How do clean the pots on my F22 PRO ??

I still have about a 1/2 squirt can of 3 in 1 oil that I bought about
twenty years ago. It was a very common oil. It probably still is. The
name is "3 in 1" so you can ask for that. I would check for it in just
about any hardware store. It is basically just a clean, non detergent,
light weight oil that was used for general purpose household stuff like
lubricating sewing machines, small electric motors, door hinges, fishing
reels, etc.

Just for the record, what is 3-in-1 oil (brandname) ??? I have asked for it
in the electronics shop, but they never heard of it. Btw I have had success
with contact cleaner, but every day I have to wiggle the stick forcefully
before starting a game to get a perfect joystick analyzer cross (without
spikes)

Erwin

The spiking on mine came back/never really went away despite spraying the
F22 numerous times, using it almost daily, and even after having TM check it
out when I sent it in after separating my F22 handle.

After reading the Fox2 data, I tried the 3-in-1 oil procedure. It worked
like a charm.

Jim Brennan
o-o-o-

I have some wd-40 but everyone uses that contact cleaner ! Do i need to
unplug the stick from the cpu ?

Thorsten Peter <-kl.de> wrote in article
<35F4196E.FBCC-kl.de>...

It's the grease used in the pots as a protectant. Wouldn't cause an audio
problem ( or you wouldn't notice it) but with the joystick it's real
obvious. I'd gotten an RMA number before trying it and the results
convinced me to keep the stick afterall.

JDW

Whenever I have queried this "Spiking" issue ( and my f22 has been repaired
by t/m., theres a statement that refers to "We are working on this problem"
from t/m and the spraying of the pots is a "Temporary" fix.
So when is this problem going to be resolved without resorting to cleaners
and the like ? I enjoy my f22 but shoudnt it work without secondary fixes?

In article <35F434DD.940BC@sbacka.pitea.se>,
says...

POT = Potentiometer

-Surfer
--
Phil "Surfer" Worthen
510th TFW_VMFA-333 Tres Equis



"If you're not having fun...you're doing something wrong"

Just one question...
What is a pot?
I

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#

Thanks to this helpfile from FoxTwo, I got my new F22pro stick working
correctly.
I used Philips Contact Cleaner 390CCS, 5 minutes work.
Finally, a working F22pro/TQS/RCS setup!! ;)

Erwin

Mark,

Here's another one for you. One of my jobs when I was still at ThrustMaster
was to grab a stick off the production line and take it home to test it.
When
I got one that had the spiking problem, I took the base off and sprayed the
inside of the pots with Tuner Cleaner from Radio Shack. Then I stirred the
stick around for a couple minutes and it cleared the problem up. The
problem would only return if I had to leave the stick sit around for a few
weeks without being used. Then it only required me to stir it around
vigorously for a couple minutes and the problem disappeared again.

I've done this with better than 25 F-22 pros and the Radio Shack Tuner
Cleaner has fixed every one of them.

This was true with every F-22 Pro I brought home that experienced the
spiking problem. The one I have at home now I've been using since
Jan this year. It had the spiking problem within one day of use - I
sprayed with Radio Shack Tuner Cleaner and it's been fine ever
since and it's now September.

Buzz Hoffman

go get some WD-40, it kicks ass

BOBA

Please note that the URL has now changed to:

#

Thanks

James

Colour TV Tuner Cleaner sold by radio shack has 5 ingredients, 2 rapidly
evaporating solvents/propellants, mineral oil, a fragrance, and dye. You
don't need the last two and IIRC radio shack charges an extra $1 for them,
as opposed to the (non-colour?) TV Tuner Cleaner."

From Fox 2 programmer #
Now there are a lot of reasons why this may be occurring, and you ought to
check out the Thrustmaster support site to see what they have to say. The
easiest cause to sort out is that you haven't calibrated your joystick
correctly. If this doesn't fix it, and you're definitely running your stick
of a dual port gameport, then I'm afraid your pots may be the problem.

Do use the Joystick analyser to see what your joystick is up to, especially
the zoom menu item if you're suspecting spiking around the central position.

You've really got 4 options here:

1) Send your stick back to TM to get it checked out and repaired if
necessary.
2) Oil the pots
3) Dismantle the pots and clean them thoroughly
4) Replace the pots (TM will send you some more if you ask)

Now, I had this problem with my new F22 Pro joystick from day 1 (my other
sticks never had any problems whatsoever). And this is how I fixed it. (Do
turn your computer off before you do this!)

