Taking time off...

I'm gonna vent my frustrations here. 

I'm taking time off from any and all electronics work for the rest of the month. I have failed a few mod projects in the past couple weeks. I also just had some loathing projects that I was "asked" to do. Add the frustrations from work along with getting my kids to do their online school work, I'm done. 

I tried to install an LCD conversion into my Game Gear. I've already butchered 2 of the 3 that I have for this dumb project, and for the life of me, I can't get the LCD backlight to turn on. There might be one step that I missed, but I'm too tired to even solder that one wire that's needed. 

The Arcade 1up is pretty much done, but that zapped the life out of me to figure out. I still need to work on my RPi cab myself. All that I need to do for my RPi cab is to wire up the speakers for stereo. There's still some work to do on the 1up cab, but I really am done looking at that damn thing.

The icing on the cake was a PS4 that I was trying to get to do an updated jailbreak done to it. I've spent hours trying to get it to work, only to get it to work one time. I've been trying again today to get it go, but it kept crashing...and crashing...and crashing...I had enough and smashed it. It was a spare one that I got for free, so I don't really care about it.

I honestly haven't been fully playing games for months now. I think it's time that I get back to it. I just got Ghost of Tsushima for PS4, so I'm gonna spend time playing that. I'm probably gonna pick up Jedi Fallen Order and get that at least loaded on to my PS4 before playing it.

I just need my metal break from...everything...So, I guess I'll hopefully start posting again in May.

Coleco Gemini A/V/S mod done!

I've had this Coleco Gemini for a while. I recall that my mom got it used from a friend with a ton of games and gave it to me for one of my birthdays. I've had it since, and it's been deep cleaned and put away since I moved to OR. For the longest time, I've always wanted to get this thing modded so I didn't have to use RF anymore. So, while modding the Atari 5200, the installation manual for the UAV had detailed instructions on how to install one into a Coleco Gemini.

...you can figure what needed to happen next.

I ordered 2 UAV's (one for the Jr, another for the Gemini). I've already posted what became of the Jr after modding it...no, I haven't found a solution just yet. I'm gonna have to revisit this on another day...might need to seek out another one to swap out parts with.

The Coleco Gemini. Coleco's variant of the Atari 2600. Other than the fading of the metallic labels, still working like a champ. There used to be a service sticker on the upper left of the front, but I removed it since it was already scratched up, and I'm sure the service number was no longer in service.

The mainobard. Per the instructions, I soldered to the TIA equivalent in this console to the proper points of the UAV. Audio was taken from a point above R23 (south solder point of R43, which is unoccupied). There is another variant of the Gemini that has Audio from a different point, and the installation instructions documents this very well.

 I told myself that I wouldn't use the Nintendo Multiout connector on this one, but before I snapped to, I already carved the case out to fit the printed Multiout part...Don't work late on mods, kids. I figured that there was no harm in doing that, but I also decided to add standard S-video jack as well as RCAs for composite and audio out. Audio is mono, so I just linked both left and right RCAs together. I was proud on how I was able to fit the S-video jack nicely into the case, but then I realized...

The hole that I made for the S-video jack was too close to the screw boss for one of the case screws. The other time I did this was for my Sega Master System S-video mod, but that was just barely missed the screw boss. This one hit it just right. I took my defeat and cut the screw boss out. The mainboard itself has screws holding it down, so I'm not to worried about board flex...but still, it's upsetting that I didn't think ahead.

The Muliout connector was epoxied into place to the top half of the case. I had to remove a component required for RF removed so that the connector could fit. It still bumps the board a bit, but I laid some kapton tape over the surrounding components. 

Other than the screw boss faux pax, everything works perfectly. Happy to have this thing finally modded to use with most of my stuff. It does look pretty decent through the RetroTINK that I have.

I'm in the middle of the Game Gear mod, but I'm still waiting for some components to come in. Finally finished the Dreamcast ODE mod. It took a long while for it to come in, but I finally got that installed. I'll post on that later.

Atari 2600 Jr. video mod done...?

...just take a little journey with me.

I ordered 2 UAV's for my Atari 2600 Jr. and my Coleco Gemini. Similar to the Atari 5200 I finished a while back, this board will supply S-video and composite video to these consoles. I loved how well it worked on the 5200, I thought it was time to show my 2600's some love.

Now, I already modified my original Sears branded 2600 with a different board. That works perfectly. But, I really want all my older consoles to have a video out better than the original RF signal.

I got my Jr. out from storage and started to take it apart. Like the 5200, I removed the 4050 IC to replace it with the UAV.

The UAV (the white board on there) sits where the 4050 once was.

A little closer shot of it. I soldered in the jumpers as per the UAV instructions. 

Instead of having connectors sticking out the side similar to how I had my TG16 before, I opted to put a Nintendo Multiout connector again...like how I "updated" the TG16. I used super glue to get it to stay in position for testing, then later epoxied it into place. I kinda wish I didn't do that, because the connector is really tight, so it takes some work to get it in the port, let alone getting it out from there.

It took some time to get the casing filed down for the 3d printed part to fit. I did manage to get it to look a lot more even after taking this pic.

All connected. Ready for testing.

Here's the better fitment of the connector. At this point, it's all epoxied into place.

Used Joust to test the installation. The background of the title screen should be black. Instead, I have this gray. It makes it hard to see the enemies when in game. I'm not sure if there's something wrong with the installation or the actual Jr was messed up and I don't recall issues when I tested it ages ago. 

I'm trying to ask around to see if anyone might know what's going on. So far, I got nothing. I may try to replace the TIA in it. But for now, success? I'm not gonna be defeated by this.