For those hunting for a diagnostic cart..

[keilbaca]

Here's mine, the blue shorting plugs are more black than blue. The Diag cart has MAO17600 hand written on a label on the back, the signal tracing cart only has the white label on the front.

 

The book is complete with all the revision notes too. I've used this quite a bit it's come in handy over the years.

 

Chuck

 

410335[/snapback]

 

Did they make different versions of the field manual? Because my front cover is a yellow cardboard with black lettering, and shiny, like someone might have laminated it before I ended up with it.

 

I would like to get ahold of a diagnostics cart and a set of plugs though, homemade or not.

Edited October 25, 2005 by keilbaca

[video game addict]

WorldofAtari.com sells the carts. I would think someone has the plugs Best maybe? I don't know if world of atari has them or not?

[+Mitch]

The plugs aren't that hard to build just a couple of resistors and an LED soldered to a 9 pin connector. I built my own for the 7800 version.

 

Mitch

[A.J. Franzman]

The plugs aren't that hard to build just a couple of resistors and an LED soldered to a 9 pin connector. I built my own for the 7800 version.

954407[/snapback]

Does someone have a schematic of the shorting plugs yet? I saw some female DE-9 plugs like those at my local Fry's.

Edited March 5, 2007 by A.J. Franzman

[+Mitch]

The plugs aren't that hard to build just a couple of resistors and an LED soldered to a 9 pin connector. I built my own for the 7800 version.

954407[/snapback]

Does someone have a schematic of the shorting plugs yet? I saw those exact (blue) female DB9 plugs at my local Fry's.

954518[/snapback]

 

I don't think there is a schematic for the 2600 ones. If I can remember where I put mine I could probably draw one fairly quickly.

 

Mitch

[A.J. Franzman]

I found this diagram online, but there are some errors, omissions, and other minor flaws which render it incomplete and unusable as-is:

 

 

Can someone tell me what the actual type, value (and polarity, if needed) of the component identified as "cap?" are? I've emailed the drawing's creator and now he seems to think it's a diode. I believe you should be able to identify it using a multimeter with diode check and capacitance functions by probing pin positions 1 and 6 (not 5 and 6 as drawn above), which will be at the right side of the plug if you're looking at the end that goes into the console.

 

EDIT: The correct info has been determined; see post #42 for revised diagram.

Edited October 2, 2007 by A.J. Franzman

[djmips]

If worst comes to worst we could take a puzzle over the disassembly of the ROM and possibly infer the hardware components.

[A.J. Franzman]

I think there are enough of us who have the plugs that someone should be able to identify this last component, even without trying to remove the epoxy. I've figured out the correct resistor values, pin numbering, LED polarity, etc. already; that's the last thing I need to make a corrected drawing.

Edited February 28, 2007 by A.J. Franzman

[+Mitch]

I'm pretty sure it's a diode, cathode to pin1. It looks like something in the 1N914/1N4148 range.

 

Mitch

[revsdr]

for the new folks "me" ....what will be diffrent when the game is turned on......

will it be totally diffrent then the regular game?

[+Mitch]

for the new folks "me" ....what will be diffrent when the game is turned on......

will it be totally diffrent then the regular game?

 

 

It's a diagnostic cartridge not a game, it shows different shapes and colors to help fix your 2600.

The plug is to test the joystick ports and some other stuff.

 

Mitch

[revsdr]

for the new folks "me" ....what will be diffrent when the game is turned on......

will it be totally diffrent then the regular game?

 

 

It's a diagnostic cartridge not a game, it shows different shapes and colors to help fix your 2600.

The plug is to test the joystick ports and some other stuff.

 

Mitch

 

ok....i was refering to this part of the first post.

They either came with no label or in a Video Olympics case. In other words, you like me may have passed over a 100 Video Olympics carts not realizing one of them might ACTUALLY have been the diagnostic cart.

so i guess i will try em all and hope for one to have the items you described....

[djmips]

http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html...wareLabelID=139

 

Looks like

 

http://www.atariage.com/screenshot_page.ht...wareLabelID=139

[CPUWIZ]

I'm pretty sure it's a diode, cathode to pin1. It looks like something in the 1N914/1N4148 range.

