Sega Saturn Mission Stick, refuses to work

Purchased a Japanese Sega Saturn Mission Stck and it refuses point blank to work, I can only assume that the stick is dead.

I'm using it on a PAL Model 2 Saturn, but as far I can tell there aren't any compatibility with the system and I also seen a video on someone playing a USA stick on a Japanese machine.

Have tested it with a number of PAL & Japanese games but no luck, Sky Target, After Burner, Wings Arms all official support it but nothing happens, the stick just appear dead and none of the buttons works, even on the system bios.

I did noticed that the main board has a capacitor on it and I wonder if that has died as the stick by all accounts hasn't been used for years.

Are there any common faults I might be over looking, can't find that much about the stick on the net.

 

It's helpful to anyone willing to help to see photos (decent quality!) of the board front and back and anything else you think is of importance.

 

x

 

Here's a picture of the front of the board as far as we could tell there was no issue with it or the back.

One thing I will say is the connector that plugs into the Saturn itself is really dirt and I've tried to clean it but not much luck, is there a guide somewhere as to how to open the connector up to clean it. A I don't want to damage it when I open it, there was some condensation I noticed on the connector when we took it out of the box.

It wouldn't be the first time I've bought an item from this supplier and had to clean the crap out of the connectors to get the item to work, had an issue with a N64 game I purchased from them once before which took me about an hour to clean, before it would work.

 

My personal recommendation for cleaning connectors is isopropyl alcohol and cotton buds/q-tips. For female connectors (like the ones one the end of controllers, or cartridge slots), I like to use these: http://www.hlj.com/product/GNZGT69/Sup
Granted, you don't need to have that EXACT product, but basically, they're thin, fine cotton buds that allow you to do the same thing as you otherwise would but in smaller spaces that regular cotton buds can't fit into.

Other than that, I'd suggest cleaning all the contacts on the board, and perhaps checking the continuity of the wires (from where they connect to the PCB, to the end of the socket). You might need to look up a Saturn controller pinout for that.

Make sure you clean the controller sockets on the Saturn, too. If you keep plugging dirty controllers in, that's not going to help (obviously).

 

First thing you suspect is the cable. I do own the North American version of that stick (black) and I am sure it uses the "smart protocol" for controllers so it need all wires working.

 

Does anyone know how to take the connector apart for the mission stick plug? Can't find a guide anywhere on the net despite it being a standard plug use by all controller. As I don't just want to force it apart with a screwdriver.

[Edit] Notice an odd bit of white fluff at the entrance port to the out wire I'm wondering if one is problem as the internal wires are really small and heavily twisted together wouldn't surprise me if one has split have to check it out more.

 

Hey guys, just thought I'd share my experience with this in the hope it can help someone as I had the exact same symptoms as OP.

I tried a multitude of stuff: cleaning the board and contacts on all the trubo switches.
I then turned my focus on the connector itself, I cleaned the outer metal sheild of the connector with iso alcohol then the inside pics with iso and a toothbrush. Still nothing.

Upon further inspection I could see that the outer metal shell of the controller was hazy despite cleaning it with iso alcohol, so I tested continuity of with a multimeter and there were areas that were not conductive at all.

SOLUTION (for me): So I decided to use a magic eraser(melamine) to scrub to outer part of the connector, after that the controller worked flawlessly

 

My mission stick doesn't work as well and recently I have found a trace that was broken due to corrosion by using a multimeter for continuity.
I would try checking the continuity from the pins on the controller pug all the way to the solder points where the wires connect on the board.
That way you can rule out trying to open the very strong Saturn plug casing and focus your tests on the board itself for broken traces.

 

Did managed to fix mine in the end, ended up heavily cleaning, both the Saturn's and Mission stick connectors ports until they were spot less, didn't have much dust on them to start with. That ended up fixing the problem, seems even the smallest amount of dust can cause problems for the Mission Stick.