Super Advantage Controller

[Timepants]

Hello, I'm new to this forum. And I have a couple of questions. Hopefully not all my posts will be silly questions. :)
I recently bought a used ASCiiWARE Super Advantage controller for the Super NES, and I'm having trouble with the buttons. The action buttons all seem to get "caught" if I hit them on the edges rather than the center. This doesn't happen *too* much, but it's enough to be annoying.
My questions are: is this just the way the controller is, or is there something wrong with the controller? Which brings me to my next question: How do you open the damn thing? The only reason I'm asking any of this is because I couldn't get it open. After I unscrewed it, I was stumped; I can't figure out how the metal plate on the bottom is attached. I've taken apart most of my other controllers (mostly out of curiosity, really), and never had this problem.
Any helpful advice or links would be appreciated.

[bargora]

I don't have my Super Advantage in front of me right now, but I seem to recall that when I was taking apart my NES Advantage, I ran into a similar problem. I took out all the screws but the metal plate wouldn't come off!

It turned out that there were additional screws hidden under the rubber feet. If the Super Advantage has rubber feet on the bottom, I'd bet that there are more screws to undo, after which the plate will come right off. So peel 'em off and check.

The good news is that once I cleaned the !@#$ off of my buttons (which were sticking like yours are) they stopped getting stuck.

[Timepants]

Aha! Thank you very much, you're exactly right.
Y' know, I did sort of think of this, I guess I just didn't try hard enough to peel them off. ^-^
I'm going to try cleaning it out later. I think this will fix the problem, since it never happened with my NES Advantage (which I bought brand new from Toys 'R Us on clearance a few years ago... the stuff I buy buy brand new tend to stay pretty clean)
Thanks again!

[§ Gideon §]

It turned out that there were additional screws hidden under the rubber feet.
Thank you. I just found myself in the same situation as Timepants over there. I suspected there were screws under the rubber feet because you can kind of feel the imprint when you press down on them. But I didn't want to remove those unless I was sure. Do they stick again after taking them off?

[bargora]

It turned out that there were additional screws hidden under the rubber feet.
Thank you. I just found myself in the same situation as Timepants over there. I suspected there were screws under the rubber feet because you can kind of feel the imprint when you press down on them. But I didn't want to remove those unless I was sure. Do they stick again after taking them off?
I don't think they stuck on their own afterward. But they stick after you use some Elmer's Glue-All! (I picked that one because it sticks well enough to hold them on, but not so well that you can't get the feet off again if you need to get inside the controller once again.)

[§ Gideon §]

Yeah, they don't stick at all. Instead of gluing them back on, I was thinking about using rubber feet with pits in the middle, so the screw head is still exposed.

I noticed that the Super Advantage is pretty impressive on the inside. It's not cluttered, and it's got a durable design--the supporters underneath the PCB where the buttons hit; the heavy, metal base; the copper channels being sealed; the mock power/reset buttons being separate pieces, instead of being painted on... The only thing wrong with the design is the three-position switches. They're basically metal legs that scrape (very slightly) against the PCB. This creates two problems: scratches across the PCB and possible loss of contact. For example, after putting it back together two of the switches didn't work. I swapped the metal legs, and the problem vanished.

It's a blast to play with, though! I never had so much fun with F-Zero.

[GarrettCRW]

The only thing wrong with the design is the three-position switches. They're basically metal legs that scrape (very slightly) against the PCB. This creates two problems: scratches across the PCB and possible loss of contact. For example, after putting it back together two of the switches didn't work. I swapped the metal legs, and the problem vanished.

Amen, though I'm no big fan of the slider for the turbo power, either. Still, an impressive controller, and a mighty successor the the NES Advantage.