Free NUON controllers

[Skah T]

It's not looking good, I'm afraid. I received the last two boxes and have gone through and tested one of them. There were 2 working controllers and 24 non-working. I'm not holding out hope that the second box will be much better. That being the case I will limit everyone to one and even then I won't get through the whole list.

I'm actually curious as to why so many are busted. They all have the QC Passed sticker on the back so they must have been working at some point. Anyway, sorry for getting everyone's hopes up. I'll post again once I know the final amount.

 

[MMDN]

It's not looking good, I'm afraid. I received the last two boxes and have gone through and tested one of them. There were 2 working controllers and 24 non-working. I'm not holding out hope that the second box will be much better. That being the case I will limit everyone to one and even then I won't get through the whole list.

I'm actually curious as to why so many are busted. They all have the QC Passed sticker on the back so they must have been working at some point. Anyway, sorry for getting everyone's hopes up. I'll post again once I know the final amount.

But I know electronic.

Any one know how to make a control from another kind?
Which kind of conector is?

I lost my original nuon controller, and I want to build one at least.

 

[Skah T]

I have plenty of non-functional controllers. I could send you those to maybe fix.

Actually I have two controllers that work, but not correctly. Their stick axes are reversed - you push up and the game thinks you pushed down. I could send you those also as maybe a starting point for debug.

 

[MMDN]

I have plenty of non-functional controllers. I could send you those to maybe fix.

Actually I have two controllers that work, but not correctly. Their stick axes are reversed - you push up and the game thinks you pushed down. I could send you those also as maybe a starting point for debug.

Tell me how much cost send to me a couple of controls 4 or 6, If those are broken I don't care.

How can I send you the money? Western Union is ok?

Remember, Santiago Chile, South America.

 

[Skah T]

To ship six controllers to Chile looks to be around $31. I have used BidPay in the past to get money orders from international buyers. If you don't mind signing up we could do it that way.

 

[NearChaos]

I'll take as many broken controllers as you'll send me. I'm a software developer who works with a room full of techs who fix my video game toys all the time (especially if I push their software through first). Destination zip code is 21042. If there's a limit, 2 to 4 would be nice (50% would be going to another Nuon friend, once fixed).

Sorry for popping up here all of a sudden, usually I'm active on AtariAge but for no special reason I decided I needed to supplement my Nuon collection with Stealth controllers and found this thread.

Thanks,
Eric "NearChaos" Ruck

 

[viMaster]

Hey Skah T, I just read through all these posts and saw that you had probs with many of the controllers. I sent you a PM before I read them, so if there are no working ones left, it's not a big deal
Thanks for keeping me in mind, though and VERY sorry it took me so long to check back.

vi

 

[Skah T]

I'm finally catching up with things I've let slide. Here's the situation with the controllers.

I have (only) ten working and a hojillion non-working controllers. As I said before, I am limiting everyone to just one controller.

I still have my list of requestees, but before I start going down it I wanted to put out a call to any electronics hackers out there. If anyone is willing to take non-functional controllers and try to repair them I will give you priority on the list. You can take any number of broken ones and I will include one that works (so you have something to compare against while debugging).

NearChaos, I PMed you about this earlier.

MMDN, are you still interested in the broken ones?

I'll give it a week for people to respond before I start going down the list.

 

[midnight8]

I would be interested in some broken ones. If I can't fix them I know someone who can.

 

[Zadoc]

I can use a good controller. All I have is the poor Logitec one.

 

[NearChaos]

NearChaos, I PMed you about this earlier.

Sorry, I was having a problem with someone using my URL for spamming, I lost a lot of e-mail, apparently including this one.

I'm definitely interested in broken ones...I'd like at least 4 although I'll take twice that many if you have them. Honestly I don't know what to expect but I have my electronics genius Gordon on alert. If he sees something consistent where he can tell other people how to fix them, I'll be sure to pass it on.

Thanks,
Eric "NearChaos"

 

[viMaster]

I'm finally catching up with things I've let slide. Here's the situation with the controllers.

I have (only) ten working and a hojillion non-working controllers. As I said before, I am limiting everyone to just one controller.

I still have my list of requestees, but before I start going down it I wanted to put out a call to any electronics hackers out there. If anyone is willing to take non-functional controllers and try to repair them I will give you priority on the list. You can take any number of broken ones and I will include one that works (so you have something to compare against while debugging).

NearChaos, I PMed you about this earlier.

MMDN, are you still interested in the broken ones?

I'll give it a week for people to respond before I start going down the list.

Sounds like a plan. It would certainly be a good idea for someone to get a bunch of broken ones if they think they can repair them! That would help out the situation big time

 

[midnight8]

so far it seems like the problems with the controllers are mostly in the cords or connectors. Some are a little sillier though like a few have the analog control reversed by wiring the pots backwards. Its hard to beleived they passed qc that way. some of them even have the initials of someone and the date they passed qc. Someone was sleeping at that time it seems. The ones that the cords are bad will just be a matter of buying some cable and trying to solder them to the origional connectors. the ones that may have bad connectors would probably require adding a second controller port of a different type to the game system to make them work since as far as I know those connectors can't be bought.

 

[Skah T]

For the bad connectors, do you mean the connector on the controller at the end of the cable? Is it a broken connector, bad solder joint, or something else? Are they too small to fix? Or is it a matter of the connector not making contact with the port in the system?

Can you give me pointers on how to debug them so I can take a look at the ones I still have?

 

[midnight8]

I have not gotten inside the connectors yet. when I do I can send you pics if you want. I think most of the problems are in the cables though. If you open the controllers at least the couple I have done so far and take a multimeter with the controller hooked to the system their is a connector right on top of the circuit board. you can measure the voltage across the wires and when you move the cable around in different places you can see the voltage go away and then move it again and it will come back. so the cord has a break in it somewhere. one of the controllers plugs in pretty loose at the system and when I wiggled it it killed my nuon 501 for a while and it scared me to death, but I was able to get it to come back on about 20 seconds later.

 

[Skah T]

Ah right, I forgot the connectors are sealed. At least a broken cable would explain why they were able to pass QC. The ones with swapped analog controls are another matter

 

[midnight8]

just opened up one of the connectors. the actual connector is a piece of plastic with little pins soldered to the wires and stuck into little holes. when I opened it up I yanked the wires out by mistake so now I have to figure out which one went where. it looks like a couple of those pins were bent possibly. they are very flimsy. I'm not sure if they were already bent or if i did it though.

 

[midnight8]

another thought for the ones with bad cords would be to cut the cord below where the bad spot is if you can find about where the break is and use a small project box to make an adapter so you could put a cord with a different plug on the unit and still keep your console intact. I'll check radio shack later to see what I can find.

 

[midnight8]

a quick update. I got 2 of these working this morning and all I had to do was scrap the pins on the connector clean. it takes a small like torch tip cleaner to do it. I am heading to radio shack to buy some contact cleaner and I'll see how many of them I can get to work like that.

 

[Skah T]

Ha! Wouldn't that be a laugh if all I had to do was clean the contacts? Well not so much a laugh as :banghead: