On February 28, 2018
Best Electronics started to work on one of the last Atari made Controllers that
Best has not Upgraded / Enhanced
to a Best upgraded Atari Lifetime controller. In the last 40+ years in the
Atari business, Best Electronics has upgraded the following Atari stock
controllers from the stock Atari made controllers that use to always fail early,
to a Best Upgraded / Enhanced Lifetime Atari
controllers. The Best Atari CX40 Gold
Joystick, the Best Gold Atari CX52
Joystick, the Best Atari CX30-S5 (5 lifetimes worth of normal use) Paddles, the
Best Atari CX24 Gold Slimline / Prostick
Joystick and now.........
Atari
CX78 JoyPad History.
15 to 20+ years ago (before the Internet and E-Bay), most US Atari console users
back then, never heard of or even seen the Atari CX78 JoyPad controller.
Back then the Atari Sunnyvale marketing department made the marketing decision
to only release the Atari CX78 JoyPads in the European Atari market place and it
was never released, talked about or even seen in the US Atari marketplace.
They were sold in Europe
with the Atari 2600Jr and Atari 7800
consoles and as boxed (See picture of the
Euro CX78 JoyPadretail box below)
replacement Atari CX78 controllers. So most Euro Atari console users grew
up using the Atari CX78 JoyPad only vs the same time frame, US Atari users grew
up
using the AtariCX40
and CX24
Joysticks.
Which really came
first, the Atari CX40 Joystick, Atari CX78 JoyPad or the Nintendo JoyPad?
Best does not know for sure, but they seemed to be released around the same
time frame in the early video gaming world.
Jaguar game Cartridge shells and internal Jaguar game cartridge PCB boards.
A month before Jeffery purchased one of the Atari CX78 JoyPads that have been
upgraded with the Best designed CX78
Gold Upgrade / Enhancement kits, that cure
the known stock CX78 JoyPad problems that cause all of
them to always fail early. "
I
ordered the 7800 gamepad from you guys at Christmas time and I just wanted
to let you know it is AWESOME"
Ricardo M.
of TX On his 1st Atari order to Best,
Ricardo picked up one of the Atari CX78 JoyPads that has been upgraded
with the Bests New CX78 Gold
upgrade Kits. It cures the known stock CX78 JoyPad problems that
causes all of them to fail early. Its also Enhances the CX78
JoyPad and Fire button features with new Tactical feed back functions.
On his second order to Best.....
"I
really loved the CX78 controller and now I want another one... :-). Can you
please confirm the total price with shipping for one "CX78 Joypad upgraded with
Best's New 2019
Gold
Enhancement Kit""
Best Electronics 1st
saw the Atari CX78 JoyPad controllers at the 15 to 20+ Atari Trade shows Best
attended / had a Best Electronics Atari booth all over European marketplace we
attended 20+ years ago. On a business trip to Holland, Best found pallets
and pallets full of Atari CX78 JoyPad controllers in an Atari Amsterdam
warehouse. Best purchased 2 pallets of the Atari CX78 JoyPads and had them
shipped by boat to the US. They landed in a seaport in Los Angeles,
California. Next they were trucked up from Southern California to our
Northern California San Jose Best warehouses, half way around the world again
and about 10 minutes south of the Sunnyvale Atari warehouses. At that
time, Best Electronics was the only
Atari Company in the US to have Atari Euro CX78 JoyPads in stock.
Atari Euro
version complete CX7800 console. Most US Atari users have never
seen this
Atari European distributed boxed 7800 console / version. Best
assumes Atari
had a different International language version 7800 box (and
the CX7800
owners manual to) for each of the Euro countries it was sold in.
This exact new
boxed Euro Atari 7800 console came right out of the Atari
Corporate
Headquarters building in Sunnyvale. It was located in the Atari
Engineering
department. What makes this a very unique Atari Collector
item, on the
back side of this prototype 7800 Euro box it is marked in black
felt pen,
"Approved Sample
09-29-88"
Stock
Atari CX78 Joypad construction and known problems
which
cause them to fail!
1.
The two internal Atari CX78 JoyPad PCB boards (the duel fire button rectangular
shaped PCB board and the separate square X / Y PCB) are made out of the very
very Old / weaker PhenolicPCB board
maternal (1st Generation, 1965 to 1980 Electronics PCB materials).
This is the very same early PCB board material that the stock Atari CX40
Joystick PCB boards and early 6 switch 2600 mother board’s and angled
switchboard assembly were made of 30+ years ago. It is very possible with
enough pressure / heavy game play on the fire buttons and X / Y JoyPad to crack
/ damage both of the stock Atari
CX78 JoyPad internal
PCB boards because of the older weaker Phenolic PCB material.
