hex65000

I've bought from all of these companies, but I like Newark's online site for overall parts. Sometimes it works to 'shop + compare'; When I needed 1% SMD resistors Newark was cheapest for my needs. However, Allied has been good for getting various coils. They were the only ones with the high current transformer that I was hunting for and they also carried the relays that would meet the spec for my switchbox redesign. Hex. [ _Still_ Needs his board produced... ]

You covered most of the same places I pick up parts from. There's also Newark. They are occasionally high but have a really nice selection. http://www.newark.com/ Also be aware that most of these electronics places have a $25.00 minimum order. If you order less than $25.00 worth of stuff they stick you with a $5.00 handling charge on top of shipping. Hex. [ Waiting on his big-bad 2A 9V regulators... ]

Wow... I just up and REPLACE the pot and get on with my life. Has anyone tried using pots with values other than 1 MOhm? You can find 'em , but nice ones do not grow on trees. Found some cheap ones for less than $2.00 ea though. For the deep pocketed, I've seen Mil-Spec pots for about $7 ea. but thats expensive to replace one pot. The thing will probably never die though. Hex. [ Did up a pair with wirewound pots. A little sensitive in the middle, but no nasty jitters. ]

Agreed. The DC is what brought me over to the console gaming world. I still get hell from my sister for previous scoffs at consoles because I owned a PC. One night I was visiting with a friend and he showed me Star Wars Pod Racer, and Soulcalibur. Hooked is putting it mildly. I picked one up at the flea market for $40 within a week. I had to bum his copy of Gauntlet off of him so I had something to play. Eventually I replaced what I now refer to as the 'roach-cast'. The semi-negligance of used gear sellers has had a notable impact on my attitude when I buy gear nowadays. Later on I just kept finding old systems for great prices. And now I'm totally overrun with gear. I am a jenius! Hex. [because 'J' stands for Jenius, and that's good enough for me... HEY! ]

On that brown daughtercard on your intell. 2 there is that big black Cylender I'm guessing its a 4700 uF cap and right by that theres a reddish-brown device with a peice of aluminum pop-riveted to the back of the chip. That's prolly the regulator. What does that chip say? If you have a volt-ohm meter, check the voltage across the cap with the power on. It should have a pretty consistent, but slightly unstable voltage output. (IE: it should go up + down) The more I look at it, that card does not look like a linear regulator. Any other opinions on what Mattel might be doing there? Honestly, you might be better off just junking it and getting an INTV 1. Hex. [ If it's not right... then nothing new has happened. ]

Two quick things: Bratwurst : _VERY_ nice job on that mod. I would not have thought to turn the mainboard around. Out of curiosity, it looks like the connector you soldered on could get strained. While it would mess with the aestetic, you could add part of the clicky mechanism (the part you push down) to prevent putting the cart in backwards and possibly adding some stability to those big-ol-carts. FYI Side note: the shield seems to act as a ground for parts of the system. I tried leaving off the top shield with one of my decks and that thingwould just blink. Put the top on and it was happy again. Hex. [ Just picked up the first of the Transformers Alternators.... Da-Roool! It's WAY cool. ]

I actually enjoyed and finished 'The Ring' for DC. It's a survival horror game, but just don't expect Resident Evil. You won't be happy. However I found Illbleed to be annoying. I think of it as playing Russian Roulette. You walk into an area with trap points and you have to guess which one has the live trap(s). The story concept and startle factor were there, but the time limit and the overbearing guesswork made me quit playing. I did pick up a new copy of Pulse Racer for $10. I'm now suspicious that I got ripped off. I'll report on it when the shrink wrap is broken. Hex. [ Kittenmon digivolve to... VooDooMon! ]

A couple of offenders: -- Simpsons Road Rage (GC/PS2) I like the game, but it takes _forever_ to load those boards up. -- Serious Sam (Xbox) : SS is a fairly complex title trying to cram 50 pounds of butt into 30 pound butt capacity pants. Once again that load and occasional disc ERR make Hex a cranky boy. -- Crazy Taxi 3 (Xbox) : The offence isn't horrid, but the system does not cache the mini-boards you are playing on when you are doing the Crazy X. Try this: pick a crazy X trick and fail. Now when you retry, the map and car is reloaded. This didn't appear to be an issue with the DC versions of the game. Hex. [ Can't wait to start handing out Metabee Bops for the new year... ]

