Fixing on old non-booting Lynx

[+karri]

I had one Lynx II with a degrading Suzy.

 

So I decided to replace the chip. Due to lazyness I never bothered to find out where this chip is so I accidentally removed Mikey instead. Unfortunately I lost the Mikey chip somewhere. Fortunately I had one broken motherboard that had lost most of it parts already. But after soldering the new parts in place I found out that this replacement Mikey was broken.

 

I tried to order new chips from ALi Express. But ended up getting just one "wrong" chip instead of what I ordered.

 

Next stop Best Electronics.

 

 

Once I got the new chips from Best Electronics I noticed that there was no sound in the Lynx either. A closer examination showed that the PCB was so corroded that the wires close to the edge of the PCB were not conducting anymore. (The schematics were also wrong. Chips had been connected in a different way from the original Lynx II).

 

After this small excercise I added a BennVenn LCD as a cherry on the top of the cake.

 

 

So now my White Lynx has a stylish Original Lynx companion.

[damaci]

Hi Karri,

 

great work. Also my Lynx is waiting for new Chips, which I ordered from a chinese seller.

Your sectence that you received wrong chip makes me afraid now...

In worst case I have to order again from Best Electronics.

Also waiting for ram.

Board already cleaned up and recapped.

When it turns out working (hopefully) it will get a McWill.

[+karri]

It would be nice to have some kind of parts inventory at AtariAge in the price range "postage + moderate price". I have all kind of parts gathering dust. Others may gave similar garbage boxes.

 

Typically old sceeens after LCD mods should be easy to find locally.

 

Perhaps a database with fields like:

location

console

description of part

tested yes/no

price giftware/swapware/paypal

 

Shipping stuff locally avoids customs and keeps the cost at a reasonable level.

 

Would this idea work?

[damaci]

I agree.

Would be nice to have something like that.

Especially some Lynx parts are hard to find in Europe.

 

But unfortunately, since I`m quite new to Lynx, I don`t have any spare parts yet (but maybe soon a Lynx 2 Display).

Edited June 8, 2020 by damaci

[shred]

Is there still demand for Lynx parts?  When the Atari office in Texas closed down almost 30 years ago, they threw piles of stuff in the trash.  I found a box from that era in the garage today...  Lynx chassis parts, reflectors, the odd screen, some mobos, etc.  Figured I'd dump it in the electronics recycling bin, but if people still want that stuff I'll fish it back out.

[Fadest]

There is still some need for replacement parts from time to time.

 

Where are you now, still in Texas ?

you should check with some local Atari Age members.

[shred]

21 minutes ago, Fadest said:

There is still some need for replacement parts from time to time.

 

Where are you now, still in Texas ?

you should check with some local Atari Age members.

Yeah.  I worked at that Atari R&D office for a few years.  I'm near Austin now.  I probably have other parts and pieces around as well but haven't run across them yet.  They threw out a whole lot of stuff.

 

 

Edited June 17, 2020 by shred

[Makara]

14 hours ago, shred said:

Is there still demand for Lynx parts?  When the Atari office in Texas closed down almost 30 years ago, they threw piles of stuff in the trash.  I found a box from that era in the garage today...  Lynx chassis parts, reflectors, the odd screen, some mobos, etc.  Figured I'd dump it in the electronics recycling bin, but if people still want that stuff I'll fish it back out.

If you have any Lynx II screens I would gladly buy one from you. My original screen seems to be on it's way out.

[Fadest]

@KevinMos3

Interested ?

[damaci]

Cool stuff yo have there.

If you are willing to sell a Lynx 2 PCB let me know, still searching for replacement chips (orders from China are stuck for weeks and I doubt to get what I expect)

[KevinMos3]

@shred  PM'd.  Looks like an interesting pile.  I definitely think I could put it to use.

[Fadest]

3 hours ago, shred said:

Yeah.  I worked at that Atari R&D office for a few years.

