Ruggers Customs

PAL units don't have a 10uf tantalum feeding into the 9929 like NTSC has for the 9928. It's just a regular 10 uf electrolytic. I can't remember which number it is but it's the electrolytic on the far right side edge of the board just above the 9929 chip. Can't miss it.

Hello. I've been at this for a decade and just realized my name isn't on this thread for repairs. Could you please add ruggerscustoms.net and orders@ruggerscustoms.com for repairs? Thank you.

I make a custom Sega Genesis controller with 8 buttons of function. I designed a custom pcb which is essentially a colecovision controller but with less buttons of course. I should have a large batch made in a few weeks. Here is a video Crossbow did a year ago on it. Ivory Tower Collections review of the Ruggers Customs Ruggerpad

I made up smd and through hole version of this circuit which is the same one everyone's been using on PAL consoles for the past decade or so. I didn't like the results on the PAL tv I have here in the shop. All the other people I've talked with in PAL Regions who have this mod circuit in their Colecovision say it's perfectly fine. Maybe it's just my tv, idk. I guess the NTSC composite mod has spoiled me.

Did you ever find a Colecovision PAL AV kit?

First off check the three voltages feeding to the 4116 dram. If they're all getting the proper voltages then leave them alone for now. Break out your scope and check the clock signals. A full set of schematics and a flow chart can be found at Console5's tech wiki. Two other places to check if a black screen is present 1. If the screen is black with a solid audio tone then it's likely a fault with the Z80. 2. If the screen is black with no tone or any noise at all then one of your Sram (2114 sram at U3 & U4) chips is likely at fault. This should get you started and good luck!

That's pretty damn spiffy.

What Nick said. Out of the hundreds of expansion modules I've serviced over the years, I've never experienced one where the three slide switches gave any issues. I've ran into issues with the carbon contact pads inside the reset switch and game select buttons but that wouldn't cause any of the issues you're experiencing (unless the reset button is stuck but in theory that generally doesn't happen with carbon contact pads). Like I said, those sockets aren't factory and were added by someone after wards who was likely troubleshooting the existing problem you're having. You can purchase new RIOT and MPU chips from Bradley at Best Electronics (if he still has any) if you're just curious and want to trouble shoot. Since they're already socketed it would be far easier and cheaper time wise to just swap chips to test rather than break out a scope to troubleshoot. Plus it's always good to have spare chips on hand, especially the RIOT chip which is normally the problem child in Atari 2600s. If it's the custom TIA then I'm afraid you're out of luck. There is someone that makes an Atari TIA adapter board which changes the pin out so an Atari TIA can work in that Expansion Module 1. However, Atari TIA chips themselves are getting hard to find as well unless you pull one out of a working system. As far as the flat cable, just test for continuity and make sure no traces are broken. If it checks out then there's no need to replace it. I wish I could be of more help.

You probably didn't do anything. Those sockets aren't factory so there's a good chance that someone else had the same issue as you and tried to fix it.

You're welcome. I've known Luke for about a decade, super good guy. and will always do what he can to help the customer. He's still one of my main suppliers of hard to get items.

No they're not bad, just not my style. It's the same LM318 circuit that everyone uses. I normally just remove the LM318 from that board and transplant it to one of the through hole boards I use. The through hole board I use isn't my design but I did go back over it in Eagle and fixed the routing and a few other things that were off. I'll service the expansion module 1 for a fee plus parts. I'll be honest if it doesn't work then it'll 99% be one of the chips at fault. It's normally the RIOT (same as Atari 2600) or the cutsom TIA (A clone of Atari's TIA with a different pin out. I can't do anything about that). Honestly, it would be cheaper to just buy another one than to send it to me.

I've pulled out about 3 dozen of those mods over the past few years and even more of his RGB mods.

I just got done talking with Luke at C5. Email them at sales@console5.com and he'll get you taken care of.