To most folks my taste in games is one flavor: Garlic. Some of my favorites that are endearing to me are not the same picks for others. Mystical Ninja : Starring Goemon ; (3d-platformer) This game is SO Japanese. Vigilante 8 ; (3rd person driving/combat) Woot-Whoot! Playing these made me feel 'funkier' Mr. Driller ; (action/puzzle) We'll not discuss the sexuality of this super-deformed character in pink. All I cares about is that hours are lost trying to reach the bottom of the barrel. Bubsy ; (2d platformer) I _SUCK_ at 2d platformers, but the quirky attitude and horrid puns of Bubsy keep me warm at night. The Ring : Terror's Realm ; (Survival/horror) To me this was a survival game that was fairly playable, if a bit confusing. I'm still mystified as to why in any of the resident evil games you cannot break out the blunt objects and start busting heads/kneecaps etc. Zombies can't bite you when there is a dent in their face. Hex. [ Warning : Core unstable. Use of handyman's secret weapon advised. ]

Ze_Ro said... Why is it that people these days cannot seem to take care of CD's properly? After you're done, you stick it back in it's case, and you won't have to worry about scratches unless you drop it or something. - - - -- - - - I guess it's the same reason why I beat the crud out of my toys when I was a kid. I didn't always know what an item was worth nor did I realize that some of my toys were fragile. (IE: Transformers) Of course, all kids have to do is beat up that disc just right and they have a $50 coaster. Give the younger generation Cart-based systems for crying out loud! They are harder to break and might survive those 'desturctive years'... My opinion... Hex. [ Is now much poorer, but has a working vehicle again... ]

Irritating humans... By me. 1) the person who is trying to sell off what looks like _TOTAL_ crap and is insisting as sternly as possible "It plays just fine, I did last week." We won't discuss the little points of light I see through the media. Or the fact that a spider nested and died in the cubby-hole of the contacts. 2)the person who claims they have seen or know of this cache of rare stuff. To me the person is trying to impress me for some reason, but they aren't. The tale feels a little too tall and if they saw all this stuff recently for so damn cheap why isn't in THEIR possession? 3)The so-called technical whiz. It's great when you get this 17yr old kid informing me that he replaced his PS2 laser for $5 and saved all this money ... yadda-yadda-yadda. I'm not the most skilled EE, but I suspect that he's blowing an awful lot of smoke. If not, tell ME where I can buy new laser lens units for $5 ea. and I'll make a killing doing repairs of Sony's overrated beast. (Yes, I am very critical of the PS2's poor construction and what I perceive as sub-par QC) 4)The braggart. Almost like the one who claims to have seen all this stuff, but this one announces that they own all this stuff and multiple copies of any ultra-rares that exist for a platform -- and a few that don't exist. 5)The fast talker. This one also wants to sell you something, but something feels 'off' about how they present it. It's too slick and you have to slow way down to figure out what they are trying to do. Hark back to the 'it works' above. 6)The uninformed. Wether its a parent or child, it's great to get requests for things that don't exist or insistance that two things won't work together. (IE: Mario for the Genesis or that Gameboy carts won't work with the GBA) Sometiimes a demonstration or the application of the clue hammer solves those problems, but some continue to insist on their version of the fairly obvious. I was able to come up with 2 more, but feh. Admittedly I have caught myself in the categoy of the zealot at times. We'll just avoid that topic and move on yes? Hex. [ You saw 2 Nomads and a CDX all functional for $40 and you did not buy them WHY? ]