 

Did you work on console or computers while at Atari R&D ?

 

From my european ST user in the 80s/90s point of view, Atari R&D worked on so many exciting things for the ST line (E-ST, TT/Unix, Transputers, Sparrow, Microbox...) but only few finally hit the market

Edited June 17, 2020 by Fadest

[shred]

41 minutes ago, Fadest said:

Did you work on console or computers while at Atari R&D ?

 

From my european ST user in the 80s/90s point of view, Atari R&D worked on so many exciting things for the ST line (E-ST, TT/Unix, Transputers, Sparrow, Microbox...) but only few finally hit the market

Yeah, it was fun (and frustrating as it ended).  I mostly worked on the computers, just a little console work-- STe/Mega, TT, Unix, Sparrow (became Falcon030), Falcon040 (RIP).  I didn't do much with Lynx but big printouts of chip layouts were on the walls of the office.  The Mikey one was interesting because of the 6502 taking up a quarter of the ASIC.  There was lots of cool Atari history around, although the California office had tons more.  Leonard Tramiel had a fascinating collection of history.

 

Some good stories from those days, many of which I still can't publish

 

 

Edited June 17, 2020 by shred

[Fadest]

So you are the one who had my dream job when I was student

[shred]

On 6/17/2020 at 7:40 PM, Fadest said:

So you are the one who had my dream job when I was student

My first job out of Uni   Had a lot of fun, learned a lot, met some interesting people, went to some interesting places.

 

Little story: At one Atari engineering office in an unlikely corner of the world, they gathered a few experts from around the world to help on a project under development there.   The border entry guard asked me "Why are you here?" I replied "I'm the second-best in the world at what I do". The guard "And what are you doing here?"  "Meeting with the best" 

 

By Monday KevinMos3 should have a box with most of the parts in it and he's agreed to pass on the karma (plus shipping) for anything he doesn't need.

 

Edited June 20, 2020 by shred

[haightc]

Very interesting....   I have a stack over motherboards I need to go through that I need to test the Mikey & Suzy on,  I was planning on using the failed ones for decapping as part of a chip replacement project.

I was wondering if anyone had any additional information on the lynx tv dock other than the adverts back in the day, like how far a long it was a details of second processor?

[shred]

I have a dim memory of the TV dock being discussed back in those days, but nothing else beyond that.  Not something I ever worked on.

 

 

[KevinMos3]

The box of stuff arrived today.  It'll be a while before I thoroughly go through all of it with testing, but there are quite a few things in here that look like will be of good use.  I hope to revive a few broken Lynxes and once that's done, there may be some whatnots that others could still use.  I'll post a list once I'm done, but like I said, that will probably be a while -- maybe later in the fall.  And like Shred said, any parts that someone needs will just be the cost of shipping.

 

One of the things I really liked was 2 pages of a Development Overview.  This is probably available elsewhere, but I figured I'd post here for anyone else who finds it fun to read:

@shred Do you know what was on page 1, like a cover page or something?

 

There was also a LCD test cart that is probably available around the web, but I didn't see it in my quick search.  There's a Lynx II Production test cart that is widely available.  If anyone wants the LCD test ROM, let me know.  It doesn't seem to work correctly in Handy, but shows a title screen with 4 patterns on a real Lynx.

 

The Atari fanatic in me has really found an appreciation for some dead Blue Lightnings and a California Games.  The Blue Lightnings have been cut right at the top of the label (so there's no curved lip left), and even though they are dead, I really like the idea of having some Atari history.  The complete Blue Lightning cart seen in the pile-of-stuff pic must have escaped being packed.  @shred Do you know what SPIL Sample means?

 

  

On 6/17/2020 at 10:47 AM, Makara said:

If you have any Lynx II screens I would gladly buy one from you. My original screen seems to be on it's way out.

It looks like there are some lamps about 3 or so and maybe 1 screen.  I don't know if it works or if it'll be a spare yet.  If you're able to wait, I'll keep you in mind when I get to it.  If you need something soon, I don't recommend waiting on me. 

