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CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
856
126
B229RhN.jpg


Replaces the one I had years ago...
xqtl0MN.jpg


It's non-TMSS, which means it's so old it lacks the "Licensed by Sega" messages that delay games on later consoles and works with a few unlicensed Accolade games those don't work with. Sold my last one in 2018 and regretted it ever since. :(

Also got this controller last week and the USB hub multitap replica the week before that:
tuVvQo0.jpg


Goes with the TurboGrafx Mini, of course, which ain't very "mini." I checked...
rnZltyu.jpg
 
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snoopy7548

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2005
8,048
5,043
146
B229RhN.jpg


Replaces the one I had years ago...
xqtl0MN.jpg


It's non-TMSS, which means it's so old it lacks the "Licensed by Sega" messages that delay games on later consoles and works with a few unlicensed Accolade games those don't work with. Sold my last one in 2018 and regretted it ever since. :(

Also got this controller last week and the USB hub multitap replica the week before that:
tuVvQo0.jpg


Goes with the TurboGrafx Mini, of course, which ain't very "mini." I checked...
rnZltyu.jpg

Thumbs up on the non-TMSS version. I bought one a few years ago off eBay, along with a model 1 Sega CD. I think the Sega CD was $70 or so, which was a steal compared to what they're going for now.

The Sega CD was non-working, but it just needed to have a fuse replaced; cosmetically it's perfect.
 
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CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
856
126
Thumbs up on the non-TMSS version. I bought one a few years ago off eBay, along with a model 1 Sega CD. I think the Sega CD was $70 or so, which was a steal compared to what they're going for now.

The Sega CD was non-working, but it just needed to have a fuse replaced; cosmetically it's perfect.
Yeah. They are notorious for that since they blow their fuse if you so much as look at them funny! I got mine from Goodwill around 2003 but didn't replace the fuse until Feb last year in anticipation of the launch of the Analogue Mega Sg. Before ordering the right fuse I wanted to make sure it was going to work in every other way so I bodged on a 1.25A fuse from a TurboGrafx-16, HALF the 2.5A rating of the original, and left it burn-in testing with a Genesis 1. I got stuck dealing with a clogged drain upstairs when a thunderstorm rolled in and the house took a direct hit... while the Sega CD was plugged in, turned on, and running with a fuse that was half the original capacity. No surge suppressor either (not that they can help with a direct strike).

It still worked! Didn't even blow the fuse even though it should have been more sensitive than ever. Sonic CD was stuck on a black screen due to the EMP but it loaded right up when I reset it. The PS4 Pro, HVAC, and so much else weren't so lucky. It actually totalled my brother's car from the EMP alone! It was parked about three yards away from the strike on the side of the garage where it blew a couple utility boxes to bits. Just thought it was funny that there almost couldn't be a more extreme test than that and the fuse still didn't blow. That tells me that the rash of blown fuses on these things must be due to some other reason... likely a design defect carried over between all versions. I'm going to guess it's related to connections bridging when you remove or insert the console since there is no power switch.

A month ago I got a defective/"junk" Mega CD Model 1 from Japan. says "Feb 3rd" but some of that order was placed back in January! Anyway, I'd hoped it was just the fuse and maybe a belt or something but, unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. :( Fuse is fine. I recapped it and replaced several other components in the sub board and I still can't even get it to power on. The 5v regulator doesn't even get enough input voltage to come on.

$60 may be twice what I paid for my model 2 back in 2003 but for a broken Model 1 these days it's a crazy good deal. Still, I guess my luck ran out since I'm going to have to buy another to troubleshoot this further. :( Until then, it's just a game room ornament/collection trophy...
K7H1t6G.jpg


Oh well.
 

mopardude87

Diamond Member
Oct 22, 2018
3,348
1,575
96
A box of 100 tea bags of Lipton Black tea, i have tea before my morning walks and well the black was AMAZING. Oh i tried one of these V8 energy things, that was good too. Needed peanut butter, a neighbor brought over tons of celery and well i needed it :p

Non food, my sata to 6 pin pcie -e cables just came in from Ebay.
 

Deegan000

Member
Jun 18, 2020
34
3
41
This is what i got today besides a sunburn.
 

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Muadib

Lifer
May 30, 2000
17,914
838
126
I got a generator for this upcoming hurricane season. My gas cans just came in, so I can test it after I buy some gas. It was a real pain to put together, because you have to flip it upside down to install the wheels & remove the shipping brace.

