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mojoatomic

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Posts posted by mojoatomic

  3. Posted

    C106 on the 6 switch, C243 on the 4 switch unts, big 2200uf 16v cap, when it bleeds it can cause color issues as you describe. Very common to fail in this manner. R213 pot on 6 and 4 switch units, although it's not common. TIA color shift under load - this is very common to fail in this manner. My money is on the TIA

  4. Posted · Edited by mojoatomic

    Here's a good one that might help some folks out, and some might not have seen before. Heavy six hit the bench last night with several issues, and this was one of them.

     

    Erratic operation of select & reset switches. Happens on every game that requires reset to start... I.E., Raiders, Missile Command, Etc.

     

    Symptom: Activating the select or reset switch causes a "trigger effect" of the switch action, as if you are continuing to activate either, or both switches. Missile Command for example will begin to cycle through levels until the system crashes. On Raiders, Indy will descend on his pedestal over and over until system crashes. You get the idea.

     

    Cause: Defective RIOT

     

    Solution:Replace RIOT

  5. Posted · Edited by mojoatomic

    here is the link

    http://www.kijiji.ca/v-old-video-games/moncton/atari-and-a-lot-of-games/1253452733?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

    he is trying to sell this for 3,500 which I do not believe is worth while for a single second.

     

    ooh boy, he states; "3,500, you can get more out of it if you sell the games alone". By my reckoning,that is about $50 worth of games and about $25 for the Inty 2. It does have two extra controllers, so there may be one that works in the lot.

     

     

    You guys are nuts and don't have any idea what your talking about... That's worth $4G all day long. He's a member of the Nairobi Royal Family!

     

    Hell's yeah you can get more than $3500 outta' it - the gold banding is real on this special edition. These things are gonna' be bigger than gold teeth.

  11. Posted

    Atari's are like onions... They add flavor and keep you healthy. :)

    I'm jealous! Maybe, one day I'll get my own Sears Heavy Sixer! WOOT WOOT!

    Looking forward to the video and pics as well!

    Always curious about trouble shooting. Thanks for sharing!

     

    Thanks for the tip on the console!

  12. Posted

    Odd that both the 6507 and TIA were dead. That's a bit unusual, isn't it? Which manufacturer and what date codes were the chips? Just curious to compare to my Sears Heavy. :)

     

    Well, only the 6507 was dead. The TIA had internal damage - likely culprit? Static discharge. Without a NASA lab and scanning electron microscope we'll never know for sure.

     

    I'll take pics of the IC's and post them here.

  14. Posted · Edited by mojoatomic

    Thanks to a pointer from a really good forum friend, I got a great deal on a Sears tele-games heavy sixer. Cosmetically it's absolutely beautiful, it really is - but it was dead like fried chicken when it hit the bench.

     

    I hope this troubleshooting flow will help some folks down the road. Also... there were some BIZARRE issues with the video and sound - I'd like to put the failed IC's back in and video the issues this weekend and post that to this thread.

     

    Console was dead, unresponsive. Opened it up and checked for continuity across S101 (power) - there wasn't any. Pulled the switch apart and it looked like it had been in a fire :-) - nasty! Turns out, it was a disintegrated foam switch cover. Cleaned everything up with a wire brush and alcohol. Switch tested good, so applied power again - nothing. Put a meter across A101 - good voltage coming in, nothing coming out. Replaced C106 (2200uf) and A101 voltage regulator & fired it up.

     

    The unit was now powering on and framing, but not populating the frame with video. Clock was good, so I replaced the CPU. Retested with missile command in the slot, video looked good.

     

    Replaced the rest of the usual suspect caps, adjusted the RF and the video looked great. Fired up Raiders and the video was wacky with strange text at the bottom of the screen and the song was not playing all of the notes. Really weird. Obvious choice was the TIA which I replaced, and now the unit purs like a kitten.

     

    Need to clean the rest of the switches and burn it in, but other than that it's ready for another 40 years. Boards are marked '77, low rev and in perfect shape - no one has ever monkeyed with this one. I'm a huge fan of the tele-games systems - the build quality on these first few months of production ones is just incredible.

    • Like 7

  15. Posted · Edited by mojoatomic

    Welcome to the forum! I'll bet we can get your 4 switch straightened out.

