Heavy Sixer Serial Number Thread

[Bomberman94]

On 1/12/2023 at 9:00 AM, alex_79 said:

Consoles from UK output on channel UHF 36 and use the "PAL-I" standard.

Mainland Europe mostly used "PAL-G" standard for UHF (and "PAL-B" for VHF, which is the one used by consoles sold there).

 

What happens in practice is that you can tune the signal on channel UHF 36 and the console from UK will display the image just fine, but without audio (because it uses a different audio carrier frequency).

 

Anyway there's an easy solution: tune the audio inductor to adjust the frequency so that it matches the "PAL-G" standard.

 

 

 

Great instruction and explanation! One additional question: does this work for a UK heavy sixer as well as for a light 6-switch UK Atari?

Edited February 23, 2023 by Bomberman94

[alex_79]

On 2/23/2023 at 7:56 PM, Bomberman94 said:

One additional question: does this work for a UK heavy sixer as well as for a light 6-switch UK Atari?

It's the same for any 2600 variant from UK, including 4-switch and Junior ones.

[+DrVenkman]

Time to bring this thread back from hibernation …

 

First Atari-related purchase on eBay in a good while: a pretty clean Heavy Sixer, but a bit of a rarity in that it’s a Heavy made in Taiwan. I’m looking forward to getting it open and taking a peek inside.

 

 

[atari-dna]

@DrVenkman I have a Taiwan heavy as well, when yours arrives if you want to compare the innards let me know and I'll post pics as well. 

[+DrVenkman]

44 minutes ago, atari-dna said:

@DrVenkman I have a Taiwan heavy as well, when yours arrives if you want to compare the innards let me know and I'll post pics as well. 

I’ve got it open - despite being advertised as “works perfectly” it’s DOA. 6507, TIA and RIOT work fine in other systems so I pulled out my oscilloscope. There’s no OSC signal into pin 11 of TIA. I replaced the two 2N3906 transistors in the clock circuit but that made no difference. I have a replacement crystal on the way. 

Anyway, it’s an odd mix - black silkscreen on the main board, but the improved Light Sixer style switchboard (heatsink and VR flush with the board) and sturdier ribbon cable. The CPU is an actual MOS-made chip from late ‘77. The other two main chips and 4050 have early ‘78 date codes. Sockets are really weird blue solid plastic block things that are probably a real bitch to remove. Overall soldering is kind of sloppy and the back of the board is positively Sinclair-esque with basically none of the leads trimmed! I can post some pics later. 

[atari-dna]

Cool, thanks for sharing.  I'm interested to compare and contrast them as I suspect that the Taiwan units are all hodgepodge of whatever parts existed in inventory (and were quickly slapped together) when manufacturing was shifted to Asia.  

 

Those blue blocks might be insertion aids

 

Might check the regulator for A/C ripple, if excessive that could be the culprit for a dead unit.  Additionally, the filter caps on the switchboard C103 and C106 on the input may have ripple or just "age" disease.

 

Output caps may have shorts to ground (or other concerns, leaky or ripple-y, etc) check these as well:

 

C101, 102 (<-switchboard), 105, 200, 204, 205, 214, 219, 239, 240

 

This will keep you busy while you wait for the crystal to arrive

Edited May 30, 2023 by atari-dna

[+DrVenkman]

3 hours ago, atari-dna said:

Cool, thanks for sharing.  I'm interested to compare and contrast them as I suspect that the Taiwan units are all hodgepodge of whatever parts existed in inventory (and were quickly slapped together) when manufacturing was shifted to Asia.  

 

Those blue blocks might be insertion aids

 

Might check the regulator for A/C ripple, if excessive that could be the culprit for a dead unit.  Additionally, the filter caps on the switchboard C103 and C106 on the input may have ripple or just "age" disease.

 

Output caps may have shorts to ground (or other concerns, leaky or ripple-y, etc) check these as well:

 

C101, 102 (<-switchboard), 105, 200, 204, 205, 214, 219, 239, 240

 

This will keep you busy while you wait for the crystal to arrive

Not my first hardware rodeo.   No shorts, power is rock-solid and stable everywhere I care to measure. The clock circuit is simply dead, likely due mechanical or thermal shock during the intervening decades.

 

Here's what it looked like when I first opened it up:

 

After the dust and schmutz was cleared out, and the RF shield removed, here's what I saw. Note the poor quality wave soldering for the empty ROM pads between TIA and the 6507:

 

Here's what those sockets look like:

 

Finally, on the back of the board, look at these untrimmed leads. Positively Sinclair-esque with this level of fit and finish.

 

 

Anyway, the new crystal will be here in a couple days. If it arrives by Thursday I'll go ahead and install it. I will shocked if that doesn't bring it back to life but we'll see. If it doesn't arrive until Friday or later, it'll be next week. We're going out of town for a long weekend trip so it'll have to wait.

 

[atari-dna]

Mine is similar, including the peculiar blue sockets.  Interesting observation, in each of these systems the audio oscillation transistor is germanium.  

 

 

Edited May 31, 2023 by atari-dna

[+DrVenkman]

2 hours ago, atari-dna said:

 

Yours was born on my 10th birthday.  

Mine is from late June ‘78. I do note they apparently improved the quality of the wave soldering in the intervening several weeks. Do you have a bunch of untrimmed leads on the back like mine or did they get that straightened out, too? 

[atari-dna]

On 5/31/2023 at 1:42 PM, DrVenkman said:

Yours was born on my 10th birthday.  

Mine is from late June ‘78. I do note they apparently improved the quality of the wave soldering in the intervening several weeks. Do you have a bunch of untrimmed leads on the back like mine or did they get that straightened out, too? 

