CrossBow
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Posts posted by CrossBow
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Happy New Year Atari.io family! ITC# 79 was released this morning and I hope is interesting and useful for those looking to possibly install a UAV into a Sears Video Arcade II and/or Japanese 2800 console. Internally these consoles are very similar to the 4 switch design, at least in the main logic area. In this video I go over the process of how I found the points to attach to, go through the process of replacing the voltage regulator with a higher output variant and why it is needed, and show you what happens when you leave the 820Ω resistor in place that you are likely to find attached on pins 6 & 9 of the TIA on the bottom of the PCB and why it needs to be removed. As always, thank you for watching and support. Let's all work together and look towards a wonderful 2022!
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As @Scott Stilphen noted you don't need a trak-ball because games that support and really use the analog controls will behave differently depending on how far the controller is moved from the center position. In the case of Vanguard's instructions, it clearly states that your ship will move faster the further you move in that direction. That alone would indicate it does support the analog nature of the controllers.
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12 hours ago, - Ω - said:
Sure it can take the shake, rattle and roll of launch (when it's all closed up), it's designed to withstand radiation and micro-meteorite (grain of sand sized) strikes and theoretically could be refueled. BUT, working on that thing would be next to impossible. What are you going to hold on to? Leverage is important when working in a zero gravity type environment, the amount of force it takes to loosen something is directly applied to whatever you are holding on to otherwise the Astronaut will be the one spinning. I hope they are correct about the rarity of larger objects, because one fist sized rock travelling at a decent speed would easily rip through all those thin thermal layers and effectively blind the telescope.
Or hit it with enough force to take it out of its L2 orbit and end up crashing into the moon or going out further into space. If lucky, it would only knock it sideways a bit that they could get it back into orbital alignment, but it doesn't have a ton of fuel on board either as we discussed. Interesting it is designed to take some hits and good forward thinking. Time will tell...
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Here is something else I've always wondered...
micro meteorite impacts? I mean it looks super fragile as you said and we know how often the ISS has been hit with a few things here and there. I'm surprised Hubble hasn't sustained more damage over its long lifespan than it has!
But I just picture that entire sun shield umbrella looking like swiss cheese in just a few years time to say nothing of the exposed mirrors.
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I hadn't really been following this until recently as I honestly was in the camp that it would never actually happen. I'm glad to see it launched without issue. But why wait so long for all the other parts to deploy?! Streatching it out over days and in fact nearly a month out. It would pretty much suck if there is a problem with those final deployments and the thing is already past Luna! Wouldn't exactly be easy or cheapish to send up a crew for repairs at that point.
So why not deploy all the bits now to make sure when it is still more reachable closer to Earth?
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Those voltages should be okay there. Although the 11.8 is a tad on the low side as the regulator is a 12v output regulator. If you probe the left hand pin, that is the input voltage going into the regulator... what does that read?
Also, I don't think the AC input portion would likely be that different from the NTSC version since the transformer is still providing the initial input voltages to the PSU board. Sure the actual AC to the transformer is different being 220 - 240v at 50hz but I would think the outputs lines will be similar.
I also was looking at some pics of PAL Intellivision model 1 units, and they actually looked to have the same similar PSU board design as the NTSC ones? So this is a pretty strange layout on yours. In looking at the BOM for the NTSC model 1 PSU, it seems there are only 2 zeners they used and they were basically 3.3v output types. The rest of the diodes are standard 4001 series likely designed as a bridge rectifier for converting the input AC voltages to DC for the regulators to take over from there.
Another thing to check in regards to voltages, is to make sure you have the right voltage from the PSU through the power ribbon cable to the mainboard. The Intellivision is kinda finicky about the voltages and if it doesn't have enough juice or as much as it wants for a particular section, it will mistreat you with graphic corruption and other tantrums.
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Thank you very much @- Ω - for those kind words! I often worry that I might not maintain the right comms with some clients because especially over the past year, the 'business' has picked up quite a bit and it seems there is always a console or 3 here to receive services. It is one of the reasons I've not posted as many videos as in the past. My priorities are my clients before YT vids... so if there are systems to be worked on, then the vids play backseat. Having said that, I am going to make a video soon that has long be needed I think and more or less requested I do.
