ianoid

I am befuddled by this post. Seems super useful, but downloading stuff from sites is so sketchy. Why not just post your pix as a thread and post your slide show on youtube?

I should be ianoid at videopac.nl I got my first Odyssey 2 system in the 90s at a flea market or thrift store. My fondest memory is trying to play Odyssey at Video Concepts, a mall store at University Town Center in San Diego that sold TVs and some video games. We would play as long as we could until they kicked us out. That took about 5 minutes. We would then go across the mall to the TI store to do the same. I don't recall typing anything interesting into Type and Tell. Probably curse words. I think the system is great, I have a pretty extensive collection including imports and home-brews. It's fun to collect. I don't have one setup in my game room since I'm waiting for a modded G7400 unit with AV and built in voice that a friend owes me. If you have the a link to the instructions to do the voice mod, please tell me! I could probably do it all myself at this point. I'm always wondering, did Odyssey games originally ship in shrink-wrap? I don't believe so, I thought they were sealed with a small piece of clear tape.

It is apparent you have put a lot of effort into the firmware, BIOS and manual, and despite this not working in the easiest way for me, I am very appreciative. I'll work on this more as the programmer part arrives. I only wish more Incognito boards would be made so that more people could enjoy this awesome hardware.

Excellent. Thanks. So it looks like I should go through the installation manual and confirm everything is set up properly? I'm at a different point than when I bought this. I could comfortably do the install myself.

Thanks for the detailed reply, which helped me get all the way to the point of installing the BIOS using an external SIO2SD device. Unfortunately the 800 hung when it went to "ERASING BIOS". I gave it a good 40 minutes. At that point I had to go somewhere and I didn't want to leave it on. The manual didn't say anything about it taking a really long time, so I would assume the flashing failed. The unit doesn't boot now. I shut it down knowing I'd probably need to use a flash programmer. I haven't flashed anything before, I'm happy to learn how. I have the recommended programmer, but I had to order the adapter for the flash chip on Amazon. Should take a week to reach me. What file should I flash it with? Thanks again!

Huge help. I'll try that. Thanks!

OK, so further progress, I found that one wheel in the chain that drives 'play' action is a rubber wheel next to a metal wheel. The rubber wheel only spins intermittently because it doesn't have enough friction on the metal wheel. The rubber wheel is very stiff. I had a friend who suggested trying to revive the wheel with mineral oil. I'm prone to trying it because I have no better choices. I may try to pull this wheel from another unit, but I'd like to try to revive it first. Any suggestions about bringing back the rubber wheel?

I thought this was a particularly topical Coco item so I hope it's ok that I posted it here. I got a lot with a couple of these a while back, just getting around to posting the spare. When I tried both carts out with all switch configurations, I couldn't detect anything happening. Not sure if they need programming or are just RAM expansion or faulty. It's most likely that I'm not Coco proficient enough to figure it out. In fact, it would be great if whoever ends up with this could tell me what it does as configured. This is a RAM/EPROM board from Micro-Labs, Inc in a cart case (that doesn't close snug). I'd like to trade it for some unusual Coco cart. I prefer games but a utility cart I don't have would be fine. I'd consider trading it for anything to add to my collection, but I have a vast collection so it's hard to generally find stuff I don't have unless you are similar in having a lot of spare stuff.

I'd like to trade these for similar. I'd be happy to get a different Lynx pin that I don't have yet. And an Inty catalog I don't have or similar unusual paperwork or whatever. I'd consider cash offers too, but prefer a trade.

So moving onward, I spend my discretionary repair time getting an 800 to work that I thought worked to use for testing, which still needs two key caps (can trade key caps if you have some, I many several spares, but not for this specific keyboard, a Stackpole with last 4 digits of part number 0049). The problem with that 800, in case you were wondering, was that the RF/Power board wasn't staying connected to the motherboard. It had been opened previously and the screws holding the RF/Power board were not used and it was moving. I took some of the shield screws and used those for the RF/Power board and now it's working great. I also reseated all the chips before figuring out the power board issue, so I'm not sure if that helped as well. ANYWAY, this 410 has weak play motion. REW/CUE work ok, but play motion is stuttering, not smooth. The computer tries to load, but I can't imagine that with such inconsistent movement that it will successfully load anything. And it hasn't. Does anyone have any suggestions? I did replace the belts as mentioned above, although I couldn't figure out where the fourth belt went. Is it the motor? Could it need caps? I didn't spot an obvious leaker, but I could recheck. I have another unit I was going to mess with that has a badly cracked case that doesn't REW or CUE and seems dead, but could be used as a donor unit. Thanks!

