povlok1

Hi all.. just registered so I can post;) Lots of questions I see, didnt think this would be such a stir.... First off,, the units in the earlier posted pics are all units that will be used for r/f units and of course are not moded yet. These are units that have absolutly no rust on the tuner box what so ever and will be sold as Reconditioned starter kits and will carry a great warrantee, these are for atari 'newbies' (or rediscover newbies) more than for anyone in here;) The mod units do however go thru the same recon process. well.. actually due to the simplicity, the 2600 is a beast for electronic 'leakage' as well as corrosion and other problems. The simple (and ancient) design wraps the signal everywere. Ive seen contaminated 2-3 switch affect the clearity of the picture. You would be surprised at how much stronger a vid signal is after just cleaning all the switch contacts. Its not a 'work or dosn't work' thing,, its a signal strenth think. The less voltage you drop (use up unitendedly) the less you have for what its needed for. Leakage occures when ther is any conductive matterial on the board (like traces of old CocoCola or rust and carbon traces) causing an electronic bleed to somewere its not suppose to. I have also seen sever 'flux' resin that has deteriorated and can actually trap moister from the humidity (took me long time to diagnoise that one, unit would always act up in humid conditions,, worked fine in dry) By far the biggest problems I have seen with the 2600 is the carbon buildup on the switches and the contamination of the cart loadslot. Regular contact cleaner barley puts a dent in cleaning these. First let me say ther are several grades of contact cleaner.. the give and take is that the real good ones eat plastic (exspecially 20 year old plastic) and the weeker stuff just dosnt 'cut' it. After trying all types of cleaners.. I never found one that would truly decarbon the switches..so all my old rebuilds meant I use to take apart every stinking switch to manually scrub it! Well finally, I found somthing that works but it is involved. Its actually a three step meathod with the first step being the most involved, however its this chemical that really does the job. First, its hard to get. Its made by a major company for the sole purpose of serviceing one of its products and its not available in regular retail stores and was never intended for use on electronics. Second, its petroleum based, conductive! Must be totally cleansed when finised. This product is great tho, it not only decarbons, it (with the help of a brass scrubbrush) takes all the loose flux off the board! Flux is very common on the back of 4 swithcers. This product also 'foams' big time wich is awsome when cleaning the loadslot. The loadslot is a big item in the recon. 3 out of 4 units I do have some type of hair or carpet fibers in it. You would be surprised,, take a CLOSE look in your units loadslot and at the bottom or sneaked in the side you may see a loose fiber. I had my buddie who works in a machine shop make me a special gagued tool to fit in the load slot and pick out all the fibers without damaging the contacts (wich are very delicate). This tool also lightly 'scraps' the contacts ensuring they are clean. The foaming of the 1st stage cleaner really aids in 'lifting' the fibers out of the nooks and crannies. Whew.. Second stage cleanser is just a water base'd degreaser. This really does the job on any surgar based contaiminates like cola or koolaid (electronic cleanser is geared for grease, not surger, water soluble contaiminates),, the trick here is to of course not 'soak' the board. I use several different brushes for this. Third.. is what most people do.. I pick up a can of common contact cleaner and 'hose 'er down' One last step,, I acutally place the board in an oven (temp set very low, barly on) for bout an 1/2 hour to bake out any other moister. What you end up with is a unit that you can actually 'shake' the switches without the machine 'wigging' out. You can even pic up a console by its installed game and shake it and you wont loose screen! Most ataris, due to dirt and carbon, are extreamly sensitive in these areas. My systems all load the game instantly without haveing to blow on carts or wiggle carts,,etc. Also, the tin r/f shielding.. I recoat all these as well.. I dont mean just a quick blast with a can of rustoleum, I properly prepair these with accurate sanding, a coat of self etch primer, a real metallic base coat, than a clear top coat. I used to (and still ocassionally) paint cars, mostly customes or restores. I have about 50 high dollar resto jobs under my belt, everything from early Model A's to mid '50's MG's to Musclecars. The paint isnt show quality on these ataris like the cars:) but the paint will stay intack and they look great and serve the function,, preventing rust for the next 20 or more years. I get roughly one in ten rf shields that dont have at least a little rust. I know this seems extreme,, but im a stickler for detail:) Besides.. flakeing rust and electronics just dont go together. These units also get alot of other details addressed. The switches are not only clean but they also work 'smoothly'. I make sure to restore the