Fairchild Channel F repair question

[Ashevent]

I picked up a 1st gen Fairchild channel F that turned out to have a couple of missing IC's and I can't find any pictures of boards like mine so I can see what I need to purchase for replacements. Someone on another forum took a picture of his board and it was totally different. (and yes, it was a 1st gen as well).

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have a huge sentimental desire to get this working since it's the first video game system I ever had and my departed sister and I would play it for hours and hours as children.

 

any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

 

[Middleway]

Hello,

I have a 1st gen Fairchild Channel F as well. My board looks the same as yours with the 2 missing IC's. The board says Copyright 12/6/76 / 04-9002-00 / Rev G. It's fully functional and works great, not sure what the intent was for those 2 slots. (Mine needed some repair to get working -- one of the diode bridge rectifiers failed, but once I replaced it with a new one it was back in business).

Hope this helps.

 

[Ashevent]

 

Hello,

I have a 1st gen Fairchild Channel F as well. My board looks the same as yours with the 2 missing IC's. The board says Copyright 12/6/76 / 04-9002-00 / Rev G. It's fully functional and works great, not sure what the intent was for those 2 slots. (Mine needed some repair to get working -- one of the diode bridge rectifiers failed, but once I replaced it with a new one it was back in business).

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

Thanks! Well looks like it's time to use my multi-meter and logic pro and try to find the problem. Funny the board colors are different..I'll check mine to see the revision and copyright date for a comparison. Wondering how many boards there are for only 2 years in production for the model 1's? Interesting.

[Middleway]

Yeah that is interesting about the board colors, I wonder why. If you need schematics the VES wiki has a lot of great info if you haven't come across it yet -- http://channelf.se/veswiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

 

I'm a 70's kid and had a 2600 for my first console, but I had never heard of the Channel F until a couple of years ago. It's been fun to discover it for the first time and learn about it. Good luck!

[Ashevent]

Checked my board and it is Copyright date 10/19/76

04-9002-00

Rev G

 

I wonder if there's an earlier board than mine? or if that's it? I know they were released for the christmas shopping season 76..not sure when they started manafacturing though.

[cad7519]

Finally, I found someone with the same board as mine.

 

Copyright 12/6/76

04-9002-00

Rev G

 

Mine doesn't even have the risers for the chips in those spots from your pictures above.

I don't have a power supply and was wondering if you could tell me the voltages for the White - Blue - Red - Yellow wires in J1? All the schematics I found are for power input with 3 wires for blue - red - yellow.

[Middleway]

Hello,

 

The Power supply output voltages are:

 

Red/Yellow - 15V.A.C. - 3.75VA

Blue/White - 10V.A.C. - 16.5VA

[+KylJoy]

So, did this get repaired?