is why I moved on to the mod I described earlier.