7800 AV modding options?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

That is the basic transistor composite mod. Yeah I think the UAV would give you much better results!

[AtariBrian]

But it is such a bad picture that I am sure he did something wrong .

[+-^CrossBow^-]

It is possible, but the HDMI converter mod I removed from the last 7800 I modded had a darker picture than I was used to as well. Only way to know for sure would be to put it back to stock as much as possible and try to get an RF modulator back into it.

[boxpressed]

I am quite satisfied with my 7800 S-Video mod from four years ago by Joe at electronicsentimentalities. Is he still doing mods?

[H454]

I am quite satisfied with my 7800 S-Video mod from four years ago by Joe at electronicsentimentalities. Is he still doing mods?

Per his website:

 

"I've had to put my hobby business on hold. Everything should be out of stock. I've become a cancer caregiver. My wife was diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoma in January 2017. She is also a ovarian cancer survivor. The ovarian cancer fight was in 2007. Prayers and well wishes welcome. I hope to get back to my Atari work after this battle with Lymphoma."

 

Has been on hold since the around the start of the year.

[John Stamos Mullet]

Ive has all three of the most popular 7800 mods over the years.

 

The basic transistor/resistor mod is the easiest and cheapest, looks better than RF, but with ghosting and color bleed. Not bad for $5 in parts, but not the best quality.

 

Ive had the longhorn/electronic sentimentalities mod as well - honestly its not much better than the easier composite mod. S video is great if you have a tv with Svideo input, but not remarkably better than composite, and it has a pretty washed out/dull picture.

 

Bryans UAV is the best Ive seen, anywhere. Even the composite signal is crisp and clean with much better color. If he ever starts making them again, get one - full stop.

Edited August 1, 2018 by John Stamos Mullet

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Bryans UAV is the best Ive seen, anywhere. Even the composite signal is crisp and clean with much better color. If he ever starts making them again, get one - full stop.

 

I might have a few more coming in soon...but if I do most of them are spoken for. but I will be sure to update this thread if I do so I can offer up to mod up a 7800 or two.

[tpugmire]

Can the UAV be put in a 2600? If so, is there any point in doing it if you have a modded 7800?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Can the UAV be put in a 2600? If so, is there any point in doing it if you have a modded 7800?

 

Yes you can, but if you already have a UAV modded 7800 then you wouldn't have a need to AV mod a 2600 unless the 7800 you have isn't quite compatible with some of your 2600 games.

[TOYPIGG]

So what's the other options you can get sense you out of uav.ill take anything get away from this RF

[+-^CrossBow^-]

You could just get the standard composite mod for the 2600. It still won't look quite as good as the UAVs composite but as you said the UAVs aren't really available at the moment.

[vintagegamecrazy]

Time to bump this thread. I've been searching for an s Video kit and I don't see much online for sale right now. I am very good at soldering but not that good at building my own circuits. Are there any pre-assembled boards that could be installed? I don't mind drilling the case for the connectors. I could assemble a board if need be but I would prefer to buy one already done to save time. Let me know what my options are right now.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

17 hours ago, vintagegamecrazy said:

Time to bump this thread. I've been searching for an s Video kit and I don't see much online for sale right now. I am very good at soldering but not that good at building my own circuits. Are there any pre-assembled boards that could be installed? I don't mind drilling the case for the connectors. I could assemble a board if need be but I would prefer to buy one already done to save time. Let me know what my options are right now.

The UAV is currently the best solution for the 7800. You can order them from the Brewing Academy here:

 

https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/ultimate-atari-video-uav/products/tba-ultimate-atari-video-uav-board-for-atari-7800

 

You only need the basic board as there isn't a 4050 on the 7800 for a plug in solution. So there is some wiring up that is required. If you have questions about the install of one into a 7800 let me know as I'm quite familiar with the process.

 

[bikeguychicago]

3 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

The UAV is currently the best solution for the 7800. You can order them from the Brewing Academy here:

 

https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/ultimate-atari-video-uav/products/tba-ultimate-atari-video-uav-board-for-atari-7800

 

You only need the basic board as there isn't a 4050 on the 7800 for a plug in solution. So there is some wiring up that is required. If you have questions about the install of one into a 7800 let me know as I'm quite familiar with the process.

 

Do you have a video to follow or instructions for installing on a 7800? I'm considering making the plunge myself. Also, does this mod provide balanced sound for games that use Pokey and TIA? Thanks!