Typical Damaged / Cracked CX78
X / Y weak Phenolic PCB board front and back
views. Also notice the
quality of
the Gold
Plating on the X / Y CX78 PCB seems to
have a problem. Almost
looks like rust on the conductive back to back D shaped
contacts. Just another
possible stock CX78 X / Y PCB failure problem area.
With enough CX78 Game
play, any fractures/ cracks on the back side of the weaker Phenolic X / Y PCB
board would break thru the Gold trace side of the
PCB board (breaking / cracking circuit traces) and the X / Y CX78 JoyPad
functions would all stop working. To Bests knowledge Atari Europe never
released any CX78 replacement parts in Euro zone. Best saw lots (pallets)
of defective CX78 JoyPad controllers in the Holland Atari warehouse with at
least one or both of the internal Phenolic PCB boards cracked or broken in half
or bad CX78 cables.
2.
The three internal Silicon conductive pads (2 round fire button pads and 1 oval
shaped X / Y pad) used in the CX78 JoyPad used the same early version conductive
carbon dot technology used on the Atari CX52 Joystick Silicon pads which all had
a very very high (almost 100%) failure rate.
Inside
view of the top case of the CX78 JoyPad With the wire harness and the 2
attached PCB boards are
removed, showing the 3 carbon dot CX78 Silicon pads
Ask any old Atari 5200
console CX52 Joystick owner how fast the early technology Silicon Carbon dot
conductive pads went bad (went from a conductive carbon dot goes to a mega ohm
resistance across the well used carbon dot pad surface) which was unable to make
the switch closer (like a mechanical switch). One of the good features on
the stock Atari CX78 JoyPad PCB boards the helped the failing carbon dot pads to
extend the useable life of the CX78 JoyPads, was all of the mating circuit trace
pads under the failing carbon dot CX78 Silicone pads were Gold
plated. The Atari CX40 Joystick PCB board traces were either copper or tin
plated, which added to the CX40 Joystick internal PCB board failure problems.
The Atari CX52 Joystick flex circuits used tin plated circuit traces.
Inside view of the Atari CX78 JoyPad top case, less the stock CX78 cable, 2
PCB boards and 3 Silicon pads.
3. Because of the early Silicon technology used to make the 2 Atari CX78 JoyPad
internal gray Silicon fire button pads (like the Atari 5200 CX52 Joystick
left / right mushy red silicon fire buttons) they have no tactical feed /
bounce back feature when pressed and released. So you had a mushy
feeling on both CX78 fire buttons during game play.
You would only
know you made a CX78 (conductive carbon dot and
Gold plated
circuit trace) fire button internal switch closer, is when you saw some game
fire button action on the TV screen.
New
Atari CX78 JoyPad cable in location
Two used Atari CX78
JoyPads. Note one CX78 in cable (right picture) has a single bump on the outside cable
jacket and the other (left picture) has two bumps in the outer CX78 cable
jacket near the CX78 controller body. These bumps were formed (during
months / years of game play)
in the JoyPad in outer
cable jacket (8 inner wires starting to bind up / bend) location are where the CX78 cables would always 100% Fail
(break / fracture the 1
to 8 of the hair thin individual internal wire
conductors inside
the black outer cable
jacket) because the lack of a properly molded on cable
in strain relief.
One of the
major design problems on the Atari CX78 JoyPad design which would cause most well used
Atari CX78 Joypads to almost 100% fail was the lack of a proper molded on Cable
strain relief as the CX78 JoyPad cable as it goes into the CX78 JoyPad body.
The
above picture is the inside of the stock CX78 JoyPad top case. You can see
the CX78 stock cable is snaked / wrapped around the internal plastic bosses / studs on
the inside of the CX78
top case. This internal routing of the CX78 cable kept the CX78 cable from
being pulled
out of the CX78 JoyPad top case during Atari game play, but does absolutely
nothing to properly
strain relief the CX78 cable as it goes from the outside to the inside of
the
CX78 JoyPad case.
4. Essentially the
top and bottom Atari CX78 JoyPad black plastic cases, just clamped on the
CX78 JoyPad in cable diameter with no molded on strain relief to prevent
over flexing of the CX78 JoyPad
cable. On the outside of the CX78 JoyPad, the in cable was allowed to flex (up to
90 degrees or more) and bend at any sharp angles over and over as it went into the
CX78 top and bottom case during game play. So within months of hard
use or years of normal use (this
failure was accelerated with heavy / rough game use) of the CX78 game cable
flexing up / down / left and right flexing, the 8 separate small / hair thin
jacketed conductive copper wires within the CX78 main cable jacket, would
start to break / fracture / fatigue (bumps
in the outer cable jacket) right at the point where the CX78 cable went
into the CX78
plastic JoyPad case. When this happened certain features (sometimes all functions
depending on which wire(s) failed) on the Atari CX78 JoyPad would simply
stop working.
