My Incognito Installation Adventure

[Pab]

My Incognito Installation Adventure

Wherein Pab performs the functional equivalent of using a nuclear weapon to swat a fly

 

For those who have not read the thread where we discuss my lack of surface soldering skills, I had... challenges... in installing Incognito in an Atari 800. In the end I decided to get some good, high grade, solid copper, pre-tinned wire so I could make nice long runs out of the wiring harness. (Plus, make sure that the color scheme matched that in Jon's installation video, which the more recent harnesses do not.)

 

Then I thought about making the disconnection process a little easier. After all, with my lack of hardware skills (and the fact that I might want to add an ATR swap switch, Super Colour CPU, or Sophia 2 down the road) it was more than likely that at some point I would have to take the machine apart again. Then that little voice in my head told me "well, if you're going to make one wiring harness, you might as well make four."

 

I separated the wires into the pairs that they would be routed to the motherboard in and added male DuPont connectors at the end. Then I built three more runs with female connectors. One going to RD4 and RD5, one to ANTIC, and one to the IRQ and RNMI solder points. I connected each pair of wires one by one.

I routed each pair of wires through the cartridge compartment one by one, then the Incognito ribbon cable. I plugged each pair of wires together, making sure they were good and firm. Earlier I had checked them all with a continuity tester to make sure that the connections were solid. 

Finally, I plugged the Incognito board in and connected the new RD5 harness to it. The machine powered up properly and tests passed with flying colors.

Finally, I tucked the wires into the compartment, reassembled the machine, and connected it. It's running properly now.