NISMOPC
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Posts posted by NISMOPC
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I don't know anything about spray paints.
But the XLs are white and black. The 400/800 are brown/tan.
XL's are light BEIGE and BROWN. There is no black on XL's
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Spray them with de-ox cleaner spray. Several of the 2600's I've rcvd over the years have had similar issues and just needed a good cleaning to work.
Spray the switches, then flip them back and forth several times. Spray again. Usually will clean them pretty good and get them working again.
Good luck!
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Please add me to the list (if you ship to USA)
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My 1200XL that I recently received had poor soldering at the PCB which caused a bad connection to the LED legs. I re-soldered the legs and it worked.
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UPDATE: IT WORKS!!!
Even though I ordered the Best Electronics mylar, I took advice to get the original mylar working. After several patient attempts slowly with heat gun on low heat to remove the mylar from the PCB (and the white insulator layer), several parts of the insulator would not come off easily and the mylar pretty much was useless once I removed it. I had to scrape off several parts of the keyboard PCB where the insulator basically adhered to the PCB.
So, on to the Best Electronics mylar. It took me 4 attempts to get it working properly. On the 4th attempt I finally decided to place a small piece of insulated electrical tape between the case and the mylar connection to increase the compression where the mylar connection to the PCB was. IT WORKED.
Should be the last time I open this 1200XL. I plan to keep this one with my CIB "stock" collection of 8-bits.
Finally...
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You are like a useless book of knowledge. NOBODY CARES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Leave us be....
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Hmm... Now I am seeing these "kits" on ebay. RIP-OFF!!!!!!!!!!
This thread is nothing but SPAM spewed with BS!
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Congrats on your new 1200XL! They are really beautiful. Use it for a few days and it'll grow even more on you and when you go back to the 800XL it will seem small.
Interestingly, my reason for getting this one was to complete my XL line (600XL, 800XL, 1200XL - US releases), but was not wanting to spend the kind of money people were asking. This was a bit more than I wanted to spend, but took a chance on ebay (sold as is - untested) with a buy it now and am pleased with the results so far even with the mylar issue.
My main unit is a 600XL with DIN Video mod and 512k ram expansion due to the size and top loader. I prefer smaller units, but absolutely LOVE this 1200XL now that it's in my possession.
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It doesn’t look like you cleaned the actual PCB contacts off. There should be nothing left on there of the tape. Scrub it clean. See pic4 on the method posed above.
You are correct! When I pull apart tomorrow to put another layer on, I will get rid of all the residue left behind from the tape I removed. Thanks!!!
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I'll give it a shot. Both building up of paint and thin spacer. I saw that Best Electronics comes with a foam insert attached at the same point to put pressure down on the PCB, so it's feasible for me to attempt one last shot at it. If it works, I'll be in same place as erichenneke and have a new mylar stored away for that special moment...
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I suggest you give this a try right at that interface point under the tape.
-Eric
Didn't work. See above.
I purchased a new mylar from Best Electronics. Payment sent. Bought a few other items as well. Why not...
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I wanted to believe, I truly did.
Picked up Permatex rear defogger kit with conductive paint. Used a toothpick because the brush and the stencil was too wide for this job. Unless I completely misunderstood, this is what I did. Removed the 2"x1/4" conductive tape, carefully placed new lines on the mylar where they came off, let it dry, then reassembled. The PCB contacts where shiny and clean, so I saw no reason to clean them or use the paint on them.
RESET and HELP work as they did before, but still have same issue with basically every other key except a random few that will work with slight tapping.
Bradley (Best Electronics) also got back to me already, so I am going to bite the bullet and purchase the lifetime mylar replacement.
Guys, thank you for all your advice and assistance. I truly wished this option worked, but I am OK with moving forward and getting new mylar...
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DrVenkman is correct, its just the carbon traces. It appears that the issue is with the keys themselves, but nope, just repaint the connector traces and get rid of the little 2"x1/4" piece of tape that is sandwiched between the PCB and mylar and your keyboard will be as good as new.
Hmm...
well, it's worth a shot. Thank you for confirming his thoughts. I'll see if I can pick some conductive paint possibly tonight and work the magic.