 

Mitch

 

I have at least 5 of the blue diagnostic plugs, I'll crack one open on the weekend. Didn't know anyone actually cared.

[A.J. Franzman]

They either came with no label or in a Video Olympics case. In other words, you like me may have passed over a 100 Video Olympics carts not realizing one of them might ACTUALLY have been the diagnostic cart.

so i guess i will try em all and hope for one to have the items you described....

If you go back and read from the beginning through post #14 again, you'll see that they actually came in several different common game cases, as well as cases without game labels. But they all seem to have had a dayglow greenish-yellow sticker to identify them. So, I wouldn't go around buying every Video Olympics cart, but if you happen upon one that has a sticker like in post #2, or some remains or adhesive residue that looks like it might have had one, then go for it. Edited April 28, 2007 by A.J. Franzman

[revsdr]

They either came with no label or in a Video Olympics case. In other words, you like me may have passed over a 100 Video Olympics carts not realizing one of them might ACTUALLY have been the diagnostic cart.

so i guess i will try em all and hope for one to have the items you described....

If you go back and read again, you'll see that they actually came in several different common game cases. But they all seem to have had a dayglow greenish-yellow label to identify them. So, I wouldn't go around buying every Video Olympics cart, but if you happen upon one that has a label like in post #2, or some remains or adhesive residue that looks like it might have had one, then go for it.

cool thanks.

[A.J. Franzman]

I have verified that the test plugs appear to work properly with a diode between pins 1 and 6 as shown below; as far as I'm concerned, there's now no longer any need for anyone to try to remove the epoxy from any original test plugs to confirm this.

 

Here's my revised version of the diagram, please let me know if there are any errors I missed. Also, a photo of one that I built using tiny 1/8 watt through-hole resistors. (The plugs are available at Fry's, not quite an exact match to the originals but pretty close. They come with an additional cover piece that's supposed to go on before the outer cover shown, but the inner cover won't fit with the components in place.):

The LED should be installed in the position shown in the second pic so that it will be visible when the plug is inserted into the console and not shining toward the ground.

 

Some additional info for the less knowledgeable:

The gold band mentioned on all of the resistors indicates tolerance, and is in lowercase in the diagram because it's not important in this case. Although gold (+/- 5%) is the most common color, there are several other colors around including silver (10%), red (2%), brown (1%) and green (0.5%), any of which should work fine in this circuit (1% and better are typically 5-band resistors; colors of the 3rd and 4th bands will be different than the 3rd band listed above). The tolerance band is read last, and can often be identified by its being a wider or narrower band, or having a wider gap between it and the next band nearest to it. Also, a metallic-colored band will only ever be in the last or (rarely) next-to-last position. Resistors do not have polarity so can be installed in either orientation.

 

The diode can be any small-signal general-purpose or switching type; the two type numbers given in the drawing are among the most common. Diodes like these are typically packaged as small clear glass cylinders with red metal electrodes visible inside and a stripe near one end to indicate the cathode lead (usually black but sometimes another color -- as you can see in my photo).

 

Any type of LED that will light visibly at about 5 mA can be used. After assembling the plugs, test them on a known-good console (using any cartridge); if the LEDs do not light when the console is powered on, try unsoldering and reversing them -- sometimes LEDs get mis-assembled with the wrong lead identified as the cathode (I have about 20 rectangular green LEDs made with the anode as the shorter lead instead of the cathode). The LEDs light to indicate that the controller port power connections on pins 7 and 8 are good -- no other diagnostic info is implied by the LEDs; for anything else you will need to use the Diagnostic Test Cartridge.

 

To use the diagnostic cartridge and test plugs, see the 2600 Domestic Field Service Manual (if you don't have one, download a .PDF copy from AtariGuide Care & Repair, or Wayback Machine: AtariGuide Care & Repair if their website is down). The pertinent info appears in two places, beginning on pages 3-7 (.PDF page 33) through 3-14 (.PDF page 40), then repeated on pages 4-35 (.PDF page 79) through 4-44 (.PDF page 88). However, not all of the info is present in both places! To build a more complete quick reference manual to use with the Diagnostic Test Cartridge, print and assemble the following .PDF file pages:

33, 34, 35, 36, 83*, 37, 38, 86, 39, 40, 88

*on page 4-39 (83), change the reference in the last sentence from "Figure 4-4" to "Figure 3-9"

Edited December 6, 2007 by A.J. Franzman

[A.J. Franzman]

Here are some pics of the Diagnostic Test Cartridge screens (version 2.6).

 

A) bad RAM screen -- you're not supposed to see this one! Different patterns of diagonal stripes or zigzags will appear depending on the specific fault.

 

B) color bars screen (photo is a bit washed out in the center but near the edges you can see there are more stripes)

 

C) black & white bars screen (also washed out)

 

D) audio screen 1

 

E) audio screen 2

 

F) good I/O test w/ plugs out (large central rectangle may also be green like the outer ones)

 

G) good I/O test w/ plugs in (ditto on center rectangle)

 

When inserting a DTC, depending on your console RAM's condition and switch settings you should see one of the above screens A, B, C or F; or screens D and E alternating once per second with accompanying high and low tones. If you bought a common cartridge like Video Olympics, Sky Diver, Circus Atari, etc. and saw a screen like that instead of the game you were expecting, congratulations, you found a very rare original DTC! Too bad you probably threw it away thinking it was no good!

 

Screen B shows a properly adjusted color pot: near the bottom is a narrow gray stripe, and both stripes above and below the gray stripe are about the same color. In my opinion, the stripe above the gray stripe should be slightly "greener" than the one below, to give the full range of colors the console can produce. You should let the console warm up for at least 5 minutes before making this adjustment, as I noticed for the first time when using this cartridge that the color drifts quite a bit in the first few minutes.

 

The I/O test screen (photos F and G above) also diagnoses the Game Select and Game Reset switches -- parts of the large rectangle at bottom center black out when each is pressed.

Edited December 6, 2007 by A.J. Franzman

[A.J. Franzman]

BTW, I've seen reference to the Diagnostic Test Cartridge as the "SALT" cartridge (with accompanying "SALT" plugs). I don't recall seeing this term on any of the cartridge labels shown in this topic, or in the Field Service Manual; where does it come from? What does it stand for?

 

Also, the Best Electronics DTC labels read "CPS 2600™ DIAGNOSTIC TEST CARTRIDGE 2.6". Does anyone know what the "CPS" stands for?

[djmips]

BTW, I've seen reference to the Diagnostic Test Cartridge as the "SALT" cartridge (with accompanying "SALT" plugs). I don't recall seeing this term on any of the cartridge labels shown in this topic, or in the Field Service Manual; where does it come from? What does it stand for?

 

Also, the Best Electronics DTC labels read "CPS 2600™ DIAGNOSTIC TEST CARTRIDGE 2.6". Does anyone know what the "CPS" stands for?

 

Stand ALone Test cartridge.

[djmips]

CPS = Consumer Products Service, a division of Atari.

[A.J. Franzman]

Thanks!

[Syntaxerror999]

Heres a question Ive always wanted to know.... The boxes on the left are supose to represent the data lines to the chips...and the ones on the right are labled nit used in the Feild Manual...do they serve any purpose at all (like for PAL consoles) or are they there cause of the way the atari draws (mirror)

[Bodyshots]

Does anyone know of a place that has a similar plug that A.J.Franzman used? Fry's no longer carries it. Checked out a couple other of my favourites, and no go. I just prefer this neat and compact looking plug instead of hacking up a cord.

[alex_79]

Search for "idc plastic db9".

Some results:

http://www.circuitspecialists.com/fde-09sm.html

 

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&pa=12521&productId=12521&CID=TFMC

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DZNIP6/ref=asc_df_B005DZNIP63194078?tag=thefind0258150-20&creative=395261&creativeASIN=B005DZNIP6&linkCode=asn

 

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/A-DFF09LPIII%2FFP-R/HFP09H-ND/924272