Side by side view of the
skinny diameter stock Atari CX78 cable, as it goes
into the CX78 JoyPad case (left) and the 1st Article sample of the
Best CX78 Upgraded / Thicker
cable (with larger gauge internal wires) with New Best designed / Custom made
CX78 "L" shaped strain relief cable (right).
The Best's New CX78 Enhanced / Rebuild JoyPad kit has the
following Best Upgraded components:
1.
The Atari CX78 two stock internal weaker very old school Phenolic PCB board material,
has been replaced / upgraded to the State of the Art FR4 much stronger Glass / Epoxy PCB board material (which most of the current electronic PCB boards are made out
of now). All
Traces on the Best CX78 internal
PCB boards have been 100% Gold plated. The circuit traces
(especially on the 9 CX78 internal wire attachment solder pads a long the edges of both CX78 PCB boards) on the older CX78 Phenolic boards would easily pull off / peal
off on the Phenolic PCB board material if too much soldering heat was applied to the
wire solder pads during CX78 PCB board assembly. Best specified the stronger
State of the Art FR4 Fiber Glass PCB board material because the all copper
Goldplated circuit traces and solder
pads are
better bonded to the FR4 PCB material and will almost never pull of the base FR4 Glass Epoxy
board material during the soldering or re-soldering process. The CX78 JoyPad cable
internal wire color codes are now etched in copper next to the CX78 incoming
wire solder pad locations on both internal CX78 upgraded PCB boards.
2.
The carbon dots on each the stock CX78 two round Silicone fire button pads
and the 4 carbon dots on the stock Atari CX78 X / Y Silicon oval JoyPad have been
upgraded to 6 Gold plated
metal disks. These are the same type of Gold
metal disks that Best used to upgrade the old carbon dot Atari CX52 Joystick Silicone
Fire buttons that chronically
failed all of the time to the Best CX52
joystick Gold Lifetime fire buttons. Ask any of
the
thousands and thousands
of world wide 5200 owners who have upgraded to
the Best Gold Lifetime CX52 Joysticks,
how well the Best CX52 2nd generation tactical feed back
Gold platedDot fire buttons
have
worked for them for over the 15+ years now.
3. All
3 of the new Best designed CX78 internal Silicon pads have also been upgraded to have
a new strong Tactical / Bounce back feed back feature when pressed and released, like the second generation Best CX52 Joystick
Gold Tactical Fire Buttons replacing the mushy feeling stock CX78 fire
button Silicon
pads.
See below for the audio clips of the
new Best CX78
fire button sounds made with the Best improved Tactical fire button silicon
pads. Although the stock Atari made CX78 X / Y Silicon pad has a
little tactical feed back feature to it, Best considers that tactical feed
back feeling very very poor and we
corrected this problem with the Best
upgraded / very tactical CX78 X / Y
Silicon pad.
4.
One of the Major upgrades in the Best CX78 JoyPad rebuild kit is the
completely New
Best Redesigned / Upgraded / Longer 7 ft (stock CX78 cable was
only 4 ft) CX78 cable assembly. Best went with 8 larger (beefier / stronger
/ larger gauge) diameter internal
wire conductors, which
also means a thicker outer diameter of the extruded CX78 wire
bundle jacket
which makes the Best CX78 cable less likely to break any of the internal conductive wires
during years and years (a lifetime) of continuous Atari game play / cable flexing.
5. A
new Best Custom designed CX78 "L" shaped strain relief (fully molded on the CX78 cable assembly) was
added where Best CX78 cable goes into the CX78 top and bottom case half's.
CX78
Bottom (left picture) and Top case (right picture. As can see there is very very
little free
inside room around the CX78 JoyPad top and bottom cable in locations. This
ruled out a stock off the shelf (existing / already paid for strain relief
cable molds) for
the new upgraded Best CX78 cable. It required Best to make
/ pay for a brand new
Custom injection mold to make Bests Custom designed New CX78
cable in molded on
strain relief.
Because of the
larger upgraded diameter wire and wider pass thru molded on Strain Relief
internal diameter thru the Top and Bottom CX78 stock in hole diameter used on the Best CX78
upgrade cable assembly, it
will require you to open up / drill out the old stock CX78 cable in smaller diameter hole (Top and Bottom case) slightly to a larger inside diameter CX78 wire harness hole, to
accommodate the larger diameter New Best JoyPad cable and new custom molded on strain relief.
