AY-3-8500-1, PONG chip question.

daver2 said:

>>> What does the red button on the left do? Reset?

It is probably reset on pin 25.

Dave

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Yep, that's the reset button and next to it the power on LED

seat safety switch said:

The Archer protoboard adds just that little extra vibe to it. Pretty cool!

What does the red button on the left do? Reset? I can't quite follow where its wires end up on the board. The rotary DIP is a classy solution for selecting the game, too.

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Yep, that's the reset button. You can't see the connection, but it goes to pin 25 and there is a cap as well. Also two diodes that prevent a couple of games from interfering when it boots up - as is on the datasheet.

BTW: when I said that I had "exhaustively cleaned" the paddles and they were still choppy, what I mean by exhaustively clean is to spray the piss out of them using some cleaner.

Today, I did some background reading and found this guy's site where he does a very good job of explaining exactly the stages of cleaning these old Atari paddles. The stages range from spraying the piss out of them all the way to replacement. He did a good job, I think, see https://retrogamestart.com/answers/...ler-fix-potentiometer-cleaning-or-replacement Also a uvid here
So I am taking the pots apart and cleaning them....



Look at all this junk? What is that gray stuff, looks/feels like dried lithium grease - is that common inside a pot? The vid linked above adds some grease after cleaning but to the other side. I have finished one, using alcohol and a fiberglass pen and Q-tips and will work on the other one soon. I am surprised they were woring at all.

Best Electronics has a pretty long page about the research they did to find good modern replacement pots.

seat safety switch said:

Best Electronics has a pretty long page about the research they did to find good modern replacement pots.

https://www.best-electronics-ca.com/S5%20Super%20Pot.htm

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Thanks for the link. Apparently this issue is very well known. In any event, opening the pots up and giving them a good cleaning made a very big difference and they are no longer choppy,

If you get tired of scrounging for working paddle parts (as I did), the latest incarnation of Atari started making new paddles at the end of last year. I got a pair for Christmas, and they're surprisingly good.

Reaperducer said:

If you get tired of scrounging for working paddle parts (as I did), the latest incarnation of Atari started making new paddles at the end of last year. I got a pair for Christmas, and they're surprisingly good.

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Is the latest incarnation this one? Do you know how it is doing, sales-wise? It just seems like there is a lot of "modern retro".

syzygy said:

Is the latest incarnation this one? Do you know how it is doing, sales-wise? It just seems like there is a lot of "modern retro".

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That's the one.

Hard-core Atari enthusiasts say it's doing well, but I don't know how reliable they are as a source.

I'm not a fan of the new company because it's also into crypto. But hey, new paddles!

syzygy said:

...I could make uses of a selection of old wall warts (you know, the negative tip, unregulated, AC, all the odd balls that I have saved for no particular reason)

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