7800fan

I got Radio Shack 64-053 digital soldering iron many years ago. It was on sale for something like $50 (original $80) and I had a $30 off coupon (long story) so it was $20 + tax in the end. It is a rebranded soldering iron (variation of Hakko 60w IIRC) and tips and replacement wand or heater core are still available from many sources. Heats up fast, pretty close to accurate temp setting so I can safely use on SMD at lower temp, regular parts at higher temp, or go all the way to 450'C if I need to burn something.

I think TIA is the only chip not used at all in 7800 mode? Can you open it up and check/reseat all the ICs? Some IC in my 7800 were socketed and after about 30 years a few likely creeped out a bit, just enough that it'd still work cold but fail when it warms up.

So I can call dib on Imagic 2600 games and release a single 2600 cart containing all 19 known games plus menu to select them?

Any reason to keep transparent color? The controller cables out the side would clue in there's a controller hiding inside. Just make it black to match the rest of the console.

v1.2 board finally showed up so I put it together:

Did you make sure the 7800 adapter was plugged in and the AC outlet is on if it's switched? Also a couple of 7800 I've had, they had problem with power switch button not working. Those button gets worn out and may need to be replaced.

Weak battery? Also some plug n play devices were made years ago when CRT TV were still common, I found some doesn't play nice on LCD TV that is more finicky about quality composite video signal.

Yes the website looks like it was done with original HTML 1.0 back in late 90s but I've always gotten what I wanted quickly. I only had a minor hiccup, a missing part in the last order. Apparently it got overlooked and misplaced during packing stage. They found it and sent it to me. Google search your desired keyword and add this: site:www.best-electronics-ca.com A few games for less than eBay price, 2 fully restored 5200 controller (standard not gold edition), 1 new 5200 cart slot, some stuff for Lynx and so on.

Yes and safe with controller that draws power like Hot Stuff joystick with built in rapid fire. Plugging and unplugging risk blowing CIA but the switcher allows me to switch port without unplugging.

Lag would cause Lynx to hang. Short cable and no data buffering, plus the fact Lynx will just hang if the cable was unplugged makes me thing slow connection would also hang Lynx. Since Lynx cable can be chained serially for multiple players, hypothetically can someone come up with something like a MMO style game with 40 or 50 players linked together? The first one to unplug buys pizza for everyone!

Er... Laser printers are 2D only, they print onto paper. You meant to say 3D printer? No laser, just heated element and plastic string.

Or one of the pin in your cart slot is just slightly out of alignment. If you have bright flashlight, see if you can look into the cart slot. Anything look funny? I typed the next part before you posted getting it to work sometimes but I'll leave it anyway. Unfortunately Lynx games have come sealed and DOA. I had a new Hard Drivin' from Electronic Boutique. I never got anything on my Lynx. Took it back with my Lynx, the guy there checked it out. He got another Hard Drivin' and tried it, it booted fine. When he tried the first one again, nothing. I went home with Hard Drivin' #2 and no further problem since then. Also I bought a MISB Shanghai off eBay long ago. It was also DOA. Seller told me to throw that out and he sent me another one. This was way back when you could still get lots of common MISB games for under $5 shipped.

Always wanted one but no place to put it. The closest I'd ever have to a huge store kiosk is my SNES display with original Zenith monitor that says Super NES on the front. Needs recapping though.

Or JiffyDOS. You will need a specific ROM chip for the C64 and each disk drive but it's plug and forget and don't need to remove it if the game used custom fastloader code that often causes problem with turbo loading carts. Shit design is why they kill C64 when it fails. A decent power supply breaks circuit and prevents anything from going down the line when something fails. C64 power supply has no such protection so when something fails, 9v unregulated AC or worse, 115v AC gets pumped to the C64. Worse yet, most of the bricks are permanently sealed so you can't hack it to make modification like adding crowbar circuit or something. CBM saved maybe 5 cents per PSU not including any safety design within the PSU but it's us that gets the shaft since CBM is no longer around and no new C64 system is made or new SID, CIA, and VIC chip is made. ROM chips can be replaced, PLA can be replaced, RAM can be replaced, and CPU as well. Other chips aren't cloned so no suitable replacement exists other than from donor C64s and 128s

Update on the Game Gear find, it finally booted up but no sound and the display is very hard to see. Time to recap I guess. I'll probably start removing all the old caps later tonight before it can get any worse and clean the board.

Didn't expect to find Atari Conversational anywhere at all. It seems complete with 5 cassettes plus one fake cassette plate (binder holds 6) and a book inside the binder. No Atari computer to test with so it's up for grabs. The binder has spine damage about 2" from top coming off. Game Gear came with Sonic 2. Put batteries in, LED lights up and the screen shows life, and contrast dial changes the black screen's blackness but no game shows up so either it's got dirty cart slot or something. I am about 100 miles away from home atm so I don't have access to other games to check with. Speedpad N52 seems to work but keys seems a little crappy like it needs serious cleaning. Not sure what to do yet but it was only 2 dollars. Keypad in HID mode (no Belkin driver) acts like the left half of the keyboard plus cursor key (directional pad) and space. 3 colored LED lights up on plugging it in but I think the function is only via official driver.

