Mantzy Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Hi everyone, New to the forum and the Atari 800XL. I recently (yesterday) managed to get my hands on this machine with disk drive and a bunch of games (both cartridge and disks), and the touch tablet from Freecycle. Not bad really but alas my joyful evening of playing Space Invaders has been ruined by a lack of power. Not in the house, thankfully, but with the machine. Now I have an issue. Is it likely to be the power supply that came with it or the 800XL itself. How am I to tell? Is there an easy way to tell? Does anyone live near me with a working power supply that is happy to let me come check my machine - or does someone have a spare supply that they don't need?! I don't really want to go and buy a replacement PSU if the machine is a brick anyway understandably. My current PSU is the CO61763 if that helps any. I flick the switch and nothing happens. Changed the fuse and nothing. Don't know what to do now. Hoping to get other systems along the way (Would love a Lynx, Jaguar and 2600) so this is my first foray into Atari systems - though I used to play a 2600 quite a lot as a kid So is there anyone in the Kent, Sussex, Surrey, London (UK BTW) area that could help me out? Cheers R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox-1 / mnx Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 Depending on your skills, you can use a non-Atari power supply too if it has the right specs. Output should be a DC stabilized 5 Volt @ at least 1 Ampere. Note that the 1 Ampere is more or less the absolute minimum. It wouldn't hurt to use something bigger, like 2 Ampere. More than that is overkill but will also do. A non-Atari power supply likely has another connector but you can use your the cable from your old one to make it fit. Just be sure of what you're doing or ask someone in your neighbourhood. http://atari.mixinc.net/pinouts/powerxle.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 You may want to open up the 800XL and take a look inside. There may be missing parts or some such thing. Usually when you power on, you get some sort of 'pop' from the speaker and a color flash, at least. If it is absolutely dead, you may have missing ICs. You will need a meter to check for 5v on the motherboard. How do you have the display hooked up? TV - video cable? Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russg Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 You may want to open up the 800XL and take a look inside. There may be missing parts or some such thing. Usually when you power on, you get some sort of 'pop' from the speaker and a color flash, at least. If it is absolutely dead, you may have missing ICs. You will need a meter to check for 5v on the motherboard. How do you have the display hooked up? TV - video cable? Bob I was about to post that the OP could use a VOM meter to read the pin on his power brick. I looked up the pins in the comp.sys.atari.8bit FAQ. I can't get any reading on any of the pins. I use a house ground and test each pin. I also touch the outer metal of the plug for a ground. I get no 5v. No anything. I've heard of 'switching' power supplies, which, I guess require a load on the volt source to read a voltage. Bob1200xl says to test points on the motherboard for voltage. I was hoping to test the ps without having to open the computer up. Why can't I read from the ps pins? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 You may want to open up the 800XL and take a look inside. There may be missing parts or some such thing. Usually when you power on, you get some sort of 'pop' from the speaker and a color flash, at least. If it is absolutely dead, you may have missing ICs. You will need a meter to check for 5v on the motherboard. How do you have the display hooked up? TV - video cable? Bob I was about to post that the OP could use a VOM meter to read the pin on his power brick. I looked up the pins in the comp.sys.atari.8bit FAQ. I can't get any reading on any of the pins. I use a house ground and test each pin. I also touch the outer metal of the plug for a ground. I get no 5v. No anything. I've heard of 'switching' power supplies, which, I guess require a load on the volt source to read a voltage. Bob1200xl says to test points on the motherboard for voltage. I was hoping to test the ps without having to open the computer up. Why can't I read from the ps pins? On the 7 pin DIN connector used for the XL/XE power supply pins 1/4/6 are +5V, pins 3/5/7 are ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russg Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 You may want to open up the 800XL and take a look inside. There may be missing parts or some such thing. Usually when you power on, you get some sort of 'pop' from the speaker and a color flash, at least. If it is absolutely dead, you may have missing ICs. You will need a meter to check for 5v on the motherboard. How do you have the display hooked up? TV - video cable? Bob I was about to post that the OP could use a VOM meter to read the pin on his power brick. I looked up the pins in the comp.sys.atari.8bit FAQ. I can't get any reading on any of the pins. I use a house ground and test each pin. I also touch the outer metal of the plug for a ground. I get no 5v. No anything. I've heard of 'switching' power supplies, which, I guess require a load on the volt source to read a voltage. Bob1200xl says