Super Pong Glitches

[SPAZ-12]

I was playing my Atari Super Pong today, and I noticed that the paddles would move whenever the machine makes that "boop" noise. I'm not really out to fix it, I'm just curious if other people have noticed this, or if it is my machine that has a problem.

Only the player's paddles seem to be affected, they shift down slightly, and then back to where they were in a split second. As best as I can tell, the speaker must be producing interference that messes up the paddle circuit.

So, has anyone else noticed this in their pong units?

[Compute]

I haven't seen that, but if there are no defects I would guess that the power required to make the beep sound is causing a voltage drop, making the current coming through the paddles read 'lower' (ha!) than normal. Maybe just read the next post when someone totally smokes my hypothesis :D

[SPAZ-12]

Hmm, that actually makes more sense.

I'm using an Atari 2600 power supply with my unit, perhaps this isn't supplying enough current?

[Compute]

It is quite possible, although it seems like the vcs would draw more current than a pong. Still a possibility, though. Maybe the higher current is causing the paddles to read higher than they should and the beep is 'correcting' the reading. Another possibility is some type of electrical fault, I know that electrolytic capacitors dry up over time and short, which causes any number of strange issues. Other components may be at fault, who knows?

[jb143]

This isn't the Super Pong's schematics but I couldn't imagine it being a whole lot different.

http://www.digitpress.com/library/techdocs/pong_schematic.gif

Look at the knobs in the bottom left. If you follow the signal lines to the right you'll see a cap going to ground on each line. These are filter caps. If they dry up then you might be getting noise on the paddles signals anytime the speaker sounds.

That's where I'd start anyways, by replacing those caps.

[SPAZ-12]

That could be, I would quickly swap them, except that the schematic rates them as 100v! That, and it says that they're mylar caps, which I didn't think were susceptible to drying out like electrolytic caps are. I'll open up my Pong later tonight though, and check what sorts of capacitors are inside. Last time I opened it up it was just to clean the potentiometers, so I didn't bother looking inside the RF shields.

[jb143]

That could be, I would quickly swap them, except that the schematic rates them as 100v! That, and it says that they're mylar caps, which I didn't think were susceptible to drying out like electrolytic caps are. I'll open up my Pong later tonight though, and check what sorts of capacitors are inside. Last time I opened it up it was just to clean the potentiometers, so I didn't bother looking inside the RF shields.

That schematic was just for reference. It's for a regular pong system. And 100V would be just fine, quite a bit over-cautious though.

[alec006]

Hmm, that actually makes more sense.

I'm using an Atari 2600 power supply with my unit, perhaps this isn't supplying enough current?

Well there's your problem your over powering the machine. The Atari 2600 has a DC intake of 9 Volts where Super Pong has a DC intake of 6 Volts (4 D-Batterys). I did the exact same thing and my Super Pong system had so many glitches and it almost fried. Go to Radioshack and get a 6 Volt 800mA power adapter with a F type power connector (the connector is free with purchase of the power adapter) . Once you have obtained that,the "tip" on the adapter is Positive. Also a great thing about DC power is that even if you cant find a 800mA adapter instead you find something like this : http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2049709&y=9&x=19&retainProdsInSession=1. with 1800mA of power,the Pong system will only take in the required mA from the adapter,meaning if it only needs 100mA it will only take in 100mA! Heres the F type adapter you need : http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3875411 . Hope this helps!

[SPAZ-12]

d'oh! I remember reading that the 2600 adapter works with Pong somewhere, I guess that I just never bothered checking the voltages myself!

I have a 6v adapter I can sacrifice, and the correct tip, tomorrow I'll solder it together and try that out. *smacks self for being stupid*

[alec006]

d'oh! I remember reading that the 2600 adapter works with Pong somewhere, I guess that I just never bothered checking the voltages myself!

I have a 6v adapter I can sacrifice, and the correct tip, tomorrow I'll solder it together and try that out. *smacks self for being stupid*

Nah its fine,I made the same mistake,its amazing how much 3 Volts can make a difference, go figure, be sure to make the tip positive and the barrel negative, i would hate to have to re-solder something over again. And I believe its the Telestar Pong systems that require 9 Volts, someone correct me if I'm wrong, hope you get to play your pong soon,I cant even play mine on Channel 3!

[Compute]

..or it could be too high of voltage. Once again the most likely answer is correct ;)