The UAV Rev. D Video Upgrade Thread

[+x=usr(1536)]

7 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

Can you verify you've got good +5V and GND on the UAV? You can check that with the solder pads on top of the UAV near the jumper block. 

Also check them at pins 1 and 8 of the 4050.  They're on the row just above the main +5V and GND pads; the square pad is pin 1 (+5VDC) and the pad immediately to the left of the Tcol pad is pin 8 (GND).  This is where the UAV gets its power from.

 

If the main +5VDC and GND pads are getting power, you should be OK, but checking both doesn't hurt.

[Serpentor]

14 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

Well, your jumper configuration is correct (it matches mine in my UAV-equipped 600XL). Your wires are also going to the correct points in the terminal block but I didn't try to trace them to the DIN where you've soldered. I used differntly-colored wires to be 100% sure on that, but set it aside for now.

 

One thing I noticed is that in your install as compared to mine, your UAV seems to be sitting a bit offset to the bottom of your pic (to the right, as viewed with the computer in its normal working position). This may be a dumb question, but are you 100% certain you have the UAV plugged into the 4050 socket correctly and not off by one column of pins? Can you verify you've got good +5V and GND on the UAV? You can check that with the solder pads on top of the UAV near the jumper block. 

It's definitely seated correctly, and I have power on the UAV. When the machine is turned on, the tv acknowledges receiving and input and the sound sometimes has a vibrating hum type noise.

[_The Doctor__]

a hummm and video detect but no picture, verify your power supply isn't going south with AC being injected or other voltage issues

[+x=usr(1536)]

1 hour ago, _The Doctor__ said:

a hummm and video detect but no picture, verify your power supply isn't going south with AC being injected or other voltage issues

In addition to the above:

 

What happens if you desolder the monitor jack from the PCB and let it dangle while testing?  Take its GND and signals directly from the UAV, not the 600XL's PCB.  That should at least rule out the monitor jack as a potential sole cause.

 

Since composite uses chroma for colour and luma for brightness and sync, make sure that all of your SYNC and LUMx signals are making it to the 4050's socket.  From there, they should be traceable to the UAV's S, 0, 1, 2, and 3 pads on the jumper block (S=Sync, L=LUMx).

 

These days I tend to skip installing the UAV in the 4050's socket and just pull the signals it needs directly to the S / 0 / 1 / 2 / 3 and COL pads, usually from a point on a trace or a resistor close to the signal's point of origin (NOT the IC itself).  Not saying you absolutely need to revert everything, remove the pin headers and jumper block from the UAV, etc., but it is something to keep in the back of your head for the moment.

 

One thing I did notice from looking at the pictures is that the capacitors and a transistor around the UAV appear to have been nudged to make room.  This is fine, but are they still working OK?  Ditto the resistors in the general area; I know that I have a habit of crushing those in ways that aren't apparent until everything breaks on reassembly and I have to go poking around for the culprit 

[+slx]

2 hours ago, Serpentor said:

It's definitely seated correctly, and I have power on the UAV. When the machine is turned on, the tv acknowledges receiving and input and the sound sometimes has a vibrating hum type noise.

Have you checked with another computer? A hum could be a sign of a video signal entering an audio port. 

[_The Doctor__]

Verify the video cables' plugs pin-out correctly. They can be different from manufacturers. Don't take the colors or labels as verboten.

I would make sure you have a ground. You can run a ground from the UAV to the monitor jack.

I would make sure you did no damage to caps by pushing them too far during the install.

Verify no AC or ripple from psu and the DC power is in spec.

Make sure the removed Switch traces are not feeding power to the video jack or grounding it incorrectly.

 

[Serpentor]

The components around the 4050 are undisturbed. I made sure to not push on them out of fear that damage might result.  I removed the din connector from the board and tried testing it with it wired directly. Still nothing but a black screen with the faintest of vertical bars. They are barely visible and were there before I tested with the din connector removed, so no change.  The cable is pinned out correctly, and the psu runs another machine without issues. It's starting to look like a Pokey harvesting operation and move on to another 600XL.

[+DrVenkman]

24 minutes ago, Serpentor said:

It's starting to look like a Pokey harvesting operation and move on to another 600XL.

I'm sorry - this doesn't track with the rest of the post. POKEY has nothing to do with your video issue, so I'm not sure of the connection. 

[Serpentor]

4 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

I'm sorry - this doesn't track with the rest of the post. POKEY has nothing to do with your video issue, so I'm not sure of the connection. 

Sorry, what I meant was that it appears to be a problem beyond my abilities. I may need to just save the Pokey chip from the board and give up on the rest of it. At this point, I have ruined the contacts getting the din back off for testing. It's becoming a mess. Just frustration setting in.

[+x=usr(1536)]

10 minutes ago, Serpentor said:

Sorry, what I meant was that it appears to be a problem beyond my abilities. I may need to just save the Pokey chip from the board and give up on the rest of it. At this point, I have ruined the contacts getting the din back off for testing. It's becoming a mess. Just frustration setting in.

