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Why my harmony cartride randomly fails to run on my atari 2600 jr???


johannesmutlu

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I bought a harmony cartride and at first it worked right out of the box on my atari 2600 jr,BUT recently i do get many times a black screen,may ask why???

i tryed other games and they just working fine most of the time,

i blowed into bothe the cartride and the harmony cart and it seems to work but then that issue happens again,i used alcohol to clean the harmony cart and it seemed to fixed that issue but after several times using it,that issue just happens again,

toggling the power button on and off rappidly seems to do trick as well but again it doesn’t always help and am afraid that this could harm the power regulator in the long run,

my theory why my atari 2600 jr seems to have random troubles of running the harmony cartide is,

1,may the harmony cartride requires a higher amp/voltage then regular games,

2,the capacitors inside my atari 2600 jr may slowly dying to deliver that extra amp/voltage for my harmony cart to run as a potential result of this,

3,the power regulator might be dryed out to the point to not be probably able to deliver that extra amp/voltage for that harmony cart,

4,it might be a combination of both,

btw that power button feels loose at making proper contact of powering the console but even after opening the consoles i found no sign that the power button is out of place,but the power button just feels sensitive to make loose connection at powering the console am mean i can switch that power button for some weird reason into 3 positions on,off and in between,

BTW why is it that if i put that harmony cart into my other atari 2600 jr that it just works straightly right out of the box everytime i pop it in??

maybe those capacitors and/or the power regulator inside my atari 2600 jr are indeed dying from only delivering half that amp/voltage to power that harmony cart while still be able to powering those regular games, and if that’s the case

how about a potential revision of a harmony cart with smaller nm chipsets sothat it also can run on half that amp/voltage to also run properly on atari 2600 systems with sloooowly dying capacitors & power regulators wich could only deliver half the power?

sure i know that replacing those capacitors and power regulators might be always an option BUT i don’t have the skills for it but more importantly i don’t wanna deal with brittle plastic,

 

FF76E1B6-335F-477D-91B8-3D00E11EDAEC.jpeg

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On 7/20/2022 at 5:55 AM, johannesmutlu said:

i blowed into bothe the cartride and the harmony cart and it seems to work but then that issue happens again

Yeah, this is not a fix.  More:

On 7/20/2022 at 5:55 AM, johannesmutlu said:

i used alcohol to clean the harmony cart and it seemed to fixed that issue but after several times using it,that issue just happens again

The Harmony cartridge is likely not the culprit.  Try this: get an old credit card and an old T-shirt.  Take the credit card and push its narrow side against the T-shirt so that the T-shirt folds over it once:

 

IMG_0667.thumb.jpg.f94d1c6b664cb684c2a3055a7743946e.jpg

 

Now soak the narrow edge in alcohol and use it to clean out the cartridge port.  See what happens.

 

You should probably also hit the cartridge port with Deoxit, but there's also the possibility that the pins inside of it may need to be re-bent in order to fully make contact.

On 7/20/2022 at 5:55 AM, johannesmutlu said:

1,may the harmony cartride requires a higher amp/voltage then regular games,

2,the capacitors inside my atari 2600 jr may slowly dying to deliver that extra amp/voltage for my harmony cart to run as a potential result of this,

3,the power regulator might be dryed out to the point to not be probably able to deliver that extra amp/voltage for that harmony cart,

4,it might be a combination of both,

As for no. 1, you do want a good, fully-functional power supply, definitely.  Regarding nos. 2-4, they're entirely possible.  But clean / adjust the cartridge port first and see where things stand after that.

On 7/20/2022 at 5:55 AM, johannesmutlu said:

btw that power button feels loose at making proper contact of powering the console but even after opening the consoles i found no sign that the power button is out of place,but the power button just feels sensitive to make loose connection at powering the console am mean i can switch that power button for some weird reason into 3 positions on,off and in between,

That may be normal wear and tear.  Definitely keep a note of it, but for now don't replace it.  Not saying it isn't a problem or shouldn't be replaced, but let's go through the basics before pointing the finger at it.

On 7/20/2022 at 5:55 AM, johannesmutlu said:

BTW why is it that if i put that harmony cart into my other atari 2600 jr that it just works straightly right out of the box everytime i pop it in??

Short answer: because different machines are in different conditions.  My SIDE3 cartridge works 100% of the time in my 600XL and 1200XL, but I have to sort of wiggle it around to the magic angle to get it to work in my 800XL.  One day I'll take a look at why that is.

