Kain3n

Ok well due to the lack of replies I have just added it on the front of the console like everyone else did not as nice looking in my opinion but fits in the display cabinets I use better

Awesome thanks guys, I will contact 5-11under for a multicart

Hello I would like one of these when you are ready to take more orders, thanks

If you use any multi bit screw driver without a bit installed it will fit the screws

I have the Canadian model called the leisure vision the system and cartridges look identical to the Arcadia 2001 except for the name change. I dont however have a Arcadia 2001 cartridge to test only leisure vision ones. Does anyone know if they are fully compatible? And thanks for the link to 5-11unders threadif they are compatible I will try to make an order, thanks

Just recently picked one of these up with a couple games, in decent shape too, the plastic on the joysticks seems to have shrunk and cracked a bit revealing the metal post inside and the power button seems to be stuck on but otherwise good shape and the old rf video still working good. The games seem to be a bit hard to find and a little expensive as well. Does anyone know if there is a multi cart available for this system so I can just invest in that instead of paying too much for 2600 quality games? Also how easy is it to composite mod this system?

Dont know if youre still trying to fix the video on your Telstar, the rf modules seem to fail on these often and not sure how to repair the module. A composite video mod is the easiest way to go to fix your video and is fairly easy to do all you need is a couple wires to do it. You can find all the info you need in this thread http://atariage.com/forums/topic/251031-composite-mod-coleco-telstar/

Found the thread, it was a different pong console that I had hollowed out the rf box actually. Looks like I just de soldered the jack from the box and soldered it to my wires, plugged the rf cable in and zip tied it to something in the case. You can find what I did with pictures if you scroll down towards the bottom of the thread. Everything will look nice and original when its all closed up and you can plug your rf cable from the console right into the yellow jack on your tv instead of using your adapter to go into the coax jack for a nice clear picture http://atariage.com/forums/topic/251031-composite-mod-coleco-telstar/

I had the same issue with mine, the rf module is shot. I did a composite mod to fix the problem. You dont need anything special to do the mod just solder a couple wires. I hollowed out the rf box and attached the wires inside it so I didnt need to buy a composite jack and used the original rf cable as the video cable so when its all closed up it looks completely original, I will see if I can find a link to the thread with instructions and pictures

I will be modding my O2 to use Atari controllers and cant decide where to put the new controller ports. What is everyones opinion on putting them on the back of the console to keep it kind of original looking or to have them on the front of the console to be more practical especially if the O2 is placed in a cabinet but obviously No longer original looking?

Thanks grips03 I did see the link in the posts discussing the type 1 and 2 mods but figured itd be a hassle ordering and shipping the parts to Canada and putting them together. But decided to try it anyway and shipping wasnt an issue like it often is with some American companies. just finished soldering the boards, now just need to find some wire and I can test them out. If all goes well Ill probably have two boards available for sale since the boards come in 3 packs

Darn it appears that I am too late for the type 1 mod... if you do decide to make and sell some more please let me know. If not Ill try to solder myself up something like your type 2 mod since its easier for me to get those parts where I live.

Awesome thank you so much VPB for the picture and to cool Dave the Atari controller mod info can be found here http://solarfox.triluminary.net/hwh_o2avc_p2.php

I recently acquired an odyssey 2 and one of the hardwired controllers was snapped off and missing. So I am doing a controller port mod so I can use Atari controllers and while I got it apart a composite video mod. I am hoping to find a voice module for it eventually so I dont want to put my new ports in the way as I read it covers some of the back of the console. Issue is I cant seem to find any photos of the back of the console with the module attached. Can someone please take a picture of theirs and post it here for me? Thanks

Hey guys, so i figured out how to get it open and scrubbed it good with an old toothbrush, que tips and rubbing alcohol. and got it all back together but unfortunately it made no difference, I will seee if I can find some of that cleaner de-greaser you mentioned and see if that makes any difference if not I will have to see if I can find new pots that fit

Thanks guys the dirty pots makes sense and i think is the last electrical contact in there i didn't clean because they looked hard to get open, i just gotta figure out how to get them open i guess... this model doesn't use knobs it has levers and the pots sit sideways instead of facing up and it's actually the physical shape of the pot that holds everything in place in the control pad so if i do have to replace them they would need to be completely identical maybe tonight if not tomorrow i will try to tinker with it and post some pictures of the weird pot/lever control pad setup

here is the pictures of the work i did first picture just shows how the circuit board was originally, interesting how the rf box is on a seperate board connected by wires. last couple is just my splice job on the ac adapter with shrink tubing.

OK update. so I tried the circuit with the 2.2k and 3.3k resistors as seen above and blank screen again. and then tried replacing the elecrolytic capacitors and no change. and then i finally solved it! well 98% solved it lol. as you said Sly DC it wasn't getting enough power. i tried my volt meter on the telstar adapter out of curiostiy and it was actually putting out slightly higher than 9v even though it was rated for 9v (meter showed 12 but the tv scoreboard was at 8.9v... my meter probably sucks lol) so i tried another adapter and BAM! crystal clear. the paddles how ever are just slightly glitchy on the screen i tried the testar adapter and same thing but it doesn't stop this pong unit from being fully playable now so might just leave it as is unless you have an idea what i can check. here is a video of the display now not the paddles glitching slightly.

