The UAV Rev. D Video Upgrade Thread

[Grover Torbel]

Hi Brian.

I will also take two more.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fred Olivas]

I would like to order this video board for my 800XL computer. Please tell me how to do this.

[H454]

I would like to order this video board for my 800XL computer. Please tell me how to do this.

 

Read first post for Board options and how to order - he also has an audio board as well - post 491

Click on Bryan's name, than the send me a message button in the upper right to direct msg him to order.

Edited September 24, 2017 by H454

[bszarek001]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm having some issues with power as it relates to the UAV. I've reached out to Bryan, but I know he's busy and I haven't heard back yet. I'm hoping someone here has run into this and can assist.

 

I have a 2600A I'm trying to add a UAV to. The power in the unit is fine. I solder in my hookup power and ground wires and the power is fine (photo left- about 4.9VDC). As soon as I solder the other end to the UAV and test at the UAV solder points, I get about .8VDC.

 

 

I also have a six switch I'm trying to add a UAV to as well. As you can see I drew power from R231 and ground it in the old RF board ground pin. Power is fine when i solder in the connection wires. Then I solder the other end to the UAV and I'm getting nearly zero VDC.

 

 

I'm using 22 AWG solid core connection wire, which should be plenty to deliver 5V. I've also tried 20 AWG stranded connection wire that I have and get the same results. Am I missing something or could I potentially have some bad boards?

 

Thanks everyone.

[+Stephen]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm having some issues with power as it relates to the UAV. I've reached out to Bryan, but I know he's busy and I haven't heard back yet. I'm hoping someone here has run into this and can assist.

 

I have a 2600A I'm trying to add a UAV to. The power in the unit is fine. I solder in my hookup power and ground wires and the power is fine (photo left- about 4.9VDC). As soon as I solder the other end to the UAV and test at the UAV solder points, I get about .8VDC.

 

Photo Oct 01, 6 43 31 PM (1).jpgPhoto Oct 01, 6 46 02 PM.jpg

 

I also have a six switch I'm trying to add a UAV to as well. As you can see I drew power from R231 and ground it in the old RF board ground pin. Power is fine when i solder in the connection wires. Then I solder the other end to the UAV and I'm getting nearly zero VDC.

 

Photo Sep 28, 1 51 16 PM.jpgPhoto Sep 28, 1 53 59 PM.jpg

 

I'm using 22 AWG solid core connection wire, which should be plenty to deliver 5V. I've also tried 20 AWG stranded connection wire that I have and get the same results. Am I missing something or could I potentially have some bad boards?

 

Thanks everyone.

I think the issue may be with the soldering of the power connections to both pads. I recall something about cutting the fine trace in between the larger pads, and only soldering to the right side "half moon" if using the external power pads.

[Bryan]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm having some issues with power as it relates to the UAV. I've reached out to Bryan, but I know he's busy and I haven't heard back yet. I'm hoping someone here has run into this and can assist.

 

Well, it definitely looks like something got shorted. I hope you're using some kind of insulator between those metal clips and the board, though.

 

I don't have any spare boards until the new batch arrives but I'll be happy to send a replacement. If you want to send me the board you have, I can try to repair it.

 

I'm off to answer PMs now. Been working on several projects for people and sometimes I fall a little behind.

[bszarek001]

 

Well, it definitely looks like something got shorted. I hope you're using some kind of insulator between those metal clips and the board, though.

 

I don't have any spare boards until the new batch arrives but I'll be happy to send a replacement. If you want to send me the board you have, I can try to repair it.

 

I'm off to answer PMs now. Been working on several projects for people and sometimes I fall a little behind.

Thank Bryan,

I appreciate your time. I may take you up on that offer.

 

Question - could the issue be a result of the small trace between the two pads on the +5 pads as Stephen suggested? If so, I'll cut the bridge and give that a shot.

[Bryan]

Question - could the issue be a result of the small trace between the two pads on the +5 pads as Stephen suggested? If so, I'll cut the bridge and give that a shot.