Soul Fighter for the DC was painful. I _WANTED_ to like this game. But the intro that attempted to be a shakespearian monologue and that it was damn near impossible to pick up dropped items made me throw my hands up in disgust. What I played of Blue Stinger I enjoyed. I must be one of four people who just cannot enjoy the play mechanics of the Resident Evil series. Superman for N64 was a clanker as was Quest 64. Both of which I tried love in their own quirky ways, but then just got sold off in frustration for the game. I also want to nominate those 'live action movie' video games. Ye-gods those are usually quite painful. Hex. [ Now with new Force powers such as 'Force P!mpslap'... ]

Crazy Taxi 3 is one of my favorites. It's quite nice, but I had a few minor nitpicks over it. The good: The eye candy is there! The music is generally appropriate for the game. The driving around the city is reasonably possible for any skill level. You also get three different maps to tool around in v/s the two maps found in Crazy Taxi 1 & 2. Let the intro run once, it'll put you in the mood to play I swear. The new glitter oasis map has some easy access locations and some that are counter-intuitive. The cabbies of course do have their own weird personalities. The bad: Two of those maps are slightly modified maps from Crazy Taxi 1 & 2. This felt disappointing to me since it meant that I was getting less original content and got 2 remixes instead. Beware when the arrow lies and leads you to a dead end. The irritating: That crazy 'X' is _hard_. Learn to hop-drift? The voice acting for most of the Crazy Taxi 1 characters have changed (except Axel). B.D. Joe sounds less funky, Gena reminds me of a stoned southern belle, and Gus went from his semi-NY accent to Lurch from the Addams Family. Overall: It's worth $15-$20 and is a good 'quickie' game Serious Sam is a no-brainer FPS. Croteam cartooned Sam up a bit for the X-Crate. Having played and completed SS1&2 on PC I haven't sat down to see how this version covers both chapters in what I fear will be an incomplete trilogy. The good: Croteam has a very competent 3d engine for SS. On the PC version of SS1 there were 2 complaints: Very basic story, and everything was in Egypt. The first is excusable since this is not a "thinking person's" game. You get the gun, you find (or encounter in vast quantities) monsters. Shoot them. Shoot them ALL! The other part jives with the basic storyline they started in the first place. In SS2 the single location issue was corrected. There are all sorts of odd secrets and pseudo easter eggs to find. Some are time based. (IE: you have 10 - 15 min. to get to a certain location and the door opens, after a minute the door closes again) The Xbox version also added some new cutscenes to make it a little more interesting. If you unlock the moon mountain entrance you will get a cutscene. I couldn;t stop laughing with that the first time I saw it. The Bad: I like this game, but there are some issues. The first is that Croteam admitted that they had to occasionally scale back/adapt their code to support the 64MB memory space in the Xbox. The PC version breathes better when it has 128 or better on board (no nasty slideshow as it caches the world around you) I also don't know if it was a bad press run or what, but my copy is pretty twitchy about loading sometimes--causing the game to crap out. Just remember to save a lot, because you don't want to redo 6 waves of monsters because the disc it being evil. The irritating: The monsters do not have any meaningful AI. This is compensated by sheer numbers and combinations of monster types. There never seems to be enough ammo to go around at times. If you think it's a trap it probably is and yes, you need to trip it off to continue. Overall: It's worth $20 when you get tired of all that gripping tension found in Halo. Hex. [ 148 cartriges left to clean. 148 carts. Pull one out and scrub it down. 147 cartriges to clean. ]

I recently picked up for a good price a system like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...6&category=3541 But I have no experience with this machine and it's odd enough not to get mainstream attention. So my current questions are: What is the rating (voltage, current, AC or DC) and polarity on the power brick? Theres an extra port on the quick draw side that says 'Remote' Is this for a gas pedal? Pictures and/or a schematic would be very handy. I do have the light gun for it though. I expect that every pot in this unit is going to need replacing, but the power issue is the most critical aspect. The previous owner thought a 2600 brick was correct. Also got a basic Turbo grafx 16 system... it's pretty cute. Hex. [ Save me from myself! ]

I really haven't done anything 'classic' where I sit on the couch and play tills I can't play no more... But in order of holding my attention: Vigilante 8 2nd Offense (n64) Metal Arms Demo (X-Crate) (This was cute but not $50 cute... $20 probably yes) Mr. Driller 2 (GBA) Every night before bed. Hex. [ I dream of colored blocks... ]

