Will the system changer work on a modded Intellivision II?

[IsamuBlue]

Hello,

 

I'm relatively new to collecting for the Intellivision.  I recently acquired an Intellivision II that is component (YPbPr) video modded. 

 

I've been looking to get a system changer as an alternative to buying a stand alone Atari 2600, and in my research saw that because of the video signals, if the console is RGB modded, the system changer won't work.  

 

I'm curious if I'd run into the same issue with my system being component modded.  I don't know much about the modification itself as I bought the console on eBay about a month ago, and just that it uses a "modern video board".  The original listing said it would with "modern setups and video-enhancers", but I just want to be sure if it would work or not before buying a system changer.

 

I know this is limited information to go on, but any help is greatly appreciated.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

The answer to that question will depend on whether the RF modulator was left installed or not? The RGB upgrades only work and provide the upgraded video from actual Intellivision games. So if the system changer did still work, it would only be through the RF modulator's output and not the component.

 

 

[walldog1]

8 hours ago, -^CrossBow^- said:

The answer to that question will depend on whether the RF modulator was left installed or not

And the RF Modulator has to be in good working condition, at least on INTV I's. Are INTV II's designed to work the same way? I don't know. Is this a true statement CrossBow?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

40 minutes ago, walldog1 said:

And the RF Modulator has to be in good working condition, at least on INTV I's. Are INTV II's designed to work the same way? I don't know. Is this a true statement CrossBow?

Yes... the system changer like the Atari VCS adapter for the 5200, and the Expansion Module 1 for the Colecovision; all generate their own video signal (composite I believe) and feed that directly to the RF modulator. Therefore, the video isn't being processed by the Intellivision itself and is all being done inside the system changer. As a result, the RGB upgrade doesn't come into play since that is only using the signals coming directly off the video processing of the Intellivision.

 

I know this is true because I usually mention this to people that reach out to me to ask about getting RGB added to their Intellivisions because on the few where I have forgotten to mention it, they come back later to ask me why the system changer is not working afterwards? Those that weren't advised about it, expected that the system changer would also provide RGB output for them and again, it doesn't and won't since the video isn't being processed through the Intellivision video and is injecting its own video signal.

 

So if someone plans to use the system changer and requires that functionality, then the RF modulator must remain on the Intellivision in working order. Like yourself, I've found it easier to remove the RF modulator in these installs and use the opening already in the case to mount the 9 or 8pin mini din jack so that a no cut option can be provided.

 

[+Lathe26]

To sum things up for compatibility with various video-modded Intellivisions:

1. Leave the RF Modulator in
2. System Changer video/audio comes out the RF jack
3. System Changer video/audio comes out the Composite (yellow) jack.  I haven't tested this but the schematics strongly point to 'it is compatible'.
4. System Changer video/audio will never come out the RGB or Component jacks.

 

Edit: the above assumes that Composite video-mods are electrically connected to the RF modulator while Component / RGB video-mods are connected to the input side of the AY-3-8915.  All current video-mods I know of follow this pattern.  While it is unlikely, it is possible that exceptions exist.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

20 hours ago, Lathe26 said:

To sum things up for compatibility with various video-modded Intellivisions:

1. Leave the RF Modulator in
2. System Changer video/audio comes out the RF jack
3. System Changer video/audio comes out the Composite (yellow) jack.  I haven't tested this but the schematics strongly point to 'it is compatible'.
4. System Changer video/audio will never come out the RGB or Component jacks.

 

Edit: the above assumes that Composite video-mods are electrically connected to the RF modulator while Component / RGB video-mods are connected to the input side of the AY-3-8915.  All current video-mods I know of follow this pattern.  While it is unlikely, it is possible that exceptions exist.

That is more or less what I was trying to say. Although Crayon's RGB boards now offer composite and s-video, it is a new composite and s-video generated from the signals off the color IC or STIC and not from the composite coming from the RF modulator. So even if you have one of those newer boards with composite, you still won't get anything from the system changer. Only way to get composite output from it, is to install one of the older separate composite only boards and as you stated, have that feeding from the RF modulator.

 

 

[EdgeFaction]

I can confirm that if you completely remove the RF Modulator, you can get System Changer Video through a Composite Mod just grabbing video off of the Video pin that went in to the RF Modulator. You'll want to have the video amp clean up those small mods provide. 

 

You can also pull directly from the video pin / trace on the System Changer itself - though I've found it much more convenient to just put it all on the main unit.

[EdgeFaction]

I just did some clean up on my own mod of this - I was pulling video directly off of the System Changer on the trace right by the edge connector named 2 (PIN 2 of the connector). I moved the video to come off of the "in" side of the resistor right below controller port 1 which effectively gave me the same output.

 

Now what is really interesting is if you look at the Component Output with the System Changer in - you'll see the M Network title screen (in beautiful high quality composite and at 480i mind you :D) , and if you switch on over to the composite input you'll get the (pretty crappy) composite output from the clone 2600 that is just passed through as is.

 

I tried running it through the Retrofixes Composite mod to see if it would clean it up and it was still pretty rough and it changed the colors for some reason, I tried the same with another I picked up off eBay and it did the same color change without a lot of gain. To me just confirming those mods require the RF Modulator to operate. I'll throw some reference pictures up a bit later. I'm pretty happy just running pulling the video output direct and having a convenient place to solder to. Now I have an Intellivision II that outputs beautiful clean YPbPr, as well as whatever video doesn't get pushed to the video chip.