Atari Jaguar - There's Life in this Old Cat Yet!
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03-04-2023 7:32pm#1
One final thread before I take a few weeks break, and it's a new one for me....the Atari Jaguar! Ok so it's more like two Tabby's put together than a real big cat, but hey, it's an Atari machine, and for that alone, I like it!
The work today is two-fold, 1) a capacitor kit to ensure the console lives as happy as possible for another 30 years, and 2) a 50/60Hz switch, giving the ability to toggle region.
Re the switch, I was mulling over the idea of using a switchless Mastersystem kit like I've installed recently, but ultimately decided against it primarily because the Jag has no reset button. A button would be needed to trigger a region change, so I'd have to a) fit a momentary button on the Jag (really defeating the purpose, may as well just fit a switch in that case), or b) figure out some way to do it using controller logic - and that's more than I want to invest time wise into this, so I went with the switch.
I did however decide to do this without drilling holes in the case, meaning it's reversible if needed. The Jag case though, it's a tricky prospect to find a suitable location to mount a switch on, without ruining the looks. You could go with a micro-slider switch in one of the case grills perhaps, but I settled on removing the RF modulator, and using the hole which is revealed by doing so.
Anyway, onwards!
^^ The Jag itself. Quite a nice example, a bit dusty in places, but no major or obvious cosmetic damage. The majestic controller sits beside it, basking in 90s misguided design philosophy.
^^ A quick power on test, to ensure it works before I work on it.
^^ Yep, Doom running in 50Hz glory in '64' bits.
^^ Ok, time to get to work.
^^ Quite dusty in places.
^^ x4 screws to open the console up.
^^ I like this, July 1994 date stamp for the top case. Closing in on the big 3 0.
^^ A massive RF shield lies underneath.
^^ It's secured by (many) locking tabs.
^^ A twist here and a pry there...
^^ And we're in. It's a nice looking PCB, I like the bevel edging at the front.
^^ Quite clean inside as you'd expect. There's some dust here and there, but it's relatively shiny in most places.
^^ Two screws on the cart port, and two more down towards the front....just those four holding in the mainboard.
^^ That's the board fully out of the shell now, and we can get to work.
^^ The heart of the big cat....the cpu and dsp chips.
^^ The 68000 support chip. Seemingly and unfortunately chosen to do a lot more of the heavy lifting than it was intended to do. I'd have loved to see what the Jag was truly capable of.
^^ A cap kit from Digital Delights (thanks as always Mark).
^^ The first cap to fall...
^^ The two solder points just above the screwdriver tip here, that's the original solder holding a capacitor into place.
^^ In some places, the original solder doesn't flow well at all. So I had to add solder to the original solder to get it to flow.
^^ I've a feeling the thickness/layers of the pcb aren't transferring heat through to the other side. I've had to add solder to the component side of the board in this picture, because the vacuum pump isn't able to remove it from the underside.
^^ By heating the solder on the underside with the iron, and then heating the same point on the component side with the desoldering gun, the solder eventually flows and can be vacuumed away. This happened on maybe half of the caps on the board, slowing down the job significantly.
^^ Done, fully decapped.
^^ A quick clean of any excess flux on the underside, and we're ready to start soldering the new caps in.
^^ One down....18 more to go (on this board revision anyway.
^^ C93 is unpopulated on this board.
^^ Done, all caps replaced, legs trimmed, cleaned of flux, and ready to go.
^^ Time to test...
^^ Ok, no magic smoke....
^^ Working away with new caps, good stuff.
That's the cap kit done. The next part is to fit the region switch. The first step of doing that, is to remove the RF modulator from the system. I've an RGB scart cable for the Jag, and if I didn't I'd buy one because there's really little excuse these days to be using RF on a system that supports higher quality outputs like this. So bye bye RF (I'll retain the modulator as a spare anyway, should the bizarre need ever arise to reinstall it.)
^^ The RF Modulator. It's held in by three data connections, and x2 soldered securing tabs, all on the underside.
