-^CrossBow^-

March 9

2 hours ago, astroguy said:

hmm.. I checked the voltage again with a multi-meter, and I see 4.94. Looks like my bench oscilloscope needs to be calibrated.

power supply with no load is just over 13V.

Okay that sounds correct. what is the voltage at the ferrite bead show? That will be the input with a load on it. And...wait I thought this console was essentially working previously as you were talking about video quality etc? What happened?

March 9

53 minutes ago, astroguy said:

one more note: I'm getting 5.3V on the main rail. Changing the voltage regulator does not change that value. Maybe voltage is too high?

Is that with a DC-DC switching regulator installed? Because I've only ever seen right at 5v with the ones I've installed and original linear style are typically around 4.9 - 5.03 on their output. What is the voltage input on the regulator?

March 9

@Erzak sent me his TBA purchased mount board and UAV setup for me to look at it. I pretty quickly found what I'm pretty sure is the issue as soon as I removed his UAV board to check. @Nick15 As you have everything apart already, refer back to my post where I noted points to test for continuity please.

I'm going to test the one I received now that I've 'corrected' it and verify it is good. If it is then I will update this post with what I found. But I'm suspecting that Nick's might be a similar issue.

*UPDATE* I've confirmed the issue with the one that was sent to me. Some of the pins on the IC chip on the mount board weren't soldered down making proper contact. I removed the IC, cleaned up the area, and resoldered it into place on this one and then tested it to confirm it is indeed working properly. Not sure if @Nick15's is the same issue but checking the continuity as I stated in an earlier post will confirm if that is a possible issue or not. I will relay this information to TBA so they can check for it on any others they might have and going forward on the ones they have made that they are selling.

Here is the IC after I got it soldered back down into place. It was quite a few of the pins on this side that weren't making contact.

Here is @Erzak's mount board wired up off a UAV I have installed in an older test 7800 here. The Maria Color wire is actually coming off the main board directly in this case to test the mount boards chroma fix is working properly.

And here is @RevEng's utility cart color test through s-video output on the same mount and UAV showing correct colors now.

March 9

9 minutes ago, bent_pin said:

That's good. I'd check to see that each IC is getting power before moving on to doing anything with a RAM swap. Sounds like the GTIA is getting powered but the CPU might not be getting power or might not be working.

@Celotine Check that you have proper input and output voltage from each of the twin 7805s. As they basically each power half of the system logic. If those are good, then I would start with the CPU which is the large IC to the upper left.

March 7

@rbairos Not sure if I'm on part of the original list either. I know I've expressed interest in getting one since they were first shown. I've also currently have 4 different 7800s that I can test it with along with just about ever variant of NTSC 2600. But my main interest and testing would be on the 7800s. I've got an '84 made unit and then like 2 A1 series and an A3 series. But reality is that the series numbers mean little since my '84 mainboard made 7800 was actually bought in late '88 and is an A3 series but is actually a much older mainboard internally.

March 7

27 minutes ago, LatchKeyKid said:

I never knew the 2600 was set to channels 2/3. IIRC the NES was on channels 3/4 which weren't used at all in my childhood area whereas channel 2 was a normal major network channel.

Yeap...same here Channel 2 was and still is the local NBC affiliate here. So all of my systems back then had to be on channel 3 and I still use channel 3 as the default to this day even if those stations aren't broadcasting on these older carriers anymore and are all digital. Force of habit I guess...

March 7

1 hour ago, SuperZapperRecharge said:

What version of the 7800 do you have? Does it have one of those CPUs that also has problems with the 7800 Concerto cart? I have a few 7800s and two are problematic with my Concerto cart. There is a lot of discussion on the Concerto topic about slightly off 7800 CPUs. The ones that are off for me are 1984 7800s. I'll have to pop them open to see if they are close in sequence to the CPUs on the Concerto thread.

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/322519-isolating-causes-of-variations-in-behavior-of-different-7800-consoles/?do=findComment&comment=4861878

F827167 S8740

C014806C-29

Atari 1983

If the one he is showing is the one I did for him, then it has the NCR CPU matching the one I left in your quote. That said, it has a Kiloparsec BIOS in but did NOT have the extra timing populated and that section bypassed from the factory. Originally had one of the simple composite mod boards in it that I removed and replaced all the components that had been removed including the RF modulator to take it back to stock condition before installing a UAV and older chroma timing fix board into it.

