Sears Heavy Sixer Composite Mod Help

[Paul Westphal]

Of course, nothing is ever as easy as the instructions. As you can see in the pic, my switchboard only has three holes off the RF, while the instructions show five. I hate to just assume that I put in the wires ( black, red, blue ) in that order off the side of the board? There are three unused holes surrounding the 4.7 cap. Any help with this is appreciated.

[thecrypticodor]

1 gnd

2 +5V

3 Video

 

 

There's no channel switch on the heavy sixer and the RF jack is on the modulator itself that's why there's two less pins.

 

[Keatah]

I'm just cringing and hiding under my desk after reading the instructions. I cried inside when the instructions said to cut off the modulator board! WTF? That connector could and should be de-soldered and gently wiggled out of position instead of permanently crippling and destroying the modulator..

 

"I usually break off the small circuit board attached to the RF modulator and throw it out, but if you want you can bend the pins up out of the way and leave the small circuit board attached."

 

"Now you need to remove a resistor (R213) along the bottom of the main board. You can just cut it off at both ends."

 

"In the middle of the board on the right hand side is a transistor (Q202). you need to remove the transistor by cutting all 3 leads with the wire cutters."

 

"Unscrew the 6 screws there and throw away the bottom part of the metal casing."

 

I have a serious problem with damaging things beyond repair or the ability to revert back. These instructions are telling you to butcher and mutilate hardware that's already classic and becoming more difficult to find. To make matters worse they tell you to throw away the removed parts. You're even removing RF shielding. And to top it off there is no mention of static electricity and grounding. No wonder people often have trouble with making mods work right. It's these half-assed incorrect instructions at fault.

 

Was equal carelessness applied when designing the mod circuit itself?

 

The proper way to conduct a modification like this would be to desolder the parts needing to be removed and storing them in an anti-static bag taped to the inside of the console. And working in such a way that it could be, if so desired, restored 100%.

 

I'd never ever drill holes like that in the console plastic either. I'd just feed a flat ribbon cable out through the seams. Feed it into a tiny project box big enough to house just the RCA jacks and glue in place with Silicone II. Sure it'd be more delicate, but it can be replaced as many times as needed. You can't un-drill the holes.

 

The same thing could be done for that bottom RF shield. You got a drill handy? Why not just make a small notch in the cover to give room to feed the wires through? Or, better, use a thin ribbon cable and feed it through the seam between the metal plates. And don't forget a strip of Kapton tape for extra insulation and durability where the ribbon goes through the seam.

 

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The VCS' technology is exactly the same technology as what goes into the Apple II. And Apple has several pages on static electricity risks and damages. The manuals teach you to discharge yourself by touching the power supply and all that.

 

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No wonder people have trouble with mods. The instructions are teaching you how to do low-quality hackjobs with zero regard for proper engineering or rework techniques. They aren't professionally installed either. How can they be with shit instructions that don't even get the hookups right or cover all versions?

[Keatah]

1 gnd

2 +5V

3 Video

 

So which holes get which color wire?

[tschak909]

At this point, fellas, just get a 2600RGB, much easier to install, and INFINITELY BETTER

 

-Thom

[Keatah]

I wouldn't say it's easier to install. There's way more steps.

 

But it is nice they feed the wires through the RF shielding. And they suggest desoldering as opposed to cutting and breaking things. That's a plus in my book.

[thecrypticodor]

 

So which holes get which color wire?

I’ve never used this mod kit so I have no ideal what each color represents or even if they’re are soldered into the correct vias. It should be printed on the PCB what wire is for what. The vias for the modulator go from left to right so the leftmost is ground the center is +5V and right is for video.

Edited August 2, 2016 by thecrypticodor

[Paul Westphal]

Thanks Keatah. I got it. There is a little ghosting on the video, but I will touch up the solder points.

[student]

Just to clarify for future use: 

 

Gnd = the pin closest to the modulator

5v = the middle pin

Video = the remaining pin

 

Get the audio directly from the TIA pins 12 and/or 13 or from other direct solder point (just use a tester to find the most suitable one for you).

 

Remove Q202 and R213 for better video result. This mod was also tested on a PAL crt using an NTSC-> PAL chinese video converter.