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Atari 2600 cap and voltage regulator kits


mojoatomic

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Updates:

Mar 13 - All kits now include a tube of heat sink compound -

 

21018B60-7DF7-4DE1-A4CB-4DE07D28C040_zps

 

Includes C242 & (C241) .1uf, C243 2200uf 16v, C214 & C201 4.7uf 50v, A203 LM7805 Voltage Regulator & a 820ohm precision resistor for 4 switch consoles that require the TIA modification.

 

These are are high quality fresh parts that I use in my repairs.

 

$7 shipped to any address in the continental US, at cost elsewhere.

 

If Atari had installed these originally, you wouldn't be needing one now :-) simply the highest grade, American Made Switchcraft jacks. There are none finer. $2.50 additional per.

AD139593-A6FF-42B2-B013-E90A09C0A574_zps72109717-4F4B-4E20-B185-3B9F405C0A55_zps

Edited by mojoatomic
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Thanks to all who took a chance on me this weekend with your orders. First for sale post on AtariAge!

 

To to all those that did, I'm including something that's hard to find now and rather scarce. I hope you guys like it, and can use them. It means a lot to me, and I just want to say thank you.

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LM7508 Voltage Regulator

I believe it's a 7805. :P

 

Are the 7805s they sell at Radio Shack comparable? I replaced mine and the "Chicklet" some time ago, cured my "snow" issues.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/199541-atari-2600-4-switcher-intermittant-fuzzy-reception/

I also installed the 820 ohm as well, in 2015 I believe... ;-)

 

Surprised there aren't more parts honestly. Some cap kits for later consoles have dozens of parts.

 

 

axial capacitors can be stupid in price, so if you want a kit, shipped I think this is a fair deal

Are they really that uncommon? Axial cans, 2200uF, 16V or higher...

https://www.google.com/search?&q=2200uf+axial+capacitor

 

That said, I think it's a very fair price the OP is offering for this kit. Most online retailers charge up the wazoo for shipping and small order fees. Good luck mojoatomic... :thumbsup:

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7805 is a 7805 for the most part, really old ones have a lower current capacity, and you can get some that have a little more than 1 amp (though heat rules still apply) , LM prefix is for the national semiconductor part, I think they actually invented the things in the first place though I could be mistaken

 

and no they are not uncomon, but axial parts are not that popular that's why you see them in the 1-8 dollar range on google, vs a radial is in the 75 cent range :)

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I believe it's a 7805. :P

 

Are the 7805s they sell at Radio Shack comparable? I replaced mine and the "Chicklet" some time ago, cured my "snow" issues.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/199541-atari-2600-4-switcher-intermittant-fuzzy-reception/

I also installed the 820 ohm as well, in 2015 I believe... ;-)

 

Surprised there aren't more parts honestly. Some cap kits for later consoles have dozens of parts.

 

 

Are they really that uncommon? Axial cans, 2200uF, 16V or higher...

https://www.google.com/search?&q=2200uf+axial+capacitor

 

That said, I think it's a very fair price the OP is offering for this kit. Most online retailers charge up the wazoo for shipping and small order fees. Good luck mojoatomic... :thumbsup:

 

The 7805's at Radio Shack are fine I'm sure - it's just that they're so proud of their stuff nowadays.

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BTW, these are for 4 switch kits - I had no idea there would be such demand for 6 switch kits... so - I've got the components on order to make that happen as well.

 

Here's how the kits will work...

 

4 switch kit - this will work for all 4 switch woody and Vader models, regardless of revision level

qty 2 .1uf caps for C241 (C242)

qty 2 4.7uf caps radial

qty 1 7805 voltage regulator

qty 1 820ohm precision resistor for pin 6 & 9 of TIA - to apply the "blanking resistor" tech tip # 4 on pre revision level 16 2600A 4 switch models

 

6 switch kit - this will work for all 6 switch models, heavy and light sixers

qty 2 .22uf caps for C103 & C104 (on the switchboard)

qty 2 4.7uf caps radial

qty 1 7805 voltage regulator

resistor mod not required as it's already present from the factory

 

In all cases, the 4.7uf caps will be radial. The supply for 4.7uf axial caps in the needed range is drying up, and the only ones I can find are nearly 10 year old stock or older - which makes them worthless. Rest assured, radials are electrically identical and work perfectly fine.

 

Here's the deal of why 2 kits are needed - other suppliers are selling 1 kit for all machines, but they don't include the correct caps for heavy and light sixer models. The idea is that you replace the .22uf caps with .1uf caps in the heavy and light sixer models. You could - but why not complete a proper repair the correct parts to begin with?

 

Bottom line is - the schematics were drawn with .22uf caps in those locations.

 

I should have all parts to complete heavy and light sixer kits mid week -

Edited by mojoatomic
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Would anything bad happen if I installed the .22uF film "chicklet" cap in lieu of the .1uF on the 4-switcher? Why was it replaced with a .1uF? Cost reduction? Perhaps the 4-switch console pulled a lighter load and didn't need as much filtering?