It looks like there is a sync issue on the output so it will be interesting to see if he does eventually get audio indicating that the code is running and it is strictly some visual issue in this case. @ZeroPage Homebrew's 7800 also has a UAV with one of the same older chroma fix boards installed but no Kiloparsec BIOS.

March 7

2 minutes ago, Muddyfunster said:

I ordered one and need to figure out the update process. Will take a look at that tomorrow sometime.

It is pretty easy actually. I use the USB-C cable that came with it on mine to update through my Windows PC. I installed the updated dumper first and then the new FW. After that, I've only changed out FW for testing things and never messed with the dumper portion again. But they both basically update the same way.

March 7

47 minutes ago, PacManPlus said:

If it were that price here in the States I'd pick up another one just for backup... My current one is in storage at the moment...

I paid the full price when it was released and still feel it was worth it as a backup to use on modern displays. Especially when you have the current FW loaded on it that pretty much tackles all of the 7800 stuff at this point.

March 7

42 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

What the... oops never mind, everything is all good.

The MovieCart DOES work on my 7800, my s-video cable was not plugged in correctly. It works perfectly and does switch to B&W video output when holding down the Pause button.

- James

Okay...good to know! I had seen a comment in @swlovinist's video stating it wasn't working with the 7800 but didn't state what didn't work. Or at least it didn't at the time I saw the comment earlier today. John, what happened when you tried it on your 7800?

March 7

1 hour ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

I just did some testing on the Atari 7800 and the MovieCart DOES work but... the output is in B&W. Since there's no B&W switch on the 7800 it can't be switched to colour.

I've tried holding the Pause button while turning it on and also pressing/holding while it's playing but it's not registering as the B&W switch. I'm guessing that this could be fixed by either forcing it into colour or making the default setting colour no matter which way the B&W switch is set initially.

- James

That is odd because the B/W switch function on the 7800 is actually the default COLOR output and pressing the button down for pause will go into B/W mode. Use pitfall ! to verify this. So you are saying that the movie cart requires the 2600 to be in the B/W mode vs color then to get color? That is backwards isn't it?

March 6

So am I understanding correctly that these carts aren't working on the 7800? Any idea why that might be?

March 6

1 hour ago, Erzak said:

I recently got a 7800GD, also purchased a "Hyperkin HDTV Cable for Genesis" to send the AV output to HDMI on TVs. I have an older TV (but still has HDMI inputs) out in my garage, and that is where I first tested things out, and everything worked fine. A few days later, I moved my 7800, the multicart, etc. inside and hooked it up to my main TV, and again it worked fine. Since then, I've moved it back into the garage/workbench area, and I no longer get any output when it's connected to the older TV via HDMI. Any reason that this should be happening? I see that there is a 7800GD.ini file on my uSD card, but looking at it, it just seems to be showing what the last game played was, sound levels, things like that. I don't see anything in that file related to video out settings. Very perplexing.

Thanks, Eric

I'm sure you verified this already but you do have a good separate power source plugged into that hyperkin cable right? I think the USB on most TVs is enough to allow it to work but yeah could it actually be a power issue to the hyperkin box itself?

March 6

I wondered what was up as Chrome has been blocking all of the WIP stuff I've got in PMs for testing games. I basically have to click on the download history link on the blocked message where the downloaded file will then show and I have the option to keep the untrusted file. But making that option only available in the download history link and only when the popup comes up is pretty nasty in my eyes.

March 6

36 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

https://discord.gg/J3G8Qkxv

Try that?

Yeap that worked thanks! For some reason clicking the link on the Sega-16 page just opens up a blank discord page for me so I figured the link must be incorrect.

March 6

For some reason when I try and access the Sega-16 discord server...nothing happens? Odd as I'm part of quite a few other servers including AA's discord. Is the link for the discord on the sega-16 website incorrect perhaps?

March 5

11 minutes ago, x=usr(1536) said:

That gives a possible explanation for the boards with the upside-down IC - the pin 10 square could be mistaken for the pin 1 dot, and if assembling by hand, could easily result in installing the IC in the wrong orientation.

Not blaming the board or anyone building it; it's just a possibility.

