Repairing the Fairchild Channel F Plunger Controller

If you're here it means you're looking to fix a broken fairchild controller. More than likely one of your directions doesnt work. I bet you the first 5 people who look here will say its the UP direction. I saw many post for this question online with no answers. I hope this helps someone down the line.



Well I have good news and bad news and suggestions for you. The good news is that Ive mapped the color pinout to the controller port for you. UP direction is the yellow wire. Bad news is that it seems the yellow wire is not the same as the other wires. It is quite a bit thinner and prone to breaking.

More bad news is that you WILL need to desolder all of the wires from the contact points on the the inside of the controller. TAKE A PICTURE OF THE WIRE LOCATIONS. You then need to thread the black cable out of rubber protector at the bottom.
The break in the yellow wire from my experience is always be from 1 to 2 inches down from where the cable was entering the controller. Cut the cable 2 inches down and yank out the yellow wire. From there snip it and test continuity from that point to the corresponding controller port as seen above.

If its good then cut the cable there, if not then try a bit lower. If you're lucky you will have enough cable to just reuse it. If you're unlucky and the break is somewhere near the bottom then you will need a donor from somewhere else.
From here strip the cable a bit, and strip all 9 wires. Thread it back through the rubber protector at the end of the controller, and resolder all the wires to their correct positions.

Now you're all done. Just remember to not kink the controller cord as the yellow wire does seem a bit thinner. It can break again. So you may just want to replace the whole cord any way.