Strange Unit with RED PCB - Opinons required please!

[Johnywilson]

Hey Guys,

 

First time poster, long time reader here.

 

Anyway, In a nutshell, a friend of mine aquired a Sunnyvale light sixer that in my opinion has some very strange things going on with it. I have searched and searched and cant realy find any info on most of the weird things going on with this unit.

 

I would love to hear what the pro's of AA have to say about this console. All opinions, conspiracy theory's, facts, guesses are welcome and will be appreciated

 

Here is a list of things that sets it apart from some of my other light sixers:

1) It has raised and bevelled switch slots

2) The Atari Logo is narrow with a high R

3) It has some sort of Red RCA plug connected to the RF out

4) It has no speaker vents.

5) It has no colour band around the switches

6) The wood veneer does not go all the way to the top of the unit? see pics for example

7) It has a RED PCB Board????????

 

Other Info:

Serial # 62818

Mainboard: C012283 REV 1 (Red Board???????)

Switch board: C012173 REV 1

 

Images of this VCS can be found here at the original owners website:

http://www.the-liberator.net/site-files/retro-games/hardware/Atari-2600/atari-2600-odd-6-switch-woody-sunnyvale-rev-a-1978.htm

 

Let me know what y'all think?

[jmetal88]

I thought the beveled switch plate was standard. I don't have my light sixer with me, but I was pretty sure it had a beveled switch plate. The wood grain, the lack of speaker holes, and the funky R on the Atari logo are definitely odd, though. I can't remember what color my PCB was on top. Probably tan or something.

 

EDIT: And what's special about the RCA plug on the RF out? I thought they all had RCA plugs. Which part is red? Maybe it got damaged and replaced?

 

EDIT 2: Also, the pictures on that website actually have the speaker holes. I've seen them on two light sixers I found in a local pawn shop, one of them you could see from the front of the console, the other you had to turn around and look from the back to see.

Edited September 9, 2012 by jmetal88

[jmetal88]

I just looked up some pictures of mine that I posted back when I got it. The bevels on my switch plate might be slightly flatter than those on yours, but I'm not totally certain about that.

 

Here's the post: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/76656-the-official-heavy-sixer-serial-%23-list/page__st__975#entry2344877

 

Notice you can't see the speaker grills on mine. I couldn't remember which one I bought from the pawn shop, but it turns out it's the one where you can only see the speaker holes from the back. Mine is made in Taiwan, though. At the time, I was confused as to what made a heavy sixer, so that's why I posted in that thread, haha.

[Avon Fox]

I came across this post totally by chance and saw it was my old Six Switch and my site you're talking about.

 

To add some more details with regards to Dragonstomper's reply:

 

The speaker slot difference that I thought was odd was that from the front you can't see the speaker slots as you can on what I'm used to seeing with a six switch woody (compare the two photos below).
It may also just be that in Australia the lower photo was more common.

 

The RCA lead I'm fairly convinced was original and looked factory made. It is a standard RCA (red rubber sheath) plug at the TV end and a RF plug on the console side as pictured. The RCA end would not fit in to a RF in on a TV so if it was replaced then it wasn't used for standard TV input. This was the first thing that got my attention when I bought it to start with.

 

As you said, the wood grain not coming right up (compare below for new comers), the PCB colour (check my site) and a number of other component and slight variances that were all seen on one unit certainly kept me interested for a while.

 

I could account for the variances if it was just when the units started to get made elsewhere but it's stamped Sunnyvale and does have that feel of being cobbled together.

Fingers crossed one day someone replies back with an answer on this on.

 

[Urbanshadow]

Hi, I stumbled upon this post searching info about a 2600 light sixer model I recently restored.

Apologies for the necrobump.

It has a top red bottom green main PCB with C012173 REV 1 written on it.
Outside case seems of a regular light sixer, maybe a donor.

Outside case has "72550" serial number. No letter. From Sunnyvale.

 

Usually double colored PCB are done for manual assembly.

Red implies you should not solder in that side of the board, only in the green one.

 

This unit has flat heatsink for the voltage regulator, like a heavy sixer, but has two capacitors around the power on switch, like a light sixer.

Internal RCA for RF was brown colored. Unit is NTSC.

 

For the record, has "OK!" written over the red side of the board. I cannot date the writting, but someone tested the board.

Copyright of the PCB is 1978.

 

I hope this brings some light into the mistery.

[+batari]

On 12/9/2020 at 9:45 AM, Urbanshadow said:

Hi, I stumbled upon this post searching info about a 2600 light sixer model I recently restored.

Apologies for the necrobump.

It has a top red bottom green main PCB with C012173 REV 1 written on it.
Outside case seems of a regular light sixer, maybe a donor.

Outside case has "72550" serial number. No letter. From Sunnyvale.

 

Usually double colored PCB are done for manual assembly.

Red implies you should not solder in that side of the board, only in the green one.

 

This unit has flat heatsink for the voltage regulator, like a heavy sixer, but has two capacitors around the power on switch, like a light sixer.

Internal RCA for RF was brown colored. Unit is NTSC.

 

For the record, has "OK!" written over the red side of the board. I cannot date the writting, but someone tested the board.

Copyright of the PCB is 1978.

 

I hope this brings some light into the mistery.

I have found some Atari 2600 game PCBs with red soldermask over the years. It’s certainly not common but I have found a few. I’m not sure what it means but maybe they used red for new board designs they were evaluating and when they found they were fine they put the boards into the general assembly line.