800 Plastic Piece Attached to Power Board.

[+DavidMil]

I just wanted to let anyone know that has a side piece that has come loose from the power supply board on their old

800 that a couple of M4 x 8mm nylon bolts and nylon nuts work very well to reattach it. I bought three dozen on

Amazon for about $8.00.

 

DavidMil

 

[_The Doctor__]

That's a wonderful statement, you should write up you simple fix and provide a picture or two, we have a lot of newbies these days...

[Gunstar]

A picture would help, I've no idea what side piece he is even referring too, at least without opening my 800 and figuring it out.

Edited January 30, 2019 by Gunstar

[flashjazzcat]

It's the fascia surrounding the connectors.

[Gunstar]

I thought that was supposed to be a separate piece, it comes off when I take my 800 apart and it stays in place perfectly fine when I put it back together. Just like the side part on my 1200XL. I see no reason to have it attached to the power board and it never even occurred to me that it was supposed to be.

 

I guess I didn't pay close enough attention to it when I was disassembling and reassembling the case. Mine stays right where it should without problem when my 800 is completely assembled...

 

Is there possibly different 800 revisions that don't have it attached to the power board and mine is just such a revision? My 800 is an earlier one that came with a CTIA and the easy-turn latches for card access instead of just screws.

Edited January 30, 2019 by Gunstar

[flashjazzcat]

Here's a photo of it attached to the PCB with plastic clips:

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Atari-800-Powerboard-Flat.jpg

[Gunstar]

Well I guess mine lost the plastic clips long ago and I never noticed or was made concerned since it seems to be in place and not going anywhere without them. To me, it will make it easier to do repairs to the board, if need be, without it attached and in the way.

Edited January 30, 2019 by Gunstar

[+Nezgar]

Maybe this would also be good to secure the SIO jacks to 1050/XF551 PCB's?

[+DavidMil]

Here are the requested pictures. And yes, I believe that these would be good for attaching SIO sockets. But you will

most likely have to go with a smaller nut and bolt as I believe the holes in the male SIO connector are smaller.

Say a 3M x 8mm.

 

David

[_The Doctor__]

been securing sio jacks on XF's since they arrived..

[+Stephen]

Wow - I did not know that panel was supposed to be attached. Course, I've only opened one 800 when I got my Incognito years back so not like I have much experience with them. It must have been an old model, because it has the thumb screws for the RAM cover, and all RAM cards were cased. It did however (unfortunately) have a GTIA in it.

[Kyle22]

Maybe this would also be good to secure the SIO jacks to 1050/XF551 PCB's?

 

No, I believe that a solid, tight mounting is required. Plastic clips will still allow the SIO connector to move.

Nuts and bolts are better. I suggest metal vs nylon. Tighten reasonably. Make it tight, but don't crush the plastic or crack the board. Use Star type lockwashers.

[_The Doctor__]

I used metal screws that filled the holes edge to edge and used lock tight, ever watch a friend try to pop rivet one and crack the pcb?

as long and the nylon goes edge to edge and is loc-tite on head pan and nut plane it should still hold and not move

[Kyle22]

I used metal screws that filled the holes edge to edge and used lock tight, ever watch a friend try to pop rivet one and crack the pcb?

as long and the nylon goes edge to edge and is loc-tite on head pan and nut plane it should still hold and not move

 

That's good that the SCREW perfectly fills the HOLE, but does Loc-Tite stick to nylon?

[_The Doctor__]

blue or purple never red... nylon does a great job all on it's own so as not to loosen bu the loc-tite keeps things from sliding where the connect touches the pcb and the nut and head touch the pcb and connector...

 

loc-tite is best used for all that and is primarily used to thread lock the metal screw and nut... locking washers tend to chew stuff up or sit unevenly... I use a flat washer on the nut side to prevent damage in some cases...

Edited January 31, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[Colleton]

I hate to bring this back from the dead, but I just wanted to say thanks.  I received a power board last week with both of the plastic rivets holding the fascia on broken off.  This solves my problem, thank you!!

[+DrVenkman]

Just beware that using nylon screws and washers to hold parts will cause some people to completely lose their shit and accuse you of using substandard parts or something equally idiotic. You wouldn’t believe the uproar from two or three folks when I used them on my 1088XEL and XLD builds to support the SIO ports.