Atari Pong Ever AV Modded?

[virtvic]

Has the Atari home Pong series ever been AV modded?

 

I have a Super Pong and have never played it because I can't get a picture on an RF tv.

 

If I could AV mod it, I could at least try it on a more reliable tv. Picture would be vastly improved also...

[virtvic]

I have just looked inside it and it's not the popular pong on a chip AY-3-8500, it's a C010073-1

 

???

 

I'm trying to find a pin out to see if they are the same and therefore a simple mod is available already.

[omf]

something you could try is getting a composite cable earthing the outside with the board, power up your pong and touch each chip pin with the centre pole of the composite cable.

the voltage should be within what the tv can handle and you may be able to find some pins on the chip that output composite.

 

if you cant find any there you might try doing the same on the rf modulator pins, of course without a picture of the circuit board i cant be more specific but the above is worth a go

[ruthsarian]

I picked up a Tele-Games branded Pong console and was thinking about doing a composite video mod too. Attached are some pictures from inside the console.

 

Looks like I need to desolder the shield covering the solder side of the PCB, which I imagine will be a headache with all that thermal mass.

 

I'm still trying to figure out a plan of attack for the mod. I want to be as non-destructive as possible so the mod could be reverted one day if desired.

 

I'd like to continue using the RCA cable that came with the system (it's nice and long), but the RCA jack on the PCB means I'd have to either cut and strip one end of the cable or probably cut/rewire traces on the PCB. So I have no clue what I'm going to do and am still thinking on it.

 

As a side note, the security screws to open the case are "holt head" screws. I only found one driver online for holt head screws, it's called an "HY-50" screwdriver. I picked one up and while the bit is correct, it's too deep and won't grab onto the console's screws unless you file the thing down about a 1/2mm. And at $15-$20 range, it's not worth it. You can unscrew these things with pliers or a U-shaped "spanner" bit and a bit of perseverance.

 

 

 

 

 

[ruthsarian]

Based off the attached schematic (the only C-100 schematic I've ever seen) I lifted one leg of the diode at CR6 to essentially remove the RF modulation bit of the circuit. I then tried plugging the cable from 'R.F OUTPUT' (which should now be composite out) to the composite in on a TV and... nothing. I then tried pulling C29 and C27 and running a wire directly from L2 to 'R.F. OUTPUT' and still nothing. I'm guessing the composite signal needs to be amplified, but I've got no idea where to begin with that.

[Shockwav3]

I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I just modified an Atari C-100 to output composite.

If you remove the battery casing temporarly and add a few wires you can lead the wires through the holes in the shielding and the rectangular cutout in the case and add a switch to maintain the original state without modifying the case. Switch can be glued to the compartment at the bottom with hot glue.

Quality between both is comparable, TV out has slightly more noise + grain and some interference from the speaker, composite has bleeding edges on the left (the ghosting on both photos is due to my smartphone camera). Adjusting the value of the pullup resistor at 1KOhm or using a different transistor for amplifying might help with composite. This modification is provided as "works for me" and was done on a "Tele-Games Pong" (is there such a thing as a PAL variant?).

It might also be possible to tap a usable signal from the CC3659 chip directly (one of the pins looked like a weak inverted video signal).

 

Schematic (MSPaint power!):

 

Locations:

 

My modifications (excuse the mess, these were taking during 'development'):

 

Quality comparision:

 

Underside of console (please ignore my mediocre hotglue-fu):

Edited August 16, 2018 by Shockwav3

[Shockwav3]

Hm ... turns out on my Sony PVM monitors I get a rainbow spectrum of colors for the white objects minus the top/bottom border on composite.

I'll look into that.

EDIT: Or is it supposed to be like that? Most videos on youtube show a color spectrum like mine ... I guess most TVs I've used have a problem with decoding the color in NTSC mode when using the TV out (I'm located in Germany - PAL territory)

Edited August 16, 2018 by Shockwav3

[craftsman1234]

Hm ... turns out on my Sony PVM monitors I get a rainbow spectrum of colors for the white objects minus the top/bottom border on composite.

I'll look into that.

EDIT: Or is it supposed to be like that? Most videos on youtube show a color spectrum like mine ... I guess most TVs I've used have a problem with decoding the color in NTSC mode when using the TV out (I'm located in Germany - PAL territory)

Just saw this. Thanks for posting. Still testing on my PVM but so far so good using your method. I did not use the switch and for now instead of 75ohm 68ohm (what I could put together. The rainbow colors are normal and should be there.

Edited October 31, 2018 by craftsman1234

[KABOOMER!]

Hola amigos, yo instalé un composite AV en mi Pong, ya que no enviaba señal a la TV y no pude conseguir piezas de reemplazo, pero se escuchaba el juego en el altavoz, me supuse que lo podía conseguir y puse manos a la obra con muy pocas alteraciones a la consola y unas cuantas soldaduras, las fotos que anexo, ojalá sean explicativas y no dejen más dudas de las que ya hay, el resultado es una imagen limpia y cristalina en mi TV Sony Trinitron, ojalá ustedes lo consigan igual, háganme saber sus dudas, resultados o insultos, aclararé las dudas que surgen en el transcurso de su desarrollo.

Edited August 4, 2019 by KABOOMER!
Added Photos

[KABOOMER!]

Espero que esta modificación funcione para los amigos que viven en región con Formato Pal, ya que soy de México y aca somos region NTCS

[ruthsarian]

for what it's worth, I finally got this mod to work for me. I followed the circuit changes noted by Shockwav3, but found the output voltage was too high.

 

I used a 2N3904 for the NPN transistor and replaced the 75ohm resistor between the transistor's base and 5V with a 2.1K resistor. That fixed the signal for me.

 

I further altered the resistor values based on a composite video mod for the Magnavox Odyssey I'd seen and replaced the 100 ohm resistor on the emitter with a 510 ohm resistor and also added a 22ohm resistor in series with the composite out. I then further bumped the 2.1K up to 3.3K.

 

I have no clue if this is "correct", but it works for me.