CrossBow

I've installed the FM upgrade board 4 times now into a few different SMS NTSC consoles now and something that I tend to always forget, is that the official instructions for installing the board has a few mistakes in it. One of those mistakes is a pretty big one that I've mentioned to Tim Worthington a few times but it never seems to get fixed in his guide. That step is regarding the process for getting the region switch working on NTSC consoles. Now the steps listed I'm sure are accurate for PAL versions of the console, but 3 different model 1 and one model 2 unit I've installed the kit into all required the same thing to get it working.
The specific step to install the region switch wire states to solder a wire from the IORQ pin off the FM board and to isolate and solder the same signal pin on the 2516 IC chip in the console. This chip is the IO Gate array IC btw. The docs state this is pin 19 on that IC and that is a correct statement. However, removing this pin from circuit on the NTSC consoles will prevent the SMS from booting at all. Just a black screen when powering on the console. Attaching the region switch wire to that pin while isolate does nothing.
The pin you want to attach to instead on that IC is actually Pin 23. It is listed as the KillGa pin and I assume has something to do with a halt or reset. In some models of the SMS pin 23 isn't attached to anything. But on the NTSC systems it is part of the circuit. So, you have to either cut the trace to this pin or lift the pin from the board to isolate it and then install the IORQ wire from the FM board to pin 23. This will correctly allow switching the region on the SMS. The region switch isn't dynamic so you have to either reset the game after switching, or power the SMS off and then back on for the region switch setting to take effect. Here is a picture of the wire I'm talking about attached to a lifted pin23 off the IC I did the other night as an example.

Here is the IORQ pad the other end of the wire attaches to on the current and latest version of the FM board upgrades. Depending on the version of the FM you have, this pad has changed places but it is always labeled the same. In the pic below is the yellow wire soldered on the upper left section.

 
So if you ever install one of these or possibly have one installed and hadn't gotten the region switching working on your NTSC console, now you know why and how to correct for it.
BTW the switch is advised because it allows you to select between US/PSG audio, US/FM audio, and JPN/FM audio settings. There are 2 games known that require the JPN/FM setting in order for them to work with the main one being Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap here in the US (Wonder Boy II in JPN).
 

This is something I've messed with on and off again over the years. After I discovered the controller pause modification you can do on the Sega Master System, it got me to thinking if something similar was possible on the 7800. And yes, it totally is as similar to the SMS, the pause line on the 7800 is always active and only when pulled low to ground does it trigger the pause. So I had played with it a bit using home made perfboard setups etc. But it wasn't really as useful or needed on the 7800 as it is on the SMS so I hadn't really invested much into it.
For those that might not be aware, the Master System also uses a 2-button controller like the 7800, but the SMS also has a pause button on the console itself just like the 7800. The difference it that many SMS games actually use the pause on the console as a 3rd button to pull up inventory or stats..etc. in quite a few games. As a result, playing those games can be a bother when you have to get up and press the pause on your console each time you want to access those extra functions in the game. So naturally a modification for the SMS was going to come about to allow a person to add a 3rd button to their controller and along with a simple logic circuit in the console, you can make impossible controller combinations trigger functions inside the system. In the case of the SMS it is using an extra button to trigger either an Left+Right direction combo, or Up+Down depending on how you wire it up. That in turn is fed to a logic OR gate so that when you press that button on the controller it sends that impossible combination to the chip and that in turn will trigger the reset function. 
The 7800 sharing essentially the same setup here can also be done in the same manner. However, due to the 2600 and 7800 internal logic regarding the paddles controllers; you can't use the Left+Right combo because it will confuse the console and sometimes thing paddles are plugged in. But aside from that, it is the same. 
Consoles Unleashed in the UK sells a lot of excellent quality modification and upgrade kits for various consoles. One of those they have the most kits for, is the Sega Master System. They provide their own pause button modification kit that is really well made and looks nice. Well, I ordered up a few several weeks back and got them in yesterday. I immediately went to work on installing one into my personal 7800 as I have 2 controllers that I've modified in the past to be able to use this setup. Here is what that looks like:

As you can see it is a tiny PCB that will fit in lots of places on the 7800 main board. Again, it is designed for the SMS but will work just as well in the 7800. In the pic above you can see that I'm getting power and ground from the bypass cap just to the right of the 6502. The Player 1 Up and Dn connections are at the top of those two resistors right next to that cap. So you have half of what you need right there in that spot. 

Above is where the rest of the connections in my setup are going. The small blue wire that runs by itself to that single point below the RIOT IC is the reset trigger. This is an unused via that is present on every single 7800 main board revision I've see and always in this same spot. I assume it was there for testing but is also makes a great place to attach the PB pad from that board to trigger the pause function. The other two blue wires are going into cleaned out unused vias so they pass back down on the bottom of the board to attach to a similar set of resistors for the player 2 Up and Down connections. I did it this way because I didn't want to trim the RF shielding. The resistors are outside of the shielding for the player 2 controller port next to the Reset switch.

And this is where the two wires come back through to the bottom of the PCB to attach to the resistors mentioned above. BTW, the Up and Down combo wiring attaches to Pins 1 and 2 on the controller ports.
And that's it! Now with this in place, I can use my modified controllers to remote activate the pause on the 7800 console from either controller port.
One thing to mention about using this kit from Console's Unleashed...
You have to wire both controller ports! The reason is because instead of using an OR logic in this setup, they are using a NOR logic chip. As a result, the controller ports are always registering high. If you don't connect up the second set of wires, then the logic on the pause board in the kit ends up triggering the pause constantly. It needs to see that +5 from the port pins in order to maintain the logic. So if you only wanted one port to activate this, you need to use a different logic IC. Also, the kits from consoles unleashed has extra stuff I don't normally need as it comes with additional small PCBs to mount a 3rd button to and provide as a template to drill the hole into your SMS controllers for mounting it. An excellent touch to be sure, but I don't like the SMS control pads compared to other controllers and wouldn't be using them on a 7800 anyway. But they aren't that expensive and I might need those boards in the future so who knows? I might go into details on what is required on the controller side someday for this modification to work as there is work required in the controllers. I think I've covered it elsewhere online but might do that as a follow up someday.
Here is a link to Consoles Unleashed in the UK and again, they have some excellent quality kits on hand to help modders and tech with making their projects look that more professional and easier to install.
https://www.consolesunleashed.com/

This is something I've messed with on and off again over the years. After I discovered the controller pause modification you can do on the Sega Master System, it got me to thinking if something similar was possible on the 7800. And yes, it totally is as similar to the SMS, the pause line on the 7800 is always active and only when pulled low to ground does it trigger the pause. So I had played with it a bit using home made perfboard setups etc. But it wasn't really as useful or needed on the 7800 as it is on the SMS so I hadn't really invested much into it.
For those that might not be aware, the Master System also uses a 2-button controller like the 7800, but the SMS also has a pause button on the console itself just like the 7800. The difference it that many SMS games actually use the pause on the console as a 3rd button to pull up inventory or stats..etc. in quite a few games. As a result, playing those games can be a bother when you have to get up and press the pause on your console each time you want to access those extra functions in the game. So naturally a modification for the SMS was going to come about to allow a person to add a 3rd button to their controller and along with a simple logic circuit in the console, you can make impossible controller combinations trigger functions inside the system. In the case of the SMS it is using an extra button to trigger either an Left+Right direction combo, or Up+Down depending on how you wire it up. That in turn is fed to a logic OR gate so that when you press that button on the controller it sends that impossible combination to the chip and that in turn will trigger the reset function. 
The 7800 sharing essentially the same setup here can also be done in the same manner. However, due to the 2600 and 7800 internal logic regarding the paddles controllers; you can't use the Left+Right combo because it will confuse the console and sometimes thing paddles are plugged in. But aside from that, it is the same. 
Consoles Unleashed in the UK sells a lot of excellent quality modification and upgrade kits for various consoles. One of those they have the most kits for, is the Sega Master System. They provide their own pause button modification kit that is really well made and looks nice. Well, I ordered up a few several weeks back and got them in yesterday. I immediately went to work on installing one into my personal 7800 as I have 2 controllers that I've modified in the past to be able to use this setup. Here is what that looks like:

As you can see it is a tiny PCB that will fit in lots of places on the 7800 main board. Again, it is designed for the SMS but will work just as well in the 7800. In the pic above you can see that I'm getting power and ground from the bypass cap just to the right of the 6502. The Player 1 Up and Dn connections are at the top of those two resistors right next to that cap. So you have half of what you need right there in that spot. 

Above is where the rest of the connections in my setup are going. The small blue wire that runs by itself to that single point below the RIOT IC is the reset trigger. This is an unused via that is present on every single 7800 main board revision I've see and always in this same spot. I assume it was there for testing but is also makes a great place to attach the PB pad from that board to trigger the pause function. The other two blue wires are going into cleaned out unused vias so they pass back down on the bottom of the board to attach to a similar set of resistors for the player 2 Up and Down connections. I did it this way because I didn't want to trim the RF shielding. The resistors are outside of the shielding for the player 2 controller port next to the Reset switch.

And this is where the two wires come back through to the bottom of the PCB to attach to the resistors mentioned above. BTW, the Up and Down combo wiring attaches to Pins 1 and 2 on the controller ports.
And that's it! Now with this in place, I can use my modified controllers to remote activate the pause on the 7800 console from either controller port.
One thing to mention about using this kit from Console's Unleashed...
You have to wire both controller ports! The reason is because instead of using an OR logic in this setup, they are using a NOR logic chip. As a result, the controller ports are always registering high. If you don't connect up the second set of wires, then the logic on the pause board in the kit ends up triggering the pause constantly. It needs to see that +5 from the port pins in order to maintain the logic. So if you only wanted one port to activate this, you need to use a different logic IC. Also, the kits from consoles unleashed has extra stuff I don't normally need as it comes with additional small PCBs to mount a 3rd button to and provide as a template to drill the hole into your SMS controllers for mounting it. An excellent touch to be sure, but I don't like the SMS control pads compared to other controllers and wouldn't be using them on a 7800 anyway. But they aren't that expensive and I might need those boards in the future so who knows? I might go into details on what is required on the controller side someday for this modification to work as there is work required in the controllers. I think I've covered it elsewhere online but might do that as a follow up someday.
Here is a link to Consoles Unleashed in the UK and again, they have some excellent quality kits on hand to help modders and tech with making their projects look that more professional and easier to install.
https://www.consolesunleashed.com/

This is something I've messed with on and off again over the years. After I discovered the controller pause modification you can do on the Sega Master System, it got me to thinking if something similar was possible on the 7800. And yes, it totally is as similar to the SMS, the pause line on the 7800 is always active and only when pulled low to ground does it trigger the pause. So I had played with it a bit using home made perfboard setups etc. But it wasn't really as useful or needed on the 7800 as it is on the SMS so I hadn't really invested much into it.
For those that might not be aware, the Master System also uses a 2-button controller like the 7800, but the SMS also has a pause button on the console itself just like the 7800. The difference it that many SMS games actually use the pause on the console as a 3rd button to pull up inventory or stats..etc. in quite a few games. As a result, playing those games can be a bother when you have to get up and press the pause on your console each time you want to access those extra functions in the game. So naturally a modification for the SMS was going to come about to allow a person to add a 3rd button to their controller and along with a simple logic circuit in the console, you can make impossible controller combinations trigger functions inside the system. In the case of the SMS it is using an extra button to trigger either an Left+Right direction combo, or Up+Down depending on how you wire it up. That in turn is fed to a logic OR gate so that when you press that button on the controller it sends that impossible combination to the chip and that in turn will trigger the reset function. 
The 7800 sharing essentially the same setup here can also be done in the same manner. However, due to the 2600 and 7800 internal logic regarding the paddles controllers; you can't use the Left+Right combo because it will confuse the console and sometimes thing paddles are plugged in. But aside from that, it is the same. 
Consoles Unleashed in the UK sells a lot of excellent quality modification and upgrade kits for various consoles. One of those they have the most kits for, is the Sega Master System. They provide their own pause button modification kit that is really well made and looks nice. Well, I ordered up a few several weeks back and got them in yesterday. I immediately went to work on installing one into my personal 7800 as I have 2 controllers that I've modified in the past to be able to use this setup. Here is what that looks like:

As you can see it is a tiny PCB that will fit in lots of places on the 7800 main board. Again, it is designed for the SMS but will work just as well in the 7800. In the pic above you can see that I'm getting power and ground from the bypass cap just to the right of the 6502. The Player 1 Up and Dn connections are at the top of those two resistors right next to that cap. So you have half of what you need right there in that spot. 

Above is where the rest of the connections in my setup are going. The small blue wire that runs by itself to that single point below the RIOT IC is the reset trigger. This is an unused via that is present on every single 7800 main board revision I've see and always in this same spot. I assume it was there for testing but is also makes a great place to attach the PB pad from that board to trigger the pause function. The other two blue wires are going into cleaned out unused vias so they pass back down on the bottom of the board to attach to a similar set of resistors for the player 2 Up and Down connections. I did it this way because I didn't want to trim the RF shielding. The resistors are outside of the shielding for the player 2 controller port next to the Reset switch.

And this is where the two wires come back through to the bottom of the PCB to attach to the resistors mentioned above. BTW, the Up and Down combo wiring attaches to Pins 1 and 2 on the controller ports.
And that's it! Now with this in place, I can use my modified controllers to remote activate the pause on the 7800 console from either controller port.
One thing to mention about using this kit from Console's Unleashed...
You have to wire both controller ports! The reason is because instead of using an OR logic in this setup, they are using a NOR logic chip. As a result, the controller ports are always registering high. If you don't connect up the second set of wires, then the logic on the pause board in the kit ends up triggering the pause constantly. It needs to see that +5 from the port pins in order to maintain the logic. So if you only wanted one port to activate this, you need to use a different logic IC. Also, the kits from consoles unleashed has extra stuff I don't normally need as it comes with additional small PCBs to mount a 3rd button to and provide as a template to drill the hole into your SMS controllers for mounting it. An excellent touch to be sure, but I don't like the SMS control pads compared to other controllers and wouldn't be using them on a 7800 anyway. But they aren't that expensive and I might need those boards in the future so who knows? I might go into details on what is required on the controller side someday for this modification to work as there is work required in the controllers. I think I've covered it elsewhere online but might do that as a follow up someday.
Here is a link to Consoles Unleashed in the UK and again, they have some excellent quality kits on hand to help modders and tech with making their projects look that more professional and easier to install.
https://www.consolesunleashed.com/

This is something I've messed with on and off again over the years. After I discovered the controller pause modification you can do on the Sega Master System, it got me to thinking if something similar was possible on the 7800. And yes, it totally is as similar to the SMS, the pause line on the 7800 is always active and only when pulled low to ground does it trigger the pause. So I had played with it a bit using home made perfboard setups etc. But it wasn't really as useful or needed on the 7800 as it is on the SMS so I hadn't really invested much into it.
For those that might not be aware, the Master System also uses a 2-button controller like the 7800, but the SMS also has a pause button on the console itself just like the 7800. The difference it that many SMS games actually use the pause on the console as a 3rd button to pull up inventory or stats..etc. in quite a few games. As a result, playing those games can be a bother when you have to get up and press the pause on your console each time you want to access those extra functions in the game. So naturally a modification for the SMS was going to come about to allow a person to add a 3rd button to their controller and along with a simple logic circuit in the console, you can make impossible controller combinations trigger functions inside the system. In the case of the SMS it is using an extra button to trigger either an Left+Right direction combo, or Up+Down depending on how you wire it up. That in turn is fed to a logic OR gate so that when you press that button on the controller it sends that impossible combination to the chip and that in turn will trigger the reset function. 
The 7800 sharing essentially the same setup here can also be done in the same manner. However, due to the 2600 and 7800 internal logic regarding the paddles controllers; you can't use the Left+Right combo because it will confuse the console and sometimes thing paddles are plugged in. But aside from that, it is the same. 
Consoles Unleashed in the UK sells a lot of excellent quality modification and upgrade kits for various consoles. One of those they have the most kits for, is the Sega Master System. They provide their own pause button modification kit that is really well made and looks nice. Well, I ordered up a few several weeks back and got them in yesterday. I immediately went to work on installing one into my personal 7800 as I have 2 controllers that I've modified in the past to be able to use this setup. Here is what that looks like:

As you can see it is a tiny PCB that will fit in lots of places on the 7800 main board. Again, it is designed for the SMS but will work just as well in the 7800. In the pic above you can see that I'm getting power and ground from the bypass cap just to the right of the 6502. The Player 1 Up and Dn connections are at the top of those two resistors right next to that cap. So you have half of what you need right there in that spot. 

Above is where the rest of the connections in my setup are going. The small blue wire that runs by itself to that single point below the RIOT IC is the reset trigger. This is an unused via that is present on every single 7800 main board revision I've see and always in this same spot. I assume it was there for testing but is also makes a great place to attach the PB pad from that board to trigger the pause function. The other two blue wires are going into cleaned out unused vias so they pass back down on the bottom of the board to attach to a similar set of resistors for the player 2 Up and Down connections. I did it this way because I didn't want to trim the RF shielding. The resistors are outside of the shielding for the player 2 controller port next to the Reset switch.

And this is where the two wires come back through to the bottom of the PCB to attach to the resistors mentioned above. BTW, the Up and Down combo wiring attaches to Pins 1 and 2 on the controller ports.
And that's it! Now with this in place, I can use my modified controllers to remote activate the pause on the 7800 console from either controller port.
One thing to mention about using this kit from Console's Unleashed...
You have to wire both controller ports! The reason is because instead of using an OR logic in this setup, they are using a NOR logic chip. As a result, the controller ports are always registering high. If you don't connect up the second set of wires, then the logic on the pause board in the kit ends up triggering the pause constantly. It needs to see that +5 from the port pins in order to maintain the logic. So if you only wanted one port to activate this, you need to use a different logic IC. Also, the kits from consoles unleashed has extra stuff I don't normally need as it comes with additional small PCBs to mount a 3rd button to and provide as a template to drill the hole into your SMS controllers for mounting it. An excellent touch to be sure, but I don't like the SMS control pads compared to other controllers and wouldn't be using them on a 7800 anyway. But they aren't that expensive and I might need those boards in the future so who knows? I might go into details on what is required on the controller side someday for this modification to work as there is work required in the controllers. I think I've covered it elsewhere online but might do that as a follow up someday.
Here is a link to Consoles Unleashed in the UK and again, they have some excellent quality kits on hand to help modders and tech with making their projects look that more professional and easier to install.
https://www.consolesunleashed.com/

Had a 7800 come into the ITC lab to get refurbished, and upgraded with a few things. Among the updates was to get a UAV plus mount board setup as I've been doing for over a year now.
This is where it is important that you always...ALWAYS test the current status of electronics before you dive in and start doing stuff. A rule I didn't follow so what I discovered after putting all this work in, isn't something I could verify was an issue before the work started. I had been told that it was working 100% without issue as it was the daily driver 7800 for the owner. 
So what was the issue I discovered? Well, after installing the UAV setup and the 10pin mini din AV connector to test the system. I saw something odd when I ran Ballblazer for burn in testing. What I saw was odd additional background graphic information on the far left and far right sides of the screen that I'd never seen before? More specific...this is what Ballblazer looked like:

So if you look on the left and right hand side of the image, you will see what looks like the blue in the sky being extended out along with some burgundy like brown/red below that. Now oddly enough the 5200 version of the game through a UAV actually looks kinda like this, but on the 7800 this isn't normal. Here is a closeup detail of the effect and you can see it is more like a checkerboard pattern within those extra graphics being shown.

Making matters more confusing was that NOT everything had this effect going on. Ballblazer seemed to show it the worst but any game using a colored backgrounds would have this kind of effect going on. But anything using a black ground was fine as this color hue test screen shows from the 7800 utility program:

I did figure out pretty quickly that the issue had to be something with the Maria IC because this same effect wasn't happening on 2600 games and was only present on 7800 titles. So a few days of delay (Waiting on a new heater for my desoldering gun), I removed the original Maria IC, installed a pair of new 24pin sockets (As I don't have 48pin on hand). And installed a different Maria pulled from a parts donor 7800. And what did ball blazer look like after that?

It worked! So yes after nearly 150 Atari 7800s that I've worked on, this was a first. My guess is that this 7800 always had this issue but as it was mainly used on a CRT and was only present on 7800 games, it likely wasn't noticed or the owner simply thought it was normal. In any event the original Maria was working in that the actual game play area on the screen looked normal otherwise. But the blanking to mask the extra graphics junk on the sides, wasn't working properly on this Maria and only by swapping it out with another was the issue fully resolved.
 

Had a 7800 come into the ITC lab to get refurbished, and upgraded with a few things. Among the updates was to get a UAV plus mount board setup as I've been doing for over a year now.
This is where it is important that you always...ALWAYS test the current status of electronics before you dive in and start doing stuff. A rule I didn't follow so what I discovered after putting all this work in, isn't something I could verify was an issue before the work started. I had been told that it was working 100% without issue as it was the daily driver 7800 for the owner. 
So what was the issue I discovered? Well, after installing the UAV setup and the 10pin mini din AV connector to test the system. I saw something odd when I ran Ballblazer for burn in testing. What I saw was odd additional background graphic information on the far left and far right sides of the screen that I'd never seen before? More specific...this is what Ballblazer looked like:

So if you look on the left and right hand side of the image, you will see what looks like the blue in the sky being extended out along with some burgundy like brown/red below that. Now oddly enough the 5200 version of the game through a UAV actually looks kinda like this, but on the 7800 this isn't normal. Here is a closeup detail of the effect and you can see it is more like a checkerboard pattern within those extra graphics being shown.

Making matters more confusing was that NOT everything had this effect going on. Ballblazer seemed to show it the worst but any game using a colored backgrounds would have this kind of effect going on. But anything using a black ground was fine as this color hue test screen shows from the 7800 utility program:

I did figure out pretty quickly that the issue had to be something with the Maria IC because this same effect wasn't happening on 2600 games and was only present on 7800 titles. So a few days of delay (Waiting on a new heater for my desoldering gun), I removed the original Maria IC, installed a pair of new 24pin sockets (As I don't have 48pin on hand). And installed a different Maria pulled from a parts donor 7800. And what did ball blazer look like after that?

It worked! So yes after nearly 150 Atari 7800s that I've worked on, this was a first. My guess is that this 7800 always had this issue but as it was mainly used on a CRT and was only present on 7800 games, it likely wasn't noticed or the owner simply thought it was normal. In any event the original Maria was working in that the actual game play area on the screen looked normal otherwise. But the blanking to mask the extra graphics junk on the sides, wasn't working properly on this Maria and only by swapping it out with another was the issue fully resolved.
 

Had a 7800 come into the ITC lab to get refurbished, and upgraded with a few things. Among the updates was to get a UAV plus mount board setup as I've been doing for over a year now.
This is where it is important that you always...ALWAYS test the current status of electronics before you dive in and start doing stuff. A rule I didn't follow so what I discovered after putting all this work in, isn't something I could verify was an issue before the work started. I had been told that it was working 100% without issue as it was the daily driver 7800 for the owner. 
So what was the issue I discovered? Well, after installing the UAV setup and the 10pin mini din AV connector to test the system. I saw something odd when I ran Ballblazer for burn in testing. What I saw was odd additional background graphic information on the far left and far right sides of the screen that I'd never seen before? More specific...this is what Ballblazer looked like:

So if you look on the left and right hand side of the image, you will see what looks like the blue in the sky being extended out along with some burgundy like brown/red below that. Now oddly enough the 5200 version of the game through a UAV actually looks kinda like this, but on the 7800 this isn't normal. Here is a closeup detail of the effect and you can see it is more like a checkerboard pattern within those extra graphics being shown.

Making matters more confusing was that NOT everything had this effect going on. Ballblazer seemed to show it the worst but any game using a colored backgrounds would have this kind of effect going on. But anything using a black ground was fine as this color hue test screen shows from the 7800 utility program:

I did figure out pretty quickly that the issue had to be something with the Maria IC because this same effect wasn't happening on 2600 games and was only present on 7800 titles. So a few days of delay (Waiting on a new heater for my desoldering gun), I removed the original Maria IC, installed a pair of new 24pin sockets (As I don't have 48pin on hand). And installed a different Maria pulled from a parts donor 7800. And what did ball blazer look like after that?

It worked! So yes after nearly 150 Atari 7800s that I've worked on, this was a first. My guess is that this 7800 always had this issue but as it was mainly used on a CRT and was only present on 7800 games, it likely wasn't noticed or the owner simply thought it was normal. In any event the original Maria was working in that the actual game play area on the screen looked normal otherwise. But the blanking to mask the extra graphics junk on the sides, wasn't working properly on this Maria and only by swapping it out with another was the issue fully resolved.
 

Had a 7800 come into the ITC lab to get refurbished, and upgraded with a few things. Among the updates was to get a UAV plus mount board setup as I've been doing for over a year now.
This is where it is important that you always...ALWAYS test the current status of electronics before you dive in and start doing stuff. A rule I didn't follow so what I discovered after putting all this work in, isn't something I could verify was an issue before the work started. I had been told that it was working 100% without issue as it was the daily driver 7800 for the owner. 
So what was the issue I discovered? Well, after installing the UAV setup and the 10pin mini din AV connector to test the system. I saw something odd when I ran Ballblazer for burn in testing. What I saw was odd additional background graphic information on the far left and far right sides of the screen that I'd never seen before? More specific...this is what Ballblazer looked like:

So if you look on the left and right hand side of the image, you will see what looks like the blue in the sky being extended out along with some burgundy like brown/red below that. Now oddly enough the 5200 version of the game through a UAV actually looks kinda like this, but on the 7800 this isn't normal. Here is a closeup detail of the effect and you can see it is more like a checkerboard pattern within those extra graphics being shown.

Making matters more confusing was that NOT everything had this effect going on. Ballblazer seemed to show it the worst but any game using a colored backgrounds would have this kind of effect going on. But anything using a black ground was fine as this color hue test screen shows from the 7800 utility program:

I did figure out pretty quickly that the issue had to be something with the Maria IC because this same effect wasn't happening on 2600 games and was only present on 7800 titles. So a few days of delay (Waiting on a new heater for my desoldering gun), I removed the original Maria IC, installed a pair of new 24pin sockets (As I don't have 48pin on hand). And installed a different Maria pulled from a parts donor 7800. And what did ball blazer look like after that?

It worked! So yes after nearly 150 Atari 7800s that I've worked on, this was a first. My guess is that this 7800 always had this issue but as it was mainly used on a CRT and was only present on 7800 games, it likely wasn't noticed or the owner simply thought it was normal. In any event the original Maria was working in that the actual game play area on the screen looked normal otherwise. But the blanking to mask the extra graphics junk on the sides, wasn't working properly on this Maria and only by swapping it out with another was the issue fully resolved.
 

I already made a blog post not that long about about my new designs and had posted pics of the render of the PCBs. Well, I actually received the PCBs in the other day and have had a chance to test them out. While I did make a pretty big blunder on my model 2 specific PCB, it was easily fixed and isn't that big a deal to fix in situ when installing. And it only affects me since the gerbers that I play to release publicly already have the fix in place so future boards that get made up should be good to go.
A quick recap on these PCBs. It is a total of 3 different boards. The bottom base PCB is the same for both original 2609 model and INTV 2 model consoles. I designed it that on purpose. So what is different between the models is the top PCB that you use as they are specific to the model of the console you plan to use them in. These mounts are designed to be installed in place of the RF modulator so that a 'No Cut' option is able to be achieved when upgrading your Intellivision.
Here is a mock up the 2 PCBs put together for the original 2609 model of the console. This is essentially an upgraded extension of my original older mounts that is easier to install and secure into place vs the older mount PCBs I've been using. The top PCB has a large solder section on it so that the mini din jack that is used can be more easily be quick tack soldered into place to test alignment and fit before flood soldering all around the jack to secure it into place. While the mini din is technically being installed upside down in this fashion, it is important to know that the actual 2609 style mainboards install upside down to begin with. As a result, the mini din is actually right side up in the end.



 
The model 2 setup was much more difficult for me to design and I really gave my calipers a workout making so many measurements. So the main difference with the INTV 2 setup is that the bottom base mount PCB (Again it is the same on both models), has cut outs on one corner of it. This is because the top board of the INTV 2 mount actually has you solder the mini din direct to the PCB like it would be normally. The cutouts on the bottom base PCB allow for room for these soldered pins off the mini din to come through and allow the two PCBs to sit flush together. It does require that the pins and ground tabs be clipped fairly flush to the PCB once soldered to make sure nothing sticks out beyond the bottom PCB where it would likely then short on the large ground plane that the RF modulator was sitting on. But this isn't a big deal and the end result is a nice finished mount where the mini din is again able to be right side up when all put together. Previously, the mini din was actually upside down on the INTV 2 installs. So this will be less confusing for people going forward.
Here is a detail showing the two sections assembled. You can see the cutouts on the bottom base PCB to allow for the soldered pins of the mini din to come through. So this means that you need to solder the mini din to the top PCB first.

When you cut the soldered connections pretty flush to the PCB the mini din was soldered to, it will ensure that the soldered connections and pins don't come through to cause any issues below. Here you can see where I trimmed an applied fresh heat to the joints after to be sure everything was secure and wouldn't cause any issues with shorts.

Like mentioned before, the entire PCB assembly is designed to install in place of where the RF modulator was located. Here you can see how that would look internally. There are solder pads provided on the PCB for all the needed connections. There are 2 sets of RGB pads that are to be used depending on if you use the 8-pin or 9-pin part of the PCB. Yes, I designed it with through holes for both types of commonly used mini dins for RGB installs like this. There are 3 pas in the center that are shared between both mini dins. Those are the +5, Sync, and Audio. In the picture below I used an 8-pin mini din. So you can see the space in the opposite corner for the 9-pin through holes that weren't used in this install. You can also see the pads specific for the 9-pin that weren't used. The blob of solder on the mini din is part of what I have to correct for on these first set of PCBs but won't be needed on future ones.

And once in place, it should be centered pretty well in the spot where the RF used to be allowing for plenty of room for your cables to be plugged in without any modification of the case. Again, a 'No Cut' option is achieved. Ignore the switch below this as that is needed for something else since this INTV 2 uses an older RGB setup.

 
So again, the plan is to release the gerbers for these publicly so others can have them made up for their own installs. I've already had a few other modders reach out to me wanting the gerbers because they actually want to change out their current mounting to use of these new setups. 

For the past several weeks on days where I have some off time from other console service requests, I've been designing up some more new PCBs to assist me in the services I provide for folks. 
I know I recently posted about a new PCB mount for the Intellivision and while I do have those new mounts in place, I wanted... more. So I designed new ones that are currently on their way to me. It is a 2 piece PCB design that uses a thicker bottom PCB as a base that can be used with either model Intellivision console. There is a section that is cutout on this base board so it can be used with one of the 2nd piece top boards it pairs with.

 
As stated earlier the bottom board is paired with a 2nd top layer board. Depending on the model these boards are slightly different from each other. Here is the top board that goes with the model 1 Intellivision. It uses a solder plane that allows for the mini din jack chosen to be installed anywhere within the solder region. This is because there can be some slight variance between the model 1 case shells and how the main boards line up inside them. The mini din jack is soldered into place upside down because the main board of the model 1 intellivision is upside down normally. So when all assembled, the mini din would actually be right side up.

 
The other 2nd top board is specifically for use with the model 2 intellivision. This one use the cutouts made on the bottom base board. If you can visualize how this works, the mini din is actually soldered into place facing right side up on this board. And then when the top board is attached to the bottom base, the cutouts allow space needed for the soldered pins of the min din to come through to allow the two boards to sit flush. It requires having to trim the soldered pins to be as flush with the pcb as possible before attaching the two halves together but that is a minor thing. It is designed for both 8 or 9pin mini din to be used. You only have to turn the board to orient as needed for whichever mini din style is used.

 
I'm hopeful these new PCB designs even as simple as they are, will allow for a more professional looking and less labor intensive install for the mini din jacks going forward. The fact that the top board for the model 2 allows for the jacks to be soldered the top board, means that the mini din will be right side up on the model 2. Currently the way they are done means they are upside down and that can be confusing.
 
Now, after messing around with these and having done a few RGB upgrades into some other consoles using different kits. Someone made it known that there is a mini din I could be using to do the same thing on my UAV installs on Atari 7800 consoles?! Sure enough, using a 10pin mini din and wired up for Sega Saturn cables, you can get all of the video signals that a UAV can offer onto a single jack plus the audio. And... it would require very very slight modification to the case shell offering a near no cut solution. I say near no cut because in order for this to work, it does require that the RF opening be widened a tad to allow for the cable insulation to come through easily and allow for the cables to be fully seated into the jack. But here are some teaser pics to show a mock up of how this would look. I think offering this going forward will be a nice option for those folks that don't want all the holes drilled into the case shell and would prefer their 7800s to look as stock as possible. While this would still require the slight modification to widen the opening for this to work, I think this is a compromise that many would be okay with. These pics are a mockup of how it would look. I used an 8pin mini din to test for this so what you see isn't the actual mini din that would be used.

 

 
It will use a new breakout PCB specifically for A7800 purposes. It could be used for other projects, but only the signals and pads are in place for composite and s-video, audio connections. While all of my installs use a mono audio setup, I did go ahead and leave the pads separate for Left and Right and placed a jumper in the PCB that can be bridged with solder to make it dual mono output. In that case, the jumper is soldered and only one of the audio pads needs a wire soldered to it.

 
So yeah, been a busy few weekends working on these designs and ideas. Everything has been ordered and hopefully in the coming weeks I can show some better examples. I'm especially excited for the new 7800 mounting using the 10pin mini din, as it will also greatly reduce the labor time needed for UAV installs. It does add to the parts cost a little, but when combined, it all washes out so I don't have to change my flat pricing I already offer.
 

I already made a blog post not that long about about my new designs and had posted pics of the render of the PCBs. Well, I actually received the PCBs in the other day and have had a chance to test them out. While I did make a pretty big blunder on my model 2 specific PCB, it was easily fixed and isn't that big a deal to fix in situ when installing. And it only affects me since the gerbers that I play to release publicly already have the fix in place so future boards that get made up should be good to go.
A quick recap on these PCBs. It is a total of 3 different boards. The bottom base PCB is the same for both original 2609 model and INTV 2 model consoles. I designed it that on purpose. So what is different between the models is the top PCB that you use as they are specific to the model of the console you plan to use them in. These mounts are designed to be installed in place of the RF modulator so that a 'No Cut' option is able to be achieved when upgrading your Intellivision.
Here is a mock up the 2 PCBs put together for the original 2609 model of the console. This is essentially an upgraded extension of my original older mounts that is easier to install and secure into place vs the older mount PCBs I've been using. The top PCB has a large solder section on it so that the mini din jack that is used can be more easily be quick tack soldered into place to test alignment and fit before flood soldering all around the jack to secure it into place. While the mini din is technically being installed upside down in this fashion, it is important to know that the actual 2609 style mainboards install upside down to begin with. As a result, the mini din is actually right side up in the end.



 
The model 2 setup was much more difficult for me to design and I really gave my calipers a workout making so many measurements. So the main difference with the INTV 2 setup is that the bottom base mount PCB (Again it is the same on both models), has cut outs on one corner of it. This is because the top board of the INTV 2 mount actually has you solder the mini din direct to the PCB like it would be normally. The cutouts on the bottom base PCB allow for room for these soldered pins off the mini din to come through and allow the two PCBs to sit flush together. It does require that the pins and ground tabs be clipped fairly flush to the PCB once soldered to make sure nothing sticks out beyond the bottom PCB where it would likely then short on the large ground plane that the RF modulator was sitting on. But this isn't a big deal and the end result is a nice finished mount where the mini din is again able to be right side up when all put together. Previously, the mini din was actually upside down on the INTV 2 installs. So this will be less confusing for people going forward.
Here is a detail showing the two sections assembled. You can see the cutouts on the bottom base PCB to allow for the soldered pins of the mini din to come through. So this means that you need to solder the mini din to the top PCB first.

When you cut the soldered connections pretty flush to the PCB the mini din was soldered to, it will ensure that the soldered connections and pins don't come through to cause any issues below. Here you can see where I trimmed an applied fresh heat to the joints after to be sure everything was secure and wouldn't cause any issues with shorts.

Like mentioned before, the entire PCB assembly is designed to install in place of where the RF modulator was located. Here you can see how that would look internally. There are solder pads provided on the PCB for all the needed connections. There are 2 sets of RGB pads that are to be used depending on if you use the 8-pin or 9-pin part of the PCB. Yes, I designed it with through holes for both types of commonly used mini dins for RGB installs like this. There are 3 pas in the center that are shared between both mini dins. Those are the +5, Sync, and Audio. In the picture below I used an 8-pin mini din. So you can see the space in the opposite corner for the 9-pin through holes that weren't used in this install. You can also see the pads specific for the 9-pin that weren't used. The blob of solder on the mini din is part of what I have to correct for on these first set of PCBs but won't be needed on future ones.

And once in place, it should be centered pretty well in the spot where the RF used to be allowing for plenty of room for your cables to be plugged in without any modification of the case. Again, a 'No Cut' option is achieved. Ignore the switch below this as that is needed for something else since this INTV 2 uses an older RGB setup.

 
So again, the plan is to release the gerbers for these publicly so others can have them made up for their own installs. I've already had a few other modders reach out to me wanting the gerbers because they actually want to change out their current mounting to use of these new setups. 

For the past several weeks on days where I have some off time from other console service requests, I've been designing up some more new PCBs to assist me in the services I provide for folks. 
I know I recently posted about a new PCB mount for the Intellivision and while I do have those new mounts in place, I wanted... more. So I designed new ones that are currently on their way to me. It is a 2 piece PCB design that uses a thicker bottom PCB as a base that can be used with either model Intellivision console. There is a section that is cutout on this base board so it can be used with one of the 2nd piece top boards it pairs with.

 
As stated earlier the bottom board is paired with a 2nd top layer board. Depending on the model these boards are slightly different from each other. Here is the top board that goes with the model 1 Intellivision. It uses a solder plane that allows for the mini din jack chosen to be installed anywhere within the solder region. This is because there can be some slight variance between the model 1 case shells and how the main boards line up inside them. The mini din jack is soldered into place upside down because the main board of the model 1 intellivision is upside down normally. So when all assembled, the mini din would actually be right side up.

 
The other 2nd top board is specifically for use with the model 2 intellivision. This one use the cutouts made on the bottom base board. If you can visualize how this works, the mini din is actually soldered into place facing right side up on this board. And then when the top board is attached to the bottom base, the cutouts allow space needed for the soldered pins of the min din to come through to allow the two boards to sit flush. It requires having to trim the soldered pins to be as flush with the pcb as possible before attaching the two halves together but that is a minor thing. It is designed for both 8 or 9pin mini din to be used. You only have to turn the board to orient as needed for whichever mini din style is used.

 
I'm hopeful these new PCB designs even as simple as they are, will allow for a more professional looking and less labor intensive install for the mini din jacks going forward. The fact that the top board for the model 2 allows for the jacks to be soldered the top board, means that the mini din will be right side up on the model 2. Currently the way they are done means they are upside down and that can be confusing.
 
Now, after messing around with these and having done a few RGB upgrades into some other consoles using different kits. Someone made it known that there is a mini din I could be using to do the same thing on my UAV installs on Atari 7800 consoles?! Sure enough, using a 10pin mini din and wired up for Sega Saturn cables, you can get all of the video signals that a UAV can offer onto a single jack plus the audio. And... it would require very very slight modification to the case shell offering a near no cut solution. I say near no cut because in order for this to work, it does require that the RF opening be widened a tad to allow for the cable insulation to come through easily and allow for the cables to be fully seated into the jack. But here are some teaser pics to show a mock up of how this would look. I think offering this going forward will be a nice option for those folks that don't want all the holes drilled into the case shell and would prefer their 7800s to look as stock as possible. While this would still require the slight modification to widen the opening for this to work, I think this is a compromise that many would be okay with. These pics are a mockup of how it would look. I used an 8pin mini din to test for this so what you see isn't the actual mini din that would be used.

 

 
It will use a new breakout PCB specifically for A7800 purposes. It could be used for other projects, but only the signals and pads are in place for composite and s-video, audio connections. While all of my installs use a mono audio setup, I did go ahead and leave the pads separate for Left and Right and placed a jumper in the PCB that can be bridged with solder to make it dual mono output. In that case, the jumper is soldered and only one of the audio pads needs a wire soldered to it.

 
So yeah, been a busy few weekends working on these designs and ideas. Everything has been ordered and hopefully in the coming weeks I can show some better examples. I'm especially excited for the new 7800 mounting using the 10pin mini din, as it will also greatly reduce the labor time needed for UAV installs. It does add to the parts cost a little, but when combined, it all washes out so I don't have to change my flat pricing I already offer.
 

I know I've not made a video in a very long time on my ITC Youtube channel. But I figured I would mention here the latest things happening at the 'Tower'. Just because there haven't been any vids uploaded, doesn't mean there isn't something always still going on.
First is that console service requests have picked up quit a bit for me over the past 2 years. It really started during the pandemic, but then larger and larger service requests started to come in since and at this time, there is pretty much always a console or 3 at the 'Tower' waiting to get serviced it seems. When not working on enthusiasts game consoles, then I use that time to work on my own consoles to improve old install work I did in them (Some going back over 10 years ago). 
Well, currently what is at the ITC to be serviced is essentially done and will be getting shipped out soon, but as we had some pretty inclement weather come in this past Sunday and as a result our offices were closed at my normal day job yesterday. I spent the time to finally design some new PCBs for use in my services. One isn't that big a deal but is my own pcb breakout for use with 9-pin mini din connectors. I've got an old gerber file set that I either found a few years back or was sent to me that I've been using. But decided to make my own with some slight alterations on the design I'd been using. Not a big deal so not really anything to show there.
But, I also finally designed revision 2 of the 7800 mount board. I already had another slight revision that I was calling r1b for the past 6 months but decided to just add in one new feature to make it easier in the future as I'm now getting requests for it. The new feature is adding in an optional audio input pad with resistor onto the mount board that can be used to mix in a 3rd audio input source into the 7800 setup so that it along with the normal audio can all be heard from the RCAs or whatever is used for the audio output on the console when upgraded. I'd been doing this manually by just adding in a resistor in series on separate wiring that would then get soldered to the + pad on the output filter capacitor. It works but I like how this will look better and I don't have to hide a resistor to solder in place anywhere and can just run a wire straight off the pad to the jack used for audio input.

 
The other project I worked on yesterday was to finally design a new mount board setup for use in the Intellivision RGB installs. I previously designed a small mount PCB about 2 years ago for this and that will still be needed and used in some circumstances. But more and more lately, most of my clients have me remove the RF modulator and install the mini din jack there for the RGB output. This is because with a PCB of the right height, you can place the jack here without having to cut the case. The current PCB mount is kinda difficult to install as it requires a lot of heat to ensure that the solder seeps it way under the PCB and has always been a little smaller than I'd like to help provide the needed anchor and support for the mini din. Well, after installing a few other difficult kits into consoles designed by others, I decided to adapter something similar. This new mount is larger and uses 2 of the original intellivision RF anchor holes that I run clipped leads through some vias to solder the mount board into place easier with less heat and possible provide a more secure mount as a result. It does actually use a 2 PCB setup to achieve the height needed but I've found that 2 PCBs in a stacked configuration is still going to be much easier and cheaper to have made. The older mounts were 2.6mm thick PCBs and as a result, they weren't cheap to have made. Using a 2 board solution will also similar results with less cost. I will be refining this further. But this is the top PCB that the mini din will fit into the lower right corner section and then be held in place with solder along the two large ground planes along the left and rear of the jack. Both PCBs feaure hashed ground planes to help with strength. The top logo and wording on this PCB are now silkscreened but in fact are done by removing the solder mask over a copper filled section of the PCB. This way the logo and words have a shiny look to them that is actually part of the PCB and not just silkscreen that can wear/rub off.

So, yeah all of these and other parts on order now and I'm excited to see how it all looks and works first hand.
 

I know I've not made a video in a very long time on my ITC Youtube channel. But I figured I would mention here the latest things happening at the 'Tower'. Just because there haven't been any vids uploaded, doesn't mean there isn't something always still going on.
First is that console service requests have picked up quit a bit for me over the past 2 years. It really started during the pandemic, but then larger and larger service requests started to come in since and at this time, there is pretty much always a console or 3 at the 'Tower' waiting to get serviced it seems. When not working on enthusiasts game consoles, then I use that time to work on my own consoles to improve old install work I did in them (Some going back over 10 years ago). 
Well, currently what is at the ITC to be serviced is essentially done and will be getting shipped out soon, but as we had some pretty inclement weather come in this past Sunday and as a result our offices were closed at my normal day job yesterday. I spent the time to finally design some new PCBs for use in my services. One isn't that big a deal but is my own pcb breakout for use with 9-pin mini din connectors. I've got an old gerber file set that I either found a few years back or was sent to me that I've been using. But decided to make my own with some slight alterations on the design I'd been using. Not a big deal so not really anything to show there.
But, I also finally designed revision 2 of the 7800 mount board. I already had another slight revision that I was calling r1b for the past 6 months but decided to just add in one new feature to make it easier in the future as I'm now getting requests for it. The new feature is adding in an optional audio input pad with resistor onto the mount board that can be used to mix in a 3rd audio input source into the 7800 setup so that it along with the normal audio can all be heard from the RCAs or whatever is used for the audio output on the console when upgraded. I'd been doing this manually by just adding in a resistor in series on separate wiring that would then get soldered to the + pad on the output filter capacitor. It works but I like how this will look better and I don't have to hide a resistor to solder in place anywhere and can just run a wire straight off the pad to the jack used for audio input.

 
The other project I worked on yesterday was to finally design a new mount board setup for use in the Intellivision RGB installs. I previously designed a small mount PCB about 2 years ago for this and that will still be needed and used in some circumstances. But more and more lately, most of my clients have me remove the RF modulator and install the mini din jack there for the RGB output. This is because with a PCB of the right height, you can place the jack here without having to cut the case. The current PCB mount is kinda difficult to install as it requires a lot of heat to ensure that the solder seeps it way under the PCB and has always been a little smaller than I'd like to help provide the needed anchor and support for the mini din. Well, after installing a few other difficult kits into consoles designed by others, I decided to adapter something similar. This new mount is larger and uses 2 of the original intellivision RF anchor holes that I run clipped leads through some vias to solder the mount board into place easier with less heat and possible provide a more secure mount as a result. It does actually use a 2 PCB setup to achieve the height needed but I've found that 2 PCBs in a stacked configuration is still going to be much easier and cheaper to have made. The older mounts were 2.6mm thick PCBs and as a result, they weren't cheap to have made. Using a 2 board solution will also similar results with less cost. I will be refining this further. But this is the top PCB that the mini din will fit into the lower right corner section and then be held in place with solder along the two large ground planes along the left and rear of the jack. Both PCBs feaure hashed ground planes to help with strength. The top logo and wording on this PCB are now silkscreened but in fact are done by removing the solder mask over a copper filled section of the PCB. This way the logo and words have a shiny look to them that is actually part of the PCB and not just silkscreen that can wear/rub off.

So, yeah all of these and other parts on order now and I'm excited to see how it all looks and works first hand.
 

I know I've not made a video in a very long time on my ITC Youtube channel. But I figured I would mention here the latest things happening at the 'Tower'. Just because there haven't been any vids uploaded, doesn't mean there isn't something always still going on.
First is that console service requests have picked up quit a bit for me over the past 2 years. It really started during the pandemic, but then larger and larger service requests started to come in since and at this time, there is pretty much always a console or 3 at the 'Tower' waiting to get serviced it seems. When not working on enthusiasts game consoles, then I use that time to work on my own consoles to improve old install work I did in them (Some going back over 10 years ago). 
Well, currently what is at the ITC to be serviced is essentially done and will be getting shipped out soon, but as we had some pretty inclement weather come in this past Sunday and as a result our offices were closed at my normal day job yesterday. I spent the time to finally design some new PCBs for use in my services. One isn't that big a deal but is my own pcb breakout for use with 9-pin mini din connectors. I've got an old gerber file set that I either found a few years back or was sent to me that I've been using. But decided to make my own with some slight alterations on the design I'd been using. Not a big deal so not really anything to show there.
But, I also finally designed revision 2 of the 7800 mount board. I already had another slight revision that I was calling r1b for the past 6 months but decided to just add in one new feature to make it easier in the future as I'm now getting requests for it. The new feature is adding in an optional audio input pad with resistor onto the mount board that can be used to mix in a 3rd audio input source into the 7800 setup so that it along with the normal audio can all be heard from the RCAs or whatever is used for the audio output on the console when upgraded. I'd been doing this manually by just adding in a resistor in series on separate wiring that would then get soldered to the + pad on the output filter capacitor. It works but I like how this will look better and I don't have to hide a resistor to solder in place anywhere and can just run a wire straight off the pad to the jack used for audio input.

 
The other project I worked on yesterday was to finally design a new mount board setup for use in the Intellivision RGB installs. I previously designed a small mount PCB about 2 years ago for this and that will still be needed and used in some circumstances. But more and more lately, most of my clients have me remove the RF modulator and install the mini din jack there for the RGB output. This is because with a PCB of the right height, you can place the jack here without having to cut the case. The current PCB mount is kinda difficult to install as it requires a lot of heat to ensure that the solder seeps it way under the PCB and has always been a little smaller than I'd like to help provide the needed anchor and support for the mini din. Well, after installing a few other difficult kits into consoles designed by others, I decided to adapter something similar. This new mount is larger and uses 2 of the original intellivision RF anchor holes that I run clipped leads through some vias to solder the mount board into place easier with less heat and possible provide a more secure mount as a result. It does actually use a 2 PCB setup to achieve the height needed but I've found that 2 PCBs in a stacked configuration is still going to be much easier and cheaper to have made. The older mounts were 2.6mm thick PCBs and as a result, they weren't cheap to have made. Using a 2 board solution will also similar results with less cost. I will be refining this further. But this is the top PCB that the mini din will fit into the lower right corner section and then be held in place with solder along the two large ground planes along the left and rear of the jack. Both PCBs feaure hashed ground planes to help with strength. The top logo and wording on this PCB are now silkscreened but in fact are done by removing the solder mask over a copper filled section of the PCB. This way the logo and words have a shiny look to them that is actually part of the PCB and not just silkscreen that can wear/rub off.

So, yeah all of these and other parts on order now and I'm excited to see how it all looks and works first hand.
 

I already touched on this in an earlier blog post not that long actually, but I will summarize again really quickly.
Main issue is that in 7800 mode and games, one or both fire buttons might show as being pressed without a controller plugged in. Plug in a controller and everything behaves as it should but ultimate, the console shouldn't read anything actively from the ports without a controller plugged in.
In my previous blog, I mentioned that an out of spec resistor located at R35 was only reading about 217Ω while the schematics state that this resistor and the on next to it, should be reading 220Ω. Most of the resistors in the 7800 I believe are 5% tolerant meaning that the value of the component should read within +|- 5%. In this case, such a resistor would still be technically in spec if it were reading as low as 209Ω or as high as 231Ω would still be within that 5% tolerance. So a resistor reading 217Ω is well within the tolerance spec of the resistor.
This was likely fine years ago when everything was much newer, but it seems as the equipment begins to age, these values become more and more tight and the tolerances allowed will no longer work.
Because to fix this 7800 over the weekend, required that I again find a replacement resistor that was reading closer to 220Ω to resolve the issue. In this case, the resistor reads 219Ω.
I've attached a picture that shows the location for these resistors. R34 affects player 1 and R35 affects player 2. And again, these resistors only seem to come into play as causing an issue when the console is in 7800 mode. You can actually remove these resistors and the 7800 fire buttons will still work properly on 7800 games. But they will not work in 2600 mode. So the resistors are only needed for 2600 mode but if will actually effect 7800 trigger readings once they get to a certain threshol.
To be fair I don't think these resistors are just suddenly now starting to read off spec. I suspect the issue is actually the TIA starting to show signs of failure internally as swapping out TIAs will also fix this. But for now, with TIA being much more expensive to replace than a simple resistor, I'm going with changing out resistors to be more in spec going forward and I might just start stocking up and replacing out R34 and R35 with 1% types as part of preventive measures.
 

I already touched on this in an earlier blog post not that long actually, but I will summarize again really quickly.
Main issue is that in 7800 mode and games, one or both fire buttons might show as being pressed without a controller plugged in. Plug in a controller and everything behaves as it should but ultimate, the console shouldn't read anything actively from the ports without a controller plugged in.
In my previous blog, I mentioned that an out of spec resistor located at R35 was only reading about 217Ω while the schematics state that this resistor and the on next to it, should be reading 220Ω. Most of the resistors in the 7800 I believe are 5% tolerant meaning that the value of the component should read within +|- 5%. In this case, such a resistor would still be technically in spec if it were reading as low as 209Ω or as high as 231Ω would still be within that 5% tolerance. So a resistor reading 217Ω is well within the tolerance spec of the resistor.
This was likely fine years ago when everything was much newer, but it seems as the equipment begins to age, these values become more and more tight and the tolerances allowed will no longer work.
Because to fix this 7800 over the weekend, required that I again find a replacement resistor that was reading closer to 220Ω to resolve the issue. In this case, the resistor reads 219Ω.
I've attached a picture that shows the location for these resistors. R34 affects player 1 and R35 affects player 2. And again, these resistors only seem to come into play as causing an issue when the console is in 7800 mode. You can actually remove these resistors and the 7800 fire buttons will still work properly on 7800 games. But they will not work in 2600 mode. So the resistors are only needed for 2600 mode but if will actually effect 7800 trigger readings once they get to a certain threshol.
To be fair I don't think these resistors are just suddenly now starting to read off spec. I suspect the issue is actually the TIA starting to show signs of failure internally as swapping out TIAs will also fix this. But for now, with TIA being much more expensive to replace than a simple resistor, I'm going with changing out resistors to be more in spec going forward and I might just start stocking up and replacing out R34 and R35 with 1% types as part of preventive measures.
 

I've seen something similar to this before although not in the way I was seeing with a recent 4 switch console I was servicing. As part of diagnostics I will use Paul Slocum's excellent Test Cart program as it should some primary colors, shows the current state of all switches minus power of course, but also has a basic graphical view of each controller and small block on the bottom that will move left/right when you plug in paddles to test those too. So all in all a nice utility to know that all controller functions are working properly on the console.
Well, on this one, player 1, player 2, and player 4 paddle controls would move from left to right and back turning the paddle as you would expect. But player 3 paddle control would just site on the left side, and then after a point when turning the paddle, it would suddenly just be on the right. No movement of any kind. Just one sec on the left, and then next thing you know it is on the right. So it was acting more like a digital control vs analog. It wasn't the paddles since I used the same set to test player 1 and 2 and that was working fine.
Going through the service manual will yield some interesting stuff to help isolate this, but unless you have the diagnostic controller plugs and the 2.6 diagnostic rom, you aren't going to be able to see exactly what you need to see. But lets review that..
If you have the diagnostic plugs, plugged into the controller ports and the diagnostic rom up and running with the controller matrix screen up. Then you use an Oscilliscope to probe the paddle lines off the TIA pins 37,38,39, and 40. They represent player 4, 3, 2, and then player 1 on pin 40. Well, what you should see on your scope if you have it set to the right settings, is something like the picture below from the service manual:

 
However, when I probed pin 38 that is for the player 3 paddle line. I was getting a flat line. Well, actually I was showing a flat line of about 1v but the point is...not pulse like you see in those pictures. (And btw...I was seeing that same pulse line on my o'scope for the other paddles). 
Well honestly there isn't much in the way of electronics from the controller port to the TIA where the paddles are read and handled. In fact, there is really only 1...just 1 component in the middle of the mix from the controller port to TIA. At least on the 4 switch and above units this is the case. That one component is usually a small ceramic disc, or poly capacitor that doesn't usually go bad. So I first checked that the traces from pin 5 of the player 2 controller port to that cap (C220) was good. It was, and then checked from the cap to pin 38 of the TIA. That too pinged out good. So I went ahead and replaced the capacitor just to see if anything changed. Sadly.... no.
What did fix it?
Well, if you've gotten this far and read my description of the very simple circuit from port to TIA... it should come as no surprise that is was the TIA itself. This is even more sad considering how rare these IC chips are now becoming and there isn't any projects I'm aware of to make new ones or something to replace the TIA. 
But yeah... if you find the paddle lines aren't working, chances are that it is the TIA chip itself that has failed if the actual traces are good. Apparently this was less of an issue with earlier 2600s as they used buffer ICs to help control this and therefore the TIA was more protected. Just more cost cutting at work as the console lived on...
 
 

I've seen something similar to this before although not in the way I was seeing with a recent 4 switch console I was servicing. As part of diagnostics I will use Paul Slocum's excellent Test Cart program as it should some primary colors, shows the current state of all switches minus power of course, but also has a basic graphical view of each controller and small block on the bottom that will move left/right when you plug in paddles to test those too. So all in all a nice utility to know that all controller functions are working properly on the console.
Well, on this one, player 1, player 2, and player 4 paddle controls would move from left to right and back turning the paddle as you would expect. But player 3 paddle control would just site on the left side, and then after a point when turning the paddle, it would suddenly just be on the right. No movement of any kind. Just one sec on the left, and then next thing you know it is on the right. So it was acting more like a digital control vs analog. It wasn't the paddles since I used the same set to test player 1 and 2 and that was working fine.
Going through the service manual will yield some interesting stuff to help isolate this, but unless you have the diagnostic controller plugs and the 2.6 diagnostic rom, you aren't going to be able to see exactly what you need to see. But lets review that..
If you have the diagnostic plugs, plugged into the controller ports and the diagnostic rom up and running with the controller matrix screen up. Then you use an Oscilliscope to probe the paddle lines off the TIA pins 37,38,39, and 40. They represent player 4, 3, 2, and then player 1 on pin 40. Well, what you should see on your scope if you have it set to the right settings, is something like the picture below from the service manual:

 
However, when I probed pin 38 that is for the player 3 paddle line. I was getting a flat line. Well, actually I was showing a flat line of about 1v but the point is...not pulse like you see in those pictures. (And btw...I was seeing that same pulse line on my o'scope for the other paddles). 
Well honestly there isn't much in the way of electronics from the controller port to the TIA where the paddles are read and handled. In fact, there is really only 1...just 1 component in the middle of the mix from the controller port to TIA. At least on the 4 switch and above units this is the case. That one component is usually a small ceramic disc, or poly capacitor that doesn't usually go bad. So I first checked that the traces from pin 5 of the player 2 controller port to that cap (C220) was good. It was, and then checked from the cap to pin 38 of the TIA. That too pinged out good. So I went ahead and replaced the capacitor just to see if anything changed. Sadly.... no.
What did fix it?
Well, if you've gotten this far and read my description of the very simple circuit from port to TIA... it should come as no surprise that is was the TIA itself. This is even more sad considering how rare these IC chips are now becoming and there isn't any projects I'm aware of to make new ones or something to replace the TIA. 
But yeah... if you find the paddle lines aren't working, chances are that it is the TIA chip itself that has failed if the actual traces are good. Apparently this was less of an issue with earlier 2600s as they used buffer ICs to help control this and therefore the TIA was more protected. Just more cost cutting at work as the console lived on...
 
 

I've seen something similar to this before although not in the way I was seeing with a recent 4 switch console I was servicing. As part of diagnostics I will use Paul Slocum's excellent Test Cart program as it should some primary colors, shows the current state of all switches minus power of course, but also has a basic graphical view of each controller and small block on the bottom that will move left/right when you plug in paddles to test those too. So all in all a nice utility to know that all controller functions are working properly on the console.
Well, on this one, player 1, player 2, and player 4 paddle controls would move from left to right and back turning the paddle as you would expect. But player 3 paddle control would just site on the left side, and then after a point when turning the paddle, it would suddenly just be on the right. No movement of any kind. Just one sec on the left, and then next thing you know it is on the right. So it was acting more like a digital control vs analog. It wasn't the paddles since I used the same set to test player 1 and 2 and that was working fine.
Going through the service manual will yield some interesting stuff to help isolate this, but unless you have the diagnostic controller plugs and the 2.6 diagnostic rom, you aren't going to be able to see exactly what you need to see. But lets review that..
If you have the diagnostic plugs, plugged into the controller ports and the diagnostic rom up and running with the controller matrix screen up. Then you use an Oscilliscope to probe the paddle lines off the TIA pins 37,38,39, and 40. They represent player 4, 3, 2, and then player 1 on pin 40. Well, what you should see on your scope if you have it set to the right settings, is something like the picture below from the service manual:

 
However, when I probed pin 38 that is for the player 3 paddle line. I was getting a flat line. Well, actually I was showing a flat line of about 1v but the point is...not pulse like you see in those pictures. (And btw...I was seeing that same pulse line on my o'scope for the other paddles). 
Well honestly there isn't much in the way of electronics from the controller port to the TIA where the paddles are read and handled. In fact, there is really only 1...just 1 component in the middle of the mix from the controller port to TIA. At least on the 4 switch and above units this is the case. That one component is usually a small ceramic disc, or poly capacitor that doesn't usually go bad. So I first checked that the traces from pin 5 of the player 2 controller port to that cap (C220) was good. It was, and then checked from the cap to pin 38 of the TIA. That too pinged out good. So I went ahead and replaced the capacitor just to see if anything changed. Sadly.... no.
What did fix it?
Well, if you've gotten this far and read my description of the very simple circuit from port to TIA... it should come as no surprise that is was the TIA itself. This is even more sad considering how rare these IC chips are now becoming and there isn't any projects I'm aware of to make new ones or something to replace the TIA. 
But yeah... if you find the paddle lines aren't working, chances are that it is the TIA chip itself that has failed if the actual traces are good. Apparently this was less of an issue with earlier 2600s as they used buffer ICs to help control this and therefore the TIA was more protected. Just more cost cutting at work as the console lived on...
 
 

I've seen something similar to this before although not in the way I was seeing with a recent 4 switch console I was servicing. As part of diagnostics I will use Paul Slocum's excellent Test Cart program as it should some primary colors, shows the current state of all switches minus power of course, but also has a basic graphical view of each controller and small block on the bottom that will move left/right when you plug in paddles to test those too. So all in all a nice utility to know that all controller functions are working properly on the console.
Well, on this one, player 1, player 2, and player 4 paddle controls would move from left to right and back turning the paddle as you would expect. But player 3 paddle control would just site on the left side, and then after a point when turning the paddle, it would suddenly just be on the right. No movement of any kind. Just one sec on the left, and then next thing you know it is on the right. So it was acting more like a digital control vs analog. It wasn't the paddles since I used the same set to test player 1 and 2 and that was working fine.
Going through the service manual will yield some interesting stuff to help isolate this, but unless you have the diagnostic controller plugs and the 2.6 diagnostic rom, you aren't going to be able to see exactly what you need to see. But lets review that..
If you have the diagnostic plugs, plugged into the controller ports and the diagnostic rom up and running with the controller matrix screen up. Then you use an Oscilliscope to probe the paddle lines off the TIA pins 37,38,39, and 40. They represent player 4, 3, 2, and then player 1 on pin 40. Well, what you should see on your scope if you have it set to the right settings, is something like the picture below from the service manual:

 
However, when I probed pin 38 that is for the player 3 paddle line. I was getting a flat line. Well, actually I was showing a flat line of about 1v but the point is...not pulse like you see in those pictures. (And btw...I was seeing that same pulse line on my o'scope for the other paddles). 
Well honestly there isn't much in the way of electronics from the controller port to the TIA where the paddles are read and handled. In fact, there is really only 1...just 1 component in the middle of the mix from the controller port to TIA. At least on the 4 switch and above units this is the case. That one component is usually a small ceramic disc, or poly capacitor that doesn't usually go bad. So I first checked that the traces from pin 5 of the player 2 controller port to that cap (C220) was good. It was, and then checked from the cap to pin 38 of the TIA. That too pinged out good. So I went ahead and replaced the capacitor just to see if anything changed. Sadly.... no.
What did fix it?
Well, if you've gotten this far and read my description of the very simple circuit from port to TIA... it should come as no surprise that is was the TIA itself. This is even more sad considering how rare these IC chips are now becoming and there isn't any projects I'm aware of to make new ones or something to replace the TIA. 
But yeah... if you find the paddle lines aren't working, chances are that it is the TIA chip itself that has failed if the actual traces are good. Apparently this was less of an issue with earlier 2600s as they used buffer ICs to help control this and therefore the TIA was more protected. Just more cost cutting at work as the console lived on...
 
 

I received an A1 series 7800 main board in the mail recently where the owner stated it was working properly but was missing a pause button for some reason. Well, when I receive a 7800 system for services, one of the things I do is to pull up a test utility without any controllers plugged in. The reason for this is to ensure that the system controller ports are working properly.
But you ask... "How does not having any controllers plugged in, help to know if the ports are working properly?" Excellent question!
You see the TIA controls the trigger functions of the joysticks and depending on the mode the console is loaded up in, the components in use differ a little. But here was the issue with this one that might help explain things a little better...
The issue was after powering it up without a controller plugged, it the menu selector of the utility kept selecting the first option, exiting, entering...exiting over and over. This behavior was as if the fire button was being held down. But without a controller plugged in?! Quickly using the select and reset buttons on the console I was able to get into the controller test screen and this screen was telling me that not ONLY was the first fire button being pressed, but both fire buttons were showing as being pressed down. It was showing the same behavior on controller port 2 as well. 
Then I plug in an actual controller and.... it stops auto selecting options and now shows the fire buttons aren't being pressed. Pressing the fire buttons would activate normally. In other words with a controller plugged in, the console seems to work exactly as it should. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a problem here because technically without a controller plugged in, it shouldn't read anything at all. Plugging a controller into port 2, would also remove the condition on port 2 and make everything appear to be fine. So what is going on?
It turns out that the 7800 is pretty sensitive to the readings it gets from the controller ports and any deviation beyond a certain point will confuse the console. To correct the issue on this 7800 I had to replace at least 2 components and also replaced a 3rd for good measure. The main culprit was unfortunately the TIA chip. Yeap... I replaced the TIA because in most trigger issues the TIA is my first item to blame and usually that is correct, but it didn't solve everything in this case. I did confirm the TIA was faulty using my chip testing as it was showing an immediate fault with the Inputs and audio portions of the chip. Replacing the TIA solved half the issue. Basically controller port 1 was working properly now, but I was still getting errant trigger readings from port 2? This ended up being due to a marginal resistor located at R35. There is a pair of them that control each of the port readings in 2600 mode that each measure 220Ω. The one at R35 was only measuring 217Ω and while that should have been good enough, it was causing odd triggering issues. When I removed R35 from circuit, then the 7800 port 2 buttons were now working properly but of course, no fire button action in 2600 mode testing. So I replaced the resistor with a used one from another 7800 donor board. This replacement measures 221Ω and is much closer to the 220 reading than the original. Installed it, and sure enough everything is working properly again. There is also a 3906 transistor in this mix and it was also replaced out as they are cheap to have on hand and I've a few. But the two main issues were the TIA and this slightly out of spec drifted resistor at R35. Here is a pic of the console where I've outlined the components mentioned.

I received an A1 series 7800 main board in the mail recently where the owner stated it was working properly but was missing a pause button for some reason. Well, when I receive a 7800 system for services, one of the things I do is to pull up a test utility without any controllers plugged in. The reason for this is to ensure that the system controller ports are working properly.
But you ask... "How does not having any controllers plugged in, help to know if the ports are working properly?" Excellent question!
You see the TIA controls the trigger functions of the joysticks and depending on the mode the console is loaded up in, the components in use differ a little. But here was the issue with this one that might help explain things a little better...
The issue was after powering it up without a controller plugged, it the menu selector of the utility kept selecting the first option, exiting, entering...exiting over and over. This behavior was as if the fire button was being held down. But without a controller plugged in?! Quickly using the select and reset buttons on the console I was able to get into the controller test screen and this screen was telling me that not ONLY was the first fire button being pressed, but both fire buttons were showing as being pressed down. It was showing the same behavior on controller port 2 as well. 
Then I plug in an actual controller and.... it stops auto selecting options and now shows the fire buttons aren't being pressed. Pressing the fire buttons would activate normally. In other words with a controller plugged in, the console seems to work exactly as it should. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a problem here because technically without a controller plugged in, it shouldn't read anything at all. Plugging a controller into port 2, would also remove the condition on port 2 and make everything appear to be fine. So what is going on?
It turns out that the 7800 is pretty sensitive to the readings it gets from the controller ports and any deviation beyond a certain point will confuse the console. To correct the issue on this 7800 I had to replace at least 2 components and also replaced a 3rd for good measure. The main culprit was unfortunately the TIA chip. Yeap... I replaced the TIA because in most trigger issues the TIA is my first item to blame and usually that is correct, but it didn't solve everything in this case. I did confirm the TIA was faulty using my chip testing as it was showing an immediate fault with the Inputs and audio portions of the chip. Replacing the TIA solved half the issue. Basically controller port 1 was working properly now, but I was still getting errant trigger readings from port 2? This ended up being due to a marginal resistor located at R35. There is a pair of them that control each of the port readings in 2600 mode that each measure 220Ω. The one at R35 was only measuring 217Ω and while that should have been good enough, it was causing odd triggering issues. When I removed R35 from circuit, then the 7800 port 2 buttons were now working properly but of course, no fire button action in 2600 mode testing. So I replaced the resistor with a used one from another 7800 donor board. This replacement measures 221Ω and is much closer to the 220 reading than the original. Installed it, and sure enough everything is working properly again. There is also a 3906 transistor in this mix and it was also replaced out as they are cheap to have on hand and I've a few. But the two main issues were the TIA and this slightly out of spec drifted resistor at R35. Here is a pic of the console where I've outlined the components mentioned.

I received an A1 series 7800 main board in the mail recently where the owner stated it was working properly but was missing a pause button for some reason. Well, when I receive a 7800 system for services, one of the things I do is to pull up a test utility without any controllers plugged in. The reason for this is to ensure that the system controller ports are working properly.
But you ask... "How does not having any controllers plugged in, help to know if the ports are working properly?" Excellent question!
You see the TIA controls the trigger functions of the joysticks and depending on the mode the console is loaded up in, the components in use differ a little. But here was the issue with this one that might help explain things a little better...
The issue was after powering it up without a controller plugged, it the menu selector of the utility kept selecting the first option, exiting, entering...exiting over and over. This behavior was as if the fire button was being held down. But without a controller plugged in?! Quickly using the select and reset buttons on the console I was able to get into the controller test screen and this screen was telling me that not ONLY was the first fire button being pressed, but both fire buttons were showing as being pressed down. It was showing the same behavior on controller port 2 as well. 
Then I plug in an actual controller and.... it stops auto selecting options and now shows the fire buttons aren't being pressed. Pressing the fire buttons would activate normally. In other words with a controller plugged in, the console seems to work exactly as it should. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a problem here because technically without a controller plugged in, it shouldn't read anything at all. Plugging a controller into port 2, would also remove the condition on port 2 and make everything appear to be fine. So what is going on?
It turns out that the 7800 is pretty sensitive to the readings it gets from the controller ports and any deviation beyond a certain point will confuse the console. To correct the issue on this 7800 I had to replace at least 2 components and also replaced a 3rd for good measure. The main culprit was unfortunately the TIA chip. Yeap... I replaced the TIA because in most trigger issues the TIA is my first item to blame and usually that is correct, but it didn't solve everything in this case. I did confirm the TIA was faulty using my chip testing as it was showing an immediate fault with the Inputs and audio portions of the chip. Replacing the TIA solved half the issue. Basically controller port 1 was working properly now, but I was still getting errant trigger readings from port 2? This ended up being due to a marginal resistor located at R35. There is a pair of them that control each of the port readings in 2600 mode that each measure 220Ω. The one at R35 was only measuring 217Ω and while that should have been good enough, it was causing odd triggering issues. When I removed R35 from circuit, then the 7800 port 2 buttons were now working properly but of course, no fire button action in 2600 mode testing. So I replaced the resistor with a used one from another 7800 donor board. This replacement measures 221Ω and is much closer to the 220 reading than the original. Installed it, and sure enough everything is working properly again. There is also a 3906 transistor in this mix and it was also replaced out as they are cheap to have on hand and I've a few. But the two main issues were the TIA and this slightly out of spec drifted resistor at R35. Here is a pic of the console where I've outlined the components mentioned.