2600 modding blues

[Whisper]

Atari 2600 and I don't go together... Finally after months of doing research, reading articles, talking with people, getting the parts (no Radioshack over here in the Netherlands) I finally got round to actually do Ben's A/V mod. I worked extremely careful, double checked all connections, quickly and neatly soldered everything, because this would be my great first project.

 

Result: Operation succeeded (I now have a beautiful little board with Ben's mod and color coded wires for every lead, I'll post a pic later) but my patient died. I'm now stuck with what I think is a previously ok working PAL Vader which now only does blurry b/w and some greens both composite and RF. I think I must have messed up the TIA chip. Is it so vulnerable? I was very quick with soldering and hardly touched the pins.

 

I now feel greatly disappointed and frustrated. I spent so much time doing research and getting the parts (also made myself a custom SCART - RCA connector + cable especially for the mod .. costs: about $15 and a lot of time) and all just to kill a TIA. And it's not that I have never soldered before, just not on existing devices with chips. What could go wrong with a little < 1sec. "tsss" to solder a thin wire to TIA. People have modded Jr's right? they aren't socketed also, just like this PAL Vader. *puzzled*

 

First I screw up a sound coil, now this... And I'm usually quite handy with this stuff...

 

So people share your bad modding experiences, if only to make me feel less of a useless screw-up

[+Mitch]

No offense, but did you take into account the different pin arrangement of the PAL TIA?

 

Mitch

[+Nathan Strum]

Are you running it straight into a TV? If so, try running it through a VCR first. Some TVs can't handle the wonky video from Ben's mod (at least NTSC ones). You may need to do some major tweaking to the mod's potentiometers to get a stable picture, too. They only generate a good picture in a fairly narrow range.

 

After that, I'd suggest removing the mod, then hooking the 2600 back up with RF. If it works, the problem is with the mod or how it's connected.

[Whisper]

No offense, but did you take into account the different pin arrangement of the PAL TIA?

 

Mitch

 

According to This UK site I used the right pins, taking the so called "key" as a reference to make sure I was using the right pins.

 

Like I said in my original story, I unhooked the mod and the RF image was the same crap (b/w, only some greens) as the composite image, only more static because the RF shield was still removed. I messed up my TIA

[CrazyChris]

I know it's not a 2600, but I had to trash one Jaguar to get the bjl mod done successfully.

 

Usually after one of my projects goes terribly wrong and I'm all worn out, I feel better after I take a break. Sometimes I find an overlooked mistake, or figure out how to do it better next time.

 

Chris

[Spirantho]

If you get really stuck send it over and I'll try and fix it in exchange for a few carts. 'course if you really have knackered the TIA then you'll need a new machine (effectively) or a donor one at least (I may be able to find one!)

[+Nathan Strum]

Like I said in my original story, I unhooked the mod and the RF image was the same crap (b/w, only some greens) as the composite image, only more static because the RF shield was still removed. I messed up my TIA  

 

I didn't know you'd disconnected the mod. Sorry... that's about all I could think of.

 

I don't think heat would've damaged it based on your description of how you soldered, but static electricity might have. It doesn't help with your current problem, but it might be something to be aware of next time.

[Spirantho]

I'm not sure... I suspect if static had zapped it it would be more broken that... I'd say it's still likely we could fix this board. There are many things that can go wrong when soldering, including dislodging good solder joints, splashing solder onto other parts of the board, shorting tracks, breaking/lifting tracks on the PCB, that sort of thing. It may well be the TIA, but it may well (hopefully) not be!

[Whisper]

Here's some pics (detailed one in the .zip file):

solder_job_detail.zip

[Whisper]

So I guess I just killed it?

[walter_J64bit]

Are you running it straight into a TV? If so, try running it through a VCR first. Some TVs can't handle the wonky video from Ben's mod (at least NTSC ones). You may need to do some major tweaking to the mod's potentiometers to get a stable picture, too. They only generate a good picture in a fairly narrow range.

 

After that, I'd suggest removing the mod, then hooking the 2600 back up with RF. If it works, the problem is with the mod or how it's connected.

 

I'm having that problem If I use the B/W it runs fine but if I cut on the color it's all wonky video and I can only use the moded 2600 on one TV! I was hoping to use my Commodore monitor!