TheCoolDave

UAV AV plugin board is like $25 for the 5200 ? That is it ? I sent him a PM and want to order one... Sounds like a very easy kit to install too... http://atariage.com/forums/topic/246613-new-video-upgrade-coming-soon/page-8?do=findComment&comment=3412378 Oh...just building up the projects ! Maybe some day I will get to my NES RGB kit sitting here.... even ready with a SNES connector for it...

Bump...any other ideas here ? 2 Systems, keyboards dont respond on both of them... What could be the problem ? Is this a common issue with this system ?

Agreed but, it has a larger display, has bumper buttons for SNES games, and will even play N64 games to a point (with out audio they run great). SNES and NES games are flawless but, you can also add other emulators...(Sega systems as well as others) PSP is a great handheld for hacking for emulators and the display is awesome on it. My only Meh about it is a clunky interface. You have the PSP menu that you have to select your emulator and they all look different. It's not a standard interface. That would be my only down side to it.. Best thing... If you shop around the used market, you could find a PSP with a power cord for $20-30 easy...

So, what is the current status on a 5200 A/V upgrade? S-video would be preferred but, having both composite and S-video would be a plus. electronicsentimentalities.com has them still listed on their site, so I emailed them. Any other "affordable" options here ?

I was hoping not to take off the bottom shield but, I guess I am going to have to... sigh. I noticed one chip kind of popped up a little (not the one directly connected to the header but, the solder connections look fine) , so I might check all the connections below and add a little solder to each one to make a better connection. Here I goes a 1/2 hour of soldering to get it off.. Hated they did this on early consoles... a few screws would of done fine ! Looking over the board, no popped or pregnant caps, or another no parts looked burned out... It over all looks good, a little spot of rust by the edge were the shield is but, to be expected from a console from the late 70's to early 80's...

They are both smooth right from the top of the case.. No pinches/tears or anything like that. I'm wondering if there is a circuit level thing wrong. So close but so far...(I got the A/V mod done and it looks great....well at least "Select Game" on a black screen) What is this hex converter you speak of ?

Hi, I have 2 of these systems. The one I have I wanted because it has removable controllers (and it has a no gloss keyboard). The keyboard does not appear to work, when I turn the system on I just get "Select Game" but, pushing 1 or 2 does nothing. Same on a 2nd keyboard. I opened it, disconnected the ribbon cable and cleaned the connectors on it with no change. I opened a 2nd console, cleaned the connectors and I still get nothing on it. Is there a trick on these to reset the keyboard or it possible something blew that is causing the keyboard to fail ? I was about to pull the silver cover off to pull the keyboard to see if there is any noticed damage or something that could be shorting it out but, figured I would post here first... I've been working on this for 2 days and not getting anywhere with it... ANY idea on this one ?

Not meaning to show off or anything but, to fit as a best gaming setup is very subjective but, figure I might as well... Let's see, I have 5 coin op arcade machines.... Crystal Castles, Atari System 1 machine that is running Marble Madness (but, have Indiana jones and the temple of doom and road blasters that I can swap out), a Star Wars cockpit, An original restored Asteroids (got as a empty cab, and restored it) and a Ms. Pac-man that is currently running Jr Pac-man (I can swap very easily). I am now over 35 different consoles not including portables(or duplicate systems), maybe another 15-20 of portables, with a TON (over 1000) games for these systems. I plan on setting up an ikea 6 X 6 cab to handle 20 classic consoles and have another 5 CURRENT consoles setup on the other side of the room. They will be all accessible from a single click on a touch screen remote (Macros to change everything to be ready to play). Will be going with the best video out possible, RGB or S-video for older consoles but, everything will be going through a Framemeister.. This is coming soon ! As for Emulation setups go, I have a Home theater PC that I use Windows Media Center for a DVR, Movies and even streaming sources(it runs at 4K), I added Emulation Station for Windows on it, I was able to add the best emulators I can find and it can run everything from the early systems like the 2600, all the way to Wii, Xbox and PS1 games. Most I use a Xbox 360 wireless controller but, I have USB adapters for about 6 different types of controllers and plenty of original controllers... This system has a very nice video card in it for 4K movies and I have had no problems running any game I have dumped at it...

I've got a collection... I even have 2 of the Atari E.T. Excavation t-shirts. I didn't get to go but, as soon as it was done, I watched on ebay found someone with 2 of them and I paid $10 for both....One to wear, one to keep sealed in a bag.. Seeing that they sold on ebay for over $200, it appears I made a good investment.. If you don't remember what they look like.... I hunted for a picture of the shirt but, for some reason, I really liked this one

PM'ed

Thanks ! This guy on youtube is showing the A/V mod he made on a Model 2, I just cant get any info from him how to do it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4BuP5mdV58 looking forward to what you come up with.. Let me know if you need anything from me !

I think e5frog is here, I was reading some of his old mods he was trying on a Model 1, and the results, that is where I came up with that. Thanks, I might ask someone else who could build this.. I am not an expert. I see the Video, line.. How do you pull audio and were can it be grabbed from ? Now I need to find out the differences between the model 1 and 2. If the boards are the same, just a slimmer case (I know most old consoles are 85% air inside them), then the mod should apply. The main reason I went with a 2 was the audio comes out the RF, not the console itself, like on the 1... Do you have the link to the facebook group (or DM me), I would love to read his whole thing and maybe pop him a question if I get stuck...

Might be interested in the 1. it gives a little better picture and i like to be able to unplug it from the A/V jacks if i need to do work in it. About how much is shipping ?

Thanks for the info. I found the info the other day about doing the A/V mod coposite and tried it last night (tying into 2 places on the board for A/V), I ran it through my framemsiter and it looks really good, better than RF, so I will be going this route. I just did some test cables hanging off the board, I didn't mount them yet. Strange issue on this one, I checked the ribbon cable/reseated/cleaned it, the Keyboard does not respond....any idea on this one before I start googling this one ? I get a nice crisp "select game" but cant play it I have a 2nd machine (that does not have removable controllers) going to pull that one apart to try the keyboard..

I wanted to update this but, I cant edit after so long. The Channel F A/V upgrades tha I could find were spotty with low signal after doing a TON of searches on here and on google. What circut are you talking about ? Can you provide a link where it's discussed ?

Thanks, I ended up buying another system. My orginal one was not in the greatest of shape but, worked. The one I picked up after a little cleaning of the cart port, it booted right up. Now I need to find a A/V upgrade for it...prefering S-Video if it's an option...

Why do you think that ? I dont fully agree with that. When I started playing games back in the late 70's, I never got game systems to "collect" them. I got them because I wanted to play games. I got every system on the market back then because I HATED exclusive games, Nintendo had great games, Sega had great games, Neo-Geo had great games, Even Panasonic with the 3DO had some good games, etc. When I was done using a console, I bubble wraped it and put it on a shelf. Games were dumpped in boxes. Why ? Because I paid $200 for a console that people would give me $5-10 for, It had value so I was not going to dump it (I am strange like that).. I had no thought of collecting them. I have always, in every stage of my life, have had 4-6 consoles setup. Now 20+ years later, I am trying to assemble all my systems/games I had back then. I want to bring back my childhood on some things that I remember and I enjoyed. It's why I have gotten pretty hard core at collecting them now. This is what will happen with this generation 15-20 years from now. If they still have their ssytems that is great but, finding disc based media for mostly digital consoles will be very hard and the most desirable. It's why the Mini-NES was so popular and even you saw a spike in sales of Orginal NES systems when they hit... I saw some restored systems with 5-10 games going for $200+.

They will care...in time(20-30 years down the line).. but, by then, it will be too late... To collectors... keep buying physical copies... When the time comes, as they do today, they will later, they will have value. Something a digital copy could never have.

Agreed 10,000%... It's the biggest problem with the push for digital only games... When you buy a digital game, it's license is stored on your email account that is associated with your account, Xbox, PlayStation, or even Nintendo. They all run the same way, you need to logon with your email/password that you got the game on to be able to use it. So, if that console of yours gets dropped into your basement, as the Xbox 10 comes out or the PS12 hits the market, then you change your password ONCE in 15 years(I'm sure it will be changed many times over that time), all that content is unusable and gone if you just give or sell that system to someone else. Bye bye classic games....never to be seen again from all those things you paid for. If you read the fine print, Microsoft's is pretty much the same, so by buying digital only, you take the risk of that content no longer being available. As for updates, yea that stinks but, if the game was playable with out a patch, you should STILL be able to install it and play it. If you only by digitally, and your system dies when you boot it up 20+ years from now... Oh, well. Now we look over modern games, The funny thing, 25 years from, the ones who collected the boxed/retail copies will make money off the classics. If I walked into a yard sale, and saw a console. if it was just a console, it's meh but, if it's got a bunch of games, it's a whole different story. I play classic games and have a pretty large collection of classic consoles but, I also play the current stuff. 85% of my games are physical. There is a few like a COD or something where 1.7 billion were sold and I will play it a lot, I might buy digital but, most of the stuff I will go to the store/online and buy. It's something game collectors should really think about when they are on the fence of buying a digital game...

I dont know enough about the hardware to comare the 1 and 2. I know there is some changes but, to what level I dont know. The question is to see if anyone has done one and how can I do one to mine ? Really wanted to see S-video out instead of RF...Yuck !

I 3rd this. I have played thousands of games in my life, this game is easy in my top 5 I played it again about 2 months ago the re-translation version (the game was fully retranslated from Japanese, epic), on my Everdrive on my Genesis over RGB though my Framemeister. Looked amasing ! I have the orginal cart but, wanted to do the retranslated version of it.. More info on the retranslation version... if you are interested and a fan of this epic game. http://www.smspower.org/Translations/PhantasyStar-SMS-EN There were many other great games back in the day on this system. As it was a competing direcly with the NES but, it was a far better system hardware wise so the games looked a lot better for the time frame.

Hi ! I did a search I could only find info on a Model 1. Has anyone did a A/V upgrade to a Fairchild Channel F Model 2, if so, what is involved ? Would love to try this myself.. Yes, for people watching my threads, yes, I found one... waiting for it to come in, kind of being proactive to try to get everything ready, and this is very important.

That is what I was thinking...

Thanks for the info everyone, I ended up finding one on eBay that has removable controllers for fairly cheap money (and fully complete with everything), it was said he was not sure if it worked so I will test it fully and see how she works... Then I need to do a A/V upgrade to it... I hope I can clean up the grey parts on them... I know they are just painted on, so maybe a color match and re-pant to make it.

Cool, I I'll keep that in mind...Thx You'll sell something to me yet