Post some photos of where things are now and walk away for a bit.

 

Totally understood re: the frustration factor.  Let it sit for a while, give folks a chance to look at the current state of things, and come back to it when you're ready 

[+Stephen]

1 hour ago, x=usr(1536) said:

Post some photos of where things are now and walk away for a bit.

 

Totally understood re: the frustration factor.  Let it sit for a while, give folks a chance to look at the current state of things, and come back to it when you're ready 

Consider sending it to somewhere on the forums for diagnosis / fixing too.  I've done some system builds that came out really great, and I've had to ship a few items out for repair that I just couldn't fix.

[wildstar87]

No idea if this is your issue, but if your TV is like the LCD I just had issues with, if your Chroma signal isn't working, it won't display anything.  Even if you are using composite, if the chroma isn't working, it won't combine in the composite signal.  My issue was two things, the LCD didn't want to display even B/W picture, if Chroma signal wasn't there in the S-video connection, even using UGV didn't work.  The second reason, was the cause of the no Chroma signal, the color adjustment pot wasn't working quite right, so wasn't putting out either the right voltage, or no voltage.  Working it back and forth, caused it to start working again, and after putting some Deoxit and working back and forth again, it's working perfectly.  Now the input to the LCD is working, but I had to plug it into another monitor (CRT) to see the problem, though the Retrotink that I literally just got, also showed the problem.  I was just using the native S-video input on the LCD before.

 

Though you say you hear some audio, but is it the standard Atari audio sounds during startup?  Also on the LCD I had, it has a speaker bar on it, but if it doesn't actually display anything, it doesn't turn on the audio either.  Also, was this machine verified working before?  Is this the same one that you were modding the PAL board? 

On 6/7/2023 at 4:02 PM, Serpentor said:

Sorry, what I meant was that it appears to be a problem beyond my abilities. I may need to just save the Pokey chip from the board and give up on the rest of it. At this point, I have ruined the contacts getting the din back off for testing. It's becoming a mess. Just frustration setting in.

 

[Serpentor]

7 hours ago, wildstar87 said:

No idea if this is your issue, but if your TV is like the LCD I just had issues with, if your Chroma signal isn't working, it won't display anything.  Even if you are using composite, if the chroma isn't working, it won't combine in the composite signal.  My issue was two things, the LCD didn't want to display even B/W picture, if Chroma signal wasn't there in the S-video connection, even using UGV didn't work.  The second reason, was the cause of the no Chroma signal, the color adjustment pot wasn't working quite right, so wasn't putting out either the right voltage, or no voltage.  Working it back and forth, caused it to start working again, and after putting some Deoxit and working back and forth again, it's working perfectly.  Now the input to the LCD is working, but I had to plug it into another monitor (CRT) to see the problem, though the Retrotink that I literally just got, also showed the problem.  I was just using the native S-video input on the LCD before.

 

Though you say you hear some audio, but is it the standard Atari audio sounds during startup?  Also on the LCD I had, it has a speaker bar on it, but if it doesn't actually display anything, it doesn't turn on the audio either.  Also, was this machine verified working before?  Is this the same one that you were modding the PAL board? 

 

It worked previously, but something happened to the CPU between the time it was last turned on and the installation of the video mod. Doing a CPU swap brings it back to life.

 

My other thread is a bit confusing since I didn't understand everything about the PAL vs NTSC boards at first. I was hoping adding the 5-din connector from a PAL board would be enough to add the feature to an NTSC board since the contacts were already there on the NTSC board, but I learned it needs to be populated with many additional components for that to work. In the end, I took a PAL 600XL's connector and put it on my NTSC board along with the UAV, then I put it in the PAL case to avoid drilling a hole. I even swapped over the serial number sticker on bottom. Everything is working great now, plus I have a spare NTSC board to pull components from if needed. It has already proven handy since I had a failing ANTIC on my working 600XL.

[_The Doctor__]

Or why not buy an ANTIC chip and have two fully working Atari units?

[Rledo]

Just resurrected by beloved 400 with a UAV.   Haven’t seen memo pad in many, many, many moons.  Totally simple to install (but hated putting a hole in the shield).  Wanted to thank Bryan if he’s still out there

[+slx]

32 minutes ago, Rledo said:

Just resurrected by beloved 400 with a UAV.   Haven’t seen memo pad in many, many, many moons.  Totally simple to install (but hated putting a hole in the shield).  Wanted to thank Bryan if he’s still out there

I removed the RF cable and routed my cable through the RF cable hole. 