Edited June 20, 2020 by KevinMos3

[+karri]

The risk in publishing lists of available spare parts is that it could be misused by a grifter who just wants to collect rare components to make money of them. On the other hand people who do service for Lynx units are short of spare parts.

 

I have about a dozen of new power sockets for the Lynx. This is a part that will definitely go bad in time. So I guess there is tons of Lynxes out there that need one.

[Makara]

On 6/20/2020 at 11:04 PM, KevinMos3 said:

 

It looks like there are some lamps about 3 or so and maybe 1 screen.  I don't know if it works or if it'll be a spare yet.  If you're able to wait, I'll keep you in mind when I get to it.  If you need something soon, I don't recommend waiting on me. 

Thanks for the offer, I did manage to bag one from shred. This will be for my original Lynx II which I bought in 1992, the screen is developing some faint banding. I want it to stay original and how I remember it, so hopefully it can be saved!

[KevinMos3]

10 hours ago, karri said:

The risk in publishing lists of available spare parts is that it could be misused by a grifter who just wants to collect rare components to make money of them...

Ugh.  I didn't think of that, but you're probably right.  There are always some people looking to take advantage of anything, even if there's less than a dollar to make off of it.

 

2 hours ago, Makara said:

Thanks for the offer, I did manage to bag one from shred. This will be for my original Lynx II which I bought in 1992, the screen is developing some faint banding. I want it to stay original and how I remember it, so hopefully it can be saved!

Good deal.  I'm glad to hear you got what you needed.  :-D

[battleman13]

It's a thought I've had go through my mind a number of times.

As a young kid in the early 90's I was fascinated by the Lynx. I couldn't afford one, but my grandfather had two of them (one of each model). I enjoyed playing them for many years, but the DC power jack got damaged as they often did / do. So, now in my 30's and having some decent soldering ability and knowledge in the field (cut my teeth repairing pinball machines and other video game consoles). I have a bunch of lynx units, only one working.... waiting for repair. As of now, 2 of the lynx 2 units and 2 of the lynx 1 units as well as 3 spare motherboards.

I ordered a 5 pack of cap kits and power rebuild circuits from console 5. Now not only do I realize it's not enough to potenitally refurb everything I currently have, but at some point 10 or 15 or 20 years in the future... I'll likely need to do these repairs again. Guess I'll need a few more cap kits / power rebuild kits and beyond that a spare kit for each lynx I keep so that in 20 years I'll have the parts I need.

[Nop90]

You don't need to change the capacitors every 15 years. They will last more than the CPU.

 

Electrolitic capacitirs produced in the last years of the 90's were faulty, modern ones are better.

Edited August 11, 2020 by Nop90

[hexcor]

Hi Karri,

   What was your rational for replacing the Mikey? I have a first gen Lynx that powers on with a grey screen but  no sound/video. The larger chip under the cart gets very hot (i'm guessing this is the Lynx 1 Mikey...), i'm guessing that chip is bad based on the temperature (it gets SUPER hot). I've not done a thing with it in a few months because I have a working Lynx 2, but your post has raised my interest that I might be able to repair this one

[+karri]

6 hours ago, hexcor said:

Hi Karri,

   What was your rational for replacing the Mikey? I have a first gen Lynx that powers on with a grey screen but  no sound/video. The larger chip under the cart gets very hot (i'm guessing this is the Lynx 1 Mikey...), i'm guessing that chip is bad based on the temperature (it gets SUPER hot). I've not done a thing with it in a few months because I have a working Lynx 2, but your post has raised my interest that I might be able to repair this one

The reason for changing Mickey was not so bright.

 

My Lynx started to show garbled graphics so I decided to replace Suzy. I de-soldered Mikey from a non-functioning Lynx and soldered it in the Lynx I tried to repair. After I realized my mistake I orderd new chips and replaced all.