CommodoreDecker

Howdy! I'm looking for an Indus GT, if one has any for sale please let me know. Thanks!

Not yet. I will be procuring a ESR tester shortly; I did some quick research and that's the only way to do it? (Directly attaching the leads gave me the same 0.85v result as when testing the VREs... either way, it looks like I'll need to get one.) A short would prevent proper voltage being output at the VREs too... (I'm a bit green on this, think "Kermit the frog drunk on a cruise ship" sort of green...) As I sit here, it really sounds like it'd be worth the time to replace the caps either way... Great idea about stable reading without load. Given some of the goofy readings I'd gotten, what you said fits the theory. Your mentioning capacitors as well - noting I have other equipment using the same uf rated capacitors, I should just order what I need along with the meter. It's not going to hurt either way. Will order the caps (a shame Radio Shack isn't around any longer) and meter; fingers crossed that the caps are the sole problem. Sounds like it might be.

One more update: I re-checked the PSU: it hovered around 12.25V and more consistenty. Not once after 2 minutes did it go above 13v. I started checking the VREs. I should be expecting 5~7v, I get 0.85v on both of them. Checking voltage at the DC input itself on the board, it also reads 0.85v (which is not surprising). Re-checking the PSU at the pliug after removing it from the board reads 12.2V. I'll try to check a cap after removing it from the board next. I'm not optimistic. With luck it won't read "0"...

I finally got the unit disassembled. The sticker on the back holding in the board despite bending slightly the metal rear plate back, grr... Drive belt seems reasonably taut considering its age. Regardless, I should replace it. Like a rubber binder that's been out for decades and dried up, the belt will snap one day. The WART board looks pristine. None of the chips were loose in their sockets... I might reseat them later, anyway. ROM is v1.1. I'll order the newer version for this model if I can get this to power up. Without powering up the unit but to check key areas, I couldn't find a short - so far, so good, I guess. Ground was consistent to the VRMs (VREs?), as well as the voltage input. All of the capacitors look fine, no sign of bulging or anything - which doesn't mean they're not bad. I may as well replace those outright... my gut feeling is that the 4700uf one is toast. I should probably get an ESR meter too... I'll power on and test voltages later, after today's coffee buzz wears off and re-reading the schematics so I don't fry anything, I'll try to get a reading from the VREs to confirm 5v and 12v output. I'll re-check the PSU first... If nothing else and assuming the actual chips aren't damaged from (whatever caused the drive to not power up from the PSU), at least I've got spare parts of which most are likely useful.

Fun side note: I had an XM301. Back when 300 baud inside a gray brick with angled power light was cool... The XM301 also had a nice little design flaw where, in some units, there were several bare wires inside the chassis by the SIO cable entry point that could short out the entire unit. Oops. I opened mine back in the day and thankfully there were no exposed wires. The solution for those who had the issue was to clip off the bare copper or wrap them in electrical tape. The only things that are good fried are few, and none of those contain electronics.

Much thanks for that!! They really did a nice job with content and layout. The transformer did go above 13.0 in testing at one point, so I'm certain it's bad. I suspect the WART board might need to be replaced as well... I'll try reseating the chips once I get the unit stripped down to that level. Assuming the PSU itself isn't wonky enough to fry the WART board, I wonder if the previous owner swapped DC and AC on the drive; the manual specifying not to do that because doing so by accident would render the drive inoperable... a shame; if the Nintendo NES from a handful of years later could use AC or DC bricks so it was capable of converting an incompatible electricity type. then why not other hardware to foolproof it when they use standard off-the-shelf cylindrical connectors... I'd bet real money that's what happened with the Indus. Hmmm, I may have misread the label on the meter. (and how to read; the meter isn't going to be drawing much from the PSU now that I'm thinking about it...) Given that I did see the voltage crawl up to 15.x then go down again, it is definitely wonky. Much thanks! I'll do that tomorrow after I get out the WART board; the only way to test the capacitors is to remove them (I'll check for a short first, then start removing them to see which one(s) are bad... or I'll pick up an ESR circuit tester and get around desoldering...) With luck it'd be that simple, just a short or bad capacitor... but I'll check the VRM outputs first to verify output voltage, one component at a time... If the manual indicated not to use AC and the former owner had accidentally plugged in the wrong adapter, checking that might be a moot point but it's worth a try. (Or they were trying to get around the technical reasons. But from what little I know and read, there'd surely be some form of scorching or visible somewhere... once I remove the drive section and the WART is fully visible any issues should be easier to spot. AC into a DC device without any internal conversion would be bad news for sure... that schematic shows a diode, but clearly AC can flow to any number of components and those would be fried, generally with visible signs of damage... maybe it is a short. AC would fry any of those capacitors, if nothing else deeper beyond that point. I'm just hoping the ICs themselves are okay, if nothing else...) Thanks for the explanation on the VRMs as well!

