Silicon Sam wrote:
> On Mar 1, 12:13 am, "Michael J. Mahon"  wrote:
>> Hatta wrote:
>>> I picked up an Apple II joystick, model A2M2002.
>>> The joystick works just fine, but the buttons
>>> don't work.  
>>> I can open up the joystick, and bridge
>>> the connections and peek at the buttons
>>> and see them work. So I know the connection
>>> is ok.
>>> When I press the buttons they click, so the
>>> switches ought to be engaging. So I'm pretty
>>> sure the switches are bad. They say "omron b3f"
>>> on the back of them.  But there appear to be
>>> many different types of these.  Does anyone
>>> know what switches I can get to replace these?
>> There's no need to guess whether the switches are working.
>> You can test for continuity across the switches when they
>> are pressed with a multimeter (under $10 and infinitely
>> useful) or even with a battery, a resistor, and an LED.
>>
>> If you look at a schematic of the joystick and the pinout
>> of the connector, you can check both switches without opening
>> the case.
> 
>   He did say he bridged against the switch connections, and they
> worked, so I would assume that the switches are bad.

Now that I re-read his post, I see that he did.  At first
reading it wasn't clear what "they" it was that worked.  ;-)

The simultaneous failure of two out of two switches (even after
repeated operations) is quite rare unless the switches are
obviously damaged or of very poor design.

-michael

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