Bryan Posted February 26, 2018 Author Share Posted February 26, 2018 Tower Toppler uses artifact colors and it doesn't appear to always produce consistent colors across different 7800's. It appears to combine colored lines with dot patterns to produce a very messy combination. On some captures Level 1 looks green or gray (how does an artifact pattern make gray??!?), and in your picture it looks purple. Does anyone know what the "official" colors are supposed to be? I'm working on some ideas to make the next version more tweakable in this regard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 Oh man Bryan, I'm glad I read this. I installed my first board today in a 5200, and I got no signal. I thought maybe the 4050 was interfering somehow, so I pulled it and installed the board into the socket directly. Hooked up my cables, configured the jumpers, and it fired up right away. This is easily the most beautiful picture I've ever seen on an Atari, and I'd like to replace all my homebrew circuits with these boards! Unfortunately, I now have more soldering to do to put the 4052 back on the board. Anyway, here are a couple of pics of my install (need to mount the jacks)... 20180221_230019.jpg 20180221_230028.jpg Thanks Bryan for a great product, I'll be ordering a couple more soon! Whoa...wait a minute! Is this a 4 port 5200? So you couldn't get a picture until you removed the 4050?! That is the total opposite to what I was able to get. My 4-port 5200 wouldn't produce a picture at all through the UAV until I added the 4050 back into the circuit. And...if you are running without the 4050, then where is the jumper for the R2 and R3 resistors that you are supposed to add? I don't see one installed on your setup? I will state that I tried the UAV on my 5200 4-port with and without the 4050 and with and without the r2 and r3 jumper in place. Only combo that worked to give me any video was no jumper on r2 and r3 and the 4050 left in circuit. So maybe just like the 7800s, the 5200s have different non documented revs to them that could cause these discrepancies in installation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjh76 Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 (edited) Oh, I see now. Pole Position 2 is one of the other 7800 games I have. Tried comparing it to some youtube videos but gave up after seeing the range of different colors. Made the sky blue, the mountains slightly purple and the grass green, put the UAV pot back in the middle and called it good. What about 2600 games on the 7800? I tried using Ms. Pacman to adjust the 2600 color pot, but although I was able to get it to where most of the other colors are the same as on my light sixer, but the maze walls are a kind of light flesh tone instead of the dark purple. I get the same colors through the RF out as I do through the UAV, so it's definitely the system. A few other 2600 games I've tried seem to have washed out colors compared to when played on the sixer, is this normal for the 7800? Edited February 27, 2018 by jjh76 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 Oh, I see now. Pole Position 2 is one of the other 7800 games I have. Tried comparing it to some youtube videos but gave up after seeing the range of different colors. Made the sky blue, the mountains slightly purple and the grass green, put the UAV pot back in the middle and called it good. What about 2600 games on the 7800? I tried using Ms. Pacman to adjust the 2600 color pot, but although I was able to get it to where most of the other colors are the same as on my light sixer, but the maze walls are a kind of light flesh tone instead of the dark purple. I get the same colors through the RF out as I do through the UAV, so it's definitely the system. A few other 2600 games I've tried seem to have washed out colors compared to when played on the sixer, is this normal for the 7800? No, not for a properly adjusted system. Put in a game with readily-identifiable colors like Pitfall or Space Invaders, and adjust the TIA color pot. Make sure you do this after your system has warmed up for at least 10 - 20 minutes, and make sure your display is turned on and adjusted to neutral/default settings. If you're using a CRT, make sure it's warmed up too. If you have a Harmony cart, you can find a color bar generator rom to load and adjust from that. Too bad most of us don't have that option for 7800 adjustment of the MARIA color pot. So, as for 7800 games to use to test, go for something straightforward like Dig Dug, Joust or Xevious. Between all those, you'll see the full gamut of "expected" colors (browns/golds for Dig Dug, red/brown for Joust, greens/yellows for Xevious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moja Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 (edited) Whoa...wait a minute! Is this a 4 port 5200? So you couldn't get a picture until you removed the 4050?! That is the total opposite to what I was able to get. My 4-port 5200 wouldn't produce a picture at all through the UAV until I added the 4050 back into the circuit. And...if you are running without the 4050, then where is the jumper for the R2 and R3 resistors that you are supposed to add? I don't see one installed on your setup? I will state that I tried the UAV on my 5200 4-port with and without the 4050 and with and without the r2 and r3 jumper in place. Only combo that worked to give me any video was no jumper on r2 and r3 and the 4050 left in circuit. So maybe just like the 7800s, the 5200s have different non documented revs to them that could cause these discrepancies in installation? No, no... sorry for the confusion, I didn't explain my issues in detail. The reason I couldn't get a picture initially with the 4050 in-circuit is because I had 2 separate video cables in front of me, and I had the wrong one plugged into the system. Literally, my video cable wasn't plugged in the whole time. Troubleshooting 101. I have since replaced the 4050 after reading about a potential reset issue (just soldered