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Atari Sears Pong repair help


ianoid

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I got this interesting Sears Pong that has some mod switches- more on that later when I desolder the shield on the bottom of the motherboard, which is where the switches go. This came from a former Atari employee, but who knows who Did the mod or why. 

 

The unit does not power up. Regardless of the cause (was going to start by replacing the 470uf 10v cap which is bulging), I need to replace or at least remove and clean this corroded power receptacle. How does it come off? Does the outer part unscrew? Might be tough when it’s so corroded. And is there a replacement part for that? Current or old stock?

 

Thanks!!

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I've borrowed from your image.  The circle marks a boundary.  The inside is the chassis socket and outside is the retaining nut.  The whole part seems to have corroded and some oil may assist in getting the outer retaining nut to undo.

 

As for the switches I'm interested, having just today got one to accept power, I'd like to know what else it can do.  I understand Super Pong may allow speed control and additional players but as for regular Pong, I'd be impressed if it can do more.

Power jack.JPG

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  • 2 months later...

To resurrect an old topic, the 3 in 1 oil helped me get that retaining nut loose and the power barrel is now sitting in vinegar with the nut to try to remove some of the corrosion. Thanks @Voxel In the end, I may be searching for a part to replace it. Any suggestions on something available? Or even a part name like ‘1/8” bipolar power barrel’ or whatever it would be called on Digikey or similar.

 

Once I finished cleaning up that power barrel, I’ll be trying to reassemble this Pong unit, not sure what my success rate will be. 

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Before you clean it up and hook it up, you can connect the bare wires from the console to the power connector of your adapter or put the jack connector across the "BATT" connector pins, on the main board with the word facing you, as per the image left is (+) and right is (-).  You'll angle the jack about 45 degrees to touch both pins at the same time (you'll apply a bit of pressure).  You should hear the console come to life (or attempt to, if you've not added enough pressure).  This way when you do hook the connector up to power you'll know if it needs replacing.  Also as the power connector is internal, you may just want to buy one with a similar sized nut and just replace the nut if that's the only part that needs changing from a cosmetic point of view.

 

I've added another image for a chassis mount replacement, which is not to be confused with a similar type (that screws from the inside).  This one has the nut from the top and you'll solder the connectors before mounting it.

BATT-Pins.JPG

Chassis Socket.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Super helpful. I did manage to get it all back together. This unit required:

decorrosion of the power barrel and battery pack

epoxy repair of the screw posts

a little reforming of the post screws which were bent

 

It worked when tested with batteries, so I put it back together. 

 

The extra switches on the front created the pictured variants, from Super Pong, at least catch and Super Pong. I didn't want to deal with desoldering the shield, which would presumably reveal the Super Pong chip installed in this regular Pong unit. 

 

The unit did supposedly come from someone that worked at Atari. For someone to bother modding one of these, rather than just playing Video Olympics, you'd think it would have still been a valued commodity, as in the late 70s. 

 

Thanks again for the help with rehabbing this unit. 

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