 

Another thing nobody ever taught me when I studied Electrical Engineering Technology: Why the difference between film and ceramic caps, or non-polar electrolytics? I totally understand that electrolytic caps should never be used in AC circuits or anywhere a reverse in polarity is likely, but what would happen if someone say substituted a cheaper and smaller .1uF ceramic mylar in place of the square film cap? I don't imagine anything would blow up but would noise suppression suffer?

 

I've also seen many circuit schematics where a .1uF ceramic mylar cap was placed in parallel in a DC schematic along with a much larger electrolytic for filter purposes, because large cans don't filter high frequency ripples as well as the smaller ceramics do. And generally the ceramic .1uF are meant to be as close to the IC as possible, where some lenthy PCB traces might separate it from the larger electrolytic filter cap.

 

Skippable rant...

And yes, I am very much aware of situations where "ideal" components function according to basic math whereas practical components have an equivalent schematic which requires more complex math to compute. Passive components get an "ideal" rating, then a second level simulation with added parallel/series virtual components to approximate actual perfromance (with added math), then a third real world performance characteristics which involves stuff like temperature and loading characteristics and requires advanced calculus to compute the remaining performance differential. But most projects don't require "NASA" levels of precision so the second approximation covers the vast scope of most projects when working within component tolerances.

Once I built a1000x gain amplifier circuit to convert 1mVPP waveform generator to 1VPP and manipulated the component values until my real world amplifier was completely distortion free. It used OpAmps and transistors to convert the signal to 1V PP. I then reconstructed the modified circuit into Multisim for the lab report and the output in Multisim was skewed compared to my real world results, because the modifications I made to correct the real world circuit added distortions to the simulation. My lab partners totally bailed on me around 4:30 that afternoon, and I stayed in the lab until 8:30pm Thursday night tweaking the circuit before I closed shop and got some much needed nourishment from the Subway up the street. I got an A on that lab assignment, and so did my lab partners by proxy since their names were in the report... :P

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In this circuit - nothing bad would happen. Lots of guys are trying to keep their units as original as practical, and I like to accommodate that. But it's a fair question.

 

The heavy sixer does pull more current and will benefit from the .22uf caps, but lots of people can and do put .1uf in their place because it's conveinent to do so. In the long run, the ripple presented to the 2600 will be higher, but I see no percentage in empirical testing :-). There's just something about keeping it as close to original as practical that appeals to me, and a segment of others I believe.

 

As as to difference in caps - it's really about the *best* material for the job, and the practicality of using that material in certain volume to create values.

 

For example, ceramic or film for suppression. The 2600 has examples of several types employed for this task - poly for most revisions, but strangely not rev 8 boards... The vast majority of all caps on these are ceramic. They all work for a time, I just prefer poly for power supply suppression (close to supply) - they seem to work better, longer in this task.

 

Polystyrene is generally accepted as defacto for audio circuits - and it is in fact warmer. The 2600 uses poly 820pf caps for audio, and it sounds great! The issue is they're hard to solder and damage very easily under heat. Not suited for much else really.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got the kits for my sears heavy sixer and my Vader.

 

Am I right that there is no C201 on the ver. 16+ 4-switch? My Vader is a v17 and I cannot locate it and I see it is not highlighted on your schematics in the other thread.

 

The kit really cleaned up the RF on my Vader. Hard to tell on the Sixer which has a 2600RGB. I'll have to see if I can try the RF on that console as I left in intact.

 

Thanks!

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Got the kits for my sears heavy sixer and my Vader.

 

Am I right that there is no C201 on the ver. 16+ 4-switch? My Vader is a v17 and I cannot locate it and I see it is not highlighted on your schematics in the other thread.

 

The kit really cleaned up the RF on my Vader. Hard to tell on the Sixer which has a 2600RGB. I'll have to see if I can try the RF on that console as I left in intact.

 

Thanks!

Sorry for the slow response on this, not sure how I missed it :-)

 

That's correct, there will NOT be a C201 on ver 16+ units.

 

Glad to hear it straightened out your Vader! No need to live with funky RF, it's just to easy to fix.

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its not the end of the world if old or no grease is used (in this application)

 

in fact it might be a tiny bit better than most atari's I open where some yutz used the entire damn tube of the stuff on it. the idea of it is to fill in small gaps and scratches tween the two objects (like break out the microscope gaps and scratches) and usually a thin film of the stuff accomplishes that ... and still squishes out when you tighten things down

 

when you use a pile of the stuff it's of course not as good as direct metal to metal contact and may actually increase temps by a percentage (depends on how much heat is being generated, a 7805 in an atari it might be a few degrees, on a 8 core AMD FX it might be 15 as even the best thermal grease is still an insulator... just less of one than air)

Edited by Osgeld
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