the UAV on top of the 4050 and placed the monstrosity into the socket) - my 4-port produced a picture both with AND without it. As far as the jumpers, I thought that was my problem and went back and forth between the 5200 and 800xl settings until i realized my video cable wasn't plugged into the tv. I'm not sure what the jumpers for R2/R3 are about as I'm still learning how to use this board. I'll try to take a picture of my updated install later. Edited February 28, 2018 by moja 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 Either way you got yours to work without the 4050 and mine refused to give a picture of any kind other than a black screen without the 4050. As for the jumper, I meant the jumper that is supposed to go on R2 and R3 when you remove the 4050 up near the voltage regulators? It is documented in Bryan's installation process as being required when you remove the 4050. Again, I couldn't get mine to work either way without the 4050 so you have confirmed that the 4050 may or may not be needed on the 5200 when using the UAV. That is frustrating because it would be so much easier to install if it weren't needed and you weren't planning on using the RF any more. But since it appears there is a revision difference possibly between the 5200s that changes this, it now becomes more of a crap shoot currently. I'm sure this is why Bryan is planning on implementing a 4050 replacement into the UAV on a future revision of the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moja Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 (edited) Hmm, yeah definitely don't remember anything about the jumper. No 4050, no R2/R3, and I even started Frogger with the reset button (though I don't know if that was the reset issue or not). I've done the power mod from console5 and this UAV board, nothing else. My other 5200 has a different motherboard revision silkscreened on it, perhaps if I try to mod that on I would get a result similar to yours, but it has other issues at the moment that I haven't figured out yet. I have a 2-port I could try though. Edited February 28, 2018 by moja Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moja Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 This is the board I modded. It is a CA018087. Here's the other one I have, a CX5200P. Just a power mod so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoffertot Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 Hello all, I recently finished my install of the UAV Rev D plus audio companion board in my rev 14 2600 woody NTSC version and it all looks great. Huge improvement over RF especially since my adapter had seen better days. Anyways, I noticed there isn't a write up for the 4-switch 2600s yet, so hopefully this post can help bring some of the pieces from this forum together. Things to note: - Basic board is used for install. - Jumpers are NOT needed. Those are for configuring the Plug-In board socket pins. - This version 2600 has a TIA chip, not a CD4050. - The pinout has changed from Rev C to Rev D. The only diagram I found illustrating the pinouts referenced Rev C, So I have included an updated version for the Rev D board. This tripped me up initially! - The pinout is also printed on the UAV boards soldermask as another reference. Follow that over any conflicting references you may find. ***First picture is the board I am working with (rescued Atari from what appears to be a pretty rough life): Installing the UAV Here are the pinouts that I am using along with the wirecolors used in my later picture: - TIA pin 2 --- UAV Sync (White/Brown stripe) - TIA pin 5 --- UAV LUM1 (Orange) - TIA pin 7 --- UAV LUM3 (Green) - TIA pin 8 --- UAV LUM2 (Blue) - TIA pin 9 --- UAV Color in (Brown) - UAV 5V and Ground are taken from commonly used locations in other 2600 4 switcher installs as shown in later pictures. - UAV C (composite output) --- Center pin of composite RCA jack (White/Brown stripe) - UAV G (composite ground) --- Ground pin of composite RCA jack (White/Green stripe) - TIA pin 6 lifted --- From my understanding, Rev 1-15 do not have a color burst circuit so this is normally not necessary, but my board had an added 680 ohm resistor soldered from pin 6 to pin 9. I lifted a leg of the resistor and pin 6 of TIA. ***Second picture is the updated pinouts I used. Hopefully this is large enough to read. ***Third picture is the board after it is wired Connecting the Audio Companion Board(AC Board) - 4-switcher uses 4 connections on the AC Board. 5V, GND, iA, and Out - The board is designed to straddle a surface mount component on the board, I chose to vertically mount mine across a resistor close to the RF output jack. You can probe around the board and find your own location if you like, just find a sold GND and 5V connection. - Since I didn't get a good picture of my AC Board, giving the wire colors referenced in the picture below should give you an idea of how I have it installed. - 5V - taken directly from Atari Board - GND - taken directly from Atari Board. Brown wire connected to same point and ran to GND tabs of audio RCA jacks - Out - Green wire going to center pin of both RCA jacks - iA - (White/green stripe) I pulled from a close resistor that directly traces to TIA pins 12 and 13. These pins are tied together on the circuit board and is the sole tap for audio out. Location shown in picture. ***Fourth picture is my installed AC Board: ***Fifth picture are the final connections running to my RCA output jacks: And that is it! I hope this can be helpful to someone that is installing into one of these machines, and if anyone finds any mistakes with this post, please correct me. Thanks for reading, and good luck. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moja Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 +Like for CAT5 cable, lol. Great for multicore wiring. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckrtech Posted March 1, 2018 Share Posted March 1, 2018 Thanks, Hoffertot. Looking to upgrade from Longhorn Engineer 2.2D -> UAV in my 2600. Cracked it open & it looks like I also have revision 14. Apparently I changed R228 as part of the install 10 years ago. Interestingly, my board doesn't have that resistor from pin 6 to pin 9. I can't remember if it was already there and I removed it... or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted March 1, 2018 Share Posted March 1, 2018 Thanks, Hoffertot. Looking to upgrade from Longhorn Engineer 2.2D -> UAV in my 2600. Cracked it open & it looks like I also have revision 14. Apparently I changed R228 as part of the install 10 years ago. Interestingly, my board doesn't have that resistor from pin 6 to pin 9. I can't remember if it was already there and I removed it... or not. That resistor is a modification suggested in the Field Service Manual for pre-Rev 16 boards to improve color saturation. I did it myself to one of my machines. When I later put a UAV into that same machine, I did not remove it, nor did I lift pin 6 of TIA. Everything works just fine and the picture is great. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoffertot Posted March 1, 2018 Share Posted March 1, 2018 That resistor is a modification suggested in the Field Service Manual for pre-Rev 16 boards to improve color saturation. I did it myself to one of my machines. When I later put a UAV into that same machine, I did not remove it, nor did I lift pin 6 of TIA. Everything works just fine and the picture is great. Good to know. I actually lifted it before I got the UAV working, and didn't end up plugging it back in based on some comments I saw in this thread. I might go back and try it and see if I notice a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tezza Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 Hi, I followed Bryan's instructions and successfully added the UAV to my NTSC Atari 800. Even here in PAL-land I now get a great picture on composite video! I'm not sure why as the UAV is not an NTSC-->PAL converter. Perhaps my TV/monitors are simply "modern" enough to allow it? Anyway, I wrote about the experience for those who might be interested. Tez 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seastalker Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 Anyone have suggestions of where to send 800xl boards for repair? I know Bryan can but he is insanely busy based off the posts here. I have a nearly working board with a UAV. I'd love to have at least one XL back up and running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldManAtari Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 Hello. I am looking to get 2 of the UAV - D Upgrade kits. May ultimately get 10-20. Are they still available, and how do I order them? Michael 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckrtech Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 I have some issues (independent of the UAV) in my 2600 video output - the same thing happened with the Longhorn Engineer mod. The console has been refreshed with new caps, new voltage regulator, and new power jack. I have also tried switching power supplies as well as TIA chips. it seems like I am getting some ...interference, perhaps? in the video output signal. I have attached a video of Stay Frosty 2 with Blue Only enabled on my PVM (makes it easier to see). The lines dance around, and I can somewhat push on the power switch and get them to rotate, expand and retract. (by the way - I also cleaned and eventually replaced the power switch). Do you guys know what I am looking at (RF interference of some sort?) and how I might solve the problem? I have a separate thread about it in the 2600 forum, but I thought I would drop a line here since you guys are doing video mods a lot. IMG_4988.MOV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckrtech Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 Wow! Check out that noise! TIA pin 20 (500mV per division!) - 7805 output - Fiddling with the power switch with probe still on 7805 - Fiddling a bit more with the power switch with probe on 7805 - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldManAtari Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 I would like to purchase some of the UAV - D Mod Kits. Who wants my money??? How do I get ahold of "Bryan"? - Michael Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chipyto Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 Hello Bryan I would like to purchase one unit of UAV - D Mod. Please, send me a PM. Thank you Chipyto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obadiah64 Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 The best way to inform Bryan of your intention to purchase a UAV is to PM him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 The best way to inform Bryan of your intention to purchase a UAV is to PM him. Also - please read back a few posts. Bryan indicated he is almost out of Rev D boards, is working on a potential Rev E, and those would not be available until later this year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckrtech Posted March 30, 2018 Share Posted March 30, 2018 Any of you guys experience a slight dimming of the video when certain sounds play while using the UAV + Audio companion? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moja Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Any of you guys experience a slight dimming of the video when certain sounds play while using the UAV + Audio companion? On a 7800? Any games in particular? If I have it I can try on mine - I've not experienced anything like that yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckrtech Posted April 2, 2018 Share Posted April 2, 2018 On a 7800? Any games in particular? If I have it I can try on mine - I've not experienced anything like that yet. 4-switch 2600. Seaquest. Picking up divers causes the screen to darken/brighten with the counting sound effect. Slight, but noticeable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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