 

That won't help. It only cuts the connection to the 16-pin socket pads which aren't in use.

[bszarek001]

 

That won't help. It only cuts the connection to the 16-pin socket pads which aren't in use.

Thanks Bryan -- appreciate it. If you wouldn't mind PM'ing me your address, I'll send them back. Thanks!

[Bikerbob]

Just wanted to say, love the new board Bryan, - but interesting enough, I got to my 800 (colleen) which I had done the simple AV mode you did years ago.. and on my LCD it looks fantastic, and at the moment I cant be bothered to open it up to put the UAV in

 

I have a 400 and another 800xl to do yet install in.

 

James

[+Nezgar]

I completed installation of my first UAV vD in an 800XL a month ago or so, and I've been thoroughly enjoying the crispy Luma/Chroma output to my Commodore 1701 since then. So odd to me to see output rivaling the 130XE. I had to turn the adjustment knob to prevent shimmering of single width highres pixels. (mostly pronounced with intentional artifacting vertical lines) Is that expected behaviour and fix? I soldered the included socket on top of my existing 4050 so that I could keep the RF modulator functional, so I had to cut a hole in the shielding for the high stack.

 

So.. on my S-Video output there still seems to be very minor noise, moreso on composite (which I care less about) - my question is if I have an easy potential change to improve the small interference I see.. I see others have soldered a ground wire from what is in my shot below the left most terminal block to the bridged resistor pack to the right. I have not connected that. If I do so, do I need to move any of the jumpers to prevent picking up the ground from the socket?

 

Thanks!

[Bryan]

I completed installation of my first UAV vD in an 800XL a month ago or so, and I've been thoroughly enjoying the crispy Luma/Chroma output to my Commodore 1701 since then. So odd to me to see output rivaling the 130XE. I had to turn the adjustment knob to prevent shimmering of single width highres pixels. (mostly pronounced with intentional artifacting vertical lines) Is that expected behaviour and fix? I soldered the included socket on top of my existing 4050 so that I could keep the RF modulator functional, so I had to cut a hole in the shielding for the high stack.

 

GTIA doesn't produce all high-res pixels at the same width. Thinner pixels may be lost if the control is turned too far clockwise and it will vary from machine to machine. That's one of the things I use the test program for (using the thin lines on the left).

[+Nezgar]

Great, that clarifies what I was seeing. Do you have any comment on the ground wire? Thanks!

 

Edit: sorry just saw a previous post where you suggested someplace close to the DIN jack. Curious to see if it makes a difference. Cheers!

Edited October 11, 2017 by Nezgar

[ckrtech]

I wasn't sure where I wanted to go - start a new topic in Hardware, in 8-bit computers, reply here...and I just decided to reply to this topic. Here is why -

 

I modded my Atari 2600 and XEGS for S-Video/composite about 8 years ago. New mods have arrived over the years (even RGB on the Atari 2600), and I was hoping to maybe tighten up the video mods a bit. Not to mention my number of Atari systems have grown (800, 1200, etc..)

 

Regarding the two systems from 8 years ago,

 

1: The Atari 2600 (4 switch) mod uses the Longhorn Engineer board 2.2D. I think it was revised a couple of times after that to 2.2F and then open sourced.

2: The XEGS uses the Mark Dusko document. (AFAIK, it looked the same as this in 2009: http://mixinc.net/atari/books/Super_Video_S_video_for_the_XEGM.pdf )

 

Both mods involved swapping resistors, removing resistors, swapping caps, adding caps, etc. Each system is certainly not stock anymore.

 

So now here is UAV, and the easy question is - does this thing basically completely negate any previous mods? Is it basically a reason to pull the Longhorn Engineer board, put the TIA directly back into the socket and plug this thing in instead (Provided I have a 4050 in my 2600)? Likewise for proceeding with the XEGS - don't worry about the changes the Dusko mod made to the inside of the XEGS, just desolder the wires leading to the S-Video port, drop in the UAV, and use its output instead?