[Rledo]

Same here

[FantasticDan]

Hello, 

 

I picked up a UAV to install in my 2600 and have some questions about the installation. I have a Rev13 4-switch model, without the 4050 and without the saturation boost. I can’t find any information in the provided manual regarding how to install this for my model, and after some email back and forth with the board developer, he referred me here to request assistance. I am good with soldering and I used to work in an electronics store so I know some things, but translating engineering documentation to actual steps or coming up with my own circuits I only have minimal experience with, and as I’ve already had issues getting the other ColorComp mod working so I want to make certain that I am installing this correctly. Basically, I am hesitant to try anything that aren’t explicit instructions at this point in order to avoid damaging something I’m not able to repair, but I can follow instructions and test or replace components capably.

 

So, questions:

 

On the UAV, where are the outputs and where are the inputs? The manual doesn’t say, the holes on the board aren’t labeled on the silkscreen or in the manual, and there’s only the 1 green junction block to connect wires to. On page 4 in the manual it shows the jumper settings which is fine, and on page 5 it has some red rectangles around the 2x10 header solder points and some numbers, but it doesn’t say what they mean. The DIP solder points aren’t labeled except for pin 1. What needs to be soldered where on the UAV and the main 2600 board?

 

Where should I be pulling audio from, and where does it go on the UAV (if at all)? The manual makes reference to an internal audio board by TBA on page 10, but I’m not sure what this is and I do not recall seeing this when purchasing the UAV. Is this a requirement? I do see 2 pins on the TIA chip for audio, should I just solder connections from here directly to R/L stereo RCAs, or do I bridge them both to 1 RCA (or to the 1 audio out on S-Video) for mono audio? Would I need to add a resistor or capacitor of some kind? I’d like to wire both composite and S-Video, would this be possible?

 

Would it just be better to buy a new 2600 that better matches the manual? If so, which model would be preferred?

 

I’ll attach some photos of my model’s board for reference, the TIA pinouts and the UAV board to make it easier. Mine has upside down text on the TIA chip which has been a source of confusion for me also. I apologize for the questions and if anything is redundant, but I have literally been working on this project for months and I’m starting to get frustrated and burnt out. I went through most of the pages in this thread, plus every other thread and youtube video I could find about the UAV, and didn’t see this information regarding my model. If I am able to get the UAV working, I’ll put a guide together so that this information is out there for future users.

 

Sorry for the length, but thank you for reading if you got down this far. I really am trying to learn engineering practices, but it’s difficult without someone to bounce questions off of.

 

Thanks! 

 

[Beeblebrox]

@FantasticDan just to say you have posted this in the Atari 8bit forum.

 

You'll be better to post under the 2600 forum:

 

https://forums.atariage.com/forum/16-atari-2600/

[rmzalbar]

44 minutes ago, FantasticDan said:

Hello, 

 

I picked up a UAV to install in my 2600 and have some questions about the installation. I have a Rev13 4-switch model

I did my rev 12 which is basically the same. It's been a few years, but I would be happy to open it up and show you what I did. Is yours PAL or NTSC?

[FantasticDan]

Crap. That would explain why the comments were mostly related to the 600xl and 800xl installs. I have so many tabs related to this opened I replied to the wrong one, my apologies.

[FantasticDan]

26 minutes ago, rmzalbar said:

I did my rev 12 which is basically the same. It's been a few years, but I would be happy to open it up and show you what I did. Is yours PAL or NTSC?

 

 

NTSC, I realized after I posted that I forgot to mention that but it wouldn’t let me edit until it was approved. Any information you could provide would be absolutely fantastic!

Edited October 5, 2023 by FantasticDan

[rmzalbar]

Alright, well mine's later than a rev 12 because it has no 4050, which is the important thing. I'll open it up today if I can, tomorrow if I can't.

[rmzalbar]

It's open.. and photographed. Later I'll trace it out and come back with point-to-point instructions.

 

OK I guess mine is a Rev 12, NTSC.. but no 4050.

 

Anyway:

I did all my work from the top so I could fit everything under the original shield. I notched the top side of the shield to run out the video/audio and drilled a hole in the PCB for them too. Note where I ran red and black wires to get clean power and GND for the UAV.

 

I followed the traces from the TIA pins over to the resistors on the right, and tapped them at that point. This was just for aesthetic reasons so I didn't have to solder directly to the TIA. My version of the UAV doesn't have jumpers installed, but that doesn't matter, since I'm soldering directly to where the jumpers would connect to anyway.

 

On the bottom of the PCB is just the saturation boost mod, a resistor and a capacitor, added back in at a point that doesn't interfere with the UAV. The saturation boost mod is optional and only affects RF so there's no point to installing it if you don't want it, or don't plan to use RF.

 

You can ignore the copper tape, that was to help clean up the RF output when I installed the jack for coax.

Edited October 5, 2023 by rmzalbar

[rmzalbar]

2 hours ago, FantasticDan said:

 

 

NTSC, I realized after I posted that I forgot to mention that but it wouldn’t let me edit until it was approved. Any information you could provide would be absolutely fantastic!

Question: Does your version of the UAV have jumper pins or just holes in that area?