 
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mopardude87

Diamond Member
Oct 22, 2018
3,348
1,575
96
dc95b46de9b8fb13261110b12bee1a81.jpg


Not "Brook's" anymore! :) She only wanted $20.
A friend of mine once brought over a 5200 back in 2012, we played some stuff on it. He had something of like a new in box kinda deal. I know all about the 5200 being junk. We lucky given his deal was like new, the controllers worked!
 
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CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
856
126
A friend of mine once brought over a 5200, we played some stuff on it. He had something of like a new in box kinda deal. I know all about the 5200 being junk. We lucky given his deal was like new, the controllers worked!
I actually have a factory case of four new old stock CX-52 Atari 5200 controllers with the latest revision mylar PCBs and they also don't work (only removed to test/verify). That's right: They failed, even sitting on a pallet in the warehouse. The factory tape over the case of four was still intact when I received them.

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Turns out that there is more than one way that these controllers typically fail and the only publicly shared fixes out there do not apply to these... though I did find a lot of people encountering this exact failure. The only "fix" I've seen out there is the misguided one from Best Electronics where they would have you miscalibrate the console for other, functional controllers by tweaking an adjustment inside. DO NOT DO THIS! I did figure out a proper fix. ;)

Atari revised the carbon-impregnated rubber membrane buttons and the mylar PCB over and over and over in an attempt to solve the longevity problems with those. That's where they would just stop conducting well enough to register due to oxidation of the contacts or surface carbon wearing off when the rubber membrane deforms under pressure. It's the same kind of construction we use in most controllers today but it was one of the first to use it so it's reasonable that they needed a few revisions to get this right.

By the time they finally solved the issue with buttons losing their responsiveness they had already switched to US-made CTS-brand potentiometers (variable resistors) for the analog joystick (previously used 500k ohm Japanese pots from Alps and Panasonic/Matsushita before). These were clearly existing pot designs that CTS tweaked to meet Atari's specifications since they continue turning well beyond the point where the originals would stop and yet they reach their maximum resistance at the point where the Japanese pots did. That's all well and good as long as they remain 0-500k ohms over that range, but whatever they coated the resistive surfaces with to customize the range becomes more conductive over time. This means that you only get about 325-350k ohms max instead of the specified 500k ohms. That isn't enough for most games to register down or right. With mine you can't move the Missile Command cursor to the right edge or bottom third of the screen. I have a lot of 5200 games and this made every single one unplayable or severely handicapped.

The fix? Well, you can't simply add resistance in-line with the pots or else you will lose range on the top and left sides, but luckily, the console doesn't actually read the resistance of the pot to determine the position. It measures the RC delay of a capacitor. This capacitor charges and discharges repeatedly at a rate controlled by the resistance from the pot, which means we can add a bit of capacitance in-line to tweak the rate. The value needed is probably different for every degraded CTS pot depending on condition and age, but it was a very small capacitor in my case... picofarad or nanofarad range, as I recall. I've been meaning to fix all four of mine on video to help others with this issue but I still haven't got around to it.

There are even more controller issues though. I fixed some CX-52 controllers for a local game shop a month ago and thought I failed since they still didn't work in his console. I brought them home and tested on mone and they worked fine. Ordered a replacement a couple CD4052 analog mux/demux ICs to replace the bad ones in his console and he was good to go.
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Edit:
(my old measurements from early 2017)
 
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lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,363
7,514
126
20200627_132100.jpg

I debated awhile on those boots. Figured I had enough combat boots for the rest of my life. $50 at the thrift shop!(haven't been since covid), but they're brand new with tags. Also my first USAF boots. I'll probably use them off duty for warm weather stuff. The Guinness milk stout is made in Baltimore, and is pretty good.
 
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sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
94,663
14,929
126
I got a generator for this upcoming hurricane season. My gas cans just came in, so I can test it after I buy some gas. It was a real pain to put together, because you have to flip it upside down to install the wheels & remove the shipping brace.

Get gas with no ethanol
 
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Iron Woode

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 10, 1999
30,854
12,353
136
I bought a KitchenAid Metal Meat Grinder Attachment.

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I haven"t tried it out yet. Probably on Monday.

:)
 

Paladin3

Diamond Member
Mar 5, 2004
4,933
877
126
Got me a couple of Ganzo Firebird folders (FH41 and FH51) in D2 tool steel and G10 with ball bearing pivots off of Power Cutlery for $23.99 and $24.99 respectively. Fantastic knives for the money. Ganzo has really stepped up their game.

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