     

    Start at the beginning - what's the rev level of the board? It will be etched into the copper, either on the from, back or both, depending on the revision. Also - keep it simple and troubleshoot one thing at a time. Forget about the paddles for the moment and verify that the port(s) work correctly using the joysticks, then move back to the paddles. Missile command is a good cheap choice for this task - plus it's a fun game :-)

     

    Are the original c218 & c219 salvageable?

     

    Moving on to the picture - you have to straighten out the underlying issues before applying an AV mod to the unit. If you don't you'll just amplify the existing noise and have a crappy AV mod. Once straightened out... you'll be amazed how nice 2600 RF can be. Start here - some weirdo wrote some nonsense about this at one point -

     

    The same idiot posted this showing some RF tweaking... (post 32 & 35)

     

    Here's a good source for paddle parts if they're needed - although it could be a bad A202 RIOT chip (it's the one under the female cart slot on 4 switch units). But I doubt it.

  16. Posted

     

     

    I do have a quick video I did of the power consumption differences between the 7805s and DC/DC converters on the 5200 but I've feel I have already hijacked this thread enough from Mojoatomic and will post the link to that video comparison in the Blog area.

    It's not hijacking, just opening up additional avenues of discussion. All of your experiments are directly relateable to the original intent - and so far, the findings indicate that some will work (based on the anatomy of the game systems) and some will not, presumably.

     

    In any case, this mod thus far, applied to Atari and Nintendo systems, appears successful - at least in limited testing.

     

     

    I do have a few suggestions :-) On the 2600

     

    Replace C242 with a .22, C243 unchanged, C241 - place 10uf in parallel (observing polarity), C240 unchanged, C239 - place a 10uf in parallel with it (observing polarity) - doesn't matter if the 10uf caps go on the front or back of the board, just keep the leads short.

     

    I need to run this output through a signal analyzer and plot what ferrite bead would be best to suppress noise. This would be to replace the ferrite bead at L204. It will be different for the 7805 and the Traco.

     

    Yes, 16v or up is fine

     

    On another note - have you tried this? See what you think :-)

  17. Posted

    Again I know this started off discussing the use of these in a 2600 and I apologize if I hijacked Mojo's thread about this. But wanted to state really quickly that I have now installed these converters quite successfully in 4 other consoles without any noticeable graphic or audio issues unlike when they were installed in my Sega Genesis.

     

    So I've now installed these into my SNES mini-101, 7800 (Excellent results in both power consumption and essentially no heat), my 5200 (Also virtually no heat nor any interference in graphics or audio), and my Sega Master System. Again, this started off about the 2600, but I did do a video on the process of doing this to my SMS and the power measurements from my kill-a-watt before and after. I also have just a before and after of the power when I did my 5200 but haven't got that video quite ready yet. Just thought it might be of some interest that in most of the classic consoles (At least the 8-bit ones), these really do seem to make a difference.

     

    http://atariage.com/forums/blog/668/entry-13770-sega-master-system-voltage-regulator-modupgrade/

     

    Very cool, they really do work well.

  18. Posted · Edited by mojoatomic

    They really, really are. Especially when they're 40 years old. Just look at them wrong with a screwdriver and they'll snap. One little chip is all it takes -

     

    Plus - you can't adjust anything RF or color related on an Atari with a metallic instrument anyway - it interferes with the field and the adjustments are worthless.

  20. Posted

    When installing cap kits & voltage regulators, any type of repairs to the RF section or even color adjustments - I suggest you pickup a set of anti static adjustment tools similar to these . You don't have to buy these exact ones, I simply list them as I use these and they're high quality.

     

    Whenever you change the filter and regulation section out on an Atari, especially those with 3 pin RF sections (original 2600) - it's possible that you'll need to adjust the trimmer in the RF block as the picture will be fuzzy and maladjusted until you do. It could even be a black and white fuzzy mess with no sound. This is normal, it just needs to be adjusted. This isn't as much of a concern on 5 pin RF units, but even they sometimes need the adjustment.

     

    Read this twice, because it's important: You MUST NOT use a screwdriver, Allen key or anything metallic for this adjustment. If you touch the metal RF chassis during the adjustment and short to the coil, you WILL let the magic smoke out of the RF block.

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