Starglider01 Posted October 13, 2020 Author Share Posted October 13, 2020 Private draft of the resulting video. Thanks for your help guys! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChildOfCv Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 Duuuude! I think that California girl liked you! One suggestion, especially for removing surface mount stuff without tearing pads: Get solder braid. It's good for sponging up excess solder. Also, a hot air station makes removing stuff like that easier. Yet another option is to use a special low-temp solder, such as sold under the name "Chip Quik". You mix that in with the solder that's there, and it weakens the solder bonds until you can just pull the whole thing up with a well-placed soldering iron strike. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 Okay, while I know that the game ESB has some issues with not following proper scan line counts, it should NOT be flickering like it is with each shot in your video on a CRT like that. So something else still seems a bit amiss in that video signal causing some sort of drop out is my guess? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starglider01 Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 16 minutes ago, -^CrossBow^- said: Okay, while I know that the game ESB has some issues with not following proper scan line counts, it should NOT be flickering like it is with each shot in your video on a CRT like that. So something else still seems a bit amiss in that video signal causing some sort of drop out is my guess? Well, I've seen other reports of that exact thing online and they suggest the 4050 chip or the caps by the joystick port. I replaced one cap on each side with the static mod as you saw. Not sure I'm up for replacing all the other ceramic caps just yet lol... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChildOfCv Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 6 minutes ago, Starglider01 said: Well, I've seen other reports of that exact thing online and they suggest the 4050 chip or the caps by the joystick port. I replaced one cap on each side with the static mod as you saw. Not sure I'm up for replacing all the other ceramic caps just yet lol... I guess if you think you're done with the video, you could send the Atari itself to CB for a final run-through and repairs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starglider01 Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 CB? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevEng Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 It may be worth trying out another TV for this specific issue. ESB only puts out 2 lines of vsync signal instead of the recommended 3. Some displays will be more sensitive to that than others. Easy thing to try, anyway. BTW, I absolutely love the channel. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 31 minutes ago, Starglider01 said: Well, I've seen other reports of that exact thing online and they suggest the 4050 chip or the caps by the joystick port. I replaced one cap on each side with the static mod as you saw. Not sure I'm up for replacing all the other ceramic caps just yet lol... Fire up 2600 Moon Patrol if you have it. The Title screen on that game has issues with modern displays so I would be curious if it looks okay on your restored H6. But yeah very odd to see that extreme video drop out just from firing your shots. More interesting is that it didn't seem to do it as much at the end of the vid when you and Ladyfractic are both playing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starglider01 Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 Fire up 2600 Moon Patrol if you have it. The Title screen on that game has issues with modern displays so I would be curious if it looks okay on your restored H6. But yeah very odd to see that extreme video drop out just from firing your shots. More interesting is that it didn't seem to do it as much at the end of the vid when you and Ladyfractic are both playing. I don't think I have that one. towards the end of the video I realized we could hold down fire. it is the very act of the fire button joystick signal traveling to the computer (or from it if it's bringing it to ground) that causes it. Holding down fire stops it. Perhaps a momentary voltage dropout or increase. But I have a new voltage regulator on there. for some reason it doesn't bother me so much. at first I thought it was a clever effect by the game to add more drama! At the very worst it is charming to me, keeping in mind that this is nearly five decades old... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 9 minutes ago, Starglider01 said: for some reason it doesn't bother me so much. at first I thought it was a clever effect by the game to add more drama! At the very worst it is charming to me, keeping in mind that this is nearly five decades old... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It is quite a dramatic effect that is for sure! But isn't the intended effect. I wonder if Star Master would do something similar as there is quite a bit of firing off your lasers in that game to take out enemies as well. I have heard of composite mods like this in the past causing noise or static like effects to appear on the screen whenever the player presses the fire button, but as I don't get requests for 2600 work, it isn't something I've looked into personally. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starglider01 Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 Well it doesn't seem to happen on other games like Donkey Kong so I'm guessing it's to do with that scanline technique ESB uses that was alluded to above, in combination with the composite mod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChildOfCv Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, Starglider01 said: towards the end of the video I realized we could hold down fire. it is the very act of the fire button joystick signal traveling to the computer (or from it if it's bringing it to ground) that causes it. Holding down fire stops it. Perhaps a momentary voltage dropout or increase. But I have a new voltage regulator on there. That's interesting. The Quadtari was having similar issues, though in its case there was more complex stuff going on due to the multiplexing of 2 joysticks on the same port. It does seem to indicate that there is a defect in power handling, especially on the side that's supposed to power the video output components. But it is far more pronounced on this one. C101, C102, L102, and C105 on the switch board are part of the power smoothing circuit for video. 3 hours ago, Starglider01 said: CB? CrossBow. Edited October 14, 2020 by ChildOfCv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starglider01 Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 Good news is it doesn't happen at all on the big screen which is the VCS's final home. Updated video incoming!Ferrite cores also make an appearance, solving the interference. I am [emoji817]% done! [emoji3060] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted October 14, 2020 Share Posted October 14, 2020 I was going to suggest the use of a ferrite core to wrap your output wires on and I've even got a few on hand but never really had a need to use them as yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starglider01 Posted October 14, 2020 Author Share Posted October 14, 2020 Video updated with the final results!: Timestamps of updates: 16:18 - Trying ferrite cores for the interference 24:48 - Addressed and resolved screen flickering when pressing fire! Thanks again everyone! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davyK Posted October 21, 2020 Share Posted October 21, 2020 (edited) Can be a real rabbit hole this. My modded 2600 had no colour on a few TVs I tried. Got a new CRT - worked with it but I was getting banding. Tried it on another - no banding - or at least very little. I'm running it through a Sony VCR now on the TV that had banding and that has almost eliminated it too. Edited October 21, 2020 by davyK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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