SignGuy81

I guess I could try a DVD/VCR combo and just do away with all the VCR stuff inside but I wouldn't like seeing options for VCR on the menu screen on TV if I don't have it. Plus with those I think most of those are older and have larger boards and some I've seen even have cooling fans so hopefully I can find something small enough. I guess if the parts are too big instead I could try to mod a regular 2600 like this instead and if I had to replace it's guts with flashback unit for extra room. I probably won't be starting this anytime soon was just in meantime looking for something that might work for this. I would think Microsoft can't be the only company that has thought about having a video input on a device that doesn't record from an input source but I guess I could be wrong. I also have two HDTV DVR units in the house that record from the digital tuner but that is the only option, no inputs other than that. I guess what I'm looking for exactly would be a DVD recorder that doesn't have VCR included but I haven't seen any without a VCR built in.

Hi, I've been searching all over the internet just to try and find if what I'm looking for exists. I am looking for a DVD player, more features the better(not sure if there is even any such thing as a smart DVD player like there are Blu Rays with wifi and all that), that has composite input. I don't know if they make them or not I guess if they do it would probably be a DVD recorder, but all of those I've seen also have VCR built in. I'm looking for something small. Blu Ray player would be fine too but I can't seem to find any with composite(or any type of input) jacks. Seems like that would be a nice feature to have for any device like that so you can just leave that one on all the time and use it and go to apps, DVD or BluRay or whatever else and just use that one remote. Kinda like Xboxs idea with the Xbox one with the HDMI input. The reason I want this is because I want to mod an Atari flashback to be a DVD or BluRay player as well and hopefully have wifi and apps. What I want to do is be able to fit the boards in an atari flashback, with the DVD drive, dremel out a slot for the tray to come out of the front, and solder the composite output from the atari board into the composite input on the dvd player board, all in the case. i'll have to also drill a hole in front for IR detection. This will allow me to use this one device for most things, and just hit one button on the remote to switch to AV which would be atari. It was just an idea that popped in my head and thought it would be a fun project. I've repaired a couple sony blu ray players in the past and am pretty sure all of those parts would fit in with what is already in there, including the power supply. Only problem is I've yet to find anything other than a VCR that accepts composite input. Nothing else I would like a just a streaming box or something that has A/V input so I can put it in the atari case and do the same I mentioned above just lack of having DVD or Bluray as an option but would still be nice. Any help would be appreciated. If I attempt this mod I guess I'll try to do it with one of the newer flashbacks that have wireless joysticks that way I could do everything wirelessly. EDIT: Another thing that would be nice is if the remote for the device has 4 big arrow buttons with an okay button or whatever in the middle. I've played around with IR before and an arduino so another thing I would try to do is check the signal coming from the remote with an IR detector and my oscope and then program the detection for those button presses and and tie arduino output it in to the controller ports as well so i could even use the DVD remote to play the games. Just need help finding a DVD player that would work.

Unless your TV has issues with tuning and your vcr has better tuner I would say hook it directly to your TV. I'm assuming you mean that your TV has composite inputs and you will be hooking your VCR up via composite. Because if your TV has a crappy tuner and your VCR has a better one using the better one on the VCR for the Atari won't help if it is sending the signal out to the crappy tuner of the TV. So really it all depends, just try different ways and see what you think looks best.