Well apparently that slipped past their quality control then. I'm really sorry if that's the case. You can do a couple of things here. You can contact Luke and he'll send you another one which you said you were going to do your you could add some flux and touch up all the connectors to clear up some of that solder paste.

Oh no need to apologize. Like I said I did that one initial run for Luke but ended up giving him my revised gerbers to him to do what he wished with them since I just didn't have the time to assemble them then bake them in the oven. As a matter of fact, I haven't assembled or baked my ESD Protection boards (or any boards for that matter, my reflow oven is so lonely) because of time. I just have PCBWay do it now. I don't make any money off them now as a result but it keeps the stock plentiful since PCBWay can do it faster than I can. haha

Mobius never assembled boards for C5. I did one initial run for C5 when Chris at Mobius gave me permission to sell his design. Again, I only did ONE run and that picture on C5s page is from one of those boards from that first and only batch I did which was years ago. You can see there's different components on mine compared to the one posted above that came "preassembled".

There's absoultely no way that came from C5 like that.

I didn't make that board, Mobius did. It says so on the silkscreen. The problem is your solder work is likely causing issues. Looks like multiple bridges on the lm318.

@nanochess If it's okay with you, I'd like to share your post on my business page to try and help her family if possible.

This is indeed sad. What a wonderful person and I'm so sorry to hear this. She will be tremendously missed.

I did? Are you sure? I might have said positive things about it when he first released it years ago but after testing on multiple consoles shortly after I recommended publicly to NOT use HDTV1080p's power supply. I jumped the gun and learned my lesson but again, I amended my opinion shortly after (See attached screen shots from AA about 4 years ago). Why? Because it had a crap ton of noise that was shown in the video signal in several Colecovision variations. When I presented this to him in private, he couldn't be bothered by it and completely ignored my complaints. His response below further strengthens my claim as I'm not going to post our private conversation here. I'm still irritated by that exhange so I'll leave it at that. How is Lundy Electronic's better? Likely because he uses a Meanwell variation that uses a grounded plug. A variation I didn't know Meanwell made. That will eliminate most if not all of the noise from a switchmode power supply. Also, John Lundy isn't some quick, cash grab fly by night modder but an actual Engineer. His setup has not only been thoroughly tested by him with the necessary proper equipment but by me on several NTSC Colecovision revisions along with a PAL Colecovision. It's been tested by me so far with the following video outputs- Composite video - Excellent RF video - Good as can be because RF is horrible to begin with TMS-RGB - Excellent F18a- TBD but in theory should be fine Scalers used in testing for TMS-RGB Retrotink 2x Scart Rad 2x cable with Genesis/Mega Drive 9 pin video standard Retrotink 5x OSSC Framemeister Anything Lundy Electronics produces and sells will be of the highest quality and thoroughly tested by an actual engineer who knows what he's doing. Due to personal issues, I haven't had a chance to do a write up about it here on AA but NAID did and this further supports what he said. As soon as time permits, I'll promote it on my business page.

Yeah I'm sorry I forgot to put in a link. However Tekman took care of that!

Yep, I want this.

It's not a true drop in replacement because a few alterations have to be done but close. Basically it's similar to the +5 volt ram but instead of using 4164 Dram (which the price keeps going up as NOS supply dwindles), it uses an sram chip, three latches and a hex inverter. The advantage to this is it uses modern, easy to purchase parts from Mouser or Digkey, it will run cooler since it only requires +5 volts and it just looks cool! It will probably last forever, within reason of course. Install is pretty simple, remove existing 4116 dram, remove two inductors, remove decoupling caps, install sockets (or pin headers/machined sockets) and drop in the Lundy Dram to Sram board. No more time to do this than the old +5 volt mods. It works great with RF, Composite video and the TMS-RGB video. I personally love it and think it's great! I've been playing around with it for a couple of days and it's going into a friends console as a Christmas gift. I hope to finish up his console later today and I'll get some show pics along with a write up similar to this on my Facebook business page.

Nvm, I'm an idiot. Disregard previous comment. 😕