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DjGhumba

Atari 400 48k upgrade

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Hi guys a few weeks ago I decided that I have to upgrade my Atari 400 from 16k ram to 48k so I ordered a a kit from eBay so my problem is I did everything following the instructions checking every soldering point double checking for any short so everything looks perfect according to the instructions after assembly everything back I proceeded to turn on as a result I got a black screen and nothing happened so I decided communicated with the seller to see if i miss something after a good and friendly conversation he decide generously sent me a new kit just in case I fry any of the chips when I seldered do to overheat finally the new kit arrived and I proceeded to start over all the process this time taking care of the heat ,after done I assembled everything back, turn on the Atari and the results still the same. I’m doing this mod on a worked 16k board so doing some troubleshooting I have a spare 16k board when a hook my spare board everything works fine on the Atari but not on the modded one I have some pictures of what I did for reference so please I need your help to see if I can resolve my problem. Thanks....

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Can't help I'm afraid though curious if you had seen/considered the 48K/52K board before opting got the upgrade? I have one in a 400 and it's great.

Edited by Wrathchild

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Wrathchild do you think that I can get that board in 2019? I did some research over the internet and it’s looks like that is not on the market anymore..

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I recall 400 48K upgrades require at least 1 wire from the memory board to be soldered to the motherboard. Was that a step in your instructions?

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3 hours ago, DjGhumba said:

Nezgar I’m using the Gary A. Crowell instructions on the photos that I post in this topic are all soldered cables.

Ah K. I haven't installed that upgrade and I'm really not familiar with it, but I compared your motherboard wiring to the diagram in the Gary A. Crowell PDF, but it appears to match... The instructions also mention cutting 4 traces on the back side of the 16K board which you do not show in your pictures, maybe you could add a photo of that?

 

Other than that, someone else with more experience with this one will have to review...

 

Edit: Oops, yes, missed the top photo is there, and does indeed show the back side of the 16K board...

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7 minutes ago, Nezgar said:

Ah K. I haven't installed that upgrade and I'm really not familiar with it, but I compared your motherboard wiring to the diagram in the Gary A. Crowell PDF, but it appears to match... The instructions also mention cutting 4 traces on the back side of the 16K board which you do not show in your pictures, maybe you could add a photo of that?

 

Other than that, someone else with more experience with this one will have to review...

The top image in post #3 is the solder side of the RAM PCB, there are what appear to be 4 cut traces near the card edge contacts.

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here is the wiring mod for tf_hh's 48k upgrade.

its a little less complicated :)

 

 

400 ram mod.jpg

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13 hours ago, xrbrevin said:

here is the wiring mod for tf_hh's 48k upgrade.

its a little less complicated :)

 

 

400 ram mod.jpg

That is some TIGHT wiring work!  Very nice job.  :)

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42 minutes ago, SS said:

That is some TIGHT wiring work!  Very nice job.  :)

Solid core wire and measured very precisely. I’d tack down that bottom right corner with a bit of hot glue or something myself, but with the bottom RF shield installed, that wire is very likely not going to move anyway.

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12 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

Solid core wire

indeed it is, i think i will glue the corner down if i ever need to open it up again. it does look a bit wayward in the pic..

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Hey guys today I fix my problem I try the claus b method and now everything works perfect no black screen and finally got 48k of ram, I hook my SDrive max and all games runs well...

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I followed Gary Crowell instructions and cant get mine to work either...

To me than an issue with T3 connection as seems not to connect to pin 11 of the Z503 chip ...as in his final mod diagram.

As these instructions are quite old now...I suspect im at fault..and not the diagram    .....

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On 9/14/2019 at 7:53 AM, xrbrevin said:

here is the wiring mod for tf_hh's 48k upgrade.

its a little less complicated :)

 

 

400 ram mod.jpg

Nice clean install there !  🙂

 

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