Quote

maybe those capacitors and/or the power regulator inside my atari 2600 jr are indeed dying from only delivering half that amp/voltage to power that harmony cart while still be able to powering those regular games

Remember: this is an assumption.  Possible, yes, but not known at this time to be an actual problem.  Be careful about jumping to conclusions.  Trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist may lead to other problems in the process of doing so.

On 7/20/2022 at 5:55 AM, johannesmutlu said:

and if that’s the case

how about a potential revision of a harmony cart with smaller nm chipsets sothat it also can run on half that amp/voltage to also run properly on atari 2600 systems with sloooowly dying capacitors & power regulators wich could only deliver half the power?

How about people fix their systems to make them fully-working again?  It's not reasonable to ask for changes like this (which, despite what you may believe, are very significant) when your machine is the outlier - and particularly so when we're dealing with 40-plus-year-old hardware in a lot of cases.  The creator of the Harmony cartridge can't anticipate every problem a machine in the field is likely to have, and cannot guarantee that the change you're proposing would even work around those issues.

 

My Harmony Encore cartridge works just fine in a 7800, Long Rainbow 2600Jr., Short Rainbow 2600Jr., and a Heavy Sixer.  All three are using stock, original power supplies.  The design of the cartridge is not the problem.

On 7/20/2022 at 5:55 AM, johannesmutlu said:

sure i know that replacing those capacitors and power regulators might be always an option BUT i don’t have the skills for it but more importantly i don’t wanna deal with brittle plastic,

Then I would suggest finding someone who is comfortable with doing so and getting their opinion on how to proceed.  If opening the machine up and checking voltages with a multimeter isn't somethng you think you should be undertaking, there's not much help anyone else will be able to give you.  Nobody can properly diagnose it without getting inside of it.

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

Yeah, this is not a fix.  More:

The Harmony cartridge is likely not the culprit.  Try this: get an old credit card and an old T-shirt.  Take the credit card and push its narrow side against the T-shirt so that the T-shirt folds over it once:

 

IMG_0667.thumb.jpg.f94d1c6b664cb684c2a3055a7743946e.jpg

 

Now soak the narrow edge in alcohol and use it to clean out the cartridge port.  See what happens.

 

You should probably also hit the cartridge port with Deoxit, but there's also the possibility that the pins inside of it may need to be re-bent in order to fully make contact.

As for no. 1, you do want a good, fully-functional power supply, definitely.  Regarding nos. 2-4, they're entirely possible.  But clean / adjust the cartridge port first and see where things stand after that.

That may be normal wear and tear.  Definitely keep a note of it, but for now don't replace it.  Not saying it isn't a problem or shouldn't be replaced, but let's go through the basics before pointing the finger at it.

Short answer: because different machines are in different conditions.  My SIDE3 cartridge works 100% of the time in my 600XL and 1200XL, but I have to sort of wiggle it around to the magic angle to get it to work in my 800XL.  One day I'll take a look at why that is.

Remember: this is an assumption.  Possible, yes, but not known at this time to be an actual problem.  Be careful about jumping to conclusions.  Trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist may lead to other problems in the process of doing so.

How about people fix their systems to make them fully-working again?  It's not reasonable to ask for changes like this (which, despite what you may believe, are very significant) when your machine is the outlier - and particularly so when we're dealing with 40-plus-year-old hardware in a lot of cases.  The creator of the Harmony cartridge can't anticipate every problem a machine in the field is likely to have, and cannot guarantee that the change you're proposing would even work around those issues.

 

My Harmony Encore cartridge works just fine in a 7800, Long Rainbow 2600Jr., Short Rainbow 2600Jr., and a Heavy Sixer.  All three are using stock, original power supplies.  The design of the cartridge is not the problem.

Then I would suggest finding someone who is comfortable with doing so and getting their opinion on how to proceed.  If opening the machine up and checking voltages with a multimeter isn't somethng you think you should be undertaking, there's not much help anyone else will be able to give you.  Nobody can properly diagnose it without getting inside of it.

Interesting, well i tried it,altrough i used a paper towel instead since i couldn’t get fit an old credit card with a wrapped clotch inside the cartride connector,so i used a folded paper towel and i sprayed alot of alcohol on both sides on it,repeated the process twice,and wallah it seems to do the trick as i turned on and off the console multiple times and i also removed the harmony cartride and then put it back in and things seems to work flawlessly now,thanks alooot?

71F02E13-00BB-4D50-B7FD-5232929251F0.jpeg

Edited by johannesmutlu
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