31 replies to this topic

[MegaManFan]

When I fired up my Atari 7800 tonight, Cuttle Cart reported "No MMC detected." I thought maybe the memory had gone bad, so I pulled out my cart and pulled up on the MMC in the slot, which was wedged pretty tight for some reason. I didn't apply excess pressure, but I did pull on it firmly with two fingers and a little nail, and got it out. Once it came out I heard a funny noise, like a little bit of plastic moving, so thinking something was amiss I started to put the MMC back in. I discovered it went ALL the way in, too far to catch in the read slot, so I pulled back again - at that point I noticed a "rattle" like when you have a loose part inside of a badly assembled cart. Hoh boy - it looks like the whole read slot came de-attached and fell into the case. Now the cart still boots up and says "no MMC detected" but needless to say this is pretty useless. I need an expert - CPUWIZ, Curt Schell, somebody ANYBODY to tell me if this is reparable and/or worth fixing. I'm pretty bummed right now.

[batari]

This has happened to a few people, unfortunately with them, a chip below the card slot was sheared off. Take a pic, that will tell us the extent of the damage.

[MegaManFan]

Okay, it's been a long time since I took apart or assembled a cartridge (years ago at PhillyCon in Albert's hotel room) so I need to know how much force to apply to pry this thing apart. If it's already damaged I don't want to make it worse and break this thing completely to pieces.

[batari]

I believe the CC2 doesn't have a screw in it, so opening would just be a matter of squeezing the sides of the label-side half of the shell with your fingers on one edge and your thumb and the edge of your palm on another while gently pulling the two halves apart.

If that doesn't make sense, I'll just say that it's easier to show than to explain the technique (which Albert also showed me in his hotel room )

[GroovyBee]

The lugs holding the cart together can be pretty tight. You might want to use a lolly stick to slide along the aperture when you start to get the cart halves apart.

[MegaManFan]

Alright, I got the cart apart. I think I applied too much force - scared the crap out of me. To be honest looking at the innards I have a hard time determining what held the MMC's in place. Oh, and my cat "tried" to help.

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Edited by MegaManFan, Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:47 AM.

[GroovyBee]

When you get it fixed you need to get a POKEY too.

[MegaManFan]

Pokey? As in a hoosegow? As in the big house? Well not that I wouldn't want to put my "assistant" Tango in one sometimes.

Okay, I can sort of see where the mount to the MMC slot belongs, but I don't know if it's supposed to be snug and if I push down the connector pins sound like I'm playing the world's smallest musical instrument. I don't know if it will make contact this way or if it's supposed to "slide/snap" in, or what's going to keep it from falling out again even if I just put it where it looks like it belongs and slap this puppy shut.

[GroovyBee]

MegaManFan, on Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:53 AM, said:

Pokey? As in a hoosegow? As in the big house? Well not that I wouldn't want to put my "assistant" Tango in one sometimes.

As in POKEY the Atari sound chip. Ballblazer and Commando as well as a couple of homebrews will sound much, much better when you do.

[MegaManFan]

GroovyBee, on Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:57 AM, said:

MegaManFan, on Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:53 AM, said:

Pokey? As in a hoosegow? As in the big house? Well not that I wouldn't want to put my "assistant" Tango in one sometimes.

As in POKEY the Atari sound chip. Ballblazer and Commando as well as a couple of homebrews will sound much, much better when you do.

OH! Duh. *slaps forehead* I've never been willing to harvest a Pitfall II for that purpose. I only have two of them, and they each play the theme song at a completely different pitch (no idea why). If I found another in the wild I might take it apart to get a Pokey, but they're not as common as people think. But anyway I'm still stumped as to whether I should just push the slot holder down, snap it together and pray or whether this "fits together" or "slides in" to hold it in a way I'm not expecting. (Ye olde flap A into ye old slot B.)

[GroovyBee]

MegaManFan, on Sat Jul 16, 2011 2:08 AM, said:

I've never been willing to harvest a Pitfall II for that purpose.

Pitfall II has its own sound/graphics ASIC. You should be able to get a POKEY from B&C for $10 (not including P&P).

[batari]

I can't tell if any chips below the MMC are damaged. If you can take a zoomed-in pic of just the area of the board around and under the MMC, that would be better. Use macro mode on your camera (usually a flower icon) if you have it.

[MegaManFan]

Okay, it's clearly late at night and I'm tired/exhausted/confused. I'm mixing up the extra chip in Pitfall II for something entirely different, which is my fault because I had a Pitfall II in the case I pulled my Cuttle Cart and 7800 games out of.

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I can't tell if any chips below the MMC are damaged. If you can take a zoomed-in pic of just the area of the board around and under the MMC, that would be better. Use macro mode on your camera (usually a flower icon) if you have it.

I'll try to do that.

Edited by MegaManFan, Sat Jul 16, 2011 2:29 AM.

[MegaManFan]

Apologies if these pics are big. I used flower mode and selected "highest quality" exporting from iPhoto.

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[batari]

You're in luck - the parts below the card slot all look intact, so this is definitely fixable, and shouldn't be too hard to do.

The question is if the plastic card slot shell is salvageable. If not, I think I remember reading that Chad kept a few spare card slots around. Might send him an email.

[MegaManFan]

It almost (almost) seems like I could just put it back together with all the pieces in the right place, but of course once I snap it shut the MMC slot holder falls right back out again. If Curt doesn't have any parts, is this the kind of thing where I could get away with a dab of glue? Again I don't know how tight this slot needs to sit on the pins underneath it.

PS: I've sent Curt an e-mail through the feedback form on his site.

Edited by MegaManFan, Sat Jul 16, 2011 3:09 AM.

[Richard H.]

I have all the sockets Chad had left (they are an obsolete part now). He sent them to me a while back as I was doing Cuttle cart repairs on a regular basis.

PM me your address and I'll get one sent to you.

BTW it's an easy solder job.

[Mayhem]

Richard has already fixed at least one other CC2 in the past, so he knows what's what

[MegaManFan]

Richard H., on Sat Jul 16, 2011 6:23 AM, said:

I have all the sockets Chad had left (they are an obsolete part now). He sent them to me a while back as I was doing Cuttle cart repairs on a regular basis.

PM me your address and I'll get one sent to you.

BTW it's an easy solder job.

AWESOME! Except err, I haven't owned a soldering iron, breadboard or any DIY hobbyist electronics equipment in ten or more years. But anyway I'll PM you.

[HammR25]

It's pretty obvious your cat did it. I bet it was jealous.

[Mitch]

I don't see any problems with the board. The plastic MMC holder should be able to slide back on to the pins. Just be careful and don't bend the contact pins.

Mitch

[MegaManFan]

HammR25, on Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:51 PM, said:

It's pretty obvious your cat did it. I bet it was jealous.

Ironically that's not entirely impossible, for both humor value and real implications:

* Humor answer - he goes nuts for dried fish, so he saw CUTTLE and tried to eat it.
* Real answer - he's a bug hunter, and may have mashed it trying to get to one in my Atari cabinet.

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I don't see any problems with the board. The plastic MMC holder should be able to slide back on to the pins. Just be careful and don't bend the contact pins.

Mitch

Okay, why for are we all talking about solder then? This is a step I'd rather avoid if possible, but when you say "slide back onto the pins" I'm not sure how - do the pins fit into the MMC holder like a jigsaw piece? And what's going to keep it there when I snap it shut if it fell off to begin with? Not trying to be a dunce here, but I'm trying not to make things worse since the cart still works right now (even though obviously it can't read a MMC with no card holder).

Edited by MegaManFan, Sat Jul 16, 2011 11:46 PM.

[Richard H.]

I'll get your socket sent in the morning.

The weak point with these are the length of the tabs (which fit matching holes on the PCB). They're designed to stop what happened to yours, but they do a pretty poor job.

I recommend hot glue along the bottom edge of the socket as a double precaution.

[MegaManFan]

Richard H., on Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:48 AM, said:

I'll get your socket sent in the morning.

The weak point with these are the length of the tabs (which fit matching holes on the PCB). They're designed to stop what happened to yours, but they do a pretty poor job.

I recommend hot glue along the bottom edge of the socket as a double precaution.

Thanks Richard! I suppose I'll look forward to having a repair project in a week or so if the post delivers the part properly. I'll post publicly when it comes so you can properly prepare me for the process!

[Mitch]

OK, here's a few pictures to explain what I mean.

Picture one is with the plastic socket removed from the CC2.

Picture two shows the socket partially installed. Note that the lower plastic lip of the socket has to go under the metal pins.

Picture 3 shows the socket almost all the way installed. Once you get to this point, you just need to slide the socket up a bit more so that it will "pop" into place.

Also, I should mention that the pins are pretty delicate. I used the tip of a knife to lift them slightly when installing the socket.

Mitch

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