switch cage to its original shape (these often get smashed around in an uneducated attempt to make the switch work better by pressing on the contacts harder) and make sure the 'prongs' are in proper allignment. I also polish the aluminum to restore its shine (common.. almost all switches show corrosion on the aluminum due to salt from fingertips) The board is Voltage Checked at several points and the capacitor is load tested. Also if the main pwr transistor has any 'black' on it, it is replaced. This happens when the atari is left on for long time.. like stored under a tv while still on and forgotten. Even if they work.. its on its way out;) so I replace it. The power jack is replaced if the plastic is cracked ANYWERE on it.. even if the side cover is damaged. I even go as far as to ensure non of the resistors insulation are touching the one next to em and 'align' em all. All the recon units are getting new switch R/F shilding 'foils' (those foil stickers that go ontop of the switches) as soon as my order comes in (im getting those custom made too:) ) Im also seeing if I can get new black switch felts made up cheap enough to include new one of those as well, also I think im going to sell new power supplies with my units two. Of course all the plastic is well cleaned and DE-ARMORALED. Aromral is the death to atari! I even repaint the bezels,, and hand buff the woodgrain (or Vadar) front beazel with handglaze. Here is a link to one of the units I sold awhile back to give ya few more details of the rebuild, I have refined my recon quite abit since these days tho http://atarigoods.com/atarifeedback/eBay%2...s%20WARANTY.htm well enough on the recons.. Any unit I get that has any rust at all on the r/f box,, even a tiny bit, I use these boards for the mod conversion First let me state that I by no means am a audio/vid elec pro. Most my electronics background is on computer and automotive computer controlled systems. The auto end is actually great training for the atari,, its all DC voltage as the atari and unlike my comp electronics exsperiance, the auto field deals with ALOT of corrosion problems in the electronics. Actually, this is were I first discoverd to use the corrosive agent used in my recon proccess. I found it useful for cleaning all sorts of metals, works great for large wiring harness connectors that had a moister problem and corroded (bulkhead connector) I started out like most anyone else,, I looked at the mods online. I first tried this mod http://www.classicgaming.com/vcsp/Question2.htm but was unimpressed with its color and 'dark' pic. So, once again let me state my background is not in the audio/video elec background so instead of breaking out a wireing diagram, I decided to break out alot of jumbers and start 'tinkering'. I think thats what this project needed,, some 'fresh' eyes. Well,, after 'tinkering' for a couple of days, I found what I think is a great mod. Its based loosly on the earlier link,, loosly. Its extreamlly adjustable giving you options to adjust to any TV and personal taste. What I like about is it passes my personal test. I found a good test is to look at Track and Field. The grass should be green,, the deeper the green the better, the catch is not to loose blue in other games, I use Warlords upper right corner for the blue comparison. Find the balance between the blue and green and you have it. If the blue is rich,, the green is rich,, pic is bright.. than this must be good:) Pitfall looks great, real distinct.. once again real easy to adjust to your tast. Frogger looks awsome with a forrest felt green and white white trucks. The Gray's in Freeway look great too. The blues and reds in bezerk could be deeper,, could be just me on that one tho , I will get some screen shots up soon,, ill take actual pics of my tv with dig cam. In comparision to what screen shots ive seen here http://www.cheeptech.com/2600mods/2600mods.shtml mines at least on par with the s-vid if not cleaner.. hard to tell with capture vid. This mod is not nearly as Tech as the others, I honestly couldn't give ya the details of just what Im doing to the signal, but in the end it provides a great pic. I wanted somthing I could easily produce with a nice pic and this works great. Its main intent was to sell as an upgrade to 'atari rediscoverers' shopping on ebay but the end pic result is awsome. Im sure some will bash it.. just like anything else, but I hope you can see from my work I take alot of pride in what I do, so if I say its an awsome pic,, how bad can it be;) well,, I will post a teaser pic on here but for several pics of both the mod and of some of my 'flux cleaned' boards (some pics you will see just the back of an unmodified board,, these have been defluxed and scrubed) I decided just to post them on a webpage,, dont rip on my website I have been wayyyyy to busy latly;P,, I plan on updating it soon. I build webpages freelance,, so mine is the last to be worked on;) I will have alot of info on atari hardware in the future and will go into more detail of the recon proccess. This page was made just today so no nagging at the fact its just a naked page with thumbnails;) http://atarigoods.com/Mod/mod.htm and yes my solder sucker is lamo.. coldnt find my good one