Non-techie with a vintage controller and a dream...

March 11, 2006 9:16 PM

I just found one of these (not the receiver, just a controller) at a flea market for $1. Would it be possible to turn it into a substitute remote for this?

I love this control. It's very cool looking, in a dorky mad-bomber kind of way. Curiously, the telescoping antenna on mine is classic metal, not black, and is about a foot long, fully extended. Could it be modded by either using the existing wiring or stuffing something inside and wiring it to the antenna? (sorry for the random airclick link, btw - the griffin site seems to be down right now) If someone out there with more technical know-how than me (ie anyone in the known universe) thinks it's worth a shot, I'll gladly crack the Atari controller open and email pics if it would help someone generate step-by-step instructions for mapping the volume/track Airclick buttons onto the four Atari stick directions and the Airclick play/pause button onto the Atari "fire" button.

posted by ericbop to Technology (2 answers total)

In order for it to work, you'd probably have to essentially fit the guts of the AirClick into the guts of the Atart controller. (Much like the Portable Rotary Phone, which is the same idea, only with a cell phone.)

The Atari Controller likely uses a very very very different frequency for its transmissions, not to mention other electrical differences. Depending on what's inside each one, you may have to do a fair bit of soldering and other fine electronics work. Since you're self-described as a non-techie, your best bet would be to find a techie friend in your locality. I'd offer to help, but since you're in NYC, and I'm in Rochester, it's a bit of a commute.

If you really want to try it yourself, you'll probably have to post some closeup pictures of the circuitry of BOTH the AirClick and the Atari Controller so that those MeFiItes with electrical engineering degrees can come out of the woodwork and help you out.
posted by fvox13 at 10:18 PM on March 11, 2006

The Atari joystick probably just has discrete microswitches for each direction and the trigger. All you need to is take a pair of wires from each microswitch to the button connections on the AirClick circuit board. This is not the kind of project that requires diagrams.

The internal AirClick antenna should work just fine, so you can ignore that aspect.
posted by cillit bang at 4:43 AM on March 12, 2006