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lifemadesimple

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  1. I'm back with an update - I managed to get it out, deoxit, a screwdriver, and patience got me there. Visually, the socket appears undamaged but it remains 'sticky' - it's a very very snug fit. (My IC extractor tool thingy was not very helpful at all.) The socket and legs were filthy. Cleaned them up as best I could, reseated the chip, still no dice. I could just barely wiggle the cursor in missile command up, so that might be a slight improvement - last few times I don't remember getting it to move up at all. I think my next step is to try and swap out the RIOT and see if that does anything - they're only ten bucks, anyways. Now do I need to replace it with a C010750-03 specifically (what's in the unit currently), or would this work? (image copied below, example from an auction website). As ever, thank you everyone for your help! (edited my last question for clarity)
  2. Thank you so much for your response!! So they are socketed, just dangerously and maddeningly stuck - gotcha. Any tips on getting them out? Or just lots of patience?
  3. Hi Stephen! Bit of an update. Couldn't find any shorts w/ the RIOT. Haven't tried connecting the resistor yet; I've been a bit too busy to put in the order. The "pull up" has officially died, no matter what I try, the controller will never register up. This has happened despite not messing with traces or anything recently, which makes me hopeful that indeed this is not related to any botched repair jobs. The real reason why I'm typing this up is because I noticed something about my RIOT and TIA chips seems off - I think they're actually hard soldered on. The "sockets" are a different color, chips don't budge, etc. I was hoping for a nice and easy resocket job but appear to have been foiled. Is this normal for a heavy sixer? It doesn't seem to be, but documentation on these early units seems kind of janky. I guess I'm just wondering what I've encountered here, and if there's anything I should now about replacing this particular RIOT if it comes to that. Will place an order for the resistor later this week, probably. Thank you as always for your help and patience!
  4. Thank you!! Okay this makes sense to me and makes me feel better - might still double check with a multimeter, but you're definitely right. Broken trace would probably give me no down movement at all. Something to return to if I can't get anywhere with the other testing. Alright, I think I've got the idea. So first thing I want to do is grab my multimeter and measure between pin 20 and pin 13. If I have a reading of 0 resistance (or close to it) then I've got a short between pin 13 and ground. If I don't have a short, I proceed to temporarily connect pin 20 and pin 13, with a 4K7 or 5K1 resistor just to play it super safe. If the unit works correctly after that then my problem is probably RIOT's internal pullup - I permanently connect the resistor between pin 20 and pin 13, and I'm good to go. If the resistor doesn't fix my problem, then the external to internal connection of the RIOT has probably failed. Try resocketing the RIOT chip, replace it if that doesn't work. Alright! Thank you so much for your help, no way in heck I would've gotten anywhere near this point without you. I'll keep you updated, although it may be a little while before I have the time and materials to get back to it.
  5. Alright, back a bit early. No dice on that first part. Reflowed the joints, same issue. Re: Checking the connection: this is where my lack of experience gets tricky. So looking at the underside of the board, I can see where the actual "legs" of the controller port connect up. The right controller port is definitely stock, but the left controller has definitely been screwed with at least twice - once, before I got it, badly. And a second time, by me, not well but less badly than whoever attempted it last. The "path" (edit:) trace on the board between joints is definitely in bad shape - in some places it's pretty much completely burned. It's been like that since I got it. So if that's where my problem is, I don't know if there's really any way around it or if the whole thing is just cooked. But on the other hand, that entire area of the board has looked pretty cooked since I got it, and the issue didn't use to be this bad. I can't see how a damaged path (edit:) trace would lead to a slowly worsening issue. And at the risk of sounding very very stupid, I don't actually know what side of the board the trace that matters is actually on. So RIOT definitely still registers a down press even without a joystick connected. Didn't even think to try that, but sure enough - pop in missile command, hit reset, cursor flies immediately to the bottom of the screen. So I guess that leans me towards a RIOT issue, although maybe that's just wishful thinking. My question now is basically just what do you mean by connecting 5V to pin 13? How should I go about doing that? Sorry about my confusion, I'm just hideously out of practice on all of this. Basically having to relearn console repair from first principles, which has been a bit frustrating. Thank you again for your help! Edited some stuff for clarity.
  6. Thank you so much! This is all very helpful. I'm going to try your steps this weekend and I'll update as soon as I have results.
  7. Hello! Back again, still on my quest to repair all my "I'll get to it later" electronics. I have a heavy sixer that came to me very well loved that I've been working on. Starting not long after I got it, the player one controller constantly registered that you were pressing down. Start up missile command, cursor goes straight to the bottom of the screen. You can sometimes wiggle it back up a little bit, but most of the time it behaves like you're constantly pressing down. This happens regardless of controller, but only in that player one port. I reflowed the solder joints, no dice. Checked for shorts, nothing looked wrong. I noticed that two of the pins were sort of jammed in pretty far (and the port was pretty ratty anyways), so I just took it out and replaced it with a fresh new one. Still the same issue. So I've been on the forums and trying to decipher schematics to try and figure out what my next move is. I saw there were capacitors that liked to fail and give people issues with paddle controllers, which is sort of similar to my problem, so should I be replacing some caps? Is one of the chips just dying? If memory serves, when I first got this thing a decade or so ago, the "pulling down" issue was an occasional nuisance, and then one day it just became a constant thing. Apologies in advance if I'm slow to respond or understand something, still learning etc etc. Thank you!
  8. Also a very good explanation. More the merrier, I say, especially if Atari keeps rereleasing games!
  9. Probably, I seem to recall it being out of my budget range when I got my 7800 back in like 2016. So it was probably consistently over $25 by then. I think the price of anything remotely collectable shot up when Covid hit, everything is just now coming back to earth.
  10. Looks like they're rereleasing the Euro gamepads!!
  11. Make me three! Altho my 7800 library is so slim that pretty much anything other than Hat Trick would be a welcome addition. And I can't imagine Atari is working overtime to rerelease Hat Trick so I should be good!
  12. Hello! This is the latest installment of my new year's resolution to fix broken stuff that's been lying around for years. I'm very much still learning so apologies in advance for any dumb questions - I promise I search the forums before I post! Additional apologies if I'm late responding, life is hectic, etc etc I've got a heavy sixer that works fine except for the controller ports. Solder's cracked, going to get that taken care of probably next week. No biggie. When I opened it up to take a look, however, the board looked like it had some rough staining around these components in the top left. I don't see any cracking or leaking anywhere on any of these components, and the console itself works fine (except for the unrelated controller stuff) so I'm leaning towards this not being anything to worry about. But I wanted to check with the experts first - is something leaking? Is there some serious damage going on here that I need to address? I know the previous owner was using a pretty sketchy 3rd party power supply, so could it be related to that? Thanks in advance for reading, feel free to request any other pictures or info!
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