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gzsfrk

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Posts posted by gzsfrk

  2. Posted

    Hello AA'ers!

     

    While digging through my parents storage barn a couple weekends ago, I was delighted to find my old Atari 400 computer, complete with the 410 program recorder (cassette), some cartridges, and the cassette tapes onto which I recorded many a LOGO program I wrote back in the day. The AC adapter was nowhere to be found, but thankfully AA member nopaybob came through for me with a great deal on a replacement. So I get the AC adapter, clean everything up, plug it all in, and sure enough--the old boy fired right up, booting me into that old familiar Pacman screen. So having verified that the 400 itself was working, I turned my attention to seeing if I could load some of my old LOGO programs from cassette. I hook up the 410, pop in the LOGO cartridge, insert one of my cassettes, then attempt to rewind it. But nothing; just some humming.

     

    Okay, no big deal; probably just the old drive belt slipping. So I take it apart, and sure enough--the belt is loose and crusty. So I fashion a replacement out of a heavy duty rubber band, pop it on, and give it a test. Now we're in business; rewinds and fast-forwards like a champ. So I figure I'm now ready to try loading some LOGO programs. Hook the 410 back up to the 400, power up the system, and come to the LOGO welcome screen. Now to try and load!

     

    LOAD "C:

     

    I hear the brrroooonnnnggg sound and see that the system is waiting on me, so I hit the Play button on the 410. But nothing. The tape isn't moving at all. There's no humming coming from the 410, and the screen isn't prompting me to do anything.

     

    So after that, I was stuck and couldn't figure out what to try next. Is there something I'm forgetting that I needed to do? Or maybe there's something mechanical within the drive that I need to check? Granted, it's been almost 30 years since I've done this, so I may well have forgotten something. Or, worst case scenario, I'm hoping it's a common mechanical issue that I can fix.

     

    So do any of you AA gurus have any guidance for me? I can take pictures if needed, but as it sits right now, everything on the inside (aside from the makeshift drive belt which seems to be working perfectly) appears to be just like it came from the factory.

     

    Thanks in advance!

     

    - [email protected]

  3. Posted

    NPB gave me a very generous deal on a power supply for an Atari 400. And not only did he give me a great price, but he shipped it Priority such that it showed up in two days. Super nice guy to deal with, and a great community member here on AA.

  4. Posted

    Just recently found my old Atari 400 in my parents' storage, but the AC adapter wasn't with it. Would like to buy a working adapter from someone who has an extra. Trying to keep it below $13 shipped if at all possible. PM me if you might can help.

     

    Thanks!

     

    - Matt

  9. Posted

    Doh... Would love to have this, but can't bring myself to spend that much on a single game, even if I'm sure it's worth it from a collector perspective. Maybe some day I'll get lucky and find it in a yard sale for $0.50. <slaps self to wake up from dream-state> ;)

  13. Posted · Edited by gzsfrk

    Launch model 360s that haven't yet had "the fix" applied to them--it's just a matter of time and usage before they RROD. On the other hand, if it's one of the later model Arcades with an HDMI port in the back, that one has a good chance of never needing to be taken apart. However, if it's already been opened AND it's still working, then odds are it's already had some kind of fix applied/attempted.

     

    Also as mentioned, the 20GB hard drives are all but worthless; can't hardly even give them away. The only time I even consider using one is when I fix a RROD on a system that doesn't have a HDD and I need something cheap and available to slap on it just so I can load the system updates.

     

    That backpack is pretty, sweet, though. Not like it's practical to carry a 360 around with you (mainly because I'm scared that if I breathe on mine wrong it will RRoD, let alone endure the rigors of a hike), but it's a nice looking piece that should be quite collectible in 20 years or so.

  19. Posted

    Bought a random sampler of carts from him for a great price, and he got them packed up and shipped out right away. Everything arrived safe and sound and operational. Can't ask for more than that! But wait, he's a cool, easy-to-deal-with guy as well. So you can ask for more, but he's still got it covered anyway. :)

  21. Posted

    X-ray or TDR. Or sometimes careful flexing and can narrow it down to a few cm. I've gone done and built a small RF generator and coil to test where it sounds different as you move up and down the wire. You connect one end of the suspect wire to the generator, and the other end to GND. You'll see (or hear) a difference as you move your detect-O-coil up and down the wire.

     

    You can apply the same principle if you do the complement phase to each end. And use two coils through connected in a summing op-amp config, and then look at the o-scope. This is as close as you'll get without x-ray or cutting into the cable.

     

    There are other ways of making the pulse, and other ways of detecting it. But those worked for me.

     

    This was more an answer that I was looking for. Don't have access to any kind of X-ray (and given how the wires are twisted around in the outer sheath, I'm not sure it would be very effective anyway), so I'm thinking the RF signal would be the route to take. Might have to do some tinkering and see what I can come up with.

  24. Posted · Edited by gzsfrk

    So here's a situation I found myself in last week. I was enjoying a nice game of Moon Patrol on my newly-acquired Atari 5200 when the 1, 2, 3, and Start buttons all decided to stop responding. At first it was intemittent, depending on the angle at which I had the controller held, but then it got to the point where it wouldn't work at all.

     

    So I do some quick research, find that the 1, 2, 3, and Start buttons on the 5200 controller are all tied to Pin 7. I open up the controller, find the red/white wire for pin 7 and do an end-to-end continuity check. Nothing. All the other wires were fine, though. So I start incrementally checking the red/white wire as far as it's exposed leading up to the cable's collar, and it's whole. Unwillingly, I carefully trimmed off the collar and continued checking the wire, hoping to find the break very close to that end. Still nothing--I've got continuity to over 2 inches past the collar. Crap. So then I start checking continuity at the plug end. By that point, it's getting messy; I've already made several surgical incisions to expose the red/white wire for testing, and I STILL hadn't found the break. FINALLY, I go back to the controller end of the cable, cut back the wrap another 3 inches and THEN I find the break in the wire--some 5 inches down from the collar. What rotten luck, even by 5200 controller standards. So I'm able to patch it back up and get it working again, although by the time I had to tape all the cuts back closed, it truly looks like a ghetto controller.

     

    But the whole situation got me thinking--was there an easier way to find the break without having to make all the exploratory incisions in the cable? I know that there are wire break detectors commonly used by owners of buried invisible fence lines which use something like an AM radio signal using the suspect wire as an antenna and a receiver to figure out the approximate location of a the break. But is there anything that works at a much smaller (and therefore more precise) scale? What I'm thinking is a device that you hook to one end of the wire and emits a simple square wave over a radio frequency, and then have a receiver which picks up the tone as you move it along the cable (presumably, the tone would change once you pass the break). But I have no idea if that would work on the scale of locating a break within an inch or so.

     

    Has anyone run across a similar problem for which they've found a solution? It's pretty much a moot point for me now since the damage is already done. But I'm intrigued by the challenge of coming up with a more elegant way of addressing the problem should I run across it again in the future.

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