Do you have one of the Classic Atari CX40 Joysticks that is not working well? We have the perfect Solution for you.
When it comes to all Joysticks you have to consider them like Tires on a Car, with enough time, use or abuse they will have to be replaced or rebuilt. Fortunately the Atari CX40 Joysticks were so well designed 23 years ago (and supported by Best Electronics), that a simple Atari Original Equipment Manufacture (OEM)
Basic Rebuild kit can bring your non working or poorly working Atari CX40 Joystick(s) back up to like New condition (in 95 to 99% of cases) for years and years of extended use.How hard is it to do an Atari CX40 Joystick basic rebuild?
Basically you need a Phillips Screw Driver, small flash light and the Skill level to change a tire or battery on a car.
The
Basic OEM Atari CX40 Joystick Rebuild Kit (Internal CX40 Handle and Printed Circuit board) will Cure about 95% of the Atari CX40 Joysticks with problems. In the other 5% percent of cases, you will need an Atari CX40 Joystick Cable, rubber boot, boot ring or fire button spring.History
Over the last 20 years Atari made two basic styles of the Atari CX40 Joystick. Both styles look just about identical from the outside at quick glance. The Early Atari CX40 Joysticks (
about 5% or less of the Total production ever made) had a different internal Construction, compared to the Bulk of the Atari CX40 Joysticks made, which the Basic Atari CX40 Rebuild kit pictured above will rebuild. You can tell the difference from the early version Atari CX40 Joystick by looking on the bottom of the CX40 Joystick case. The Early version CX40 Joysticks had the 4 Phillips screw heads about 3/16 of an inch below the surface of the joystick bottom case. On the Bulk of the easy to rebuild Atari CX40 Joysticks, the 4 Phillips screw heads are about 5/8 inch below the surface of the bottom case. The Basic / Common parts you can replace on the Early version Atari CX40 Joysticks are the X Y PCB board and the joystick cable.Things to check first
Before you start to rebuild or buy any replacement parts for your ailing Atari CX40 Joystick(s), check the following:
damaged female contacts or broken male pins inside the female contacts (if you can see the female contacts). In most cases you will see some contact holes (1 to 3) which are empty (do not have any female contacts in them at all) this is normal.Check the Female end of your Atari CX40 Joystick connector/plug for
Check the CX40 Joystick Cable for Cuts in the black outer jacket, Exposed copper wires, sharp bends in the wire, especially around where the cable goes into the back of molded joystick female connector.
Shake the CX40 Joystick and listen for any loose broken plastic parts floating around the inside of the case.
If you hear some broken plastic parts inside, open up the CX40 Joystick and check to see if the Joystick Bottom case internal center black cone shaped stud (the CX40 Handle bottom support) is broken off. If this cone shaped support stud is broken, consider the CX40 Not rebuildable.Check the CX40 orange Fire button. Check the inside fire button center stud / small diameter round post that makes direct contact with the CX40 fire button Dome Contact on the mating CX40 Joystick PCB board. Sometimes because of too much thumb pressure used on a failing CX40 fire button / contact, this CX40 fire button small diameter orange center plastic post / stud mushrooms over (shorting it's total length), so this short fire button post will no longer make proper contact (push the CX40 PCB contact so it makes contact with the Mating fire button PCB trace) with a new CX40 Fire button Dome Contact.
Rebuild Instructions
The following Atari CX40 Joystick rebuild instructions are for the 95% of the Atari Joysticks made
with 4 deep screw holes.Turn the Atari CX40 Joystick upside down and remove the 4 Phillips Screws and set the screws in a safe place. Hold the CX40 Case together with rubber boot down. Carefully lift the bottom of the Atari CX40 Joystick off the top case with the rubber boot just a little. Look inside the CX40 Joystick and note how the Internal Atari CX40 Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is oriented to the orange fire button, which side of the PCB board the 5 silver contacts are located (facing down) and how the PCB sits on the two aligning studs/pins on the top half (inside) of the CX40 Joystick top case. As you slowly remove the bottom half of the CX40 joystick case off the top case, look for the small spring that sits on the Orange/Red Fire button center stud and below the X Y PCB board, remove the fire button spring and put it in a safe place
. It is VERY easy to loose this small spring if you are not careful. Also note which one of five silver contacts on the CX40 X Y PCB board in under the Fire button, this will help you reassemble the CX40 when you have replaced the Old PCB with the new one.Before you remove the
damaged or worn out old white Atari CX40 Handle out of the rubber joystick boot (top half of the CX40 assembly), note where the square locating plastic tab is located on the bottom of the joystick bottom plastic ring and it relation / orientation to the inside of the CX40 top case / Fire button. This square tab on the bottom ring of the CX40 handle should fit between the two small black studs (bosses) at the 12 o’clock position (fire button located at the 1 o’clock position). For proper operation of the Atari CX40 Joystick, there is only one way this handle fits into the Atari CX40 top case half.Over the 20 years the Atari CX40 Joystick was made, they used basic styles of CX40 Internal X Y PCB boards (both are interchangeable). One style had wires that attached on either side (left and right) of the PCB board and the other version is like you see in the picture below, with all of the joystick wires mounting on one side only.