6.
The
stock CX78 cable DB-9 Female connector body with its tin plated 8 metal
internal contacts have been upgraded to Gold
plated contacts on the New Best CX78 Upgraded /
Enhanced cable assembly.Each
Best Gold Plated DB-9 connector body metal
internal contact specifications was upgraded for more Insertion and
Extraction cycles before failure, compared to the stock CX78 DB-9 internal
contacts.
7. The Best
Electronics Name and Web site information is Silk Screened along the CX78 black cable
length.
8. Best specified, that all wire solder
joints on the two Best CX78 FR-4 PCB boards to be solder rosin free. Usually
fresh solder rosin (which helps hot solder to flow around a solder pad
/ joint) on a new solder joint starts out as a light
amber color and with age (years and years down line) turns a dark brown /
black color. Best felt this color change
over the years, might be
caused by the out gassing of the old solder flux material onto the two on the
stock CX78 PCBs circuits traces and onto the 3 silicon pads conductive
carbon dots making them
less conductive / effective,
causing both of them to failure early.
9.
The stock Atari 6 CX78 bottom case small black oxide or black cadmium plated Phillips
screws
that would always rust
with any kind of CX78 JoyPad use, are Replaced / Upgraded
with 6 new 304 Stainless Steel
Phillips type case screws.
Two used Atari CX78 JoyPads. Top
CX78 with the
Black Oxide plated Phillips rusty screws.
Below CX78 JoyPad
with rarely used bright
cadmium plated
Phillips rusty screws.
1st Article sample Stainless screw
samples.
After a month of testing, they ended up
being
bright cad plated screws that rusted under
water and salt water long term testing.
Final Best CX78 JoyPad upgrade kit has 304
Stainless Screws.
Like the last several Atari projects we have done with our main
manufacture, they said they production / manufacturing scheduled was booked
solid until mid July 2018. In preparation for the Best CX78 JoyPad Upgrade project, Best sent
several mocked up CX78 JoyPad samples with all of the improvements /
Enhancements / Upgrades Best wanted and a complete Word doc on the CX78
project early February
2018.
Mid July 2018 our
manufacture started to work full time on our CX78 JoyPad Upgrade project.
They sent Best several Engineering prints on the CX78 new upgraded cable,
the 2 new upgraded internal CX78 PCBs and the 3 upgraded Silicon
Gold plated dot pads. The print on the new
upgraded / enhanced replacement Best CX78 JoyPad cable had multi problems /
missing features we asked them for, but was not on the Engineering CX78 cable
print. Over two plus weeks, Best and our manufacture went round and round
over (receiving and rejecting Engineering prints) missing features we ask
them for. It seems they either misplaced the mocked up sample Atari JoyPads
we sent them in February 2018 or did not fully read or understand the
Engineering Word
Doc we sent them on the features and requirements for CX78 Upgrade project.
The main problem
area on the new Best CX78 upgraded replacement cable was Bests New custom
designed CX78 (into the JoyPad plastic body) molded on strain relief to fix the stock CX78 in
cable problem with no molded on Strain relief. Its new one of kind / unique Best custom design, had to cure the known CX78 internal wire conductors breaking
/ fracturing during years of Atari game play problem and still fit within
the very very tight and limited free space inside
the Atari CX78 top and bottom inner case features / construction without the
average world wide Atari CX78 JoyPad users having to make major / impossible changes /
modifications / hacks to the inside space within the existing CX78 JoyPad
inner case (almost fixed) internal design. This CX78 cable in Strain relief
design, also had to allow for the new
larger upgraded CX78 wire diameter. On top of all of those CX78 new cable
requirements, the new Best CX78 Upgraded / Replacement cable, must fit /
work on the two different
Manufactures versions (most Atari CX78 JoyPad users do not know fact) of the CX78
JoyPads made for Atari. Each version made CX78 JoyPads had slightly
differences / variances between them.
Early new CX78
cable Engineering prints submitted to Best, had a round larger outside
diameter shaped (like the end of a stock made Atari CX40 Joystick cable
molded on strain relief, as it goes into the CX40 bottom case) molded on
strain relief with smaller / step down molded on
round center diameter that passes thru the top and bottom CX78 case cable in hole.
Best rejected this molded strain relief design, because we knew because of it completely
round diameter thru design (outside and inside the CX78 case set), the new
CX78 cable and molded on strain relief would spin 360 degrees on the outside
of the CX78 case, with nothing to stop this movement between the CX78 Top
and Bottom case round cable in hole. With enough CX78 game play / years
use, the wires within the new round molded strain relief would again fail /
fracture from too much cable rotation, torque shearing action or
over flexing wire conductors within the CX78 cable in hole. The requested right
angle molded strain relief internal tab on the inside the CX78 was missing
from the CX78 cable print. So again Best rejected the CX78 print and this
information was sent back to our manufacture.
