+Nathan Strum Posted January 8, 2020 Share Posted January 8, 2020 Replace all of the caps anyway, and the power jack if it's included in the kit. Then you're eliminating those as possibilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 On 1/7/2020 at 5:07 PM, Nathan Strum said: Replace all of the caps anyway, and the power jack if it's included in the kit. Then you're eliminating those as possibilities. Thanks for the suggestion Nathan, that will definitely be happening. I might do that on my own now as unfortunately Darcy is not able to make it over this weekend due to poor weather conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 What, no Darcy show tonight? What a shame. And now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 3 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: What, no Darcy show tonight? What a shame. And now? We'll be having a later show today at 6:30PM PT | 9:30PM ET | 2:30AM GMT (click for local time) with Tanya. It's a pretty late show in Europe as a result unfortunately... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 Just make sure that the stream is there tomorrow morning. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted January 14, 2020 Author Share Posted January 14, 2020 The nomination process has finished for the 2nd Annual Atari Homebrew Awards! We will be announcing the finalists in each of the categories LIVE THIS FRIDAY on the ZeroPage Homebrew Twitch stream at 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 2AM GMT! Then, the top games of the year for Atari 2600, Atari 8bit/5200 and Atari 7800 will be voted on by YOU starting this Saturday January 18th! Atari Homebrew Awards Categories: Best Atari 2600 Homebrew Best Atari 7800 Homebrew (New!) Best Atari 8-Bit/5200 Homebrew (New!) Best ≤ 4K Homebrew (2600) (New!) Best Graphics (2600) Best Music + Sound (2600) Best Packaging (2600) Best WIP (2600) Atari Lifetime Achievement Award (2600) (New!) This year is extremely exciting as we expanded beyond the Atari 2600 homebrew into the realm of Atari 7800 and Atari 8bit/5200 to cover even more of the incredible talent putting together these amazing games for our favourite consoles! I want to thank AtariAge, Project Argon and The Atari 2600 Homebrew Companion for their help in making this year's Atari Homebrew Awards happen! Looking forward to the awards show on Feb 1, 2020!! - James 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iesposta Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 Re: Repair Reheat the solder connection of the power jack to the board. This often cracks between the pins and the trace, either visibly or internally, due to the force of plugging it in. Tip: Because it is quite a large pad of solder, make sure the heat is applied FOR A WHILE so BOTH the pin on the jack and the solder pad are hot. Allow it to cool slowly, without bumping it, so the joint is strong. The outer pin is ground, and the 2 other inner pins are positive (and connected together) and should measure 9V to 15V DC. Power then goes through the connecting wires to the power switch on the switch board. Looking top down at the power switch, the bottom right should be 0.0V when off. When switched on, all pins should be at (or close) to the input jack voltage. TIP: Test for voltage with red probe, and put black probe on a ground board trace — not just shielding or the outer jack connector. Ground traces can usually be identified as large areas of circuit board copper (usually around the outside), also capacitors usually have one side on ground (and are marked with negative so the other side is ground). The power goes by the green rectangle capacitor right below the switch (above the 5 volt regulator). I have needed to replace that capacitor on 2 machines because it went bad. It causes a very “snowy” RF output picture. It is a recommended change on any refurbishment. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted January 23, 2020 Author Share Posted January 23, 2020 VOTING HAS STARTED!! The voting is now underway for the 2019 Atari Homebrew Awards! Thank you for your patience while the technical issues were being worked on and huge thank you to @Albert for getting it all sorted out!! Make sure you vote in all the categories for your favourite games of 2019 in the links below! Atari Homebrew Awards Categories (VOTE IN ALL!!): Atari 2600: Best Homebrew Atari 7800: Best Homebrew (New!) Atari 8-Bit/5200: Best Homebrew (New!) Atari 2600: Best ≤ 4K Homebrew (2600) (New!) Atari 2600: Best Graphics Atari 2600: Best Music & Sound Atari 2600: Best Packaging Atari 2600: Best WIP 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted January 28, 2020 Author Share Posted January 28, 2020 POLLS ARE CLOSED! Thank you so much to everyone that participated in voting in the 2019 Atari Homebrew Awards this year. Make sure you tune in on February 1st for the LIVE presentation of the Awards show on ZeroPage Homebrew's Twitch Channel! We will have live video acceptance speeches by the winners and all of the ZPH co-hosts will be there presenting the awards! 