You can see in the last two photos you have some pads that have pulled up. You do not need to get another part. You have to figure out which wires were supposed to go to which pad, and it is hard to tell by the picture. Once you do find out you can just cut that connector off, scrape back each trace that went to each pad, tin them then solder the wires to them, if they are long enough to still allow you to plug the other end into the psu. If not you will have to add more wire to each of the wires first and solder and heatshrink. Since it is an easy part to get pulled up by people forgetting to unplug the plug from the psu which is what caused this to happen you also, well would anway want to secure the newly made connections. Get make sure you have no bridges first and good connections, then take some epoxy and go over where you put your wires and soldered them to the board and spread it out some so it will be firmly secured to the motherboard. Then when you put the power supply back in you just plug that plug in and your good to go. Just need to find a clearer picture so you can tell exactly which wire is going where. I've never worked on nor own a PS4 so I don't know, I just wanted to let you know you didn't need to buy any parts to go on it, and actually it wouldn't help even if you had the part really with the pads being gone you are better off doing it the way I described than trying to make the part work. They aren't in a straight line but it is either going to be from left to right or right to left the order of which to connect them, meaning first wire to the top left, then next to bottom left, then top right, then bottom right and that covers you from left to right, or you turn the plug around and do the wires that way. As far as I can tell the way your 3rd picture is now showing the plug that looks to me that is the same orientation that it needs to be from the youtube video that was shown earlier but it is hard to tell. Pause the video at 8:21. The reason I say it looks like it is correctly oriented now in 3rd pic is that I can't see the same slots showing on the video where the wires go into the back of the plug(the same plug you are showing) so those slots must be on the underside of the plug that we can't see in your 3rd pic which means that you must already have it oriented the correct way there to say hey, first one on the left goes to the top left, then 2nd wire goes over and down, 3rd wire goes over and up, and 4rth wire down and over. Do that you should be good. Hope that helps but if it screws it up my bad.

I have been looking for some time now a TV that doesn't take up much space and accepts RF and composite inputs. I found a cheap one on ebay for parts not working GPX KCLD8886DT I got it working this evening when I got home from work and first thing I did after hanging it under a shelf at my work bench was hook it up to an Atari. Just want to say I'm very pleased with the picture and sound quality for this device and it makes a perfect TV for someone with an electronics work bench like me who needs to test old consoles or dvd players, etc. And a plus as well is that if I'm not using it to do that at the time it has a radio on it as well I can listen to while I work. I wonder now how I've went so long without this. With my oscilloscope, bench power supply, soldering equipent and all of my other junk I just had no room for TV and had been taking stuff back and forth from there to living room, now I don't have to do that unless I am working on something with HDMI or component that I want to test. I know that was a lot but I just wanted to share that with anyone who was looking for something similar.

Go here http://www.labelmaker2600.com/

Just wanted to add for anyone looking for a TV that does accept 240P over component cables I have a Hisense 55 inch Smart TV that does. It has more options than most name brand expensive TVs I've had. I would have to look at the model number but I have the 1080p version I'm not sure if the newer ones do or not support 240p over component. Reason I wanted a TV that does was at the time was trying to find a TV I could use with my PS2 and have component cables and be able to play PS1 games. I'd before have to have it hooked compenent for best picture with PS2 games then everytime I wanted to play a PS1 game had to swap it back to composite. My Hisense TV solved that problem.

My thoughts exactly. Plus too I'm pretty sure it isn't made by the same people who actually own the flashback trademark. Is that atgames now? I used to own an FC Twin console and it was pretty decent and actually took snes controllers.

I just came across this on ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Flashback-NES-Nintendo-Cartridge-Compatible-/182488518708and was wondering if anyone has came across this before? It looks kinda like the atgames sega genesis but it says it plays NES carts.

So far Ms PacMan has been playing fine. I can't find it now but I came across a page before browsing the web that listed games that were compatible and games that had issues but I can't find it now.

Yes. I goofed and got a little too close to the corner of the case and scraped it a little. Isn't very noticeable even up close looking at it but the iphone gets everything.

Here are some pics of my modded flashback 2. I'm not done yet though I'm going to add an LED for power and I am going to put in a switch for automatic switch between cart and internal. Just wanted to show my progress so far with my 3D printer and freecad.

I searched "atari 2600 sesame street overlays" in google and came up with quite a few results that it looks like you should be able to print, you just might have to play around with the size to get them right but should be able to just print them on photopaper I would think. example of what I found https://www.google.com/search?q=atari+2600+sesame+street+overlays&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi9v6TPhpjTAhUn6oMKHeoPDAwQ_AUIBigB&biw=1299&bih=567#imgrc=X85_e08VMC1ejM:

I haven't had enought time to read through it yet but this looks like same problem you are having http://atariage.com/forums/topic/220557-my-2600-picture-is-distorted-help/ After reading a little into it it may be one of those green caps(the big green ones not the little ones I was talking about earlier that I thought were resistors at first), perhaps the ones near the controller port seeing how pressing down on controller clears the issue. Would it be much trouble to swap out those two green caps near the left controller port with the ones in the other 2600 you have to test?

