Robotron Wico joystick skipping in 1 direction

[Thraug]

When I move my Robotron Wico joystick left it repeatedly and rapidly skips on and off. All of the other directionals work on both sticks. These sticks are freshly installed New-Old-Stock Wicos, installed in a JROK multi-Williams PCB.

I've tried the follow:

• Adjusting the leaf switch spacing
• Cleaning the leaf switch contacts, by putting a cardboard piece between them and pulling it out.

Is this a switch problem? I have spare NOS switches I can install but since I'm new to this I figured I ask the experts before swapping parts.
Is it a wiring problem?

Here's a link to a short video showing the problem:


Here's a pic of my connections:

[opt2not]

Check the ground wire connection.  It's possible there's a break in the wire, or the crimping to the QD isn't right.

[Thraug]

Check the ground wire connection.  It's possible there's a break in the wire, or the crimping to the QD isn't right.

Would it matter if I cut the end of the ground chain off? The JAMMA harness' ground daisy chain had about 25 ground terminals and I cut off the end of the chain I didn't need.
Also, newbie question, what is QD? Quick Disconnect?

Lastly, my JAMMA harness has "quick" connect terminals, as seen below, and while they are quick to connect, they are a royal PITA to remove. I connected everything on my workbench to ensure everything was working, then I disconnected all of the wires. A learned mistake, as most of the connections were so hard to remove I used a small screw driver to pry open the terminal a little bit to avoid breaking off the post. Is there good/easy way to remove these quick terminals? I had to crimp many of them back into shape before putting them on, and I likely didn't get all of them into the best shape.

My connections, as they are now. Is the spacing of these contacts good? I watched a lot of videos on how to get these correct and adjusted all of them to around ... ~4mm apart.

[PL1]

Would it matter if I cut the end of the ground chain off? The JAMMA harness' ground daisy chain had about 25 ground terminals and I cut off the end of the chain I didn't need.

As long as as it reaches all of the switches, removing the excess length won't matter.
- Some people connect both ends of the daisy-chain to ground.  That way even if there's one break in the chain, all of the QDs are still connected to ground.

what is QD? Quick Disconnect?

Yes.

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/Wiring#Quick_Disconnects




Scott

[leapinlew]

And less possible, make sure the connection it makes when you press left is firm and not lightly touching

[Thraug]

I disconnected, reformed, and reconnected any wobbly ground and line terminals and it was better but that single left direction was still skipping. It skipped less, but it still skipped, and diagonal NW and SW movement was not smooth. I also noticed the MOVE -> RIGHT was also skipping, but much less than MOVE -> LEFT.

I ended up replacing the MOVE LEFT and MOVE RIGHT leaf switches with spares I (thankfully) purchased. One switch was a new-old stock and the other was a reproduction. That did the trick, and all moves and fire are smooooth!!

Thanks everyone! It's Robot Fighting Time (Battlebots reference)!! 👾

[opt2not]

Awesome, glad you got it sorted 

[yotsuya]

I disconnected, reformed, and reconnected any wobbly ground and line terminals and it was better but that single left direction was still skipping. It skipped less, but it still skipped, and diagonal NW and SW movement was not smooth. I also noticed the MOVE -> RIGHT was also skipping, but much less than MOVE -> LEFT.

I ended up replacing the MOVE LEFT and MOVE RIGHT leaf switches with spares I (thankfully) purchased. One switch was a new-old stock and the other was a reproduction. That did the trick, and all moves and fire are smooooth!!

Thanks everyone! It's Robot Fighting Time (Battlebots reference)!!

Leaf switches are prone to getting dirty and worn out. Glad the new ones fixed things.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pbj]

It’s two pieces of metal touching each other.  The only reason they wouldn’t work is because they weren’t touching each other.  Poor alignment, broken switch housing, or dirty.

[opt2not]

my bet is the metal of the leaf tongs might be broken inside the plastic housing. so even if the two leafs are contacting on the outside, its possible inside the small plastic block housing the metal could be fractured. I'm curious what a continuity test would bring up from the tip of the leaf tongs to their QD ends.

[Howard_Casto]

I've had that happen before.   An imperceptible amount of corrosion can do it as well.   Leafs are a pain unfortunately.