Custom Built Atari Mods, Accessories, and More.
Many paddle controllers are plagued by jittery movement. This guide will help you clean your existing paddles so they will work like new in most cases. For particularly stubborn paddles you might want to replace the internal potentiometer altogether, here is the guide for Atari Paddle Repair (Pot Replacement).
The tools needed are:
Ever have one of those joysticks that don’t work in one direction? Or maybe a button that doesn’t always fire when you need it to? This guide will help you fix a number of those problems. Some of them are easily fixable, while others may require a little more work and a few new parts. Here are some problems that you might be able to fix.
Tired of Atari Paddles that jitter? No problem, there a couple of easy ways you can go about fixing them yourself. The first is to clean the internal potentiometer. Here is the guide for Atari Paddle Repair (Cleaning Jittery Paddles). This will work for most paddles, but sometimes for particularly stubborn paddles you may want to replace the pot. There is a way to completely replace the internal pot with a brand new one from Radio Shack that costs $3. Here is the part you need. Of course it needs some modification to fit properly into the paddle casing. This guide will show you how to do that.
The tools needed are:
The Atari Field Service Manual is your best bet for trying to troubleshoot and repair problems with your 4 and 6 switch systems. There is a lot of information here and the diagnostic flowchart is extremely helpful. It also includes motherboard silkscreens and parts lists for both types of systems.
