[Coco] Opening and cleaning an FD-501 controller.

[Joel Ewy]

William Schaub wrote:
> Darren A. wrote:
>>> I have an FD-501 controller that has been sitting in a garage for a
>>> couple of years, upon taking a close look at it it looks like its a
>>> bit dirty, I would like to open it up and clean it off before trying
>>> to use it.  I do also have a J&M controller but its still in St.
>>> Louis so that wont do me much good.  any tips for safely opening the
>>> cart and cleaning off the crud without damaging the unit would be
>>> quite helpful.
>>>
>>>     
>>
>> -- 
>>
>> Typically, all you need to do is gently rub the contacts with a clean
>> pencil eraser. The FD-501 has gold contacts, so they shouldn't have
>> very much crud on them. I doubt it would be necessary, but  using a
>> can of compressed air to blow away any accumulated dust is also an
>> option.
>>
>> Be sure to discharge any static electriciy on your body before
>> handling the controller board.
>>
>> Darren
>>
>>
>>   
>
> Canned air is fine. however how do I get teh card out of the plastic
> shell without breaking the shell?, 
Unfortunately, the label sticker on the top covers a screw hole.  I've
got an Orchestra 90-CC on which I tried to peel back the label
non-destructively to expose the screw hole.  That didn't go very well
and the label looks pretty bad now.  I also have a 26-3029 FDC on which
I simply found the screw hole with my fingernail (right on the '2' in
the catalog number) and punched a philips screwdriver through the label
to remove the screw.  It leaves a hole, but I think that looks less bad
than having a half-peeled-up label.

Once you have the screw out, there are some little tabs on either side
of the front end of the cartridge (the end that plugs into the CoCo)
that snap the case together.  One at a time, push inward (toward the PC
board and the back of the card) on the front (leading) surface of the
bottom half of the case near where the edge connector grounding ears are
unhook the tabs (bottom half) from their mating recesses (top half),
while gently pulling the two halves of the case apart.  It should come
apart really easily.  There are also similar tabs on the opposite end
(the ribbon cable end), but these will be loose once you have the front
tabs disengaged.

These cases seem to be molded from good quality plastic.  Mine are still
flexible and haven't become brittle.  They open and close very easily
and none of the tabs have broken off in 25-30 years, which strikes me as
pretty rare for snap-together two-part plastic housings.

Good luck.

JCE
> also it looks like something may have dripped inside of it through one
> of the vents...
>
> at least as far as i can see from the outside anyway.
>
>
>
>
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