Pixelboy Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 Quick question I'm wondering about: Was there more than one version/revision of the ColecoVision console motherboard? If there are multiple revisions, is there any documentation anywhere that explains the changes and improvements going from one revision to the next? Note that I am NOT talking about the Adam, just the standard ColecoVision console. Thanks in advance for any information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarian63 Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 Try member Yurkie here, he is the expert yes there are different mainboards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Yurkie Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 I believe there are REV. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, H2 I have seen C, D, E, F and H2 I am assuming that all the other REVs exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted November 2, 2013 Author Share Posted November 2, 2013 Wow, that's a lot of revisions. Thanks, Yurkie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retroillucid Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 (edited) Revisions from US, Hong Kong and Taiwan Probably the same case for CBS consoles Edited November 2, 2013 by retroillucid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vectorman Posted November 4, 2013 Share Posted November 4, 2013 I remember some I opened had that metal RF shield soldered to the PCB, some it was just screwed on and other might not have had one at all. There were def different versions because I remember doing A/V mods on a several CV's. I used the same method to do them all but on some it worked fine, on others it didn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaztee Posted November 4, 2013 Share Posted November 4, 2013 The Pal & secam MB are different to the ntsc ones. Wonder if there were different revisions of those too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omf Posted November 4, 2013 Share Posted November 4, 2013 more to the point they changed the bios socket making the bios replacement tutorial on consol5 useless. the jumper wires do not exist, along with the traces that need to be cut. the socket holes that are unused when using the original bios chip are removed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiLic0ne t0aD Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 (edited) My main ColecoVision, on the motherboard it says REV J on the board.. Interesting I have another case with bilingual labels that is missing a motherboard, hopefully someone has one I could just stick in there and keep as a backup. Edited December 26, 2013 by SiLic0ne t0aD85 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harlock76 Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 i dont remember the revisions of the boards i came throught but there are many Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoTonah Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 Are there many differences between revisions, or are the revision numbers almost like production run numbers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 My main ColecoVision, on the motherboard it says REV J on the board.. Interesting I have another case with bilingual labels that is missing a motherboard, hopefully someone has one I could just stick in there and keep as a backup. Wait for 5-11under's new ColecoVision v1.2 PCB to be completed and released hopefully sometime this year if all goes well. This will give you a brand new board with all the advantages of today's modern tech along with built-in video output enhancements, many other improvements including the power switch, ram, etc., etc. and I think the chips that populate the PCB will all be socketed. Just follow 5-11's thread in this forum for all the past and future news about this much needed product. I am hoping that a new power supply solution can be worked into the equation as well and 100% compatibility with all hardware and controllers, but will have to re-read the thread to see if there has been any mention of this as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiLic0ne t0aD Posted December 26, 2013 Share Posted December 26, 2013 That's true, good point I'll just wait I suppose. I'd be willing to get one whenever they're available.. Unless my unit breaks I'll be in good shape but if it breaks down on me, I'm going to have to look around. Ideally I'd like a backup CV in any case though no matter what. I do however need a couple Adam controllers to do my plastic dye experiments, the regular black ones are a bit too dark. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiLic0ne t0aD Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I found another Colecovision in my closet today, it's a Rev F. I also picked up one up on eBay for about 30 bucks that's a Rev H2. So with those two and my original Rev J, that's 3 different ones. I noticed some coils and such added and subtracted from the motherboards Revision to revision and different chip manufacturers as well. One thing that's bothering me is I can't find a good schematic anywhere. Also the cap C70 location by the cart slot is smashed on 2 of my boards.. Does anyone know the values of this or have any spares? It only says 101J on it. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamcon Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I found another Colecovision in my closet today, it's a Rev F. I also picked up one up on eBay for about 30 bucks that's a Rev H2. So with those two and my original Rev J, that's 3 different ones. I noticed some coils and such added and subtracted from the motherboards Revision to revision and different chip manufacturers as well. One thing that's bothering me is I can't find a good schematic anywhere. Also the cap C70 location by the cart slot is smashed on 2 of my boards.. Does anyone know the values of this or have any spares? It only says 101J on it. Thanks! Check out this link to downlaod the CV Tech Manual which should have all the schematics in it http://ann.hollowdreams.com/programming.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I have a Colecovision revision A that I'm currently working on. It seems like they installed some resistor and caps at the last minute on it. Also, there is a difference with the clock circuit compared to other later revs I've seen. I don't know if this was done due to the Xtal they had in stock at that moment. Does anyone know the values of this or have any spares? It only says 101J on it. Thanks! That is a 100 pf 5% ceramic capacitor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiLic0ne t0aD Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Wow, REV A! All of this is very interesting, that's got to be a really early model I'd imagine. R Since everything is "off the shelf" I wonder if there is a complete component list with values and part numbers, etc.. Thanks Rex for the info on that cap, it's hard to read some of those and cross referencing may be a nightmare! Most of those caps on that side are some kind of filter caps from what I've read (?) I wonder if there is any significant impact of those 2 caps being damaged on these 2 boards, stuff was a little glitchy.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 (edited) Wow, REV A! All of this is very interesting, that's got to be a really early model I'd imagine. R Since everything is "off the shelf" I wonder if there is a complete component list with values and part numbers, etc.. Thanks Rex for the info on that cap, it's hard to read some of those and cross referencing may be a nightmare! Most of those caps on that side are some kind of filter caps from what I've read (?) I wonder if there is any significant impact of those 2 caps being damaged on these 2 boards, stuff was a little glitchy.. Yes its quite old. I Also have another Colecovision revision F and I can tell the video quality on that one is not as good as the rev A. Rev F displays more video noise (the common video jailbar effect known among TMS9928 chips). I think is the fact that on this one they omitted some filtering inductors and maybe other few parts. I guess at that point they were trying to make the manufacturing process cheaper. The C70 cap is definitely important, its related to the Master clock divider circuit. Like I said Rev A has different values on this circuit, for instance C70 is a 68pf instead of a 100pf cap and the resistor values around it are different as well. Edited January 14, 2014 by Rex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geech Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 On this point, I've recently worked on getting the top and bottom shields off of my Rev H2 board and holy hell! There were 4 or 5 solder points on each to that were quite a pain to remove! I've looked through some threads but didn't see an answer to this but has anyone done a comparison of the various revisions in terms of the differences for accessing the boards, etc.? Thanks and apologies if I've missed an obvious answer in here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phattyboombatty Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Hi geech and welcome to the forums! I'd say that this thread is one of the more definitive resources in regard to your question. And no, I don't think we have a well organized thread that lists and tracks all the known CV board revisions. I have been wanting to kick off a thread like this for a while, and hopefully get it stickied. A good model of this exists under the 2600 subforum for Heavy Six serial numbers. Perhaps for now, we can just begin posting our revs [insert Rev joke here], and then request edit privs when the mods get a chance to help us out. I've seen quite a number of H2 boards in my experience, and I've probably taken apart 50 ColecoVisions. This tells me that they had a) some kinks to work out, and b) they produced more of the "refined" mobos. We know how sales ramped up between 8/82 and 12/82, so they may have kicked out those initial revs rather quickly, and produced a high number of H2s once they finished that design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geech Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 (edited) Thanks for the welcome, Phatty. I got mine back together last night and to my surprise it worked! I was sure that I had fried the board as some trace chunks came up where the shields were soldered. I was going to do the power switch mod but could only get the switch cover, switch and brushes off so I cleaned those, did DeOxit and reassembled to cut my losses. It works for now so I'm gonna ride it until it throws more trouble at me! Breathing a big sigh of relief especially since I just scored a sweet load of games. In the meantime, I'll be practicing board soldering/desoldering!! I'll post my serial when I get a moment. Also, I got quite stoked about the new MBs that people are developing! Really hoping those come to fruition! Curious about the price points on those. Edited June 17, 2016 by geech Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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