Replacement Dogbone controller cord?

bog7

I am attempting to refurbish a damaged NES dogbone controller.   The controller itself is in excellent shape; unfortunately, the cord is a bit chewed up and doesn't work.  



When taking the controller part I noticed a distinct difference between the standard NES controller and the updated "dogbone" controller:  the cord of the dogbone controller has a connector on it which plugs into the circuit board, whereas the cord of the regular controller has no connector and the ends of the wires are soldered directly onto the circuit board.



With my limit knowledge in working with electronic components, the best option seemed to be replacing the dogbone controller cord with a new one.    Does anyone know of a source where I can get a third party or even OEM replacement cord, with the connector on the end that makes it compatible with the dogbone controller?



Alternatively, I'm sure it's possible to simply detatch the connector from the end of the ruined cord and connect it to the cord from a regular controller..  Has anyone done this and if so could you give a step-by-step including how to firmly attach the wires to the connector?



Your help is appreciated.





Edit:  I found some helpful information on an older thread which basically concluded that the Tomee reproduction dogbone's parts fit perfectly into the authentic shell, but there was no mention of the connector on the cord.   I have asked about this on the product listing for the Tomee controller on Amazon and will post the findings here.

The 8 Bit Redux

Easiest way would be to get a dogbone controller where the controller is ruined and use it for the cord.

Likely not the cheapest, but the easiest.

bog7

Originally posted by: The 8 Bit Redux



Easiest way would be to get a dogbone controller where the controller is ruined and use it for the cord.

Likely not the cheapest, but the easiest.

Not a bad idea but I get the feeling that won't be easy to find.     



The connector on the end of the cord shouldn't be hard to find.  Seems fairly standard.   Not sure what it's called though!    If I figure it out on my own I'll be sure to post it here.



I tried removing the damaged section from the cord and splicing each wire together, but with the rudimentary tools available I wasn't able to get the cord working.



 

CUSTOM NES GUY

I have original cords with plug here I can replace it with. Shoot me a PM if your interested.

SNESNESCUBE64

If you really want to take some time and slight soldering skills, you could get a reproduction controller (they run $5 - $15 depending on where you get it), unsolder the points connected to the wires (make sure the pins are the same) and solder them back. This is something similar to what I did making a controller that could work in the Famicom's 15 pin ext port, but obviously with a different output and pinout. If you would like, I can do a step by step explanation with pictures, just PM me.



I hope this helps your situation.

SNESNESCUBE64

Originally posted by: SNESNESCUBE64



If you really want to take some time and slight soldering skills, you could get a reproduction controller (they run $5 - $15 depending on where you get it), unsolder the points connected to the wires (make sure the pins are the same) and solder them back. This is something similar to what I did making a controller that could work in the Famicom's 15 pin ext port, but obviously with a different output and pinout. If you would like, I can do a step by step explanation with pictures, just PM me.



I hope this helps your situation.

My mistake, I was not aware that the PCB had a connector, as opposed to the originals which have the wires directly soldered onto the board. Please disregard the previous post.



 

darkchylde28

Similar to what SNESNESCUBE64 was suggesting above, I would think that you could take the cable from a generic/repro controller, or even a known good donor controller and just re-wire the cable. Cut the cable on your existing (but broken) cable about 6-12" from the internal connector. Strip the outer covering back and check out the internal wire colors. If they match up with the standard colors within a normal NES controller cable, you can just rewire the donor cable into the end of original and not have to worry about the plug, as it would stay intact. If they're not, just pop the controller-to-NES connector at the other end of the cable apart and see what wires go to what pins. There are a lot of diagrams available online which will tell you exactly which wires go where with OEM NES controllers; for the generic/repro controllers you'll likely have to figure this out on your own, but again, you can pop apart the end which goes into the NES then put it back together again to figure this out. Once you know which wires mate up together, I would trim the wire on your dogbone's internal connector closer to that end and do the splice so that it will end up inside of the controller. If you're able, I would solder the wires together, but in a pinch they can be cross threaded and twisted together for similar results. I would highly recommend using heat shrink tubing to secure each patch and insulate them all from one another and then either use a large bit of heat shrink tubing to cover it all (make sure to put your heat shrink tubing on everything BEFORE making your connections!) or use a bit of electrical tape to clean it up. This all might sound like a lot of work, but honestly it's probably about 20-30 minutes at most, including testing. As long as the entirety of your dogbone cable isn't bad, you should be able to salvage enough to splice that connector onto a new cord without too much trouble. Good luck!

CZroe

Can you just shorten your original controller? If not, the AV Famicom controller cords are shorter but interchangeable. They are cheaper because it was sold for so much longer there and you can usually get junk/broken ones for pretty cheap. I don't like the Tomee/Retrobit cords. They are MUCH too thin. You can splice the cord from a standard controller pretty easily.

Nes Freak

did you try an regular nes controller cord? id just solder in one from a regular