You meant $19 right? From their site: CA018266 Atari 5200 CX522 4 Port custom TV switch box $19.00 I still doubt I can beat the price, but its not a blowout. The first wave of pieces are on their way. Rah! In the process of waiting for parts, I got my first 2 port 5200 fixed and running. The power jack was mangled and some idiot tried to strap a sub-par supply to what was left of the power jack. That mistake has been corrected and a proper jack is in place. There was some fudge factor because my repacement parts didn't match the PCB. However it's up and running like a champ now and I celebrated with some Keystone Capers goodness. Hex. [ Getting old gear up and running one part at a time... ]

No I did not. At least I spotted the Error on the Archives schematic. Ah well, I can still do the proto and move on. Hex. [ Pie cannon??? ]

Greetings gang. I am proud to say that I'm nearing completion of my first 5200 home brew project. It's not a huge deal, but it might be practical for the general public. What is it? I have managed to get my hands on a pair of 4-port 5200 systems, but of course, one needs that special switchbox. So that's my project -- the 5200 switchbox redesign. Why this? I needed an extra switchbox, and with current gen technology, I figured I could shrink the board down a bit and hopefully sell a few of these off once I get past the proto board. The current PWB dimensions are under 8 x 6 cm. It also acts as a nice first step for me in the design from idea to hardware process. In other words, I was learning as I went with this. It also could serve the community in a practical way without getting too exotic. Any limitations? Two. I chose to omit the 300Ohm RF output. It added to the cost and board space. Really, who still HAS a 300ohm input TV in service? The other is that I'm probably going to use an RCA phono jack for the video out v/s the male coax 'F' connector that typically goes on the box. I just HATE crimp parts and phono plugs are easy to work with. How much will it be? I have no idea. The killer is going to be the circuit board. I am going to be able to get a proto milled out at work so I can make sure I did an okay job with my layout, but that's it. I can't produce mass quantity PWBs at work. My prelim check on 2 layer circuit cards is that it'll be expensive unless I build like 100 - 1000 cards. If I can sell 100 boxes _I_ will be amazed. For what it's worth, the parts list alone is around $20. Inductors and connectors are not cheap. (That's MY cost, and excludes the time it'll take to slap these beasts together and an external chassis. That's expensive! can't you make it any cheaper? I'd love to. One way is to buy a LOT of parts and get the price break from the electronics suppliers. The other way is to use crappier parts. The second route is not very appealing to me. The inital batch of passive parts will have the following properties: 1% Resitors (0.5W) For the two 0.33ohm resistors I subbed in a pair of 0.3 ohm 1% resistors rated at 5W. 5-10% capacitors (25V - 50V) 10-15% inductors Bear in mind that I selected these so that they would easily handle current/voltage/tolerance ranges without blinking. Notes: - This was harder than I thought, but the home stretch is in sight. - The Aromat relay that was used is now discontinued. Aromat has an equivalent available, but I found one done by a group called Omron that looks rather nice. - Finding a .56uF cap in SMC forms wasn't easy (or cheap) a .47uF + .1uF cap solved that. -- and turned out cheaper than the .56uF thru-hole cap I did find. - There are two things that will stop this show:Getting coils and finding a place for inexpensive PWBs. - Specing mechanical bits for electronics can be challenging. - The schematic on the Atari Age site for the 5200 box has an error. On the LM393 the output pin on the comparitor should be pin 1 not 7. (Pin 7 is the output of the second comparator which has both inputs tied to ground.) Visit TI's web site to verify this. Hex. [ I'll stop you... with handy cannon. Very handy! ]

* * Ze_Ro said... Atari made the power supply output 9V because even with the power fluctuations, you can be almost guaranteed that it's not going to drop below 5V. If the power were to drop below 5V, the logic inside the Atari would no longer work, and the game wouldn't behave properly (it would likely just crash or lock up). - - - - -- - - - - You're mostly right. The 2600 has a 7805 5V regulator in it and that has a minimum voltage in from the get-go. I want to say around 1.5V + the output voltage or something... I'd have to go back and look at the specs. The reason I am even kicking around that idea is because I intend to have a regulated DC voltage going into the systems where possible -- the NES is AC and presents a different set of issues. The point is that I'm setting things up so that the console's internal regulation might not have to work so hard. I think it's worth looking at even if I decide not to do such a thing. Another thing I'll have to do is come up with a connector scheme. I'd like all of you to take a moment and think about how many different electronic connectors exist in your world... and realise that someone hates us all. They always are the last thing you think about and yet so important. I have fought with making connectors and cables work together more than I'd like to lately. Each connector has to be two things: Keyed (so you can't put it in backwards) and unique -- so you can't say... put the NES output into your Genesis 3 -- promptly killing it dead. The other option would be to have all of those cables just hanging off the side or top, but that's messy too. Oh yeah... and a third thing: STANDARD. So I can buy more without having to learn a new language. I also don't understand what is so difficult about the Colecovision's power supply. I actually had a design and a parts list that would easily support it. Mind you that was the $35 transformer and the connector is weird... of course. For what it's worth, I've got another goodie up my sleeve for the 5200 fans... It's practical and may be slightly better than the original. I'll announce that one when I have built the first unit... Hex. [ Lord of the cables... ]

Yes, Ze_ro you have the idea; push a button and you get power for that system -- In fact I'm shooting for an output that is cleaner than the factory bricks. I also plan to start examining the systems to see what they do with the input voltage. IE: Why does the 2600 take a 9VDC input and immediately drop it to 5V before it hits anything else? Okay... so far the wind is blowing towards the following 4 systems: NES , SNES , Genesis (loaded) , and 2600 That simplifies my life a little bit... The coleco brick is just 'special'. Now, do you think any of you can figure out where I can get that SNES power plug -- as far as I know, it's unique. The only other obstacles I see are implementing the logic needed to pull this off, meeting the power needs of the Genesis, and the PCB that it'll need. How are some of the other devlopers getting boards done? Hex. [ Without power you aren't going far... ]

I've finally gotten around to start proper work on a project that would be a nice boon for classic gamers. Specifically, power supplies. I hate having an army of bricks that don't fit on my power strips, nor do I want to shell out money for a custom shaped strip, so that's how I have gotten to this point. Now, the question is presented, which systems should it support? I have been working on one that does it all, IE: Genesis(1,2,3)(w/ 32x and CD drive) NES, SNES, Jag + CD, Colecovision, 2600, & 7800. I have done some inital pricing for parts and I'm estimating it will be well over $60 for the parts alone -- this excludes a PC board. And so... I'm just going to do 4 systems, and I want the AA gang to help me out. I have some leanings, and would like to try and sell these if possible. Bear in mind the following: When you support multiple systems/accessories at once, I need to make sure that I can meet the power rating of all active bricks. So, if you want to run a Genesis2, 32x, and CD you are approaching 3A of maximum DC draw, which makes parts more expensive, because of the need to support a high current through the system. Odd systems like the Colecovision have a +V and a -V. This means I have to select a transformer that will allow me to do this, and cost goes up... Also, anyone who can help me properly identify some of the system connectors, part numbers, and where to get them. Please PM me. Hex. [ $35 for a transformer... wow.... ]