2019 Atari Homebrew Awards Live Presentation February 1, 2020 @ 12:00PM PT | 3PM ET | 8PM GMT on the ZeroPage Homebrew Twitch Stream 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted January 31, 2020 Author Share Posted January 31, 2020 (edited) ATARI HOMEBREW AWARDS ARE TOMORROW!! The 2019 Atari Homebrew Awards, celebrating the best in Atari homebrew will stream LIVE TOMORROW on ZeroPage Homebrew's Twitch stream starting at 12PM PT | 3PM ET | 8PM GMT) ! Find out results that YOU VOTED on for your favourite Atari 2600, 8-Bit/5200 and 7800 homebrew games with live video/audio acceptance speeches from the winners! SATURDAY FEB 1, 2020 12PM PT | 3PM ET | 8PM GMT STREAMING: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/ Edited January 31, 2020 by ZeroPage Homebrew 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted February 2, 2020 Author Share Posted February 2, 2020 (edited) 2019 ATARI HOMEBREW AWARDS RESULTS Thank you everyone for an amazing event today. Congratulations to all the nominees and the winners! (SET VIDEO TO 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY) Atari 2600: Best Homebrew ≤4K 1) Amoeba Jump by Dion Olsthoorn "Dionoid" 2) Space Game 2KB by Karl Garrison "Karl G" 3) Caverns by Harold Thijssen Atari 7800: Best Homebrew 1) Rikki & Vikki by PenguiNet "TailChao" 2) Baby Pac-Man by Bob DeCrecenzo "PacManPlus" 3) Draker Quest II by Clark Otto "frankodragon" Atari 2600: Best Packaging 1) Rally Racer by More Work Games 2) Galagon (Galaga) by Champ Games (packaging by Dave Dries) 3) Wizard of Wor Arcade by Champ Games (packaging by Dave Dries) Atari 2600: Best WIP 1) Zoo Keeper by Champ Games 2) Ninjish Guy in Low Res World by Vladimir Zuñiga (aka John Von Neumann) "vhzc" 3) Penult by Karl Garrison "Karl G" Atari 8-Bit/5200: Best Homebrew 1) Gravity Worms - Krzysztof "xxl" Dudek, Jakub "Aceman" Szeląg, Kamil "Vidol" Walaszek 2) Jet Set Willy 2019 - Terence "Tezz" Derby (original game by Matthew Smith) 2) Wasteland - Michael Jaskula Atari 2600: Best Music & Sound 1) Wizard of Wor Arcade by Champ Games (sound by Mike Haas with Ross Keenum) 2) Galagon (Galaga) by Champ Games (sound and music by Ross Keenum) 3) Aardvark by Oscar Toledo Gutiérrez "nanochess" and Thomas Jentzsch (design and coding), Nathan Strum (graphics and packaging) Atari 2600: Best Graphics 1) Aardvark by Oscar Toledo Gutiérrez "nanochess" and Thomas Jentzsch (design and coding), Nathan Strum (graphics and packaging) 2) Galagon (Galaga) by Champ Games (graphics by Nathan Strum) 3) Wizard of Wor Arcade by Champ Games (graphics by Nathan Strum) Atari 2600: Lifetime Achievement Award Albert Yarusso Atari 2600: Best Homebrew 1) Galagon (Galaga) by Champ Games 2) Aardvark by Oscar Toledo Gutiérrez "nanochess" and Thomas Jentzsch (design and coding), Nathan Strum (graphics and packaging) 3) Wizard of Wor Arcade by Champ Games Edited February 2, 2020 by ZeroPage Homebrew 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 Great show last night. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+sramirez2008 Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 11 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said: Great show last night. It really was. Wish I would have been able to watch it live. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gorgh Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 yeah, the show was entertaining 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 @ZeroPage Homebrew While you are still using Stella, you should download the latest RC and enable in the Developer Options/TIA the Quick Step! glitch. Then Stella will emulate your console's odd behavior. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 On 1/18/2020 at 10:40 AM, iesposta said: Re: Repair Reheat the solder connection of the power jack to the board. This often cracks between the pins and the trace, either visibly or internally, due to the force of plugging it in. Tip: Because it is quite a large pad of solder, make sure the heat is applied FOR A WHILE so BOTH the pin on the jack and the solder pad are hot. Allow it to cool slowly, without bumping it, so the joint is strong. The outer pin is ground, and the 2 other inner pins are positive (and connected together) and should measure 9V to 15V DC. No problem with the power coming into the Atari luckily so I'll be leaving this until last. The power is traceable and strong at ~14V all the way to the power switch. See my next post for more info. On 1/18/2020 at 10:40 AM, iesposta said: Power then goes through the connecting wires to the power switch on the switch board. Looking top down at the power switch, the bottom right should be 0.0V when off. When switched on, all pins should be at (or close) to the input jack voltage. This is where it fails. Off, it's ~14V to the power switch when the power is off and when it's switched on the power drops down to ~2.4V. See my next post for more info On 1/18/2020 at 10:40 AM, iesposta said: TIP: Test for voltage with red probe, and put black probe on a ground board trace — not just shielding or the outer jack connector. Ground traces can usually be identified as large areas of circuit board copper (usually around the outside), also capacitors usually have one side on ground (and are marked with negative so the other side is ground). The power goes by the green rectangle capacitor right below the switch (above the 5 volt regulator). I have needed to replace that capacitor on 2 machines because it went bad. It causes a very “snowy” RF output picture. It is a recommended change on any refurbishment. I've now replaced both capacitors on on the left had side of the switch board, see my next post for more info. - James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 (edited) RGB Modded Light Sixer Repair Update! In the below picture I've circled the (new) components I've replaced so far (#1 #2 today) on the switch board. Sadly NONE of the replacements have made the readings I've got out of the board any better or any worse. With the VCS switched off and plugged in I'm getting normal readings of ~14V all the way from the plug to the input of the #1 circled capacitor (see below pic). Once I switch on the power the readings drop to ~2.4V all the way to the input of the voltage regulator and ~1.0V on the output of the voltage regulator as shown in the below pictures. What's the next step I should do? More replacements of parts? What could be failing? Are there more readings I can do to isolate what is sapping the power? @iesposta @Nathan Strum @Thomas Jentzsch - James Edited February 9, 2020 by ZeroPage Homebrew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 I haven't traced power through a 2600, but I've repaired