Incognito Installation Tips/Questions

[Britishcar]

I received my very cool Incognito and have begun the installation into a fully working 48K stock 800.

 

As I am going along, I'm encountering a series of questions that I going through with trial/error but thought someone may know these answers quite easily.

 

If you've already installed an Incognito or have other advice, please share it!

 

Here's what I've done so far and some of the questions I have so far:

 

1) I'm following Sebastian's instructions at: http://spiflash.org/index.php/block/30.html

 

2) I started with the REF to unused personality board pin jump on the back of the motherboard.

QUESTION/SOLUTION: What wattage of solder iron to buy? I went with a 25W that uses a ceramic core and gets very hot -- about 1003 degrees F. Overkill?

QUESTION/SOLUTION: What AWG gauge wire to use? I went with 24AWG twisted.

QUESTION/SOLUTION: What solder to use? I went with a very thin rosin-core 60/40 tin and lead solder.

QUESTION/SOLUTION: How much solder to use? My hot iron was really globbing the solder around on the junk PCB I was using as practice. So I decided to simply "tin" the two ends of the 24AWG in a ball of hot solder, apply the hot iron to the connectors on the back of the motherboard until the 30-year-old solder began to melt and then tacked the wire end-point onto it. In other words, no "new" solder added except for the tinning on the twisted wires. I checked the connection with a multi-meter and the two points were connected with .001 resistance. So, great! I laid the wire down among the pins so that it won't have any chance of shorting against the motherboard backplane, which is paper-shielded anyway.

 

3) Then I moved onto the RNMI/Reset jump on the top of the motherboard.

SOLUTION: I used the same iron, wire, solder, tinning, tacking stuff as above. Multimeter shows .001 resistance between the two points but here is my

QUESTION 1 : With the joystick ports facing into you, this jump seems to go from the left side of resistor R184 (the bottom of the jump) to the left side of R154 (the top resistor on the jump). Is my top resistor, R154, the correct one? I've seen pictures elsewhere that fool me into thinking it's R152 -- the one just below R154. I'm 95% sure I'm right with R154 but wanted to ask.

 

4) So, I'm moving onto the next 6 connections. And here are my questions:

 

QUESTION 2: Has anyone completed this install WITHOUT replacing resistors RD4 and RD5 (blue, pin 3, RD5 and black, pin 4, RD4) and still had cartridges work? Is it ok to leave the original resistors and see if my carts work and only replace the resistors if my carts don't work? The specs mention possible replacements with 1.5 (or?) 2.2 KOhms. Has anyone used either 1.5's or 2.2's? Did one work and/or not the other? Is it not so critical that I can just flip a coin and choose one?

QUESTION 3: Why do all of the photos I find show the jumps for ANTIC HALT (yellow wire, Pin 1) and ANTIC RDY (green wire, pin 6) lying unattached? Even the YOUTUBE video shows an OS board with no yellow or green wires attached. Are these optional jumps? What do I lose by not having them?

 

Ok, only 3 questions for now. Thank you for any advice you have!

 

[candle]

q1) too late to answer this - it's 3AM here in Poland

q2) give it a go without replacing them - i'm using it like so right now, but i don't use too many cartridges, and these that i do have, works without any changes. value is not so critical

q3) you'll loose true 130xe compatibility (CompyShop mode) but there are handfull of software that actually uses this - i think there are some pictures showing where to connect them - maybe on Stephen's installation guide?

[Faicuai]

Howdy!

 

There are GREAT install references for Incognito out-there. Most of them courtesy of members, right here.

 

In my case, I wanted an install job that made "justice" to all the of work and attention to detail put behind Incognito. You may want to check my results (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/212773-incognito-install-a-collectors-perspective/?do=findComment&comment=2762116) as another source of detailed (and illustrated) info., even if you just want to triple-check your install job.

 

Overall, there is very LITTLE soldering/solder needed, takes about 2-3 secs. per solder-point, and it is best to use a precision or temp-controlled Soldering Station (mine appears in one of the pictures). I was able to solder @ 325-330C without any damage. You NEED to solder fast, so your jumper/wires-jacket does not melt along at the tips.

 

Enjoy!

[Britishcar]

Terrific! I actually hadn't stumbled across your great tutorial post before stumbling around in the dark a bit. I'll see if I can duplicate your outcome. Thank you!

 

And thank you, Candle!