Howdy! So I've gotten an Indus GT disk drive from an auction. If nothing else I already know its belts are old and will be loose or will crumble. I'll be ordering belts shortly, but the unit also does not power on so there's a definite problem elsewhere. I whipped out the multimeter to test volts and amps. The Indus PSU's label reads 11v/2a, and the multimeter shows volts wavering between 12 and 13, once reading an unpleasant 15. The multimeter reads 0 amps output. Assuming my meter isn't broken, the amps should read 2. I'm hoping I just have a bad PSU and not power board? (The Indus has 2 boards, one atop the mechanics that connects to a main board via ribbon cable, and the other where the power plug comes into it. The board atop the mechanics has all-socketed chips...) This Indus has two honking huge voltage regulator modules and 4700mf capacitor (which is not bulging or leaking, the underlying circuit board looks in excellent condition) so it should be able to reduce that to 11v. But if the PSU is wavering and inconsistent, it could have gone bad and could had possibly fried the Indus' power board (if nothing else). I'll try to finish taking it apart tonight, My 1010 recorder probably just needs belts as they're a little loose and springy to the touch, but I might as well ask as the mechanics otherwise seem to work -- but hitting rewind or ff shows a regular but slight jerky motion. Are there differences between worn belts and worn motor? When attempting to load a program, the bzzzz____bzzzz____bzzz starts for a couple iterations before going into self-test mode (load failed). One of the bzzzz noises was a little off-key, though going on memories some 33 years old, I recall a slight variance in tones... Thanks!

6x 800XL - NTSC, 5. (Was 6 but scuppered one for parts and the chassis was in poor shape.) Of the 5 that work, one has a keyboard problem (top row keys, from 7 to the end of the row, do not work. Could be mobo controller chip or chip on the keyboard itself) as well as slight corrosion along a couple leads in the memory bank. Most extras came with goodies from auctions and a couple better cases for a couple of them. 3x 7800 NTSC (one has incomplete composite mod, I need to add resister to equalize column with POKEY games) and I have kits for the other two 7800s 2x Indus GT (one works, the other doesn't power on and the PSU shows 12/13/15 volts wavering, with 0 amps output. The amps should read 2, so hopefully it's a bad PSU and not a fried board...) 1x 1010 recorder (needs belts - mechanics otherwise work, but loading programs jumps to self-test screen after three or so of those refreshing buzzzzzzz ____ buzzzzz load noises, and hitting rew or ff has a little uneven speed so I'm fairly sure there's a belt issue. ) I love emulation but there is something about the original experience, even slow tape loading times - who needs to smell the roses when the tape playback noise is more soothing and is harder to be allergic to?

Much thanks for info! That saves me, among other things, needless work. With luck I can still transfer these items to my other 800XL.

Much thanks!! I'll get my Dremel out of the cupboard and attempt over the weekend when I'm proper decaffeinated as well...

Thanks for info! The goo is a little soft to the touch, is epoxy rock solid or will it have a little give when touched? Heating it up with a soldering iron? I've one with an xacto knife tip that might make things a little easier...

So the keyboard controller on my secondhand 800XL started to act up as the top row of keys, from 7 onward, no longer respond. I opened up the case, and much to my not-quite-delight everything's soldered. How peachy... My next thought was to move the UAV and RAM expansion to my other 800XL, the one with sockets for every chip. That's when I noticed what looks like the byproduct of an elephant sneezing holding these boards in place. Is there an easy way to remove that goo? I'm fairly certain it's some form of epoxy... Now that I look at the board more closely, a chip under the RAM expansion might have corroded circuit traces, making me more eager to move these components to another 800XL. Also, can anyone identify the RAM module and can it be used in, say, a 130XE? Thanks much!!

Are the chips socketed or soldered in? The TIA handles graphics, I'd look for that first. Maybe the chip is worn out. Or too warm to the touch.. Piggybacking a known good TIA to a soldered chip should rule that out; if it works then de-solder the old TIA and put in a new one. What's the voltage coming out of the power supply? Maybe amperage too, as long as the amps shown are equal or greater to what the 2600 needs. Too few would cause problems. Do capacitors look bulged? (Even if not, that doesn't mean there's not a potential problem.) Maybe the reset switch has gone kaput somehow? But those are simple manual toggle switches; a perpetual "on" wouldn't show anything on screen. Additional - look into this first and then power supply values: Did you try any other cartridges? Maybe the Combat cartridge is the problem, unless the slot's contacts are dirty... ditto for cartridge's too, possibly...)

