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Not all consoles are stock that I work on...


As part of a large project I've been working on for over a month now, one of the situations I encounter is when a console is sent in for services that has already had another tech's hands inside it. In most cases, it might be simple repairs like replacing an IC chip or some capacitors. But now and again, I get a console sent to me that I don't always know what to expect. In those cases, there can be undesired surprises waiting for me. Here is a 2600 that I would like to show as an example of what I'm talking about.

26-15_OG_AV_Overview.jpg.e4d4839771a861ac612bbbe7cc5a3cbd.jpg

 

I don't know whom originally did this work. But I will sum up what you are looking at. It appears this console was previously upgraded using one of the Low Budget AV upgrade boards for the 2600. I've not seen the results of this board in action myself and in fact this one arrived in non working condition with video sync issues and obvious missing colors on the screen. What you can't see and I should have taken a picture of, is that the wiring on the AV board in the bottom of the picture above that is nearest to the main board, actually attaches to pins off the TIA chip. However a few of these wires had broken loose from their solder joints on the TIA pins.

26-15_OG_AV_Brd_Install.jpg.f3f13231a28410125acb0a05f07deed6.jpg

The pins were pulled out of the socket and then soldered to the legs. However, some of the connections had broken loose because honestly, network twisted pair wire isn't that great for point to point solder work and doesn't take solder that well. But this meant I had to remove the wiring completely (Was going to anyway), and clean and reset the pins on the TIA. The original socket was also pretty messed up with some melt marks on it and even some solder that had dropped into the socket in a few places. The socket was replaced and the TIA seated back in once the legs were carefully put back into position and cleaned up. Here is how the TIA looks now. It is the large bottom IC in this pic.

26-15_newsocket_TIA.jpg.1a2b3419be8cb9a666c0a98b1539b63a.jpg

 

It was also semi messy near the AV output jacks. I'm reusing the jacks in this project, but removed all of the wiring and most of the hot glue that had been used to try and keep everything more secured. Here is what that looked like.

26-15_OG_AV_Int_detail.jpg.515598084e88289ae5ae399789aea759.jpg

 

I've already removed the hot glue that was scattered about on the jacks and removed all of this wiring. The AV jacks will be removed minus the s-video 4-pin on the right there and star lock washers added to ensure a snug and tight fit. All new wiring will be ran to these jacks and routed back to the newly installed UAV that is replacing the original AV board setup. Here is the UAV in place and burn in testing being done using temporary wire harnesses that made up years ago.

26-15_PCB_TestReady.jpg.cf8859ffa804e2f35b3fa82586f5aa63.jpg

 

This 2600 should be finished up later this evening. I will try and update with a picture of the new wiring in place once it is fully completed.

 

Edited by CrossBow

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CrossBow

Posted

Okay, as I stated. Here is what it all looks like complete now.

26-15_DONE.jpg.c0e8ea3099963732b4e31111c299aaa1.jpg 

 

Here is the wiring that has been done on the original AV jacks. I still need to wipe out the interior a bit to try and clean it a bit more but you get the idea on at least how the wiring on it is now. This is the overall wiring inside.

26-15_AV_int_wire.jpg.dfa1d1103f31f77c7de8ca4cd41830b5.jpg

And here is a close up of the AV jacks with the new wiring in place. Hopefully this looks more cleaned up compared to before?

26-15_AV_Int_detail.jpg.710034da031a42afb265a6efbdc9e79f.jpg

And I did manage to get pics of another console done in the same manner so you can see what I initially start off dealing with.

26-16_OG_AV_detail.jpg.3b929caa31fcfe23ed27956c0067d3dc.jpg

Once the wiring was removed off the TIA and the TIA itself was removed from the main board, this is what I'm left looking at.

26-16_TIA_Mangled.jpg.fb7b5f95f3ce6fda7594e33009415fca.jpg

I was able to straighten the legs back into shape but one of the legs is broken off a bit and shorter than the others. This is pin 12 which is part of the TIA audio but enough remains to allow it to still work.

26-16_TIA_LegsFixed.jpg.a3322c7e151ebf1065290e919e589737.jpg

But at least for now, this 2600 is alive and well again and ready for many more years of active gaming!

 

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