Pilsner73

Not to hijack this thread but I'm also waiting for Candle's memory upgrade and have limited soldering experience. I decided to retire my portable butane Weller and bought a Hakko fx-888 (http://www.hakkousa.com/detail.asp?CID=49&PID=4800&Page=1). What temps do you suggest for work on Atari 800xl and 130xe computers? Also I decided to search and found these posts by various members on the forum (the guide metioned in previous posts) http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/142283-vbxe-2/page__st__650__p__1884704__hl__desoldering__fromsearch__1#entry1884704 http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/155706-atari-mega-1-ram-upgrade/page__p__1909348__hl__desoldering__fromsearch__1#entry1909348 http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/154698-desoldering-tools-and-you/page__p__1895337__hl__desoldering__fromsearch__1#entry1895337

FYI I just found a link to some old posts that contain both the Modern Electronics article and Current Notes updated articles on Atari XL/XE power supplies. http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/144856-xlxe-power-supplies/page__p__1762055__hl__power+supply__fromsearch__1#entry1762055

Yeah I talked to Best again and possibly found a few items to order to hit the 20 dollar order minimun but they claim not to have the resistors either. The outward appearance of the resistors look bad with burn type marks and missing color rings on another in the center. Would love to find out what parts are needed since these are the rebuild-able Atari power supplies and look fairly simple to work on.

I am trying to get Best to give me an idea but he's a 20 dollar minimum order value, I can find the regulators and capacitors but the resistors are giving me trouble finding what I believe are the correct ones.

Just wondering what ever happened to Ben Poehland the author of the article?

Thinking of giving retrobrighting a try. What is the choice for already made stuff you find at the Beauty Supply stores, I have one very close I could stop at.

Look forward to seeing some installs of this device when it comes out. I finally solved the 800xl rambo issue I was having, I just bought a stock 800xl that cleaned up very well and all the chips are socketed and it's ready to be modified.

Yeah, to me, opening includes being able to read the whole thing I actually looked through all the pages before making the SumatraPDF suggestion. So I actually did read your whole post --Kurt I figured you might of that's why I downloaded the Sumatrapdf viewer and it worked fine. Glad you suggested it because the power supply article helped me out last night.

Ok I think the 7805 I need is called an l78s05cv regulator. Now Looking at the power supply I noticed some black marks around the 4700uf 16v capacitior and some of the resistors in it look burnt a bit. Now some questions on where and what parts to purchase The l68s05cv is easy enough to find and get the three pin/leg model. Now for the 4700uf16v do I want to get the long pins sticking out that can be trimmed or the snap in model? The resistors, I can't really tell what color they are because of the burning but R3 and R4 need replaced. According to a document I read they are 5.1 - .01% 1/2w and 8.2 - .01% 1/2w. Now is the 8.2 and 5.1 ohms or kohms? Also does the percent matter? Thanks!

Opening the article is not the issue, it's actually reading the whole thing with Adobe. While scrolling down certain pages are missing and adobe gives an error with Adobe reader and acrobat. I guess I should of been more concise in my original post but I can open it and see the first page just fine, it's some of the other pages that have errors and are missing with Adobe. *UPDATE* -Tried the sumatra pdf viewer and it's readable all the way through. Thanks for the suggestion.

I found a scan of the said article at http://www.mixinc.net/atari/books/ but a lot of is missing and/or not working with the current adobe acrobat versions. This article written by Ben Poehland which I believe was in Modern Electronics May 1986 and possibly Current Notes v10n9 Nov 1990, gives some detail of the differences in Atari 8bit computer power supplies that would be a great resources in troubleshooting them. Does anyone have a version of this article, would be much appreciated.

I am checking with Best electronics to see what part he thinks it is. I see a 7805 at Radio Shack but it say's 1amps and I believe this Atari power supply ran +5v and 1.5a so want to get the correct part.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/178058-testing-atari-xlxe-power-supplies/ I'll remind you of our discussing this before. You have to test them under load or the readings will always be too high. If the DC voltage runs high, it's because the voltage regulator inside the box is bad or failing. I know the one is outputting way high, and the other one seems a tad high. The really bad one the computer won't even turn on correctly because of that, just wondering what parts I need to check/replace and where to get them. The 5 volt lines are reading 11volts which is not good.

I have two Atari 800xl rebuildable power supplies in need of help. One is the long black brick, the other is the white and brown brick. http://www.myatari.com/ebay/psxl.jpg the two to the left side of the picture. The black brick is putting out according to my multimeter 11 instead of 5. What are the possible causes/remedies? I'm a novice but am not afraid to learn btw. The white/brown is putting out 5.32, seems a bit high is there something I should check/replace also? Thanks!