1: There is a small variation among C64s that there's no real best C64. They all have nearly identical parts (SID changes in later models), all have virtually same troubleshooting guide, and all. The white C64C has better PLA that is less likely to fail. But any C64 will do. 2: C64 does not support VGA. They can only do RF to old analog TV (sorry, later digital TV that has ATSC tuner only will not work), composite, or S-Video. S-Video is not quite to proper spec but CBM made it before S-Video standard was set, a simple resistor addition usually works. If you must get VGA, you will need composite to VGA adapter 3: Most games sold in North America are on disk format, you can safely skip tape drive. Many games released for PAL model in Europe are for tape drive though. 4: SD2IEC are available cheap as replacement disk drives that uses SD card. However it doesn't have full 1541 emulation, some games will not work right. Ultimate 1541 and UK1541 are fully compatible but they are over $100. I don't know of a must have list, Lemon64 may be a better place. I do however have a word of caution: don't use the stock C64 power supply. When it goes bad, it won't shut down. It will dump unsafe voltage into C64 and fry them. Get C64 Saver or a custom made C64 power supply replacement.

If you have a working 2600, swap the 3 chips and see if 2600 boots up. If not, one of the chip has gone bad. If it does boot up, you got a problem elsewhere.

https://atariage.com/5200/archives/schematics/Schematic_5200_RFSwitch_Low.html (note this is 4 port version, 95% same with 2 port version) May need to trace the power. Check the power switch IC 4013 which should be near the switch button. Pin 7 and 14 should be showing around 11-12V DC. If not, the problem is between the power in jack the the IC including a few resistors and couple transistors. Shorted transistor or burned resistor would prevent power from getting through. If you are getting power at the IC, check pin 1 and 2 of the 7805 regulator (both of them), If there's no power, and you are getting "HIGH" signal from pin 13 of 4013 IC, one of the transistor isn't turning on or in one of the regulator, a dirty cart slot not making contact between 2 pins. If the 4013 is stuck LOW, either 4013 is bad or the switch is not working at all. If you are getting power all the way to both 7805 regulators, check that you are getting 5v out on pin 3. If it's 0, replace the regulator. If it's 5v, pray you don't have a dead CPU or other big important chip.

1571 boots in 1541 mode by default when connected to C64, or when C128 boots directly to C64 mode via C= key on power on. Did you know you can switch it back to 1571 mode to use the 2 sided feature? I also seems to remember a weird software trick that makes 1571 behave like a dual 1541 by reading both sides separately, but that'd require the disk spindle to spin the opposite direction when it reads "B" side. I have a pair of 1571 (one built in) with my 128D and I won't trade for anything. In 128 mode it actually loads faster thanks to the burst rate that CBM implemented. C64 originally was going to have burst mode but a couple "oops" along the way made 1541 even slower on C64 than on Vic-20

The switch are probably for drive ID number. Commodore disk drive are shipped factory set to 8 and with the exception of 1541-II no easy way to change it other than to open the drive and hope you cut the right jumper. Many skilled people added switches so they could change ID anytime.

It may be easier to tell people if they played Lynx emulator on their PC with LCD monitor, it will look like that but with real Lynx hardware.

Never happen. Microvision had a weird design, they put the CPU on the cartridge rather than on the main unit, and the game ROM were stored and locked inside the CPU. AFAIK no one can dump it, you would have to physically cut the CPU off to expose the chip inside and use a good microscope to find and read the ROM area and hand-assemble 1k or 2k of data to make ROM file. That's 8,000 or 16,000 single bits to read and transfer. It may be easier to replace the main unit with a new one that has safe power circuit that actually shuts off all power, not just a few pins, and have a new LCD with something like FPGA to convert Microvision video signal to modern LCD. The original main unit had standard pot, standard battery, and standard pizeo speaker, only the LCD and the LCD driver chip would need to be swapped out.

^^ this. Standard gameport had 2 sets of analog and 4 button inputs. Standard PC controller were one set of analog lines and 2 buttons so a Y adapter was needed for 2 players game or skip Y adapter for one player only game. Later PC controller took advantage of often unused second player port to have 4 button controller, or even more using player 2 analog lines. USB made this obsolete. One player per port, add in USB hubs for more players. One PC could have around 200 USB controllers at once. The Y adapter won't work with 5200 and it is likely not fully wired on all pins so it's probably no good for future hack or mod. If you don't want it, offer it for free on FS section (person pays shipping), someone might want one for old school setup.

Currently exclusive to 5200 and A800 version but here's the map: https://atariage.com/5200/archives/strategy_pitfall2_level2_map.html?SystemID=5200 On those console to access the second level, you needed to finish the first level rescuing 2 and finding diamond ring. Aside from snake charmer, rope, basket, fish, and ants it's pretty much all the same graphics. One room triggers a clue, you need to find other items while avoiding the usual hazards (plus the bat goes bat-crazy) and escape by climbing the rope. Can 2600 Pitfall II be hacked to have second level, either separately or built in like 5200 version?