Thank you again though and I really appreciate it!
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This must be a PAL console then? I've seen the insides of plenty of NTSC Intellivisions and never seen one laid out like that before? Are the initial input voltages from the AC transformer correct? I know you said you tested the voltage test points and that everything is a few volts off? So first thing is to verify that the input voltages are correct and begin to trace from there.
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This is an easy one for me because it was the reason I joined ebay in the first place. It is the Genesis model 1 va2 console that is still my daily driver Genesis to this day. I joined the bay and bought it more than 20 years ago.
- Sabertooth, Justin and RickR
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I have not but I have the same fears about the corner legs eventually wearing through and causing shorts. Could mitigate that using some kapton tape that is cut to fit but over time, I still think it would wear through and cause shorts. That wouldn't really damage anything as the +5 isn't used on the stock controllers, but it would result in some very erratic behavior.
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It was the clearclick that I found that review on stating about the issues with their video looking screwy through s-video sources. That is what I quoted was a review from that unit.
Hence my asking if composite inputs did the same thing.
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That's unfortunate that the replacement does the same thing. So again, this has to be some issue this capture device has with low resolution interlaced signals. There was something else you captured with it that would show an obvious diagonal pattern to the doubling effect along the lower right hand side that coincides with this theory.
Well.. look what I found here. This is a review that was left on the other branded version of this product that is more expensive that you also linked too
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Beware of the S-VHS facility
Reviewed in Australia on November 3, 2019
Verified Purchase
The device does what it is supposed to do, and captures video and audio to make good MP4 files, using the normal (yellow) video input.
However, the S-VHS facility is poor. The picture is a bit wobbly and the left 3 - 4% is distorted. The distortion is present in the digital file. This has been verified by connection to other equipment with a S-VHS output, so it is disappointing.'So based on this description, they were likely getting the exact same thing and just didn't describe it very well. That leads to the next question that they don't answer or present...
What about composite input sources then? So I would be curious if you could try this with composite. I know it won't look nearly as clear and pretty but it would be interesting to see if the doubling effect is still present or not.
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That's pretty cool! The capture device I use is HDMI inputs only so it has to capture whatever I send from the OSSC. But it is still quite finicky about the resolutions is receives. But, I got the one I did for the same reason you spoke of. Basically just connect it inline with the system and press the record button on it and it records onto a micro SD card that I can then remove to load up into my computer or actually attach the device with the SD card in it to my computer and extract the files that way. It can also record directly to a computer when connected via USB and that is what I've been using it for lately.
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On 12/9/2021 at 1:38 AM, Atari 5200 Guy said:
Yes. The kit I found does not alter the physical characteristics of the system. It simply gives it a more modern display that should also improve the battery life.
If you have questions about it... I uhh.. have done a few of these and can likely help answer.
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Does it have any other inputs besides the composite and s-video? I'm curious if it is only the lower resolution analog sources that cause it. To me it looks like it is having an issue with whatever it does to handle interlaced resolutions and in the process of the capture, it is actually doubling the pixels to compensate, but then the sync timing goes out of whack about 1/3 way down the scanline and that is why it starts to double. The effect gets gradual worse the further down from there it goes. So odd...
Does it have a passthrough so you can see it on a TV in addition to what you are capturing? Does it show up there on the main TV when this device in the middle of things?
Last... are there any reviews on the product from others that state anything similar to what you are experiencing?
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1 hour ago, RickR said:
Getting better - 42,150
And lookie at this...it remembered my score from last time! How does that work? Does the cart have a battery in it?
It has non-volatile flash memory in it no battery needed...many of the jaguar games do and you have to read the manual to know the right button combo presses to erase the scores and reset it.
Had to do that not too long ago when my Wolf3D cart somehow got some corrupted save data on it and it was causing the demo most to act screwy and wasn't able to pull up previous save files. Kinda sucked because it also meant I had to start over again.