Close up
view of the New Best CX78 Upgrade cable features
The next CX78
cable print submitted to Best, changed the CX78 cable strain relief design from a straight in profile / style to a right angle
)to the CX78 outside case
molded on strain relief design. Again this CX78 cable print was
rejected.
One of the CX78
cable strain relief features Best requested from our Manufacture from day
one, was to add an extra small rectangular shaped molded strain relief body
attached to the strain relief
body inside the CX78 case. This extra right angle rectangular shaped body
would sit / in between the insides of the CX78 top and bottom case half's,
thus preventing the CX78 in cable,
molded on strain relief from rotating in the CX78 in case hole.
The next CX78
cable print did finally have the internal rectangular locking "L" shaped
strain relief
feature Best designed and required. But our Manufacture redesigned CX78 cable print with a large molded in square
shape design that passed thru / fits between a new mating square opening (in the
CX78 Top and bottom case half’s, our manufactures suggestion to prevent the
JoyPad cable strain relief from twisting between the CX78 top and bottom case halves). Again
Best rejected this CX78 Cable strain relief print because our world wide Atari CX78 JoyPad
users who would install this Best CX78 JoyPad upgrade kit, did not have an easy
method to modify the stock Atari CX78 case small diameter round small in hole, into a
larger (for the larger diameter wire) new plastic case set square shape in
the CX78 case cable in opening.
A few days latter
Best received another revised CX78 cable print. Instead of a round thru
diameter pass thru strain relief we requested, our manufactures cable
vendor, changed the square shaped
molded strain relief cross section to a D shaped one. Again Best rejected
the cable print again.
Side by side view of the of the stock Atari CX78 weaker
Phenolic PCB board set
left.
Right side Bests Upgraded /
Stronger state of the art FR4 Glass Epoxy PCB
board material. Note the
stock thin 28 AWG Gauge wires on the stock Atari CX78
board set and the 1st Article sample
Best CX78 board set with its 26 Gauge wires.
Also note the solder rosin
around each solder joint on the stock CX78 PCB boards
and rosin free solder
joints on the Best FR4 CX78 upgrade board set.
After inspecting
basic CX78 Cable print for over 2+ weeks, Best also noticed that on cable
print cable vendor had stripped off the outer cable jacket housing off all
of the wires inside the JoyPad body almost the length JoyPad internal case.
Best knew that with 8 exposed wires floating inside of the CX78 top and
bottom case, it would make for a very messy installation of the Best CX78
upgrade kit and would increase the chances of one or more of the 8 loose
floating wires within the CX78 case would get pinched, damaged or cut during the install
/ closing up process. Best asked our manufacture to ask the cable vendor to extend the
inner cable jacket (from the molded on strain relief) inside to the CX78
case so it would end
(expose the 8 wires) very close to the two CX78 PCB boards, so this would
minimize the exposed 8 loose wires floating around the inside of the CX78 case. So again Best rejected the latest CX78 cable print and sent another
rejection report with items on the print that
have to be corrected.
Atari
German 2600Jr Owners
Manual
with CX78 JoyPad
The free space
between the top and bottom CX78 inside case halves is so very limited and the exact location of the of the CX78 cable in case hole (right next to one
of the 6 CX78 JoyPad bottom screw holes, which means an internal CX78 case
top and bottom round molded support buss / cylinder was right next to the
CX78 cable in hole), which means you can only put the molded rectangular
shaped extra strain relief molded on inside tab / ear on one side the
incoming CX78 wire conductor only. A normal cable molded on internal strain relief design would have two rectangular shaped tabs on both sides of
incoming cable to prevent the cable from
twisting. There was simply no free roominside the CX78
inner case half’s to install a second locking tab on the other side of the
molded on inner strain cable in location.
End of July 2018,
Best received another revised CX78 cable print. This time it finally had
all of the
features and changes we had requested over the last several months and was finally approved by Best for production release.
All of the Best
CX78 JoyPad upgraded internal parts required a New Injection mold for the 3 Silicon pads
with Gold plated metal dots. A New PCB
Software program (Programmers time to write a
new program) to route out the 2 new FR4 PCB boards out of solid sheets of
FR-4 PCB material vs the older / more costly method of making a new stamping
metal fixture to punch
out the CX78 Internal PCB shapes. New CX78 cable DB9 connector body
(DB-9 and new molded on Strain relief) mold and new tooling to Silk Screen
Best name and Web site information along the length of the CX78 cable
length. Also all of the DB-9 molded on
connector body Female Gold plated
internal metal contacts, the Gold
plated metal dots (used on the
3 CX78 internal Silicon pads) had to be purchased up front. All which cost Best up a
front non refundable deposit of $,$$$ before a single prototype new CX78 part was even
made. This deposit was paid to our manufacture on July 14, 2018.