 

Have any of you ripped out old mods in favor of UAV? (Money lost in the long term, but... worth it?)

[+remowilliams]

Have any of you ripped out old mods in favor of UAV? (Money lost in the long term, but... worth it?)

 

Yes, I've removed a retrokidz 2600 and an LHE 7800 video mod.

 

Absolutely worth it, the UAV is the best of the best

[hueyjones70]

Does anyone have a good set of pictures for a 1200XL install?

[+DrVenkman]

Does anyone have a good set of pictures for a 1200XL install?

Sure but its not hard at all.

 

EDIT:

Here you go, more or less:

This is the hardest part of an easy job. Lift one end or remove the two marked capacitors. The two inductors are where Luma and Composite video signals go.

 

Heres one of my installations (ignore the long wires - this was for testing; I neatened everything up eventually!) Yellow wire is the Color signal.

 

Heres where the Luma and Composite signals are inserted in the locations vacated by one end of each inductor. Alternately you could solder right to the video DIN jack. And on that note, the Chroma signal does just that - runs to the bottom of the board and soldered to the otherwise-empty Chroma pin where it goe through the board. This photo also shows the two lifted capacitors.

 

Hope this helps!

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I wasn't sure where I wanted to go - start a new topic in Hardware, in 8-bit computers, reply here...and I just decided to reply to this topic. Here is why -

 

I modded my Atari 2600 and XEGS for S-Video/composite about 8 years ago. New mods have arrived over the years (even RGB on the Atari 2600), and I was hoping to maybe tighten up the video mods a bit. Not to mention my number of Atari systems have grown (800, 1200, etc..)

 

Regarding the two systems from 8 years ago,

 

1: The Atari 2600 (4 switch) mod uses the Longhorn Engineer board 2.2D. I think it was revised a couple of times after that to 2.2F and then open sourced.

2: The XEGS uses the Mark Dusko document. (AFAIK, it looked the same as this in 2009: http://mixinc.net/atari/books/Super_Video_S_video_for_the_XEGM.pdf )

 

Both mods involved swapping resistors, removing resistors, swapping caps, adding caps, etc. Each system is certainly not stock anymore.

 

So now here is UAV, and the easy question is - does this thing basically completely negate any previous mods? Is it basically a reason to pull the Longhorn Engineer board, put the TIA directly back into the socket and plug this thing in instead (Provided I have a 4050 in my 2600)? Likewise for proceeding with the XEGS - don't worry about the changes the Dusko mod made to the inside of the XEGS, just desolder the wires leading to the S-Video port, drop in the UAV, and use its output instead?

 

Have any of you ripped out old mods in favor of UAV? (Money lost in the long term, but... worth it?)

 

Yeap..I removed both an LHE 7800 mod and Magic Knight's s-video board mod from my 7800, returned it all to stock condition and then put in the UAV rev D. The UAV is that good!

[hueyjones70]

Does it matter which gets luma and which gets composite.

[+DrVenkman]

Does it matter which gets luma and which gets composite.

Yes. Luma goes to L1.

[hueyjones70]

Thanks

[ckrtech]

Thanks for answering my questions, guys.

 

Anyone have comparison before/after photos of 800 stock vs UAV for composite and S-video?

[+DrVenkman]

Thanks for answering my questions, guys.

 

Anyone have comparison before/after photos of 800 stock vs UAV for composite and S-video?

I don’t have any right off-hand, but as you probably know, the stock 800XL doesn’t provide a Chroma signal to the DIN jack so no S-video available there of course.

[+Nezgar]

I dont have any right off-hand, but as you probably know, the stock 800XL doesnt provide a Chroma signal to the DIN jack so no S-video available there of course.

Stock 800 (not 800XL) had luma/chroma output though didn't it?

[+mytek]

Stock 800 (not 800XL) had luma/chroma output though didn't it?

Yes it did. Very ahead of it's time if you ask me.

 

- Michael