^^ Time to change the tip on the desoldering gun. The bigger tip is handy here for the locking tabs on the modulator.
^^ Easy enough to remove, just needs a cleaning up.
^^ All cleaned up now.
^^ Quick clean topside too
^^ I went with a 15mm panel mount switch, and mentioned by Mark in a Mark Fixes Stuff video (I'll embed below.)
^^ Metal fabrication etc is far from my strong point. The ideal part here would possibly be a step drill bit (though I'm not sure because the switch mount isn't circular), but I didn't have one to hand, and really wanted to finish this today...so I made some cuts, used some fatigue bending techniques, and then filed the edging down to a smooth finish. It's not a factory finish, but it's relatively neat, and smooth to touch too so it's safe for wiring.
^^ Just a weird unrelated thing on the PCB edging....black, red, and blue colouring in this corner for whatever reason?
^^ This is the part on the pcb that controls the region/display frequency. The two points are connected by a zero ohm resistor which we need to remove (this resistor sets the console to 50Hz, breaking the connection sets it to 60Hz).
^^ Two cores of ribbon wire will do nicely here. Just measure and cut to size.
^^ Resistor removed, and points tinned with fresh solder.
^^ Wires tinned, and then soldered into place.
^^ Solder points insulated, and wire routing sorted, all held down with some strips of kapton tape.
^^ There's a handy notch in the pcb where the modulator tab was, this allows thew wires to pass through to the top side of the pcb without being pinched etc.
^^ Wires soldered to the panel switch, and then the switch in installed in the RF shielding hole.
^^ It's a snug fit. I'm happy that I didn't have to butcher the shell by drilling holes in it.
^^ RF Shield back in place, and locked down with tabs. I'm tempting faith a bit here by not testing it beforehand...
^^ A better view of the switch, it's a nice fit all things considered.
^^ It powers up...
^^ Ok, 50Hz. Massive black borders top and bottom of the screen.
^^ Full screen 60Hz goodness! It works perfectly.
^^ Another example, look at the size of the bottom border in Flashback @50Hz! Then compare it to the bottom image, the playfield is significantly bigger.
Job done. The inspiration for the job was from Mark of Mark Fixes Stuff fame....see the video below for Mark's version of the mod.
That's all for now, time to cool down the soldering iron, change the filter in the desoldering gun, and spool up my solder for a few weeks!
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Join Date:Posts: 50016
Nice Tempest 2000 machine.
Speaking of the Atari Jaguar, I remember wanting one as well but knowing it was well outside what my parents could afford. There was a showcase for the system on gamesmaster and I thought it looked incredible. Can't believe there was a point where I thought Trevor Mc Fur looked good but as retronauts recently said it was definitely the second best space shooter featuring anthropomorphic animals released in 1993.
The Playstation and Saturn also felt mystical for me. My parents lack of money and distaste for my interest in videogames meant I only got one once the price have bottomed out. I was so jealous of the early PS1 years as they were some of the most exciting in videogames and could only partake by playing them over in a friends house.
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Join Date:Posts: 50016
Hard to find concrete evidence but most list the retail price at £199 in the UK. The Megadrive and SNES at the time had dropped to £99 with big game bundles. The US price is $249 which I imagine would have meant a £250 -299 price. Wikipedia says 199-299, which means little. The PS1 launched at £299 so the Jag wasn't that over priced.
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Just a small and boring update to this thread. The two capacitors located at C134 and C150 are supposed to be Low ESR caps. These two caps in the above cap kit were originally sent as non Low ESR (Mark has now resolved this, so future cap kits will be fine.) The problem manifests as an audible hiss from the coil located at L29. I know cats can hiss, but not like this ☺️
Anyway, Mark sent me the proper caps for these two locations, and I got some time to throw them in today. Hiss noise is now significantly reduced, and I can only hear it if I put my ear to the console. All's well that ends well. More info here - http://blog.worldofjani.com/?p=7199
^^ Old Caps shown here. The coil can be seen just below them.
^^ New Low ESR caps in place. No more hissing!
Post edited by Inviere on3