Tempest is another one I know off the top of my head with internal cart saving of high scores. In one aspect, this was something Atari did right with the jag and was a more expensive option at the time versus using battery backed SRAM. Even the Saturn that came out later didn't have flash ram and required the onboard battery to keep the time/date and save game files. Hence the (requirement I feel) to do the FRAM upgrade mod on those consoles.
- RickR, Sabertooth and Justin
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7 minutes ago, - Ω - said:
While it sucks, it's still better than pointing any of my cameras or video camera at the monitor.
I don't know about that, I make it work pretty well LOL! Although to be fair I do have a capture device and it works pretty well. But because of the limited resolutions it supports for inputs, I have to use the passthrough option on the OSSC for everything to work most of the time and it makes the images look softer when captured than they actually can be made to look on my actual AV setup. It is also just easier for me to point the camera at the LCD, turn off the lights, lock the focus and ISO to an average bright screen and hit record.
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I suspect it is the interlaced video because on your Star Trek title screen it looks normal at he top, and then on the text about halfway down it starts to ghost directly above/below. And if you look you can see interlace lines between the text. So Yeah... I'm guessing it isn't liking the interlaced video here.
I assume on your actual TV/Display you do NOT see the same ghosting effect correct?
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32 minutes ago, RickR said:
No, you are correct. You have to hold down option for disk images....but find yourself the XEX/cartridge format for your games and you won't.
No... I still have to do with this with my XEX images and I've not managed to get any of the .CAR images working on either cart yet. Then again, car images weren't originally planned for those so it is very limited support as I understand it.
But nope... I still have to hold down option regardless or Basic always comes up when using the boot option for an image.
With UNO, I have to be pressing on Option as I press the return key to execute the xex or ATR files. With Fuji I press and hold the option button down until I see the blue background screen start to come up and then let go of it to boot XEX and ATR image files. Some of them require basic and I never know which, so I always try without basic first and if it fails to load, then I hold Option to disable basic. If it fails still, then I either have a bad image file, or the file isn't compatible with my flash cart devices. Even .CAS files are kinda iffy for me and man....do those take forever to load?!
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20 minutes ago, RickR said:
- There are quirks you have to know, such as how to boot without basic (hold down option) or how to auto-load a cassette (hold down select). Again, multicarts solve all this nonsense.
Must be specific multicarts as both my FujiNet and my Uno for the 8-bit require me to hold down Option when selecting to boot an disk image still to prevent basic from coming up. This is on my 130xe. It was really annoying when my mylar was wore out and option was hit n miss on loading stuff. Got a replacement from Best last month and been golden ever since but yeah... cost reduced is correct. Even the plastic on my 130xe feels more brittle than the 5200 plastic and that is saying something.
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Were these captured with the new capture device? I'm asking because I'm noticing that all the text and graphics are ghosted below each other on the lower 1/4 of the screen? Wonder if that is something to do with how the capture device handles interlaced video?
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@TrekMD is correct on this. The arcade original used a trak-ball and the 5200 version is one of the best conversions of this arcade I've played because of the CX-53 trak-ball controller.
But I understand what you are asking as well. After all the 2600 version uses digital controls, but that was more because that is really all the 2600 is able to do by design. Even the trak-balls that were released for the 2600 are still digital just with additional logic in them to simulate trak-ball movement but they aren't really analog like the paddles and driving controllers are.
Surprised though by your statement @- Ω - because Missile Command actually controls really well with the stock controller. Provided the controller is calibrated properly to the console and I know that I did a factory calibration on the pokey chip when you sent it to me, but you didn't include any controllers so that is something to be aware of.
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Pretty slick and it looks good! Only suggestion is to hook up both audio as I've always found it annoying when there is only audio from one of my speakers. Was that s-video I assume?
Question for Atari 5200 Vanguard owners
in Atari 5200
Posted
Dreadnaught Factor comes to mind as with that game, you can control how fast you move across by adjusting where the joystick position is.