I removed the rubber feet off the bottom from the base of the F22, revealing
4 screws. I unscrewed those, which hold the base plate in, and removed the
base plate. I then pored 3-in-1 oil into the pots, blew it around, waggled
my stick around for about 5 minutes (keeping it inverted) and then placed
tissue paper over the pots as I brought the joystick upright to drain off
the excess oil. (Make sure you don't get any on the circuitry.) Having
caught all the excess oil, I then wiped everything clean, screwed on the
base plate, and I've never looked back since. Worked a treat.

This pots problem is something that a lot of people have experienced and
complained about. I've collected here various posts from the newsgroups
which you may want to peruse to build your confidence up. Here we go then...

"In my experience, washing out the potentiometers thoroughly with WD-40,
then using a *small* amount of contact/TV tuner cleaner works for the full
lifetime of the potentiometer (a few years). Once the grease is cleaned out,
the pot will work fine. If you get spikes definitely attributable to the
potentiometers, then clean them again with WD-40, or open them up with
needle nose pliers and clean out the grease by hand, paper towel, or cotton
swab. It is that easy.

By the way, the Colour TV Tuner Cleaner sold by radio shack has 5
ingredients, 2 rapidly evaporating solvents/propellants, mineral oil, a
fragrance, and dye. You don't need the last two and IIRC radio shack charges
an extra $1 for them, as opposed to the (non-colour?) TV Tuner Cleaner."

" Actually the best thing for pots is a dry release lubricant sold at most
electronic supply stores. We use this on video game pots and works great
and is non-conductive however, it is damn expensive"

"The Radio Shack tuner cleaner doesn't help in the slightest. It cleans out
the dirt but I don't think that's the problem - the dam pots for some reason
just need some lubrication. If you can afford the dry release lubricant,
it's best!"

An interesting response to a user who found his joystick worked perfectly in
DOS, but not in Windows ...

"Have you checked "Enable Interrupt on poll" (or however it is called) in
your Joystick properties? If yes, uncheck it and it will become rock solid
in Windows also. On my system (as on many others) enabling the interrupt
during the gamecard polling leads to occasional spikes (every second or so),
which should not be confused with the spikes which belongs to bad pots"

"Hmm...I tried this a while back using some sort of contact cleaner that I
got at Radio Shack. I sprayed some into my throttle. Result: It worked
FANTASTIC for awhile, smoother than I'd ever seen before. But half an hour
later, it was absolutely unusable, far worse than before I sprayed it.
Seems that while the contact cleaner was forming a layer inside the pot,
contact was great, but as
soon as the stuff dried up, it stopped working...and in the meantime it had
severely damaged the contact surface inside the pot. I ended up having to
replace the pot."

"Just spray WD-40 using the long nozzle right into the hole in the side of
the pot. Soak them up good,.. drain them.. and your ready to go."

"I got my Thrustmaster F-22 3 or 4 months ago. Yes, after 2 days, my
joystick cursor in diagnostics was jumping around, and I determined that it
WAS the pots inside the joystick. But I fixed it quite easily. All you need
is a screw driver and some WD-40. Now, this might ruin your joystick, so do
this at your own risk. (I didn't have any problems).

1. Use the screw driver to open up the base.
2. See those 2 shiny gold things (the pots) on 2 of the sides? Spray the
WD-40 into the openings in the pots.
3. I saw a lot of fizz occur inside it. I THINK that is the WD-40 eating
away at the machine grease which is interfering with the contact.
4. Wipe up any of the WD-40 that came out of the potentiometer in you
joystick.

A lot of people said "That won't work. It will fix it for a little bit, but
bad pots are bad pots."

Well it worked for me! My F-22 is still working great! You may need to redo
the steps about 2 or 3 times after to get rid of all of the grease.

Again, try this at your own risk.

Good luck."

"I think the key for this fix lasting in the long term is to catch the
spiking early (and drown the pots, and repeat a couple of times too). Like
you, I was attentive at first to what things looked like in TMScope, and as
soon as I saw spiking (about 4 days), I took action... the first dose of
WD40 worked for a couple of days, but a second, far more liberal application
seems to have worked out all of the spikes once and for all. Or at least
the past 4-5 weeks. To be fair, there are a lot of people for whom this fix
does not work in the long term... It's really a pity - if it works, there's
not a stick that beats it, for any amount of money."

So do give it a go - it really didwork for me.