Atari paddle controllers are misaligned

[Mozgus]

Maybe someone has a clue how to fix this. I got some authentic old atari 2600 tennis paddle controllers. The kind that are a rotating dial. Its basically just a variable resistor dial inside. I took them apart and cleaned them to fix the jitters somewhat, but what I cant fix is how off-center these are. Rotating fully counter clockwise leaves a few inches of a gap in Breakout, for example. Rotating back to about 50% (center), and the platform is almost on the far right of the screen. Then beyond that it flies off screen to the right. Like with all tech issues I have, I'm the only one in the world who has it and google cant find anything even remotely close to this issue mentioned anywhere.

[fastbilly1]

I had a set with the same issue. And after weeks of research and tinkering, I just got another set that did not have the issue.

My theory is that I jacked up the dial somehow

[Mozgus]

Hmm, well it was hard enough to find these two. And it's such a simple circuit. The issue has to be it either is resisting too little or too much. I may build new ones. There's guides online. You basically buy the potentiometer and just cut it down to size and wire it in.

Also I took apart the Atari flashback 8 and when I place my finger on the controller port pins on the backside it actually aligns player 1 perfect but not player 2. Both controllers go into port 1.

[fastbilly1]

Thats a new one on me. If player one works correctly, I would open both and try to match the settings. If not, replacing the pot is just three soldering points.

How did you fix the stutter issue? Just a qtip with alcohol?

Its been a while since I took one apart, but I think the usable range is only 60 degrees. Bacteria or CRT might know the details.

[Mozgus]

Yeah cleaning them out fixed most of the stutter.