Re: A2 Joystick Maintenance

[Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net>]

In article <1159618903.888506.115810@e3g2000cwe.googlegroups.com>,
 "Polymorph" <polymorph69@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Guys,
> 
> My A2 joystick (Apple brand A2M2012) has been erratic ever since
> bringing it out of its 15 year hibernation, so I decided today was the
> day to repair it. I cracked it open and did what I could to clean it
> out, but it would seem that the pots are gunged up internally.
> 
> I can't seem to remove or open the pots to clean them, so I was
> wondering if I could soak the pots in some sort of cleaning solution to
> try and remove the grime.
> 
> So the question is - what cleaning solution would be best to use?
> Alcohol based? Something else? I tried squirting IC cleaning fluid into
> the pots but it had limited success and one of the pots still behaves
> quite erratically.
> 
> Anyone got any ideas?
> 
> thanks,
> -p
> 

Try "tuner cleaner". Might be getting hard to come by these days, 
though, what with the old-fashioned TV tuner (made up of several 
slug-tuned coils that you turn into position one after the other) going 
the way of the Dodo in favor of electronic tuning methods. Brake Cleaner 
(standard automotive stuff) *MAY* work on some of them, but you're 
taking a chance - That stuff eats most plastics like there's no 
tomorrow, and if the innards of your pots aren't the right "flavor" of 
plastic, you'll end up with a totally garbaged pot in a matter of 
seconds. 

Other option, if you can't get the existing ones to "come back", is to 
hunt up a physically compatible (size, shaft length, etc) 500 KOhm 
*LINEAR TAPER* pot or two and simply replace the bad one(s). Audio taper 
pots of the right value will function, but not worth crap - due to the 
way the resistance ramps up in a position-sensitve way, you'll have 
little or no control after about the halfway point of its travel - maybe 
less than that. A "barely looked at the stick" tiny motion will make a 
*HUGE* jump in your pointer in some places, while a huge stick motion 
will barely move the pointer at all at the other end. Only right near 
the center will you get any kind of predictable results, and even that 
might be iffy.

-- 
Don Bruder - dakidd@sonic.net - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd> for more info