Forums

New to collecting vintage games and building my collection. New to working on electronics and building my knowledge. So here's what's up. I just bought a master system. Boxed in great shape and complete minus the included game and rf box. Awesome. So I got a copy of the included game hang on/safari hunt. Fired up the system and started safari hunt. Light gun worked perfect. Played a few rounds. Again awesome. Reset and started hang on. 1,2,left and right work couldn't get up and down to work. Tried my other pad and nothing at all, stone dead. So trouble shooting time. Plugged in a Genesis control. Works perfect. Control port must be okay. Pulled apart both pads and cleaned everything really well. Tried again no different. One dead one partially working. Pulled them both apart again and just put a jumper wire to the (I'm assuming) positive power that connects the 2 small boards and touched it to each button contact and again just the the corresponding solder point for each button. Dead control still dead. Partially working one has all but down (can't tell up works on hang on without down) so I read up a fair bit and found a few possible causes related to the ports the Controls and even the wire itself. (Don't have a multimeter or even a test light) but I wanted to start narrowing things down. I tried both controls on my genesis and got the same results as my jumper test. One dead and one missing down. So 99% it's the controls. I'm thinking it's one of 2 things. One of the individual wires inside the main cord has broken somehow. Or what I'm hoping it is is just the the plug isn't making good contact on the pins in the port. Any advice would be amazing and any info about tightening up the female pins in the plug would help me continue my trouble shoot. Thanks (edit) I tried something a little odd and jumped the one that powers to the dead one. My kid has the Genesis going right now so I couldn't use sonic to test all the buttons quite accurately. But I did get response from up down and right. Button 2 didn't work so I'm not sure if 1 is working or not. I really think it's the contact in the plugs themselves.

you can test continuity of your pad with a tester
http://www.smspower.org/Development/PeripheralPorts#PhysicalPortConfiguration

Id say its probably broken wires in the cable. If your lucky it might be at the controller end. Try cutting the cable around 2 inches back from where it enters the controller and check the continuity. Some times you get lucky.

If that still fails its likely at the plug end, in which case youll need to replace the whole cable.

The best source ive found for replacement cables is extension cables. If you search for "sega controller extension cable" on ebay or aliexpress you will find them. They are only a few dollars and they are fairly close match to the original cable. Just cut the socket end off and your good to go.

You will need to check which wires go to which pins on these extension cables though! Even though the cable they have used has the same coloured wires in it, ive found that they are attached to different pins on the connector, so you carnt just match the colours up.

Alright well I hope it's not the cable. I have one thing to try this evening going with my theory of the plug end not making a good connection. And if that doesn't help I guess I'll have to track Down either another pair or just get my hands on some damaged Genesis ones... gotta keep the Sega logo on the plug haha trying to get the full set back together and as original as possible. But Thankyou for the reply and info. Hopefully my idea works and if not I know what to do from there :) also as a side note the SMS pads plug and unplug from both the SMS and Genesis super easy whereas the Genesis pads are nice and firm on all consoles SMS Genesis and 2600. So that's why I'm thinking it's maybe the plugs still.

An update for anyone who wants to read more of my ramblings. Got one pad fully functioning. The wire on pin 2 was dead. Found the break by just holding the down button with sonic on the Genesis and squeezing and bending the cord inch by inch. Cut out the offending section and spliced it all back together. Works great now and I can set the SMS up on my dedicated old gaming TV. It's a temporary fix for me as I'm very.... a word that starts with A I'm not sure I can say here... about all of my personal collection being 100% original and in good condition. So still gonna most likely replace both pads or atleast find some trashed Genesis contols willing to donate their cords. Thanks for the help