Oh I know that was part of the issue as TBA told me that. Again, that is how the footprint from Ti came across. I have a different footprint in use on my designs now that doesn't include that square. But these last few mounts that are giving black and white output doesn't seem to be due to the IC orientation since the pics I've been sent, the IC is in the correct position. I've a suspicion that one of the traces near the ICs didn't get made or isn't connected right in a batch of the boards that wasn't discovered. One of these boards is headed my way so I can try and remove the UAV from it and check it out in more detail.

I'd like to know what is going on so that the issue can be found and reported back in detail to TBA.

March 5

45 minutes ago, SainT said:

I've added support for other types of controller adapters to allow BREAK via a button. So on your adapter if you map a button to LEFT+RIGHT (pressed at the same time) and one to UP+DOWN then you will have BREAK and (I think) quick save state.

Be advised that on Atari systems that combos using Left + Right will confuse the system and make it think there are paddles attached. I ran into this issue with my first modified controller to enable remote pause function as I was using the Left + Right combo and it was causing issues with my Harmony and other games. So I changed it to Up + Down and that hasn't caused any problems for me.

March 5

48 minutes ago, Spudster said:

Ugh, never mind. Couldn't see the dot clearly due to the sloppy flux.

If that is your TBA provided mount board, then the IC is correct. For some odd reason the footprint for that IC that Ti provides for PCB design programs, has that large square off pin 10. That is marking one of the first input gates to the IC and is NOT for pin 1. There is actually a Dot that I added on the PCB board for pin1, but it gets covered up once you install the IC. That one above, looks like it might need to be checked for any shorts between those pins. Although a short on pin 3 and pin 4 on the IC is normal and expected.

March 4

This is getting very impressive with the animation and mechanics added!

The fire boss was the most difficult for me but I finally got the pattern figured out.

March 4

3 hours ago, asmikace said:

I was wondering what happen to the Sega 16. I was wanting to get some updates on the homebrew scene and bummed that I could not find it.

The website is still there? But the forums appear to be dead now? I know they finally did a forum upgrade like a few weeks back, but since then, aside from one notice when Melf put out another review, I've not see anything in the forums? And, if they updated the forums, then I don't understand why I'm still getting cert issues for them and I have to bypass Chrome security in order to view them?

March 4

23 hours ago, BIGHMW said:

Can this also be done with a 2600 Jr with a TRRS-a/v mod done on her already??? I own one and would love to get this same job done on my Jr provided I can ship it out to get done. I can pay via PayPal, Venmo, or CashApp so that is no problem, it's just a matter of where to send it.

You do know your 7800 features an audio input to allow use of the Avox being mixed with the internal audio easier already right?

March 2

1 hour ago, Erzak said:

Okay, running a wire from MC to Co In fixed it, now have color in 7800 games thru composite video out. I will remove the mount board and see if I can tell if the IC is in backwards, etc. Let me know other things to look for or check. If you want me to send it to me, depending on what I find, we can do that.

Yes, depending on where you are located it shouldn't cost that much to send in one of these. just have to put some foam around the pins so they don't get bent in the process. I do suspect there has to be something up with those boards from TBA because I actually have a small sony PVM (CVBS and svid only), that works great with it, an older 4:3 LCD with a dedicated s-video and composite that also works, my Extron setup in the game room has no issues with it, and even an old JVC late 90s CRT in a spare room I sometimes use for color calibrations works just fine with it. So there has got to be some oddness with those boards and if I can identify it, I'm sure I can let TBA know and see if they can contact those that have bought them. Pretty sure I've seen folks sell already done 7800s using the TBA mounts in the past without issue, so this has to be something new.

Send me a PM so we can get something together here.

March 2

28 minutes ago, Erzak said:

I'll bust out the soldering iron and solder wick tomorrow and check/clean-up connections, and then remove the mount board if I don't get it working properly.

You don't have to remove the mount to bypass the chroma fix circuit of the mount. just run a wire from the MC connection off the mount back to the Co In pin on the output side of the UAV. That will at least let me know if the mount board is the issue. If so, I might ask that you send it to me so I can look it over and see what might be going on. Again, the boards I've made myself have never had any issues like this that weren't due to some error when assembling them.

If I can see what is up with these TBA boards then I can present that info to TBA to see about ways they can correct for it going forward. I do think the issue is either something strange with the ICs used or maybe they got in a batch with a bad trace in the routing under the IC causing the signal to be broken before getting to the UAV.

March 1

@Nick15 & @Erzak any updates on this?

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