[+-^CrossBow^-]

9 minutes ago, bikeguychicago said:

Do you have a video to follow or instructions for installing on a 7800? I'm considering making the plunge myself. Also, does this mod provide balanced sound for games that use Pokey and TIA? Thanks!

Yes to both. The Brewing Academy also provides links. And yes, the way I mention on how to do the audio does provide balanced audio between pokey and TIA.

 

Here is the link to the PDF instructions I created sometime back for this.

 

UAV 7800 Installation PDF Guide

 

Here is the link to the video I did as well:

 

7800 UAV Installation

 

[dankcomputing]

There should be a way to get stereo out that has the POKEY audio mixed in. Bryan whipped up an audio amp board for the 400 that he said might be useful in other systems - would 7800 be one of those?

 

On 2600 stereo is easy since all you have to worry about are the TIA channels, and you can get softer stereo separation by using resistors to preserve the existing mono output. 7800 might call for an op-amp of some type. Maybe a design from another system could be adapted? I see an audio mixer for consolized Neo-Geo systems here that takes stereo and mono sources from the system's audio chip and mixes them to line level stereo. There's also one for NES that may support channel panning (documentation is unclear though).

[+-^CrossBow^-]

13 hours ago, dankcomputing said:

There should be a way to get stereo out that has the POKEY audio mixed in. Bryan whipped up an audio amp board for the 400 that he said might be useful in other systems - would 7800 be one of those?

Yes it is possible as I know of at least 2 other modders in the past that sent me audio recorded from a 7800 they had managed to do it and get the pokey to balance in the middle between both channels. But, I was never advised on exactly how this was done. And honestly, I'm not a fan of how the stereo mod sounds from the TIA games anyway. I prefer my stereo sounds to follow the action on the screen and this simply isn't the case on the games. An yes I know that Combat has the player 1 sounds on the left and player 2 on the right, but they stay that way. So when the tanks are now on opposite sides or the planes flying around, the sound quickly no longer matches up. 

I will admit there are a few games where it sounds really cool like in Solaris. But for the most part I don't like how it sounds so hard panned. 

I also know of at least one case where someone that owned a 7800 with the stereo modification in process, sent it in to have that undone and redone as they were starting to hear some odd audio issues with sounds apparently cutting out and the like.

 

The board you are talking about... did you mean his UAC board? (Ultimate Audio Companion)? Yes it can be installed into any of the Atari consoles. I've installed one into a 7800 and mostly for 5200s. But it didn't provide stereo since the pokey only has single output pin for audio. The Brewing Academy has a replacement version of that board they sell for the 8-bit line that can also be used on at least the 2600 and I would guess 7800 etc. But I've not felt a need to use it since it isn't that big a deal to wire up the audio on most installs with just a few very common components and wire.

 

[dankcomputing]

Bryan (or someone else) alluded to using 2 UAC boards to get stereo but nobody's done a diagram for it. I agree it's much easier to get audio out of the 2600 and 5200 with simple resistors and capacitors, and it can be done quite none-destructively too, but like the 400 the 7800 is a special case. It looks like it might be possible to do what's been done on the 2600 (isolate both TIA pins except for those "pull-up" resistors, add DC-blocking capacitors, run 1K resistors from both stereo halves to create a mono output for the mono pin on the video out connector and the RF modulator) but I'm not sure what to do with the cart sound input. I could run it to the stereo pins through a pair of 1K resistors again but I'm not sure if that's going to work or work well. Seems like most other consoles use op-amps to mix multiple audio sources internally. I guess I could try it out and see what happens.

 

I know that not all 2600 games were meant to have the two channels on different speakers, but the mod I typically do leaves the two channels mixed a little bit - they're not completely left and right but it's still noticeable.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

24 minutes ago, dankcomputing said:

Bryan (or someone else) alluded to using 2 UAC boards to get stereo but nobody's done a diagram for it. I agree it's much easier to get audio out of the 2600 and 5200 with simple resistors and capacitors, and it can be done quite none-destructively too, but like the 400 the 7800 is a special case.

7800 audio is done in the exact same way pretty much. I add in another set of 6k8 and 18k resistors that are attached off the south legs of the original R5 and R6 resistors. Then I tie the north legs of the new resistors together to mix the audio and then run that through a cap to the output jacks. This is basically mimicking the original audio circuit on the 7800 just before it goes to the RF modulator section and by using the two different value resistors, it keeps the TIA and Pokey balanced on their amplitudes without one of the other overpowering the other.