Picture attached

Still unable to update this Incognito. Really need some help. From the instructions page 7: 2. Mount the supplied update ATR (FIRMWARE.ATR) on drive 1. Firmware update does not include any ATR called "FIRMWARE.ATR". I'm assuming that I'm supposed to use "Incognito_full.atr". 3. Enable XL/XE mode and SpartaDOS X in the Incognito BIOS. 4. Disable ‘SIDE Hardware’ (original BIOS) or ‘PBI BIOS’ (new firmware). 5. Ensure extended memory is set at ‘1088KB RAMBO’. 6. Save the setting and press ‘C’ to reboot the machine. 7. You should see the SpartaDOS X prompt ‘D1:’. Type UFLASH.XEX and press Return. Instructions don't mention anything about mounting UFLASH.XEX, and this file is not included with the BIOS upgrade. Am I supposed to download it elsewhere? And when I run the side loader with "L" from the main menu, I get this junk. I am mounting the .ATR with an SIO2SD. I'll post a picture in a minute. And does the firmware contain the menu program, as opposed to the SIO2SD which requires a menu program in the root directory of the SD?

Stuff I bought was very cheap. If the seller didn't buy insurance, you can only claim up to $100 on Priority Mail without it. USPS will pay but you need the receipt or PayPal invoice (to prove the value), original packaging and original item to prove it was damaged. You have to save all of that until the claim is finished. And it's best to take pictures when you receive a damaged package immediately and try to submit the claim as fast as possible. I have had claims paid on lost packages, but it may be harder on damaged packages. You have to be patient, and try to speak to people moving up the hierarchy. They are used to everyone being angry and frustrated at them so you have to try to be nice, Ian

I think I have seen the case once before. Pretty cool. As far as the manual variant, I don't keep track of those, but perhaps it's just from an early run. They probably did runs of 10,000 units or 25,000 units and with each revision made minor changes to various things like the manual or box or even the console, although they probably stayed away from altering the mold since it would be cost prohibitive.

I know you hate answering redundant questions, but it appears that I need to use the Side loader functionality to load the Uflash.xex in order to update the firmware. I can't even get to that stage. I'm stuck in SpartaDOS and before that, the Side loader doesn't show files, it just shows flashing characters. I will recheck the flash card, but it did work a few years back and came setup with the unit. Oddly or not, this 800 ignores all cartridges. I don't know how to tell the Incognito to boot cartridges (which I know is the normal first startup sequence in a stock 800, so the Ultimate cart is out of the question. I can try running Uflash from an SDNuxx. Also of note is that the Incognito firmware update folder you have on your site doesn't have Uflash.xex in it, just some other .atrs. I haven't messed with them since again, Incognito not working or I don't know how to make it work. Thanks for your patience.

I have been looking for quite a while and I cannot find a manual for the Incognito's basic function. I'm interested in keyboard shortcuts and basic functional instructions as well as using the SIDE component of it. Is there a good page or PDF? I see many great resources for installation, but this unit was installed by someone else who at the time was experienced. Nowadays I'm sure I could do it myself if needed. And the board did work before, so I would assume it's functional. I've figured out a little from reading threads but here is what I came up against: Side loader ('L' from Incognito menu) just shows flashing characters on the left, whether I have a flash card installed or not. I tried switching to SpartaDOS and now the 'atr' key and reset only bring up SpartaDOS. It worked before. I can't get back to the Incognito menu. I was mainly hoping to use the SIDE function to play some games and update the firmware in the Incognito and SIDE as needed. I'd love to do more like try the new GUI, but first things first. I used the system a few years back but just pulled it out to mess with it again. I've been mainly using an XL with a Harmony cart.