To properly remove the Molex slide on metal contacts (attached to each of the joystick wire ends) off the old CX40 Joystick X Y PCB board,
only grab or pull on the metal contact itself (top and bottom), do not pull on the thin wire that attaches to the Molex slide Contact, they will pull off the stamped metal contact very easily! Note how the Molex triangular shaped spring contacts, slide on to X Y Printed Circuit board with the mating flat Metal contact / surface area. It is possible (180 Degrees off) to wrongly slide the Molex slide contact back onto the new replacement CX40 X Y PCB locations without the mating metal contact making the proper electrical contact.If you are converting (changing over) from the Atari internal CX40 X Y PCB with the left and right wire mounting locations like this:
Orange Brown
White Blue
Green Black
to the below pictured Atari CX40 PCB with all on one side wire mountings, here is the wire Color Code Sequence starting at the top right (3 o’clock Position) to bottom right side edge of the PCB (with the sliver X Y switch contacts facing you).
Brown
White
Black
Blue
Green
Orange
When reassembling the Rebuilt Atari CX40 Joystick,
it is a good idea to twist (holding the X Y PCB board) the loose single color coded Joystick wires into a nice single tight wire bundle (an Old Atari Assembly Trick they learned early in the assembly of the CX40 Joysticks). This will lessen the chances of pinching a single loose floating wire between the top and bottom CX40 cases when you are reassembling your Rebuilt Atari CX40 joystick. A pinched joystick twisted wire bundle will Not allow you to properly close up the Atari CX40 top and bottom case set, but an untwisted / loose single joystick wire trapped between the top and bottom cases will allow you to close and damage / cut the CX40 Joystick wire when you are tightening up the 4 Phillips Screws.Turn your rebuilt CX40 Joystick over (bottom side up) and
inspect (using a flash light) each 5/8 inch deep screw hole (before you insert any screws) in the bottom case for any exposed / pinched or trapped internal joystick wires before you insert and tighten up the 4 Philips screws.One of the Best 2600 Games to test your Freshly rebuilt Atari CX40 Joystick(s) for proper operation is Atari Missile Command.
You can easily check the 8 way X Y directions for the Joystick handle/cursor movement and fire button functions.About 16 - 17 years ago, Best Electronics also looked in selling these silver colored little Metal CX40 joystick PC board contacts as another method of repairing Atari CX40 Joysticks. What we found and also received much negative feed back from our Atari CX40 Customers, once you lift the clear adhesive tape (that holds down these dome contacts over the PC board contact areas) to replace the so call 5 bad dome contacts (it is usually not the dome contact that goes bad, but the copper contact on the PC board that does), the repaired Atari CX40 PC board would only last about 1/10 the normal usage compared to a new replacement CX40 PC board. What would 100% of the time happen with these replaced dome contacts, is they would start to walk around the CX40 PC board (under the clear tape) with a little CX40 Joystick use, because the reinstalled clear tape did not have enough left over adhesive to properly hold the new replacement dome contacts in there proper locations.
Over the 23+ years we have been in the Atari business, we have always found it is best to 100% replace both the Atari CX40 PC board and CX40 white Plastic inner handle in matches sets for the maximum Atari CX40 rebuild life. Anything less (like using used parts with new replacement CX40 parts, new dome contact and so on) may seem to work for a little but Atari CX40 Joystick will go bad a lot sooner.
Here is a list of the more common requested Atari CX40 OEM Joystick parts based on the last 23+ years of sales:
Atari Stock CX40 Internal PCB board CO121110 Sold Out
Best New Upgraded Gold CX40 Internal PCB CO121110G $6.50 each (Minimum 3 Qty per order)
For more Information on the
Brand New Best 2005 Design, upgraded Atari CX40 Gold PCB click hereAtari CX40 Rebuild Kit with Atari Upgraded CX40 Handle and Best Gold CX40 PCB Board CB101211UG $9.95 each (Minimum 2 Kits per order)
Atari CX40 Upgrade Joystick Handle CO12116U $3.95
For more Information on the New Atari Upgraded CX40 Handle click on the button
Atari CX40 Rubber Boot CO121109 $4.95 New Limit 5
Atari CX40 Boot retaining Ring CO12110 $2.00
Atari CX40 Orange/Red Fire button CO12114 $1.25
Atari CX40 Fire button Spring CO12951 $.50
Atari CX40 6 conductor Joystick cable CA014058 $3.95
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