Yes, you say that as soon as you press down the symptom goes away. I'm not that familiar but the inputs are going to either have pullup or pulldown resistors before going to the TIA from the controller ports. Seeing as the problem goes away I would check those joints in that area. I looked at the back side of board in your pic at first controller port and seemed okay but I would flip the board over and check near the resistors and whether one side is tied to ground or +5 i would make sure that that connection is good on the resistors because the TIA is either going to want it ground or 5 volts on the input, not floating which may be causing your issue. Can you take picture of the other side of board near the controller port. Honestly though i still don't think this would cause the issue you are having on the screen though I think the problem is in those original solder joints somewhere we looked at. EDIT: I thought those would be pullup or pulldown resisors but looked closer at a board online and saw they are caps, and some different versions of the 2600 motherboards had 2 resistors along with the caps in that area.

Yep those joints look bad. Also look at L203 it doesn't even look like it has solder at all on one side of it. R200 looks very bad and like the 5th one down from it does too on one side. But like previously mentioned just go over all of them. I like to take a jeweler's loup to look at them all up close.

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I'm thinking it may help to to try to wrap the converter in foil tape, just being careful not to get too close to the pins.

That tape isn't nescessary. at first I thought it was heat shrink and wondering why you didn't heat it but then saw the seam and realized it was electrical tape. No purpose in having that on there no offense but it looks terrible. If you solder it where it is supposed to go and the insulation doesn't get burnt back it isn't going to touch anything else, but you could always use a dab of hot glue on it instead if you wanted to. EDIT: I originally added another option which I realized I worded wrong or I wasn't thinking clearly so now I'm rewriting it. I was going to mention another option is that if you were supposed to clip the lead and solder to that(hard to tell by the picture if it was just soldered to the resistor or if it was clipped first) then what you can do(if there is only one trace going to that component hole counting both sides of board) is cut the trace on the board, pull that end of the component up and put the wire in, and shove the component lead back down thru it and solder them together that way. It serves same purpose as clipping the lead but it gives you something extra to solder to and keeps everything in place. If there is more than one trace going to that particular point though it might not be a good idea because those traces may need to remain electrically connected and therefore clipping the lead might be the better option but still I wouldn't use electrical tape.

Now that I see the pic I believe it is in the mod upgrade composite circuit or near it. I was thinking like blocky problems but it looks more like scrambled picture. I looked at the solder joint you were talking about that wouldn't matter it is all on one trace anyway so it shouldn't matter if you bridged it to the pad next to it. EDIT: Also have you tried different a/v cables? May be the other 2600 is working fine because it doesn't use the a/v cables you have with modded unit which may be bad possibly. Try with the case open with game in wiggling stuff around, inlcuding the a/v cable too to see if it straightens the picture out, may help find the issue. Can you take a picture of the mod area front and back of board and post it?

I would check the solder joints around the new chips or sockets to make sure you don't have a cracked/weak solder joint. Very possible if those chips were bad that they got hot and caused some damage to the solder joints on the sockets they sit in if they are in sockets, I'm assuming they are in sockets since you say you swap them out to test in the other 2600. I like to go over solder joints real good with a jeweler's loupe to see things really clear. EDIT: Can you post a picture of the problem? EDIT 2: Also make sure that the chips fit tight in there sockets as well, may need replacing socket or try prying the pins up on them to make the connections tighter but where I'm leaning at with this is a bad connection between the CPU and TIA somewhere, but check all the solder joints around those chips and also go over the the upgrade parts as well and check those joints(I don't think a bad joint on the composite mod will cause that particular issue though).

I have one flashback I'm working on now and then another and two 2600s lined up I'm going to be working on. I'm putting cart slot in flashback and not sure if I'm going to do any mods to the 2600s or just clean and repair/refurbish them, haven't even taken them out of the box yet. I'll post a pic of my flashback when I'm done.