More of a followup with my adventures with the 2600... Some of this is just my notes as I attempt to restore these beasts to their proper glory. I wandered out to one of the local electronics stores and had no luck finding the correct trimmer pot (of course). So I decided to gamble with some one MOhm pots instead figuring I couldn't hurt anything by doing this. The result: It worked like a champ. The old pot had a fracture and had rust all over and underneath it. This explains some of the problems I was having with the unit. After this success, I decided to address the other concern I had: the voltage regulators. Being from a long line of packrats, I had access to a box of 5V regulators with a basic heatsink on it. The thing that sucked was that the sinks were attached to the regulator with a pop-rivet. That noise has got to go. I scrounge up some mounting hardware, replace the regulator, slide in the heat sink and some thermal paste and horse that guy on there tight. The operation is successful and the regulator has to be running cooler than previously, because that ground plate gets pretty warm now. Based on my measurements with a meter (and the power brick ratings): Vin = 10V ; Vout = 5V ; Imax = .5A Vreg = Vin - Vout ; Vreg = 10V - 5V ; Vreg = 5V MaxPower = Vreg * Imax ; MaxPower = 5V * 0.5A ; MaxPower = 2.5W Yeah, I am going to go through and redo all of my functional 2600s this way. Last up, I need to clean that 2600 with the formerly bad trimmer pot. I have given it a light scrubbing with denatured alcohol. What's nice is that it breaks the rosin flux down quite nicely. What has me nervous and may mean I do this a couple of times is that the flux gets everywhere if you don't get it off the board. I may have to eventually submerge it, but I don't want to go that route. It did clean up a lot of crud on the board though. More reports on this stuff as I go... Hex. [ Is seriously considering Mil-Spec pots for his paddle controllers... ]

You can always try what I did. (It's an overkill solution though) I replaced my boring coax cable with 50 Ohm Mil-Spec coax. The result is generally good. And is well behaved up to abouut 400MHz. (after 100 ft) You can buy cable from Digi-Key, but it's about $1.20/ft and the minimum is 100 ft. The picture looks pretty good for RF though. Hex. [ In the distance... a sledge is used to drive in a thumbtack... ]

Okay, this is partially me bragging that I was able to fix one of my 2600 decks (Vader style w/ big stripe) I can't toot my horn too loud though, I had two that are pretty much DOA neither output anything intelligable even after extensive cart slot cleaning. A shame really, one is the heavy 6 switch and another one was the large all black 2600s. ANY-Way... on to the story... The console was coming up okay and the video looked good, but there just wasn't any color. I checked the BW/color switch and no joy. I left it on with Space invaders in and after 5 minutes all of the color was back. I then assumed a heat issue. I hate that Atari never bothered to properly heat sink thier regulators. After the machine was 'warmed up' I power it off, wait 2 seconds and turn it back on, the color is still munged up. Now I'm stumped and hit the forums... I spot the thread where the suggestion was made to try and tune one of the RF coils to see if that fixes the color. It looked like it worked, but after power cycling it was doing the same thing. So I suspect something goofy in the RF portion of the console, like a cap that's charging badly or an amp that has died. (which of course lacked the RF diagram) Then I spot this Variable resistor that says 'Color delay' Hmmmm... After cramming the testcart in with the top open I start poking what I think is the correct trimmer pot and my color does all sorts of exciting things. Such as work correctly! So I need to find a 500kOhm trimmer pot and replace the existing one. A doable project. Now, will I redo the power jack while I'm at it??? Tune in next time... For those who choose to experiment with this pot, be caeful not to turn it up too high, it looks like it overdrives something and blue things turn purple. Tweaking the RF coil is worth your time if your picture just doesn't look so good. and there is merit to the plastic allen wrench. Metal ones will notably change the magnetic field the coil makes. Try it without turning anthing and see what I mean, It's a fun experiment. But it is worthwhile just to tighten up your picture for a machine that is pushing 20 years of age in some cases. Hex. [ Last seen playing Bubsy and Demon Attack... ]

The pickings have been rather hit and miss for me. I did find a few exceptional items though... - An atari 7800 w/ 10 7800 carts and another 12 2600 carts. (all are pretty common games) Now if the 2600 that was in the collection worked correctly, it would have been worth the money. -$60 - An Intellivision 2 with 7 games; the games look complete and have manuals and overlays. Now, if I can get Dreadnaught factor to WORK correctly is another story. -$15 - A small batch of NES games, but I did get Dr. Mario, Tetris 2, and Mag-Max. There was also a copy of tetris with a boot-print through it... -$5 - A Genesis 2 with 8 games, Among them were a couple of manuals I needed (sonic & Knuckles) Contra Hard Corps, and Shadowrun. Of course there were sports games... -$20 Hex. [ Not good at a lot of things, but I'm a pretty good scavenger. ]