Food Fight is driving me crazy

Started with my Food Fight joystick registering left, right, down, but no up
(this is an analog joystick remember). Found a cracked gimbal (gimbel?).
Anyway, it's the piece the holds/moves the pot. I still need at least one
of those, but I did get a temporary fix. I know the temp fix won't hold,
but that's another story. (If anyone has an extra gimbal they'd be willing
to sell, please let me know).

Now, the game loses the joystick calibration after a game or two for up and
down (left and right still work). I thought it was my temp gimbal fix, so I
switched the good gimbal to the up/down side, and my temp fix to the
right/left side. Problem still exists up/down. If I go into self test and
recalibrate, it works for a game or two, and then loses calibration again.
This happens mid-game, not just when shutting it down and turning it on.

So, it could be a bad pot on the joystick, or some chip on the board that
processes the movement of the pots. Before I unsolder/resolder the pot to
try another, any educated guesses as to what the most likely culprit is?
Also, what chip(s) is it on the board that control/process the analog
movement that could be bad, if the pot is good? Or something else
altogether?

Lastly, I was just about to swap in another 5K pot, when I noticed that the
arm on the original was only a half cylinder with a flat side, while my
replacement's arm was a full cylinder. I see that the set screw of the
gimbal is supposed to tighten against the flat side. Anyone know where to
get a pot that has the arm with a flat side?

Any advice appreciated, thanks,

Joe
joemagiera@ameritech.net

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Received on Mon May 19 21:08:58 2003