Naki wireless Playstation 1 controller

Today I'll be taking a look at an old wireless controller for PS1. This uses infrared for communications. Thankfully nowadays we have much better wireless solutions.
I tested the controller and it works kind of randomly. Sometimes button presses are registered and sometimes not. I'm hoping its only dirty contacts or pads and not the IR part that is giving problems.

Front before cleaning. Quite sturdy controller but still feels cheap. There is 1P/OFF/2P switch which can be used to select to which output the receiver sends the control inputs. I think this was originally sold in bundles with two controllers and one receiver. I have only one controller.

The IR transmitter lens.

The IR receiver. This has two plugs because it can handle two pads at the same time.

Back before cleaning.

Battery compartment. Looks clean. Usually these are filled with gunk from leaked batteries but this one was in pristine condition.

Eight screws hold the controller together. All the same size and no hidden screws.

The back cover can be just lifted up.

I left the L2/R2 triggers in place since it seemed that if I force those out they will break quite easily.

Front with PCB still in place. Quite normal construction. Main PCB with separate trigger PCBs that connect with wires to the main PCB. In the top middle are the two infrared transmitters and in the middle of those is red indicator led which lights up when IR signals are sent.

The PCBs can be just lifted up. Nothing special here. Some of the action button pads got stuck to the PCB.

Main PCB with stuck pads. All the control circuit magic is done with the black blob covered IC. The contacts were not very dirty so I'm afraid the issues are with the IR part.

The trigger button silicone pads are held with pull through posts. I was bit afraid to pull these out but they lifted up quite nicely.

Close up of the front with the IR transmitters.

All the washable parts. In addition to the lower triggers I also decided not to remove the D-pad assembly. It seemed that I would break it if would try to pull it apart.

Decided to open the IR receiver also just to see what is inside. Three screws that are exactly the same size as the controller screws hold this together.

Back cover can just be lifted up. Black blob again doing the magic.

The PCB can be lifted up from the controller plug. The plug is soldered to the PCB. Turning the PCB around revealed at least to my surprise quite heavily shielded IR receiver. I don't know if this was done to block other IR sources or to block electric interference.

The IR receiver inside the shielding.

Washable parts of the IR receiver.

Washed controller parts. One more thing I didn't remove was the battery contacts from the back cover. Again they didn't want to move without using too much force. Just made sure they got dried quickly after cleaning to prevent any rust.

Washed loose parts.

Front cover with silicone pads back in place.

PCB cleaned with isopropyl alcohol.

PCB back in place.

Back cover and battery door back in place. Some fresh batteries inside.

Controller and receiver ready to go. Unfortunately cleaning did not revive this one. Looking at the infrared transmitters with camera that picks up IR also it seems that the controller is sending the IR stream just fine. However the transmitter only translates these to commands every once in a while. I'm thinking the IR receiver in the receiver part is dead. Well you can't always win.