mine several times, including twice where it had died to a black screen. The first time was its hex buffer, the second time was a combination of things (caps and at least one chip). I'd suggest the following (in order): If there are still other parts to replace in your cap kit, use them. I used mojoatomic's kits, and they had more caps than what you've shown. If possible, remove the RGB mod and restore the 2600 to stock RF. Then you're troubleshooting only the console. De-solder, socket and replace the chips on the main board (this is a lot of work up front, but saves a ton of time for future repairs). I spec'd a CD4050 hex buffer from Digi-Key since it's functionally the same as the unavailable original Atari part, and the sockets can be bought there, too. The rest of the chips can be bought from Best Electronics (their website is... challenging, so click the part link below, search for the part number, then go here to read how to order): CD10816 hex buffer (part, socket) CO10750 RIOT (part, socket) CO104444D TIA (part, socket) CO10745 6507 CPU (part, socket) If you have a working 2600, you can desolder and transplant its chips instead of buying new ones. That's what I'd do if this were my own 2600. If you want to pay to ship it to California, I'd be happy to do the work. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iesposta Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 It would seem some part or chip is still pulling all the voltage to ground. You just need to keep going until you find it. I only had one Sears Heavy 6er that did not work when I bought it, and it was a TIA chip that was gray - some of the first ones made. The old 6ers have socketed chips, and I think I swapped that and the RIOT with different ones and that now works. I many different machine versions (even different companies) that play 2600 carts and they all still work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZeroPage Homebrew Posted February 9, 2020 Author Share Posted February 9, 2020 19 hours ago, Nathan Strum said: I haven't traced power through a 2600, but I've repaired mine several times, including twice where it had died to a black screen. The first time was its hex buffer, the second time was a combination of things (caps and at least one chip). I'd suggest the following (in order): If there are still other parts to replace in your cap kit, use them. I used mojoatomic's kits, and they had more caps than what you've shown. Looks like mojoatomic is MIA. I've purchased the console5 refresh kit and still have some more parts to replace so I'll continue on with that. 19 hours ago, Nathan Strum said: If possible, remove the RGB mod and restore the 2600 to stock RF. Then you're troubleshooting only the console. There's quite a lot of delicate soldering needed to install the mod to so I'd rather purchase another VCS + RGB mod than disassemble/reassemble the existing one. 19 hours ago, Nathan Strum said: De-solder, socket and replace the chips on the main board (this is a lot of work up front, but saves a ton of time for future repairs). I spec'd a CD4050 hex buffer from Digi-Key since it's functionally the same as the unavailable original Atari part, and the sockets can be bought there, too. The rest of the chips can be bought from Best Electronics (their website is... challenging, so click the part link below, search for the part number, then go here to read how to order): CD10816 hex buffer (part, socket) CO10750 RIOT (part, socket) CO104444D TIA (part, socket) CO10745 6507 CPU (part, socket) If you have a working 2600, you can desolder and transplant its chips instead of buying new ones. That's what I'd do if this were my own 2600. If you want to pay to ship it to California, I'd be happy to do the work. That's definitely worth doing after all other possibilities are exhausted, I have a number of working 2600's so I can either pull chips from those or order new ones, thank you for the links. Thank you so much for the offer, the cost of shipping and border hassle would be prohibitive but that is incredible tempting!!! 15 hours ago, iesposta said: It would seem some part or chip is still pulling all the voltage to ground. You just need to keep going until you find it. Thanks! I'll keep working my way through the parts and hopefully I'll run across the problematic art. 17 hours ago, CPUWIZ said: Yeah, do not feed more than 12V MAX into it, it will kill the 7805 voltage regulator. I just saw the above posted in another thread by @CPUWIZ about power delivery for the VCS. Could this be an issue since I'm getting a reading of ~14V coming out of my power supply? - James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted February 10, 2020 Share Posted February 10, 2020 Are you using a stock Atari power supply, or something else? Best carries original 2600 power supplies. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+splendidnut Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 Has anyone suggested the power switch as the failure point? (too lazy to look back thru) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TwentySixHundred Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 It's is a high possibility the PSU is not holding the voltage and current under load. From what i have read over the years, that failed packs usually give a higher voltage output then the recommended 12v. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 James - when you get your 2600 working again, you should also see about getting your AtariVox replaced. Albert has revised ones now that don't have the reset bug. And you will need it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted March 2, 2020 Share Posted March 2, 2020 Already a bit too late. 21 Blue which was played last Wednesday supports the AtariVox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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