To resurrect a thread. I have an 800 with this black screen issue. I reseated the OS chips and reseated the RAM, as well as rearranged the RAM and tried various combinations. Before I tear it down (again), which parts should I have on hand to replace? Should I try swapping out personality chips first before the full teardown? I took it apart because it showed up to me without an RF cable (which I replaced), but I put it back together to find it Black screen (and could presume it wasn't something that I did, probably was this way before.) I like to have the parts handy because taking something apart takes up space, which is limited, and leaving things taken apart can result in losing parts. Plus I noticed they use a lot of different screws in the 800 internally, which can be hard to keep track of when disassembled. Thanks!

Games sent to me by this seller were in an envelope and smashed. Useless to me in rough condition. I'm sure many of his items were returned. I'm getting a lot of boxed games in envelopes these days. Sellers aren't getting any smarter. And I'm returning a lot more than I used to.

I couldn't figure out where the 4th belt went. I had the thing almost totally disassembled. But it did spin for both RW and FF so it must be present in there somewhere.

Darn it, of course. I'll try that. Does anyone know how many belts these 410 units have? Is it three or four?

The latest conquest is 410 repair. I have a bunch of belts, which is a good start. This nice 410 unit ser#10603 won't respond to play. I opened it up, replaced 3 belts- index, FF, and play (the main belt). It does rewind and fast forward, but it won't play. Actually while I had it open to try to observe something obviously wrong when I push play, it played momentarily, but that was the only sign of play life. I couldn't get it to do it again. Oddly, the belt kit I bought included play, FF and RW belts, but I can't seem to figure out where the RW belt would go- is that only in certain units or am I missing it? Any suggestions to resurrect this beast, aside from 'don't bother'? I have a multimeter and I can solder, although I'm a bit of a hack with both. Thanks, ian

I'd like to thank everyone for their help. The continuous fire problem was solved by replacing the hex buffer with a hex buffer from a donor Jr. that I had lying around. I put in a socket just in case. I love resurrecting old hardware and this was a satisfying result. And the process was good fun. Thanks for the information. I sometimes worry about the future of hardware repair as knowledgeable people die off, especially for the more obscure systems and problems. There should always be a good number of people to help fix 2600s, but weirder old computers and even mainframes will become more and more difficult to troubleshoot.

There is continuity between pin 6 of the right controller port and pin 7 of the hex buffer chip. I went back and measured voltage on pin 6 & 7 of the hex buffer chip (with my new meter), and they read 0.5v and 0.0v respectively. I'm thinking that I should replace the hex buffer chip. It's funny, I saved some cutout pages I got in a lot from Electronic Servicing and Technology magazine (January 1983 p50) and I stumbled upon them while cleaning up. For "Continuous or no joystick firing" they recommend replace either the Hex Buffer chip or the joystick ports, which is in agreement with what you've been helping me diagnose. And while I have you, which capacitors should I routinely replace on these boards? This is a Rev B C010433 board for a six switch, which I believe is a CX2600 not a CX2600A. I thought CX2600A's were alwaysl 4 switches, like with Vader cases.

This is clearly a case of WUS. Wear under seal. I've had stuff denied for sealed grading and there's usually a good reason. I doubt they denied it without some thought. If they have seen a dozen or a hundred black boxes for grading, then they should know. I've sent stuff back to sellers for this reason, when it's a recent eBay sale. Wear under seal can be tough when it's mild, like the lines in the box creases. Price tags under seal is a giveaway. I have some items that have wear under seal that I do believe are original seal just based on what I know about the company- that they sealed and assembled the games themselves, rather than using a packaging company. These are software companies with much smaller print runs. I'm sure Nintendo used a packaging company and wear would be unexpected because they are unlikely to have assembled and wrapped the games by hand.

So I did get nearly 5V from the pin 6-8 connection. I did not get 5V from any of the other pins on the hex buffer chip or TIA. I got an order of magnitude less or worse. Should my first move be replacing the buffer chip? Is that an easy find? It's not socketed, but it shouldn't be a big deal for me to put a socket in and replace it. I was not able to find my spare 2600 jr board for parts, I just need to order parts. I did get a new meter that provides more stable output. Thanks again.