In an age when such raunchy comedy movies and television shows that had 20- and 30-somethings playing children (e.g. "Porky's", "90210"), they scored a winner with the person that dressed up as a little girl (though she flubbed one line as she was parroting everything her older brother was saying...) Also, mommy's reaction there was priceless. But of all the movie scenes to be put into a possible video game release... Then again, "Porky's" became an actual ET game, complete with allusion to that shower scene, I'm sure they could have made a dinner scene where - despite the actual words not being said - ET could go around the house pinching candy parts and sausages as a bonus round... (okay, "90210" wasn't an intentional comedy but who didn't laugh when finding out that, oops, the teens are old enough to be parents of the next generation?)

Had the cartridge more ROM space available and maybe double the development time from 5 weeks or whatever it was... what was HSW thinking at the time and what did he have to drop to fit what remained into the cartridge? (ET as it stands is till above average, especially for 1983, I play it more often than numerous games... HSW was ahead of his time with his games, and pushing the 2600 as much as humanly possible and it shows.)

Ordered from them several times a couple years ago. Well-stocked, informative, definitely a great place! http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/

(this might be a thread that, like the horse at the glue factory, has been whipped to death... my apologies if that's the case...) As much as I adore the composite modification one can employ, assuming one removes all the proper resisters and solders in the new wires correctly (I still need to fix the audio disparity on mine between POKEY and TIA), does anyone still find charm in using the one official connection method it was designed with? Grainy and fuzzy or not, it does soften the blocky edges. Even for other systems (SNES, etc), I find myself using composite or RF and not doing HDMI hackery as the end result may look sharper but is counterbalanced by looking worse and more blocky. Dithering too loses some luster. That said, as the 2600 has 2 channel sound and modifying it accordingly has yielded some spectacular results in the stereo age. At least for many games bur before I meander even more, is there a mod for the 7800 that will separate TIA sound channels? Could a mod that takes 4-channel POKEY sound and "stereo-ize" it be done? (Okay, that's probably too niche an idea...)

Solar Fox, Wizard of Wor, and Omega Race have held up the best for me. Gorf, especially with its Galaxian round, just feels tedious rather than fun. The round where critters spiral out and the boss level at the end (inversion of Space Invaders) are still fairly fun...

At times some of his quips are amusing. But oftentimes it's too forced. Certainly iconic, given the sheer quantity... His Swordquest video was utterly first rate as far as documentaries go... 0:53 starts the documentary, which has a lot less over-the-top pottymouth than you'd believe: (yeah, I'm shocked too... virtually no toidymouth...) If only they had 8K ROM for Pac-Man and a couple more weeks to refine ET, since they're scapegoated for the downfall of the industry. Given the number of other games that were genuinely bad, it may have been unavoidable. Pac-Man was decent at the time, though it could have been better. ET pushed the system's boundaries and was ahead of its time. I still play it more than many games today, even with its nitpicks (that wait for the ship to arrive is nail-biting but the sound effects in stereo are way-cool...) Earthworld was cool. Fireworld was and surprisingly fairly lame. I didn't get to the others at the time... Waterworld, when I finally got to play it, felt uninspired... still would wanted to have seen Airworld, the series was cool on its own (the comic were cool)

Dang. It's either an easter egg or a double entendre, which is merely a different sort of easter egg... I'm just amazed the button is in the correct corner. But that's no way to hold a joystick.

Undoubtedly, "Mangia" is the most original video game ever. A little bizarre, but original nonetheless. That said, it should have been much more popular.

Yay! I actually bought it a couple weeks ago. While the standard sound edition is above "excellent" quality and especially considering the 2600 sound chip's limitations, the edition with POKEY enabled is still leagues above in tonal quality and what should be standard issue for the 7800 (instead of how the console was released.)

That's definitely weird, that resistors and those lovely Tantalum capacitors that explode when they wear out would be needed - especially when placed in front of the shielded area where the microchip resides behind... maybe the chips they used require less power, hence resisters, and the capacitor could be there to lessen the power-up stress of electricity flowing through. While merely and solely academic, it'd be fun to see a schematic for their design. I've not seen that very often. Or the resisters are used as a bug fix, not unlike how you can open up an old computer and sometimes see a wire affixed between two chips over the board rather than using a new PCB layout...? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantalum_capacitor#Failure_modes_and_self-healing_mechanism As for item legitimacy, I'm pretty sure they're the real deals.

What would the Pitfall games be utilizing in the 2600's circuitry that the other still-working games don't use? (e.g. scrolling? ) That could yield a clue. It's not all games, so whatever's going on is definitely a more concise issue than a generalized one. Is it possible to remove the mod and try the ailing games again and see if the problem persists? The composite mod could be defective in some way...? Or there's still a chance of a small short circuit at or adjacent to a solder joint. Are the 2600's chips socketed? One could have become just loose enough to wreak havoc on some games yet not others...