First time I have seen a color pong unit! neat!. I am also going to use your hollowing of the RF box to use the RCA connector and keep the unit looking original from the outside alex_79 so thanks for the tip, that is... if I ever get this thing to work properly lol. and Sly DC Thanks for getting back to me, I know you are a busy man and appreciate the help when ever you are able to give it so where my progress currently stands. The video above that I took yes all pins 6,9,10,and 24 are all tied together and going directly to the output. I have tried the circuit with all the extra parts that I originally asked about and get no display at all on the TV so I re-did the circuit again with another set of pieces in case something was defective and same result blank screen. I have now tried the circuit you drew up for me and same result just blank screen on the TV. I also tried it with the 75 ohm resistor and also no luck. only way I get any display at all is with all pins tied together and going directly out. I am using an AC adapter. I took 2 Adapters i grabbed from the local thrift store (one with a tip the fits the console and one with the right voltage(9v 350mA)) and spliced the tip onto the 9v plug making sure it was a positive tip to match the circuit board. checked with my meter and it is putting out 9v so low power or incorrect tip polarity shouldn't be the issue. looks like alex_79 used this circuit for the Atari for his pong unit maybe I will pick up some 2.2k and 3.3k resistors (worst case I can use them on my Atari 2600 and 7800 if I mod those later) and try this circuit out next, I am thinking i'll still get the same blank screen results though. this pong unit and transistor circuits don't seem to like each other so far. I read somewhere that electrolytic capacitors are more likely to fail than ceramic ones? there are two 220uf 16v axial electrolytic capacitors on the circuit board right next to the power input so I will try replacing those next as well. the rest of the capacitors are ceramic ones so will leave them alone for now untill i try these other two things.

I had it hooked up like the Telstar no extra parts method again so I could try to figure out why the video is wavy, and I noticed that after few few seconds ( I had just turned it on then off before after seeing bad video) it actually goes clear video but extra wavy and cuts in and out like that so maybe the video mod is fine like this and what ever is causing the wavy video is the problem? i am not sure what to check for the wavy video problem? here is a link for a video i took of the screen any ideas on what to test would be greatly apreciated

hey slydc,So I pulled it out again today and it's not dead. for some reason the RF signal just doesn't work anymore, out of curiosity i hooked it up like the Telstar again and get the same dim picture as before. I tried the circuit from before on it again and blank screen again. redid the circuit completely with new parts in case one was bad and again blank screen. so i pulled out the multimeter and it has the 5vdc going into the collector of the transistor. 90mV going into the base and an output on the emiter of 350mV. so maybe the transitor is no good? i have tried 2 though unless he sold me two bad ones... any ideas? if you could verify the drawing above if thats how you meant for your method I will try that instead but don't want to try it before you check it in case i fry something lol. let me knoe thanks

so... i think i should have quit while i was ahead. the TV scoreboard was working with the RF video but picture was a little wavy, that's why I was going to try the composite mod on it too. when I tried it with the Telstar method you could tell it needed it's signal boosted because it was very faint as in the picture above and still wavy. so I think the wavy-nes has nothing to do with the video but decided to finish the composite mod and deal with the wavy later. i managed to find a place local here that sells the transistors and picked it up. and since i had all the parts already i tried to do it as the schematic i originally posted and boom nothing but black screen. i noticed i had damaged the trace leading to pin 4 Vcc (musta pulled on the wire too hard when soldering.) so i unsoldered everything and repaired the trace and tested it with a multimeter to ensure continuity. and tried to hook it up with the original RF connection to test and nothing but static on the screen now. can still hear the ball bouncing but no video i have metered all traces that i touched out for continuity and they are all ok so not sure why no video now... i am going to try it next with your 4 part way to see if i can hopefully get video. but i need a little clarification on the wiring. i have made a drawing of what i think you meant when you explained it let me knoe if i got it right or if i need to change something before i start. i am gonna throw this thing back together for now until i hear from you thanks

well i tried modding it the same way as the coleco telstar and it just does not work. came out like this guess i will have to get ahold of a transistor

I also have one more pong unit I would like to try this mod on. It's a Radio Shack TV scoreboard. I just opened it up and it uses the same AY-3-8500-1 chip so I am assuming i can use this same zero extra components method? If not i will have to re-order one of those transistors that never came last time lol. the RF cable connector is external on this so I will have to decide if I want to drill some holes and mount composite cable jacks on the case or drill one small hole for a permanently attached cable before proceeding. here is a stock photo of the unit, it's a neat one with a couple extra options than the Telstar with pull out wired controllers.

hey and thanks slydc! the 2N3904 was the one part of all the parts i ordered that for some reason never showed up lol. So I have completed the mod your way with zero parts and it is working great! I actually pulled this Telstar out of my friends neighbors trash can 17 years ago but had limited soldering ability and circuitry knowledge then so it sat in a dark corner of my parents basement until I found it again a couple months ago when i was visiting them and digging around to retrieve my old Colecovision which i may also try a composite mod on soon ( I just finished cleaning the power switch to fix the garbled video, and replacing the SN74LS541N so that controller #1 would work so it too is working again). so for the first time in 17 years that i've had this Telstar.... it' ALIVE! mwahahahahaha. I wanted it to still look and feel as authentic as possible so i only did the video and not the sound and reused the existing RF cable for the video. here is pics of what i did, i just bridged 3 pins on the bottom right instead of coming off 3 different places on the 8500 chip. and followed the traces to easier solder points for the rest. and then un-soldered the RF connector port from the pcb attached everything to it and the glue gunned it to the back of the casing. I did not have the connector glue gunned to the casing yet in the picture. the ball in the 3rd picture is moving too fast for my crappy phone to get a clear shot of but it's all crystal clear and working perfectly!