AV-mod and Power-mod for 5200 SuperSystem

[WERY]

After the success with the AV-mod on my Odyssey 2, I decided to start with 5200. I only like the 4-portversion so I have to fix the powermod as well since that version was supplied with both power and RF through one cable that went into a switchbox.

To begin with, there are three things to remove from the motherboard. RF cable, capacitor C45 and inductor L8.

It looks like this when all three of them are removed. Those 2 holes in the middle between + and – shall not be used at all so leave them empty. Those 2 holes that lies closest to the RF shield on + and – shall have the replacing capacitor of 47uF, 63 and it has to be connected with the right polarity. On the other two holes that remain there should be the cables that goes to the DC jack and the + cable will be solered or connected to a diode that ensures the direct current. On the inside of the DC jack there should be a capacitor between + and – of 0,1uF.

The rest of the powermod was not documented further in pictures but her is a list of required parts for modifyiing a 5200:

DC-jack chassi 2,5-5,5 mm
Electrolyte Capacitor 47uF, 63V
Capacitor 0,1uF, 50V
Diode 3A, 100V, 1N5401
Cable that is thick enough in its area

Lets have a look at the picture. There is a couple of resistors that lies in the upper right corner within the RF-shield. LUMA are the signals that has to be amplified while CHROMA and AUDIO can go without it. These resistors are here:

AUDIO is located further down on the board to the right of R40. AUDIO was given a red cable, CHROMA was given a brown one, SYNC has the black cable and LUMA got the yellow ones.

Here is the AV-card that I built. Even if the circuits took much place I managed to get them all in place and solder them in the right way. The +5V power was taken from a random resistor near the powerswitch. You can take it from anywhere in the console as long as it is'nt more than +5V.

The schematics I followed was originally written in wordpad so I draw my own to make it easier for myself to understand it. It should look like this and you get both C-Video and S-Video from that as long as you got both of the jacks

This is the rear now when the modification is done.To the left is the DC-jack, to the right is the AUDIO and C-Video. I had no drill with matching size to the S-videojack so I save it for later but the AV-card is ready for S-Video so I just have to put it in place

The mod worked at once. I started early in the morning and was done with the mod the same day and that is a new record. It was a good day for modifying

Pac-Man on 5200 is more like the arcadeversion than the VCS version(captain-obvious)

The picture looks better than this but that TV is not as good as my other one at displaying the signal from the 5200

AV-mod needs these parts:

RCA jacks Phono 2x  (red and yellow)
S-Video jack MiniDIN 4-pol
Diode 1A, 1000V, 1N4007
Resistors:
10 ohm
75/82 ohm 2x
750 ohm
1,6 kohm
2 kohm 2x
4,7 kohm
9,1 kohm
18 kohm
36 khom (or 2x 18 kohm in serial connection)
Capacitors:
1uF, 50V, Ceramic
10uF, 63V, Electrolyte
100uF, 63V, Electrolyte
Transistor 2N3904, 40V, 0,2A, NPN
Small cables in different colors


It is sort of complicated to do this mod but yet easy as I newer done it this quickly.

[jamisonai]

There is another board revision of the Atari 5200.  I tried doing this mod and found I only got black and white.  Sometimes you have to tap chroma from the last resistor to the right, not the one that you did.  The silkscreening on my board was also opposite of yours.  

At why don't you install an s-video jack instead of putting it together?  You have a CRT you'll better video quality using s-video.   

[WERY]

Well I guess I had the boardrevision that works fine this way

I got an S-Video jack to connect but I lack the drill that fits for the job. All drills I have are to small for the S-Video jack so I cant put it on for the moment. But the modification is ready for both C-Video and S-Video so when I got the drill to make a hole big enough for the better output, I will put it on