 

Neat, I would have been age 4 in late June of '78.  My bday is the 18th.

 

The leads were pretty long if I remember correctly, I had been in the unit once before and trimmed them all down, apparently changed C106 and the voltage regulator as well.  

 

Mine is working, hope you get your clock issue sorted out.

[GamerGeek61]

Hey guys. I recently came across an Atari cx-2600 heavy sixer. The serial number is making me confused because I have not been able to find one that’s formatted like this one is and it’s a very low number. 
The serials numbers that are low that I’ve seen all start with “000” but this one is just “5713”. Under the manufacturer sticker is also the number “300” stamped in large numbers. This heavy sixer also does not have the channel select switch which I read some of the first ones that came out did not have this switch. Is the really low serial number rare? I opened the case and it looks extremely clean and untouched inside, had a little piece of paper tapped to the rf shield. It didn’t have a date on it like your guys do above.
 

[atari-dna]

You're correct about the channel switch, the earliest units did not have them.  Your tag is interesting, it looks like a silver sticker which has been placed over the standard issue white paper one (it's peeking out on the right hand side). Regardless, a four digit number looks pretty low!

 

The embossed "300" is unique.  Pretty cool.  Haven't seen that before.  

 

Open it up and let's see inside :0)

[GamerGeek61]

I noticed the sticker looked weird to, I just figured the original sticker shifted slightly and left behind glue residue. I just tried peeking under the silver sticker but it’s just going to fall apart so I’m gonna leave it alone. I opened her up and found 1977 on the motherboard inbetween the ribbon cable and cartridge holder. From there I tried to just mimic the pics you guys took so you could get a cool comparison. Keep in mind to I have no idea if this thing even fires up. 

[+DrVenkman]

I picked up another Heavy Sixer today, this one a fairly early Sunnyvale-built machine. 

It has the earliest 6507 I've ever personally run across (around late May/early Jun '77). The silkscreen/paint on the RIOT has flaked away, which I've never seen before, but the machine works and has clearly never been opened (little piles of metal dust fell out of each hole when I removed the self-tapping machine screws to open it up). 

 

The date code on the TIA puts it at week 42 of 1977, and the code taped to the top of the RF shield appears to say "77307" - I've not seen a code like this but if it means "1977, day 307", that would more or less line up with the TIA date code. Dunno for sure though.

 

The numerical manufacturing code you usually see on the RF shield in later units was instead taped to the underside of the PCB:

 

The seller's pics showed the machine working but with a very staticky picture. As soon as I unpacked it, the cause became apparent:

Other than removing a 46 year old rubber grommet from the case, swapping the RF cable was an easy fix. Voila:

 

[+scorpio_ny]

I also just acquired a Heavy Sixer with the box that was made in Taiwan. It was in really nice condition too. Here is the serial number and pics:

 

    

 

[socrates63]

Today, I had the opportunity to meet Joe Decuir and asked him to sign my two heavy sixers (and Atari 800 and Video Olympics). I was pretty stoked and humbled to meet one of the people who created the Atari products that motivated a kid more than 40 years ago to get into the tech industry.

 

[RogueCase]

S/N 81151684

[Gina Brown]

How about serial number 0053846

[stobal]

I just picked up a heavy sixer with an odd serial number sticker.  My unit appears to be double-stickered, but not with the usual silver secondary sticker.  Instead, it has an SC-450 (Atari Stunt Cycle) sticker placed on top.  Opening the case everything appears to be in order for a standard heavy-sixer (although I am no expert on exact changes to the internals between revisions).  I'm hesitant to try and remove the top label for fear of ripping them both.

 

I've seen one earlier post about an SC 450 label on a CX-2600 - but that one appears to have been a single-sticker.

 

Anyways, if the master list ever gets updated again, feel free to add mine in with the SC-450 label caveat.

 

Atari/NTSC

Serial # 80241E

Sunnyvale

No A/B Channel Slot

No A/B Channel Switch

 

 

 

[surgepan1]

hi every one ive been looking for a heavy sixer for a long time and finally got one and i love it and i hope the s/n from this unit will help out this institutions alumni also i will not be recaping this unit... because of this unit works perfectly

crisp image .   im happy to have found this unit and will take care of  it for long time    Surgepan1

[shawnmcvic]

Here’s mine

 

[socrates63]

On 9/23/2020 at 2:36 PM, socrates63 said:

Today, I picked up my very first heavy sixer from its original owner. It was bundled with a bunch of cartridges and several controllers.

 

SN: 95654M

 

 

This guy was re-homed today. It was a display piece for me, so I traded it for another display piece (Lego Atari 2600). I still have the heavy sixer that I acquired from Pink Gorilla.

 

[Atariboy2600]

Here's my so far - 

 

S.N. 87466J

Sunnyvale, CA.

No channel switch on the bottom.

Chess peace on the box cover.

 

[superchooch]

55470F

[jonreddick]

On 9/21/2005 at 2:05 PM, Wester said:

If you haven't read my other post i wanted to get a list going on 6'ers serial numbers to see who here has the oldest. I found out that it was going to be a little more difficult than that, seeing how nobody really knows what the suffix letter represents or what letters were used. So it was suggested that it might still be a decent idea if for no other reason than just to see what suffixes were used.

 

Just post what the # on your 6'er is and any other pertinent info (i.e. Sears or Atari console, Taiwan made or anything other info you think would be useful). I will try to update daily and rearrange according to company and suffix letter.

 

I will start the list in my second post with my own two that i currently have.

I just re-acquired a Sears Tele-Games heavy sixer like the one I had as a youngster.

 

Sears Tele-Games SN 64774R

 

You can see a video I just released about it here: