Atari 800 Compatible Power Supply?

[VinsCool]

Hey guys, I just got this Atari 800 today, but I never thought about the power supply would be different from the one I have with my 800xl machines.

any replacement suggestion would be welcome, so I could test it for a bit

[+ZuluGula]

You will need 9V AC (alternate current) ~30VA (3 amp) heavy transformer type power supply, not the modern pulse supplies that are usually DC only. The same power supply was used for 1050 drive.

[+bob1200xl]

You need one of these.

 

Bob

 

[VinsCool]

Ah so if I can find something at home that could fit, as long as the specs are the same, it might work fine with it?

Thanks for the quick answers, I appreciate

[Sugarland]

Congrats on your new 800! They clean up very nicely. Dawn dish soap and a spongy dish scrubber works well on the case, once disassembled. Be careful 800 cases are all brittle and sometimes so brittle that merely disassembling it will break off the screw posts. To fully clean one here, unscrewing the the keyboard from the top half of the case, the posts cracked and gluing it back didn't work (they way I did it).

[Peri Noid]

16 hours ago, VinsCool said:

any replacement suggestion would be welcome, so I could test it for a bit

The PSU is nothing but a plain transformer. So you can look for a one and build a PSU yourself (that's what I did). By the way, you dont need all the 30VA for it, my machine works fine with 20VA one.

You can also look for PSUs for... guitar effects. It should be pretty easy to find one with the specs of 9VAC 2.1A. I got such after a short search.

Edited September 30, 2021 by Peri Noid

[VinsCool]

14 hours ago, Sugarland said:

Congrats on your new 800! They clean up very nicely. Dawn dish soap and a spongy dish scrubber works well on the case, once disassembled. Be careful 800 cases are all brittle and sometimes so brittle that merely disassembling it will break off the screw posts. To fully clean one here, unscrewing the the keyboard from the top half of the case, the posts cracked and gluing it back didn't work (they way I did it).

Indeed, it was a breeze to disassemble, clean inside, and re-assemble!

The machine is in really good condition honestly, I doubt it wouldn't work with a proper power supply.

i will scrub the exterior properly another time, but it's still 95% perfect in its current shape.

Will know what else is left once I could test it

9 hours ago, Peri Noid said:

The PSU is nothing but a plain transformer. So you can look for a one and build a PSU yourself (that's what I did). By the way, you dont need all the 30VA for it, my machine works fine with 20VA one.

You can also look for PSUs for... guitar effects. It should be pretty easy to find one with the specs of 9VAC 2.1A. I got such after a short search.

Thanks! I will look for a power supply with compatible specs online and order something later today, turns out I had nothing at home so the home made solution won't work for me right now lol

Edited September 30, 2021 by VinsCool

[VinsCool]

Man what the hell are the EBAY prices.
Everything that outputs AC either have insane shipping costs ($75) or come from China (waiting 3 months...)

 

Anyway I think I found one that matches what @Peri Noid mentioned earlier.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/272982737905

Is this good for my Atari 800? I kinda worry about killing my machine with incompatible stuff.

 

[Sugarland]

I think so. Try this calculator for wattage.  Unsure about the quality of that brand PSU.

[Faicuai]

58 minutes ago, VinsCool said:

Everything that outputs AC either have insane shipping costs ($75) or come from China

A friends' advice:

 

1. Unless you have a really solid purchase-experience, consider NOT buying or fully minimizing purchases from anything made in China.
2. For your great-looking 800, consider following (wise) advice on post #3. It also echoes my experience. Get that unit shown there (NOT the 18w version), and it will also be guaranteed to be fuse-protected.

 

Get it from eBay [USA, CANADA or UK/EU if correct voltage and plug) and save yourself any present or future headaches.

 

That 800 is special. ;-)

[BillC]

RP Electronics carries one that should be good(9VAC @ 3.3A and according to the label has Underwriters Laboratories certification for the US and Canada), I believe the output connector is the wrong size but that is easy to replace. RP Electronics is a small BC electronics company that has been in business for over 50 years, I first dealt with them nearly 40 years ago.

https://www.rpelectronics.com/rp-093aa3-ac-ac-adapter-9vac-3300ma.html

Edited October 1, 2021 by BillC

[VinsCool]

Thanks for the helpful advices guys!

I'll look again tomorrow to make sure to get the proper power supply for my machine  

[Peri Noid]

I think, this will do just fine.

[VinsCool]

Update: it's aliiiive!

 

The keyboard doesn't seem to work currently, but the control keys are fine.

 

Seems like I am unable to turn it on with the cartridges door open, and I can't seem to fit my avg cart inside of it yet so i will test it a bit further later.

