Apple Joystick Potentiometers

[sixsevenco]

The potentiometers on my apple branded joystick (Apple Joystick IIe and IIc) are not producing the correct values.  This makes gameplay impossible for some games; others that have built-in calibration work fine.  I've tried spraying them with some DeoxIT Fader F5, with minimal improvement.  Is there a way to repair the potentiometers?  Or can someone help me source a suitable replacement in the US?  I've checked digikey and mouser, and I can't seem to find a suitable match...

Any help is greatly appreciated! 

 

[bibilit]

Potentiometers will be hard to locate, Apple was using 150 KOhm at that time, nowadays you can only find this kind of unit in the 1K to 100k range.

Another option (if your main goal is to play games) is to build your own Joystick from scratch using this tutorial:

http://quinndunki.com/blondihacks/?p=2225

Made one pretty cheap using this method, working far better than my original unit.

 

[sixsevenco]

Potentiometers will be hard to locate, Apple was using 150 KOhm at that time, nowadays you can only find this kind of unit in the 1K to 100k range.

Another option (if your main goal is to play games) is to build your own Joystick from scratch using this tutorial:

http://quinndunki.com/blondihacks/?p=2225

Made one pretty cheap using this method, working far better than my original unit.

Thanks for this, but I prefer the original apple joystick for more authentic game play.  Maybe I should just look into replacing the entire thing.

 

[DistantStar001]

I just searched Amazon for "150k ohm potentiometer" and found more than a few at that value.  Don't Know if they will work, but it might be worth a look?

To answer your original question on if these can be repaired, the answer is usually yes.  However, you'll have to take them completely apart to clean each individual component with 99% alcohol and a q-tip before reassembling it.  Spraying it from the outside doesn't always get into the mechanism.

 

[sixsevenco]

I just searched Amazon for "150k ohm potentiometer" and found more than a few at that value.  Don't Know if they will work, but it might be worth a look?

To answer your original question on if these can be repaired, the answer is usually yes.  However, you'll have to take them completely apart to clean each individual component with 99% alcohol and a q-tip before reassembling it.  Spraying it from the outside doesn't always get into the mechanism.

Thanks, I'll give this a shot. There was a dead bug inside the body of the joystick, so maybe there is something inside the potentiometer itself. 

 

[olePigeon]

I found 100K and 200K at my local recycler, but not 150K.

 

[Gorgonops]

Because of the way the Apple joystick circuitry works there are workarounds for using different value pots. Google up how to convert an IBM PC joystick for use with an Apple II and you'll get the gist. (TL;DR, by adding capacitance you can use a lower value pot, like the 100ks typical in PC joysticks.)

 

[bibilit]

Because of the way the Apple joystick circuitry works there are workarounds for using different value pots. Google up how to convert an IBM PC joystick for use with an Apple II and you'll get the gist. (TL;DR, by adding capacitance you can use a lower value pot, like the 100ks typical in PC joysticks.)

 

Just modified this afternoon a PC Joystick to work with an Apple II, cable and wiring is different, but potentiometers value was the same, so adding a pair of 470 Ohm resistors while cutting a pair of traces in the original unit worked a treat.

The vintage look was a plus when choosing this unit, only paid 10 euros including P&P.