Author	Message
soufigured86 Joined: 17 Apr 2019 Posts: 8 Location: Canada	Noob needing some help and advice (sms) Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 2:59 am
	New to collecting vintage games and building my collection. New to working on electronics and building my knowledge. So here's what's up. I just bought a master system. Boxed in great shape and complete minus the included game and rf box. Awesome. So I got a copy of the included game hang on/safari hunt. Fired up the system and started safari hunt. Light gun worked perfect. Played a few rounds. Again awesome. Reset and started hang on. 1,2,left and right work couldn't get up and down to work. Tried my other pad and nothing at all, stone dead. So trouble shooting time. Plugged in a Genesis control. Works perfect. Control port must be okay. Pulled apart both pads and cleaned everything really well. Tried again no different. One dead one partially working. Pulled them both apart again and just put a jumper wire to the (I'm assuming) positive power that connects the 2 small boards and touched it to each button contact and again just the the corresponding solder point for each button. Dead control still dead. Partially working one has all but down (can't tell up works on hang on without down) so I read up a fair bit and found a few possible causes related to the ports the Controls and even the wire itself. (Don't have a multimeter or even a test light) but I wanted to start narrowing things down. I tried both controls on my genesis and got the same results as my jumper test. One dead and one missing down. So 99% it's the controls. I'm thinking it's one of 2 things. One of the individual wires inside the main cord has broken somehow. Or what I'm hoping it is is just the the plug isn't making good contact on the pins in the port. Any advice would be amazing and any info about tightening up the female pins in the plug would help me continue my trouble shoot. Thanks (edit) I tried something a little odd and jumped the one that powers to the dead one. My kid has the Genesis going right now so I couldn't use sonic to test all the buttons quite accurately. But I did get response from up down and right. Button 2 didn't work so I'm not sure if 1 is working or not. I really think it's the contact in the plugs themselves.

sverx Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Posts: 3869 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 10:09 am
	you can test continuity of your pad with a tester http://www.smspower.org/Development/PeripheralPorts#PhysicalPortConfiguration

wasup Joined: 05 Nov 2014 Posts: 435 Location: Auckland - NZ	Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 11:27 am
	Id say its probably broken wires in the cable. If your lucky it might be at the controller end. Try cutting the cable around 2 inches back from where it enters the controller and check the continuity. Some times you get lucky. If that still fails its likely at the plug end, in which case youll need to replace the whole cable. The best source ive found for replacement cables is extension cables. If you search for "sega controller extension cable" on ebay or aliexpress you will find them. They are only a few dollars and they are fairly close match to the original cable. Just cut the socket end off and your good to go. You will need to check which wires go to which pins on these extension cables though! Even though the cable they have used has the same coloured wires in it, ive found that they are attached to different pins on the connector, so you carnt just match the colours up.

soufigured86 Joined: 17 Apr 2019 Posts: 8 Location: Canada	Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2019 7:04 pm
	Alright well I hope it's not the cable. I have one thing to try this evening going with my theory of the plug end not making a good connection. And if that doesn't help I guess I'll have to track Down either another pair or just get my hands on some damaged Genesis ones... gotta keep the Sega logo on the plug haha trying to get the full set back together and as original as possible. But Thankyou for the reply and info. Hopefully my idea works and if not I know what to do from there :) also as a side note the SMS pads plug and unplug from both the SMS and Genesis super easy whereas the Genesis pads are nice and firm on all consoles SMS Genesis and 2600. So that's why I'm thinking it's maybe the plugs still.

soufigured86 Joined: 17 Apr 2019 Posts: 8 Location: Canada	Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2019 9:57 am
	An update for anyone who wants to read more of my ramblings. Got one pad fully functioning. The wire on pin 2 was dead. Found the break by just holding the down button with sonic on the Genesis and squeezing and bending the cord inch by inch. Cut out the offending section and spliced it all back together. Works great now and I can set the SMS up on my dedicated old gaming TV. It's a temporary fix for me as I'm very.... a word that starts with A I'm not sure I can say here... about all of my personal collection being 100% original and in good condition. So still gonna most likely replace both pads or atleast find some trashed Genesis contols willing to donate their cords. Thanks for the help

Forums

View topic - Noob needing some help and advice (sms)