[andymanone]

14 minutes ago, VinsCool said:

Seems like I am unable to turn it on with the cartridges door open, and I can't seem to fit my avg cart inside of it yet so i will test it a bit further later.

Thats an security function, if you open the Cart Door it powers automatically off.

 

Btw:

Your keyboard issue: if NO key works, so first check the Multiplexer (2x MC14051).
If they are okay, so I´m afraid you have to fix the keyboard mylar e.g. with lead silver (check @flashjazzcat YT channel)

 

Cheers & good luck,
andY

 

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by andymanone

[VinsCool]

5 minutes ago, andymanone said:

Thats an security function, if you open the Cart Door it powers automatically off.

 

Haha yeah I found out a bit later, I'm dumb!

 

5 minutes ago, andymanone said:

Btw:

Your keyboard issue: if NO key works, so first check the Multiplexer (2x MC14051).
If they are okay, so I´m afraid you have to fix the keyboard mylar e.g. with lead silver (check @flashjazzcat YT channel)

 

Cheers & good luck,
andY

So far I don't see any key that works.

But to be fair, I did not yet disassemble the keyboard, nor cleaned it either, so I will most likely have some luck later

Thanks for the tips!

 

[edit] oh yeah and the beeper speaker works too!

Edited October 10, 2021 by VinsCool

[+x=usr(1536)]

19 minutes ago, VinsCool said:

Seems like I am unable to turn it on with the cartridges door open, and I can't seem to fit my avg cart inside of it yet so i will test it a bit further later.

As mentioned previously, the cartridge door has a power interlock.  Look along the edge of the case around the perimeter of the cartridge slots; you should see it on the right-hand side.

 

For the oversized cartridges: allow me to suggest @Dropcheck's 1200XL cartridge port extender. I'm using one with both my 1200XL and 400 and it works great.

[andymanone]

11 minutes ago, VinsCool said:

So far I don't see any key that works.

But to be fair, I did not yet disassemble the keyboard, nor cleaned it either, so I will most likely have some luck later

Just a little hint:
If you disassemble your 800: The multiplexers are located here on the mainboard (see pic attached):

 

Good luck and if you have any further question, so let me know i´ll try - if possible - to answer it..

 

Cheers,
andY

 

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by andymanone
Typo

[Faicuai]

41 minutes ago, VinsCool said:

Seems like I am unable to turn it on with the cartridges door open, and I can't seem to fit my avg cart inside of it

AVG cart does NOT come with the correct left/right indents to slide properly on the 800's cart-port (nor, I suspect, any other similar-size port).

 

You can, however, improve the indents with minor effort (thanks to the rather soft composition of the cart's case), as shown here. You WILL NOT need anything else after that, since I regularly use it on my 040-0077 and Incognito 800s (click on "Faicuai replied to a topic" caption, directly):

 

 

As for operting the system with the cart-door open (with ZERO modifications of any kind whatsoever), take a look:

 

 

Cheers!

 

[VinsCool]

7 minutes ago, Faicuai said:

AVG cart does NOT come with the correct left/right indents to slide properly on the 800's cart-port (nor, I suspect, any other similar-size port).

 

ooohh... so now that explains why it took me so much efforts to try sliding it in, and did not seem to get fully inserted ?

I wish I knew before lol

Thanks for the tip, that will help me there!

[Peri Noid]

Get rid of its case. Simple

[VinsCool]

Ok so I don't yet have a functional keyboard, but image and sound definitely works, and so does all the RAM it looks like, since I had been using memory locations such as $8000 and $B000 in my code, and it works perfectly there

 

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by VinsCool

[andymanone]

18 minutes ago, Peri Noid said:

Get rid of its case. Simple

It´s really simple,

just take a look at one of my 800´s ??.

 

and to bypass the Cart door security you can put a Screwdriver in the hole or put a piece of duct tape on the switch on the mainboard ?

 

Of course: only at your own risk ?

 

Cheers,

andY

 

 

[Sugarland]

Congrats on it working!! Good to see. Is the keyboard plugged in? It's easy to forget when reassembling.   Otherwise The 4051 chips as previously mentioned are possibly bad, or POKEY has failed.  To narrow down the culprit, swap these from the 800 into a known working machine.

Edited October 10, 2021 by Sugarland

[VinsCool]

29 minutes ago, Sugarland said:

Congrats on it working!! Good to see.

Thanks!

I'm pretty sure I had it plugged in... but that will have to be checked anyway  

30 minutes ago, Sugarland said:

Otherwise The 4051 chips as previously mentioned are possibly bad, or POKEY has failed.

I'm pretty sure the POKEY is not the problem here, it works really damn well  

I've some test recordings from my shaky phone camera coming hahaha

30 minutes ago, Sugarland said:

To narrow down the culprit, swap these from the 800 into a known working machine.

Of course!