Dina 2-in-1 Telegames and ColecoVision

[bacteria]

I have a Dina 2-in-1 TeleGames Personal Arcade, no power supply.



I read it uses the same power requirements as the ColecoVision, ie 12v, 5v and -5v

I need to know what the pins relate to in regards to which one is for what.

Looking on the 5 pin port from the back ("U" shape), with pin 1 on the left, 5 on the right (3 at the bottom);

pin 1 = ?v
pin 2 = ?v
pin 3 = ?v
pin 4 = ground
pin 5 = ground

I have the board exposed, there are no voltage markings.

Pin 3 seems to go to a capacitor, 100uf 10v so I guess (just a guess) this is the +5v line as 12v is higher than the capacitor rating,

Pin 1 goes to the "E" of a transistor only

Pin 2 goes to one of those flat round brown flat capacitors, rated 16v, so I guess that might be the 12v line

If this is right, then pin 2 might be -5v as that is the one left.

This is guessing, please someone confirm what the voltages are!


Is there any chance someone with the power supply might be able to use a multimeter and let me know what voltage goes to which pin please? I'll give you a worthy mention in my worklog if you can! ;o) Just so things aren't backwards, please either post a pic or diagram if possible!

I spent £70 on this unit, and they aren't easy to get hold of so I don't want to fry the board on a whim!

[jb143]

Well, you already did what I was going to suggest. Also, how do you know pin 1 goes to the emitter of a transistor? Is it labeled on the board or did you check a spec file for the part number?

The emitter of a transistor generally goes to ground. Or in this case, since you already ruled out ground, -5V. Don't just take my word for it though. I'd wait for someone to verify it to be sure.

Also, do the caps have the polarity marked on them? A 100uf is sure to be polarized and you can tell +/- that way.

[ooXxXoo]

Do you mind showing a pic of your Dina power port?....I ask because mine has a very standard DC port.....
...

[bacteria]

Sure, here:



I would guess that pin 1 = -5v, pin 2 = 12v and pin 3 = 5v

Thing is, if wrong, the board will fry.

Spent ages trying to find a datasheet for the AM memory chips to check pin 1 went to 12v on the chip - no live datasheets found.

If anyone has one of the power supply units, they could confirm the readings! (please....)

[jb143]

I believe those are ADM and Mostek DRAM chips but I can't find a datasheet either. And pin 1 is an unusual location for Vcc. Though, apparently the standard back then for 16pin DRAM chips followed the MK4096 pinout in which pin 1 is -5V, pin 8 is +12, and pin 16 is +5. That would make sense as to why it needs those volages but do any of these pins connect to the power port?

Also, what's the value of the resistor on the LED? If it's just +V to resistor to LED to ground, and assuming it's a standard 20mA 2V LED then 5V should be around 150 ohms and 12V would be around 560 ohms(and probally a higher wattage as well)

[gokugohandave]

So are we forgetting about a negative pin?

[bacteria]

The resistor going to the LED is 330 ohm

No, not forgotten the negative lines, however they are easy to locate; the shielding on the RF is all negative as is the outside of the RF cable; thus I know for a fact pins 4 and 5 are both negative.


Managed to find a datasheet (finally) for the AM9016 chip - HERE

Pin 1 = -5v, pin 8 = 12v, pin 9 = +5v, pin 16 = ground.

This also correlated to your link for the MK4096 with the same pinout.

I got a positive beep on my multimeter with pin 2 of the power supply pins for -5v, pin 3 goes to the 10v capacitor and looks like it links to 5v lines so is +5v; and the 12v going to the transistor - well, the output from the transistor goes to the 12v line on the chips so must (should) be correct.

I am therefore gambling on the configuration being:

pin 1 = +12v
pin 2 = -5v
pin 3 = +5v
pin 4 and 5 = ground

Boy, I hope this is right, one way to know I guess!!

[bacteria]

Ok, was really fed up with the Dina system. Audio sucked, couldn't improve the composite, and to top it all, it was working ok and then stopped. All I did was try to run the RF plug into an old television, like it was meant to be. What a piece of shit. Even the cart plug is bad, grips onto the game cart like it's life depended on it!

So, a few notes:

Here is the Dina board:



I can confirm this is the pinout to power the Dina 2-in-1 console system:





I used a ColecoVision power adaptor.

Spoken to an electronics provider, they say an easy way to get a negative voltage is to put the voltage of a battery across a regulator (like a 7805) and wire positive to negative and negative to positive....

I then did something risky, but worked:

As the Dina fried (no idea how), used dremel to cut off the pins on the TMS9919A chip at the base to keep all the pin I could easily; and on the ColecoVision, used strong pliers to lever off the heatsink and then cut through the top of the chip pins on the TMS9929A chip.





Placed the new chip over the old pins, pressed down to make them touch as best as could. Applied some flux, and tapped each pin with solder so the pins were tinned and at the same time filled with solder bridging the pins together. One pin didn't connect, so the graphics were jagged badly, found culprit and re-applied.

Pic shows half-done chip.



Result - probably as good as it gets unfortunately, colours are fine but you get the rainbow effect - can't be helped as apparantly this is what happens on the Coleco with composite mod.

It looks better than shown here...



Sound is tapped off here:



And video (composite) off pin 36 - lift off pin 36, wire a 460 Ohm resistor to it and connect to ground. At pin 36 wire to the composite connection. (result in above screenshot).



I will experiment with this more tomorrow to see if using a different resistor or wiring it differently makes any difference at all. Will also experiment by using a different screen too.

[Steve W]

Do you happen to own any Sega SG-1000 cartridges? I'd like to know if using the Colecovision video chip in the Dina screws up SG-1000 compatibility.

The origin of the Dina was as a pirate console. Telegames had purchased the rights to the Colecovision's technology, and when they found a clone of the CV on the market they got them to rebadge the console with the Telegames name. It makes me wonder why Telegames didn't get them to improve the hardware a bit. The video is astoundingly bad, they could have gotten Bit Corporation to improve that. If they're going to legitimize the console by adopting the Telegames name, at least tweak the hardware to raise it up from cheap pirate junk.

[bacteria]

Indeed, I thought the Dina was like a ColecoVision 2 (ie a little later) which normally means improvements. The Dina however is utter shit. Also, you get some oriental words on the title screen rather than the "ColecoVision" one.

Are there any other clones out there, I know there is a plug'n'play unit out there, it is possible to mod it to take original ColecoVision carts?

[Steve W]

I don't believe the plug-and-play unit has any Colecovision hardware inside, it's in all likelihood an NES-on-a-chip. I can't imagine the current owners of the Coleco IP putting out any effort to engineer the old hardware into something small enough for a plug-and-play. What would have been fascinating would have been if they had reworked the MSX-on-a-chip that came out in Japan and tweek it to run Coleco games. But that would mean the company would have to truly care about the old hardware rather than just whipping up a cheap product for exploiting the market for retro games.