The 4 replacement Mattel Hot Wheels controllers that I bought online look like they would work perfectly, but in reality they are an on/off switch. I've learned that the Mattel controllers are designed to work with a battery powered track instead of a wall powered track. So with a wall powered set up if you barely squeeze the trigger the car shoots off at almost full speed. Standard old TYCO controllers are rated at 70ohms. I took apart the Mattel controller and measured the resistance. I found when the trigger first makes contact it reads 16 ohms. In the #1 position it reads 7 ohms, #2 is 3 ohms, and #3 is 1ohm. This is a far cry from the 70 ohms of the standard controller. So here come the fun part, of the 4 old TYCO controllers I had it looks like the only thing wrong with them is the connectors. I took one apart and internally measured the resistance with a multimeter and it still works perfectly, so i looks like they can be saved. I've come up with two ways to accomplish this.
Tune up method 1: Replace Connector
The week point seems to be the connector gets tarnished, dirty, or corroded. You can clip off the cable from the Mattel controlled close to the handle, clip off the connector from your old controller, strip the insulation off of the wires and solder or butt splice the new cable to the old cable on the TYCO controller. You should be ready to rock and roll at this point. If you want to get a little more creative you can pick up some quick disconnects from Radio Shack and install those onto the wires instead. This way if you ever want to upgrade to a PARMA you can just install some quick disconnects on those and plug into the TYCO connector.
Tune up Method 2: Replace entire wire
This one is a little harder, but your controllers will work and look factory new.
Tools required: Small flat head screw driver, Small Phillips screw driver, needle nose pliers, and some wire cutters.
Step one: Seperate the two halves of both controllers
Using a small flat head screw driver seperate the two halves of old TYCO controller by gently working the halved appart. I started where the cable comes out the bottom and was able to work around the controller popping out the tabs. You may have to work at it but it shouldn't be too hard. Next up is the Mattel controller, good luck sepperating this one. It appears to be held together with super glue or something. Since we arn't trying to save this one feel free to break it open any way you want. But you should end up with something similar to the picture below.
Step two: Extract Cables
The TYCO controller's cable is held in place with a tiny screw. You can go ahead and remove it to free the original controllers cable. The Mattel controllers cable is held in place with a pressfit rivit. Using your needle nose pliers grab the boss between the two wire contacts and break it off. This will free the bottom half of the connection, but the spring and top half of the connection are still in place. Using your wire cutters cut the plastic boss in half freeing the pressfit rivit and in turn the wire and spring. You should end up with something like the this...
Step three: Install new parts in old Controller
At this point parts you can salvage from the Mattel controller are the trigger, the spring, and the cable. I choose to use the new trigger, spring, and cable in my old controller, but really you only need the cable if your parts are still in good condition. Transplant these parts into your old controller and it should look like this.
Step four: Finish up
Put the other half of the controller back on and get to racing.
End Notes:
I've fixed two of my controllers using method 2 and both work flawlessly. I honestly didn't come up with the first method until after I had done these. I'll be trying that one out in the near with some quick disconnects. Quick disconnects will allow me to easily swap out the controller for an aftermarket controller in the future.
I apologize for the photo quality as they were taken with my cell phone. My digital camera died a while back and I haven't replaced it yet.
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