New to Astrocade - Any hope to repair?

[+intvsteve]

On 11/19/2019 at 5:35 PM, ballyalley said:

I'm pretty surprised that you don't have "AstroBASIC."

PM sent! But then, I think you know that already.

 

Watched your AstroBASIC tutorial and the input mechanism is really intriguing! It's impressive how they pulled off making program entry more efficient with that keypad. Still being new to the system -- has anyone rigged up a way to hook up a modern keyboard to have it "macro" the keypad input? Or is there simply not a reasonable way to rig up the hardware to do it?

 

The expansion port, the light pen input, built-in BASIC, cart-as-2000baud-modem... There were so many cool ideas, and I've barely begun reading up on this system!

[CatPix]

So I mentionned radiators... I'm prepping up the system for a week-end of nerd gathering and playing. No 5V fan inside, but I got a laptop cooler that should do the work as well for the time being. And constant care.

The one on the right is certainly useless. Even after running a good while it's merely warm. But heh, now that it's there, I won't remove it.

I gotta like how the chip that heat up the most is the one cramped under the dialpad, under a thick PCB, and next to transistors/power rectifiers that get hot too.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there were last minute design changes that put the chip under such unfavorable position.

 

Also, a practical item for modern TVs (I believe there is a component version available too?) but a life saver in Europe

I dunno if any more practical PSU replacement have been designed...

 

 

Edited November 29, 2019 by CatPix

[+intvsteve]

3 hours ago, CatPix said:

I gotta like how the chip that heat up the most is the one cramped under the dialpad, under a thick PCB, and next to transistors/power rectifiers that get hot too.

Did you remove the original heat sink on that chip? If so, how?  I just ended up stacking a new one on top. 

 

 

[CatPix]

Oh! On mine the thermic paste or glue was so thin and dry it popped out free when I removed the shielding. A good thing I checked that before plugging it!

It make me think it should be in the list of "things to check before plugging your Bally".

Edited November 29, 2019 by CatPix

[+intvsteve]

3 hours ago, CatPix said:

Also, a practical item for modern TVs (I believe there is a component version available too?

3 hours ago, CatPix said:

I dunno if any more practical PSU replacement have been designed...

That’s a mod that produces S-Video output, correct? Even S-Video is obsolete now on newer TVs. 
 

What is that monster power blob?  Is it a unique combination of two separate supplies?

 

It would be useful to be able to disconnect the RF and power without opening the system. Do your modifications support that?

[+intvsteve]

1 minute ago, CatPix said:

Oh! On mine the thermic paste or glue was so thin and dry it popped out free when I removed the shielding. A good thing I checked that before plugging it!

Wow you really got lucky!

[CatPix]

8 minutes ago, intvsteve said:

That’s a mod that produces S-Video output, correct? Even S-Video is obsolete now on newer TVs. 
 

What is that monster power blob?  Is it a unique combination of two separate supplies?

 

It would be useful to be able to disconnect the RF and power without opening the system. Do your modifications support that?

I have TVs and monitor for years to come if I use them sparsely.

 

(and those are just the Sony Trinitron I have)

 

It's a mod that was for sale a few years ago, I'm not sure it's still made, and it indeed provide S-Video. It's not the most common connector in Europe but it can easily be turned into composite.

Component is much rarer in Europe so S-video or composite is still better than... basically nothing as almsot no TV here can tune properly on US RF.

 

For the power supply, it is indeed, a combination of the original Astrocade power supply and a 230V to 120V transformer.

 

I agree with you, as I really dislike permanently attached cords. For now the mod doesn't allow to unplug S-Video from the system, and I haven't modified the power supply cable either.

I plan to do so in the near future.

What I would really like is to drop the original power supply entierely, but I don't really get how they get 12V and 7.5V on the same cables ?

I saw that later Astrocade power supply apparently only deliver 12 volts but I would like to know the exact wiring to mod mine and to a direct 230V to 12V power supply.

 

Edited November 29, 2019 by CatPix

[ballyalley]

On 11/29/2019 at 9:22 AM, CatPix said:

I dunno if any more practical PSU replacement have been designed...

 

On May 7, 2018, I added an article called "A Power Transformer Substitution for the Bally/Astrocade Computer System" by Michael Matte (MCM Design) to BallyAlley.com.  If your original Bally power supply fails, and you have experience in electronics, then these instructions explain how to build a substitute power transformer.

 

https://ballyalley.com/faqs/faqs.html#AstrocadePowerTransformerSubstitution

 

If anyone builds this power supply, then I'd like to hear about it.

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

21 hours ago, intvsteve said:

That’s a mod that produces S-Video output, correct? Even S-Video is obsolete now on newer TVs.

 

The S-Video output modification upgrade for the Astrocade isn't available anymore.  Here is some information about it on BallyAlley.com:

 

https://ballyalley.com/pics/hardware_pics/s-video_mod/s-video_mod.html

 

I have this s-video upgrade and on my systems it creates ghosting, so I normally don't use it.  It does create a nice clear picture on other people's systems.  My favorite part of the s-video upgrade is the separate audio-out, which has allowed me to capture some RF-interference-free sounds.  Most of those sound recordings are available here:

 

https://ballyalley.com/audio/audio.html

 

There have been some really nice pictures posted in this thread.  Great work!

 

Adam