The 10-bit Atari 3200 (which the existing workforce was not accustomed to programming). So Atari was stuck in the next gen war without a next gen system. They did the quickest thing they could - repackage the system that was originally intended to be the VCS successor a few years prior. I know just figured they would have also been working on a new Atari 8-bit computer also, the XL/XE line really were revisions IMO. Yes, the XL/XE were just revisions. (some things like the cross A8/PC DOS compatible 80186 based machine like the 1600XL would be an arguable successor, but perhaps closer to the C128 -except aiming at PC/DOS compatibility rather than CP/M and going for a higher-end form factor from day 1 given the mock-ups) Just wondering what if Atari had shrunk the 400/800 down ala the 600xl for the 5200 so it had a nice sleek case, worked out the controller issues and then released it with out the RF/power thing. Would this of been a much bigger success compared to the 5200 they did release?

The 10-bit Atari 3200 (which the existing workforce was not accustomed to programming). So Atari was stuck in the next gen war without a next gen system. They did the quickest thing they could - repackage the system that was originally intended to be the VCS successor a few years prior. I know just figured they would have also been working on a new Atari 8-bit computer also, the XL/XE line really were revisions IMO.

Amazing how leaving the 2600 out of the title causes the item to fly under the Radar.

The 400/800 development according to most people was being done to replace the 2600 but when Atari saw the success of Apple computers, they decided to take what was being developed and start building a computer. What I don't understand is why Atari just took the 400 and created the 5200 in 1982, they should have had something else ready by that time. The C64 started life as a potential game machine also.

Anyone ever find a working version of the power supply article on that page with the icd catalog?

Bump

I am going to guess you bought one of the Best Electronics reconditioned systems with 90 day warranty. Sounds like the system came with a defect from Best Electronics. Now Best is a small shop so I don't expect 1-5 day turn around but within 2-4 weeks at the most it should come back. The repair he is suggesting you do yourself shouldn't take months even if they are backed up since as it sounds it's a simple re soldering job. What I (and I stress the I) would do is Email Best back saying - " Thank you for the response, I wish I could easily solder it as suggested but honestly I don't feel comfortable doing solder work and would hate to make anything worse with the system then it already is. I understand you are backed up but I really would like this professionally repaired under the Best 90 day Warranty. I could live without it for a few weeks from the day I shipped, would that be enough time for you to fix it and ship it back to me? If the system can not be turned around in a few weeks can I just send it back and you send me out a working replacement that is ready to for an exchange?" The above statement from my perspective is very fair to both parties (though paying shipping back isn't fun). It was ordered on 9/21. That's more than 90 days ago. I'd be interested to see what sort of documentation he sends thursday83. I thought he said he ordered the 7800 Expnasion Module on 9/21 and just got the 7800 system very recently. If the system is out of warranty I bet there are some good citizens of this forum who might possibly be able to help him out.

I had an ADspeed 16 mhz upgrade and it was a nice performance boost. Yes the bus was still 8mhz but the cache and extra speed of the processor usually did enough to be noticeable. Atari should have had the Atari Mega and STe series with this built in. The Mega more for business and the STe to one up the Amiga 500. The Mega STe of course did bring both the STe added features with the 8/16mhz upgrade but I feel strongly that it was a few years too late. The Mega STe was a great computer just should of been released earlier for a lower price point.

I am going to guess you bought one of the Best Electronics reconditioned systems with 90 day warranty. Sounds like the system came with a defect from Best Electronics. Now Best is a small shop so I don't expect 1-5 day turn around but within 2-4 weeks at the most it should come back. The repair he is suggesting you do yourself shouldn't take months even if they are backed up since as it sounds it's a simple re soldering job. What I (and I stress the I) would do is Email Best back saying - " Thank you for the response, I wish I could easily solder it as suggested but honestly I don't feel comfortable doing solder work and would hate to make anything worse with the system then it already is. I understand you are backed up but I really would like this professionally repaired under the Best 90 day Warranty. I could live without it for a few weeks from the day I shipped, would that be enough time for you to fix it and ship it back to me? If the system can not be turned around in a few weeks can I just send it back and you send me out a working replacement that is ready to for an exchange?" The above statement from my perspective is very fair to both parties (though paying shipping back isn't fun).

pm sent

I believe Toad computer and a few other Atari dealers sold some of the Atari clones but I agree with the article that they were more for Europe than the USA. Of course that's perfect Atari - In Europe where the ST has decent market share let's sell clones, in the USA where the ST is a niche computer let's not push clones.