Posted By
Neccy
on 2003-12-02
|  Joystick
Mainly when playing games on my plus4 I use old amiga joysticks with an adapter on the end, but this is only becaause my original joystick is a bit buggered, so I was wondering if any of you guys could help.
Problem is it won't go right or fire, so I opened it up 4 screws on base and one through the stem..and I see it relys on 4 pads in each direction and when it presses on these pads that resemble the pads in your keyboard btw they complete the circuit and the computer know whats being pressed, trouble is , they all look fine , there is no plastic broken or anything?? The only thing i can think of doing at the moment is trimming back the wires and resoldering to the circuit board as the ground point wire looks a bit frayed yet it also looks insulated.. i dont know what can be happenning?
So any theories? What usualy breaks first in a plus4 joystick?
I could savage one from ebay but why should I bother if I can fix it myself.
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Posted By
Mosh
on 2003-12-02
| Re: Joystick
My theory is that the black plastic C= made these joysticks from is garbage, the weakest part is the screw hole. Under normal use I destroyed many of these joysticks way back when. What happens is that the thread the screw screws into strips, and lateral pressure on the stick causes the screw lug that the handle connects to the base to break. (Does that make sense???) 
One pseudo fix I found is to use the handle off a C64 1342 joystick, the plastic is much stronger, even if it looks a bit funny.
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Posted By
MIK
on 2003-12-02
 | Re: Joystick
With some of the old joysticks there isn't much that can really go wrong with the wiring, unless it has micro switches so I dont know.. 
Another option:
If you know of anyone with a Sega Megadrive pad (3 or 6 button) then that will do. Button "B" is fire. Dont go using one with Auto Fire buttons, just the classic originals from Sega. I've used the Sega Megadrive 6 button pad for years on both Plus4 and C16, even on my Amiga. 
A car boot sale could be a better place to find a joystick/pad than eBay.
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Posted By
Mosh
on 2003-12-02
| Re: Joystick
I forgot to mention I never noted any wiring problems with the sticks I had, probably because I destroyed the stick before any could develop.
One other thing I noted about the sticks are that the touchpads inside moves around, C= thought that sticky tape would be enough to hold it in place, but went cheapo and didn't use Scotch brand They're easy enough to put back in place, so that might the part of the problem.
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Posted By
Neccy
on 2003-12-03
| Re: Joystick
well Thanks for all your replys I'll give it one more try to fix it other than that its another c16plus4 joystick bites the dust. the plastic at the base of the joystick (luckily not the screw thread part) was broken although now fixed sttill doesnt work.
I have a pad for my megadrive that i could use but prefer the bug type joypad from the amiga, also have a few zipsticks lying around so its not like im short a joystick.
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Posted By
Ulysses777
on 2003-12-04
| Re: Joystick
In my experience, the main cause of plus4 joysticks not working in a particular direction is a buildup of dirt on the rubber pads, which can be cleaned easily with isopropyl alcohol (which you can get at places like Maplin).
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Posted By
MIK
on 2003-12-05
| Re: Joystick
I didn't want to say to worry anyone but in rare cases the joystick ports have been know to stop working full stop. A guy I know sort of, he killed his joyports by plugging in some crazy auto fire joystick. The TED its self was fine, everything worked perfect with the plus4 other than the joyports and it cost me a TED to fix his machine........ Thats was all it was!! ??
I gave up my only spare Plus4 to fix his machine, as you may of seen some time ago the keyboard went to some one else
Wish I never offered to help (snif).
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