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What's going on is failure at the connector - the traces wear out and oxidize over time. Changing or increasing the pressure can temporarily fix the issue, but the best/only long-term fix aside from a new Mylar is repainting those traces with new conductive paint. Automotive window defroster paint will work, as will (expensive!) nickel-based conductive paint and even super cheap Bare carbon paint.
I don't agree 100% with you. Had to test my own theory
. Put keyboard back together and booted it up. Appears to be at each mylar touch point for each key.If I get certain buttons to push down at just the right angle (tapping continuously with little to no force) I can get them to respond. I was able to get into the keyboard test again with keyboard installed and only 5 keys would recognize my tapping method.
Since this thing is in such great shape, I am going with new mylar. I've had incredible success with my other 8-bits and Best mylars, so why stop now!
Thanks for your input! Now my XL collection is complete!
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If you're willing to be patient, most 1200XL Mylars seem to fail at the connector, but the rest of the traces are usually fine - at least, that's true of all three of mine - so a little while spent removing the insulating silicone layer will let you fix the connector traces with just a few dollars worth of conductive paint and a very fine brush or even a toothpick dipped into the paint and used to trace out the contacts. Here's the tried-and-true fix I've used successfully:
http://retrobits.net/atari/keyboard.shtml
I've done two of my three 1200XL keyboards four years ago and both of them still work great. The third unit needs to fix but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
I've come to find over the years, patience is something you need when dealing with just about all Atari units...
...Update! With the keyboard apart and only mylar/pcb attached, I am able to use all of the keys without any issues. I was able to get into self-test and test memory and I tested all keys in the keyboard test. So, I am going to re-assemble keyboard and see what the heck is going on. This thing looks brand new inside. I see no issues with the mylar and no splits, cracks or rips in any of the lines.
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Probaby a bad keyboard and/or the little auxiliary keyboard LED board isn't connected inside. Keyboard mylars typically go bad on pretty much all 1200XL's. They can be repaired with patience and conductive paint at the connector interface if you disassemble the keyboard. Alternately, Best sells entirely new Mylars that they have had made recently.
Just for basic functionality, try booting some cartridge games to test the joystick ports, and some disk software to test SIO functionality.
OK, so far, this is what I found. The auxiliary board was plugged in, but as I was testing with the unit apart, I saw the power light flicker on and off randomly. Powered unit off, removed the aux board and found poorly soldered LED's. Go figure. I re-soldered all 3 LED's.
I also checked to make sure all the chips were seated properly.
Powered the unit back on and the RESET button now works and the aux board now works flawlessly. Keyboard is still un-responsive, so I will pull all those wonderful little screws out and check the mylar.
Before and after pictures to show the wonderful soldering.
BEFORE (You can see right through the holes)
AFTER
POWER
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...first off.
THIS THING IS FREAKING ENORMOUS. EVEN THE BOX! First 1200XL I've owned and actually ever touched.
I am so accustom to 600XL/800XL and 65XE/130XE boxes and units I didn't realize the girth of this beauty!
Anyhow, unit powers up to the ATARI logo, but there is no power LED and no keyboard activity is recognized. About to open it up and check out insides, but would like some thoughts or opinions on what might be the cause.
In all it's glory...
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Do not power it through USB/DC and SIO at the same time.
Thanks! Planned on adding a tiny on/off switch on the SIO end between 5V signal, but wanted to check before I did the modification.
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Question on power. I am using the 600XL SIO 5V currently.
Does the SDrive allow for DC or USB power at the same time? Will it recognize external power and switch to it or will that be an overload on the PCB?
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I feel like I am reading some spam/scam advertisement and not a subject thread. What the #$%@^ is this?
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The labels correspond in order, left to right, with the placement of the vias.
Yup. What he said. It's just a reference point. They are not printed on the board near their actual location.
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Based on what you did, you should only need to move the RX and TX wires over. The 5V and Gnd are duplicated.
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Thanks for the inspiration. I finally got a pacman cartridge and put my UnoCart inside. I also moved the reset button to the side so it doesn't goes thru the label.
Now I need to get access to a color printer to produce a decent label.
Nice touch with the button relocation.
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Going thru several XE's to bring them back to life, they all needed memory swapped out. I solder in sockets and replaced memory on 65's and 130's whenever red blocks occurred. That fixed the issue on all of them. Not saying your's is the same issue, but memory is cheap and so are sockets. It's been a good to start for me every time.
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