Replacement Binatone Paddles
Ok, so ages ago I got another Binatone Mk4 purely because I wanted an authentic nubbin and power supply. My original console was now complete… leaving me with a console that was pillaged. It had no nubbin, no PSU and no paddles. I felt sorry for it. I wanted to make amends! I’ve already documented how I made the new nubbin elsewhere on here. Now it’s the turn of the paddles. Binatone paddles for the Mk4 console were dayglo orange, I’d built some using small black plastic boxes, but these are only OK. I got a job from someone to build new paddles and I thought I’d go out to try and make them as authentic as possible, including the colour.
Browsing around I found project boxes that were almost the same size as the originals and this time the same colour. All I needed was a pair of 1M Ohm pots, a mono 3.5mm jack lead and a set of controller knobs to complete the kit.
First thing I done was cut the lead in half – 2.5 metres of cable gives a nice 1.25m lead for each paddle. Should be more than enough for a player to use, I reckon. You can make them longer if you like.
The project box is pretty strong looking – 4 screws that go into brass posts, too. Heavy duty compared to the flimsy originals!
Building the Binatone Paddles (Mk4)
Now I just needed to mark up the centre of the end of the box so that the lead can be run through to connect to the pot. I bit of trouble drilling them, as the corrugations inside make the thickness more than double of the wall.
Now, the lead ends will just need paring down and they are ready for soldering onto the pot. The pots had to have the small lug snapped off to make them site flush in the paddle box lid/top.
I’ll tie a knot in the leads once they’re passed through the box to act as a rudimentary strain relief. You can use whatever method you like.
So, the next step was to do some measuring and drilling! The hole needs to be dead-centre otherwise it’ll look really obvious! The Binatone paddles are starting to look nice!
Onto the threading of the lead and the tying off to make the strain relief – I’m sure there are better ways to do this, but we’re going old school for this old school style paddle! Then we hook up the wires to the potentiometer (1 Meg for responsiveness)
Then it’s a case of closing up the box, cutting the pot knob to size and adding the knob. Looks really nice!
If there was anything else that could be done it would be to paint the body of the knob black and top lid silver to make really stand out and have that Seventies retro vibe for these new-look Binatone paddles..
One last touch – here is an image for a label if you want to go really retro! It’s got that slightly silver feel to it. Just insert it into Word and adjust the dimensions to fit your controller. Crop if needed etc. Click on the image to get the full-sized version…