to test points on the motherboard for voltage. I was hoping to test the ps without having to open the computer up. Why can't I read from the ps pins? On the 7 pin DIN connector used for the XL/XE power supply pins 1/4/6 are +5V, pins 3/5/7 are ground. Maybe that's my problem. I am not using one of the connector pins for a ground. I am very carful touching one of the pins, all of them, one at a time. I don't want to short a pin and blow the ps, so I don't try to touch two pins in the connector. I know my ps is good, it runs a computer fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 well, can the OP tell us if the LED comes on? I am in the UK, if he can't get anyone local to have a look, he can send it to me for testing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 I don't think measuring at the plug is a good idea... it's too easy to short pins while you're probing or count the pins wrong. I usually measure from the motherboard and back up from there. Of course, I have a lot of motherboards lying around. Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russg Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 (edited) I don't think measuring at the plug is a good idea... it's too easy to short pins while you're probing or count the pins wrong. I usually measure from the motherboard and back up from there. Of course, I have a lot of motherboards lying around. Bob Yes, not a good idea, poking around in the plug with a VOM probe. The answer is is the red LED on? I never thought of that. If the LED is on, there's power, if it isn't there isn't. I replaced a dead LED. It is a small LED, but it is red. For a new person, opening up a 800XL is a little daunting, especially getting the shielding off. It seems like we get going on a topic and the OP disappears. Edited June 23, 2012 by russg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantzy Posted June 23, 2012 Author Share Posted June 23, 2012 (edited) Cheers for the replies, Will look through my random collection of old PSUs over the weekend to see if I can find a 5v 1-2A supply, but I think I'm lacking one that fits that description. Bit more info, no the LED doesn't come on, and I now believe the PSU might be working (it gets warmer) thus it might be the machine - it was sitting in a loft for 25 years after all! Will take it apart and clean connections first to see if it makes a difference. Will be good to find an adapter that works as is, as I really don't want to butcher a decent supply for something else. I've got it hooked up via RF but as I'm getting no LED, and no power running through it, there's nothing happening (no pops or whistles or any signs of life unfortunately). I've a voltmeter but as you can probably tell, I'm kinda new to this. Edit: OP won't disappear even if you go offtopic. I'm happy soldering, and have added language and Hz switches to my Megadrive but that's about the limit of my PCB manipulation so far. Edited June 23, 2012 by Mantzy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 I don't think measuring at the plug is a good idea... it's too easy to short pins while you're probing or count the pins wrong. I usually measure from the motherboard and back up from there. Of course, I have a lot of motherboards lying around. Bob I find it relatively easy to probe the voltages on an XL/XE power supply, as long as the probes aren't too large in diameter. With my method it is important to verify that the outer metal shield isn't connected to ground, or if it is make certain that it is the ground pins that are being connected to the shield when probing. I hold the DIN plug and a probe with a connection between the outside of 2 pins on 1 side and the metal shield,(black circle in image) a little pressure between the 2 pins and the shield makes for a good connection with little chance of slipping. I then probe the inside of 2 pins on the opposite side(red circle in image), since I am putting pressure away from the first probe there is little chance of shorting anything. In the image below, which shows where I am probing, I have reversed the pin numbers from my earlier post since this is the correct layout when looking into the male DIN. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 I don't think measuring at the plug is a good idea... it's too easy to short pins while you're probing or count the pins wrong. I usually measure from the motherboard and back up from there. Of course, I have a lot of motherboards lying around. Bob I find it relatively easy to probe the voltages on an XL/XE power supply. With my method it is important to verify that the outer metal shield isn't connected to ground, or if it is make certain that it is the ground pins that are being connected to the shield when probing. I hold the DIN plug and a probe in 1 hand with a connection between the outside of 2 pins on 1 side and the metal shield,(black circle in image) a little pressure between the 2 pins and the shield makes for a good connection with little chance of slipping. I then probe the inside of 2 pins on the opposite side(red circle in image), since I am putting pressure away from the first probe there is little chance of shorting anything. In the image I have reversed the pin numbers from my earlier post since this is the correct layout when looking into the male DIN. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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