On August 21, 2018
Best sent the final payment $,$$$ balance to our manufacture to fully fund the balance
of Atari JoyPad
upgrade project. It now came down to waiting for the 1st article
JoyPad prototype parts for Incoming Inspection, Review and Engineering
function tests.
About a month
after we sent the payment to our manufacture, they E-Mailed us saying they had a
hurricane in their area of the world and their factory had same damage. So this added about
two month delay in getting to us the 1st article samples of the CX78 Upgrade components
to review.
Around November 6,
2018 Best received the 1st article samples of the new Best CX78 Joypad upgrade
kits. Right off, Best noticed 8 different major problems with the 1st article CX78
Rebuild / Upgrade kits which were not up to our CX78 Upgrade project spec's. A full 1st article receiving report was sent back to our manufacture, stating
these 8 problem areas are to be corrected before the final production run
was made.
The 1st article Best CX78 upgrade kits
were installed into 6+ used (non functioning) old Atari CX78 JoyPads and passed onto to
our Best CX78 JoyPad testers.
All testers said the over all weight of
each upgraded CX78 JoyPad went up, compared to the stock made Atari CX78 JoyPads, because
of the larger length cable and large diameter upgraded cable, custom made L shaped cable strain Best
used and the newer longer length of the CX78 cable. But after the Atari game play started, the extra weight
of the Best
Upgraded CX78 JoyPad was no longer noticeable.
All of the Best upgraded CX78 JoyPad
testers said they 100% loved the New Best tactical fire button silicon round pads. Gone is
the stock Atari CX78 fire button mushy silicon pads with no tactical feed back when the
CX78 fire button was depressed and released and it has now been upgraded to a crisp
feeling (requires a little more pressure to push down the CX78 orange / red fire button)
fire button with great tactical feed back (bounces back and hits your finger
tip) when the fire button is released. Most of the Best CX78 upgraded
controller testers said if they they let go (released) the CX78 orange
plastic fire button fast enough, they said they could get a mechanical click
sound out of the CX78 orange / red fire button as it bounced
back and hit the inside of the CX78 top plastic case.
A 1st Article receiving report was sent
back to our manufacture on 11-26-18 with corrective actions required.
Most US Atari Owners, have
never see this rare Euro 7800 Joypad display
box. This is
a front and one side panel views of the European Atari CX78 box
Here are a couple of the same sound bites
(click on one of the two buttons below) of the Best Upgraded new firm Tactical
Gold fire button upgraded Silicon round pads
being tested on a used upgraded CX78 JoyPad. As
each CX78 fire button was pressed down, it would reach a point in its
downward direction / travel and fire button round silicone pad would snap down (1st tactical feed back
feel) the Gold contact against the inner PCB board, this is the 1st lower pitch sound on the
sound bite. As the fire button silicon pad is released you will get the same reverse
tactical bounce back on your finger tip thru the fire button. The second
louder / higher pitch sound is when the released CX78 red plastic fire
button hits the inside of the CX78 top case. Listen to one of these
two sound
bytes and tell us if you do not think these sounds sound
like a mechanical push button switch bring pushed and released.
The Best CX78 upgraded JoyPad testers said
the new Best upgraded tactical X / Y silicon pad increased the pressure to actuate the
CX78 JoyPad by about 25 to 50% (depending which of the two different CX78 Joypad manufactures
made the CX78 controller), they all said the New Best Tactical X / Y Silicon
pad gives you a firm / cleaner / positive / crisp feeling CX78 Joypad with a tactical bounce back in all four
directions (vs the stock CX78 feeling Joypad X / Y with very little tactical
feed back), which translates into Atari CX78 game play with a more positive / precise movement.
So from the middle of November 2018 to
early January 2019, Best went back and forth with our manufacture to trying to work out
the 8 problems we identified in our 1st Article report we sent them.
Engineering corrected / updated new prints for review and approval or sent back for more corrections
One problem Best identified right off, was
the internal gauge / thickness wires
our Manufacture's cable manufacture used in the 1st Article CX78 cable samples was
about the same gauge (or looked like) wires used in the original CX78
cable cable. Although the cable manufacture claim they went from the stock Atari CX78
cable individual wire gauge from 28 AWG wire to the 1st article cable wire thicker gauge of 26 AWG wires.
Best knew there was a very very slight chance even the 1st Article thicker 26 AWG internal
wires with the thicker / larger diameter wires, might break 10 to 15+ years of during
normal CX78 Game play. But in most cases the Best thicker diameter
CX78 cable jacket and new custom made "L" shaped strain relief, would
prevent this problem. Best asked our Manufacture cable manufacture to
increase the Best CX78 Upgraded / Enhanced internal wire gauge to the
even thicker 24 AWG wires. Since the Best CX78 Joypad project was already fully
paid for up front, this meant Best would have to pay an extra charge
(another up front cost) per upgraded CX78
cable before the final cable production could be run / made.
A second point that Best went back and
forth with our Manufacture was over the size of the Gold
plated metal dot used on the 3 new CX78 Silicon pads. Our Engineering CX78 project specifications to our manufacture asked
them to increase the diameter of the stock old carbon dot diameter size of 4.5mm to a
larger metal dot diameter to match the larger mating contact pad size on the mating PCB boards. The 1st
article CX78 silicon pads (3) had 5 mm Gold
plated dot metal pads. They said that is the largest size
diameter Gold plated dot pads they have ever used before. We sent them a
picture of the the Best designed 2005 Atari 5200 CX52 Auxiliary pad with its 8 mm
Gold
plated dot pads. We
asked them to search and find some larger diameter of the
Gold
plated metal dots. About a week
later and half later, they got back to us and said they found 6 mm and 8 mm
Gold plated dot plated disks. But
if we went with 8 mm Gold plated disks, this
would cause a problem with the new Silicon pad mold. Essentially
it would mean that Best would have to scrap out the fully paid ($,$$$) for New CX78 Silicon
pad mold and start all over and pay for a brand new mold again.
Another week and half of back and forth with our manufacture, we came to a
compromise. Best agreed to go with the 6mm Gold dots
on both of the two round CX78 fire buttons and the X / Y silicone pad without any new
costs to modify the new existing Best mold. But this inside metal disk
diameter change required some dimensional diameter changes on the opposite
side / outside of the silicon pads (3) built up diameter pusher pads over
the metal disks. Best approved the updated Silicon pad changes on 01-04-2019.
Left stock CX78 Silicon
fire button pad. Middle is the Best 1st article sample pad.
Right Left is the 2nd
article of the final Black fire button pad.
Note the Best new tactile
design (reduced side taper design under the round top push
button section) to get the
pronounced bounce back tactile
feel and click sound as the
CX78 Red Fire button
travels rapidly back up and hits the inside of the CX78 top case.
Left stock CX78 Silicon
fire button pad. Middle is the Best 1st article sample pad.
Right is the 2nd article
of the final Best Black fire button pad.
Stock Atari CX78 fire
button pad has a 5 mm carbon dot pad that makes contact
with the stock mating 6.50
mm diameter Gold
PCB fire button contact pad.
1st Article Best CX78 fire
button Silicon pad has a 5 mm diameter
Gold plated
Metal disk.
The Best CX78 2nd article
/ Final Fire button black Silicon pad has a 6 mm
Gold
plated Metal disk that makes contact with the Best designed larger
8 mm diameter
Gold
PCB fire button contact pad. Which means more positive /
Increased fire button fire
button contact surfaces over the stock Atari
made CX78 fire button
carbon dot contact and mating PCB contact pad.
But of course the
bad
news, since the CX78 Upgraded project was already fully paid for, Best had to pay for the larger / thicker gauge CX78 cable wires and the 6 larger
diameter
Gold plated metal dots which cost more. On December 10, 2018 got the new costs
for these changes $,$$$ from our manufacture.
Also in this cost, was a extra charge
to upgraded the wire gauges on a new Best
Upgraded Atari CX40 replacement cable project that was running at the same time as of
the CX78 upgrade project.
On December 18, 2018 the extra payment was
sent to our Manufacture.
On January 4, 2019 Best finished some long
term Engineering receiving tests on the CX78 upgrade kit Stainless Steel
screws received on November 6, 2018. Sample screws went thru water and salt water bath testing for that
time period. The final test results on all sample screws was they were
not Stainless screws (starting to show rust all over the bodies of the screws), but normal Steel screws with
a bright cadmium plating. So another receiving report was sent back to
our Manufacture rejecting the CX78 kit screws
and informing them of this problem and they had to
correct this problem.
Left stock CX78 Silicon X
/ Y pad. Middle is the Best 1st article X / Y sample pad.
Right is the 2nd article
of the final Best Black X / Y pad.
Stock Atari CX78 X / Y pad
has a 5 mm carbon dot pad that makes contact
with the stock mating 5.80
mm diameter Gold
PCB X / Y contact pad.
1st Article Best CX78 X /
Y Silicon pad has a 5 mm diameter
Gold plated
Metal disk.
The Best CX78 2nd article
/ Final X / Y black Silicon pad has 6 mm
Gold
plated Metal disks that makes contact with the Best designed 6 mm
diameter
Gold
PCB X / Y contact pads. Which means more positive /
Increased JoyPad contact
surfaces over the stock Atari made
CX78 X / Y carbon
dot contacts and mating PCB contact pads.
On January 21, 2019 Best received 2nd
article samples of the 3 upgraded black silicon CX78 internal pads with larger 6 mm
Gold plated disks (see pictures and new
information above). Also in the same shipment was samples of
CX78 case true stainless screws for our tests. The new black silicon
pads passed all of the tests Best could think of. The
stainless screws met all of Best CX78 case
requirements but the screw total length was too long. So another 2nd article
receiving report back to our manufacture on January 24, 2019.
On February 19,
2019 we received an E-Mail in from our Manufacture saying after some
searching, they found a supplier that had type 304 Stainless Steel small
screws in stock. They sent 2 different Stainless Screw Engineering
prints for our review. Both screws
were the right type of screw we were looking for, but
was to long and the second screw
print met all of Bests requirements for the
CX78 JoyPad upgrade kits. So we E-Mailed
back the same day and told
our Manufacture which Stainless Screw / Engineering print we approved for
the Best CX78 JoyPad upgrade kit. The next day we received an E-Mail
back from our Manufacture saying they would send us some samples of the 304
Stainless Steel screw samples with some updated CX78 cable assemblies for
our final review.
On April 10, 2019 Best received the
upgraded / corrected final samples of the CX78 JoyPad upgrade kit. The
new sample CX78 7 foot CX78 cables, now has the Best part number and Web
site address silk screened a long the length. The 6, 304 Stainless
screws were indeed made from 304 Stainless steel and to Engineering print
spec's. Over all the CX78 kit components passed all Bests Engineering
requirements / specifications. But we did notice one minor sample
assembly step problem which could be easily corrected during the full
production run. So on April 11, 2019 Best E-Mailed our manufacture and
released the CX78 upgrade kit to their production line.
Final
approved version of the Best CX78 Upgrade cable. It has the thicker
24 gauge
wires Best required.
With the 1st deposit (for the two brand
new Injection molds (silicon pads and CX78 cable mold)), what we thought was
the final payment and the third extra payment for Best required CX78
upgrades to the CX78 Upgrade kit, the Best CX78 JoyPad project is now the most
expensive $$,$$$ Atari Upgrade project Best has ever done in the last 40+
years in the Atari Business. But we believe the final Best
Upgraded, Enhanced
Lifetime Gold CX78
JoyPad upgrade kit was worth the time and capital investment in it.
On June 19, 2019 Best received the 1st
shipment of the Best CX78 JoyPad upgrade kits!
So dig thru your old Atari controller box,
for that abandoned Atari CX78 JoyPad you did not like how it functions when you 1st bought it or
your old Atari CX78 JoyPad that started to fail or lost its basic functions
years ago. Upgrade it with Best's 2019 technology
applied
to a 25+ year old Atari CX78 JoyPad basic
design. Turn that old school Atari CX78 JoyPad into another
Upgraded / Enhanced Best Lifetime Atari controller.
1st article sample kit,
final Best
CX78 Upgrade kit has black
silicon pads.
The
New 2019 Best CX78 JoyPad controller Upgrade / Rebuild Kit. Includes the Best
designed New 2019 Upgraded / Longer / Beefed up CX78 cable, two New stronger
FR4 Glass Epoxy Gold plated CX78 PCB boards, New Gold plated
6 mm dot X / Y and two Fire buttons with
Gold plated 6 mm dot upgraded Silicon pads all with
New tactical feed back
functions, 6 new Phillips Stainless
Steel screws. The New Best CX78 Cable
is already soldered onto the 2 new stronger PCB boards, making
this CX78
upgrade kit, a solder less type of installation. All that required to
install this CX78 upgrade kit, is a
small Philips
screwdriver to take apart the stock CX78 JoyPad, Drill with
a small drill bit (or a rat tail round file or easy out
hole opener), small diagonal cutters and a small
Phillips screwdriver to put it back together.
Complete Best
CX78 Upgrade instructions included. CB103168 $36.95
Atari CX78 JoyPad
Upgraded with Bests Lifetime CX78 upgrade Gold
tactical feed back
kit. CX78-B
$59.95
Bests Atari CX78
JoyPad Upgraded replacement cable only with new Beefed up Strain
Relief / Longer 7
ft. length. CB103167 $14.95
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