Max Machine composite mod
18 September 2021
Protected: Riparazione telecomando Mivar
20 November 2021
A jump into the past!
Do you know the history of the Commodore? well, I thought so about it, but this one just escaped me!
Jack Tramiel founded the Commodore in 1955 and started with the typewriters he repaired in the army. He later moved on to selling calculators until Texas Instrument came to sell them at a better price because they made the necessary chips in-house. At this point Tramiel decided to buy MOS Technology which was not sailing in good waters at the time. It was 1976 and thanks to this acquisition, Commodore was able to produce most of the components necessary for its projects. We all know the first Commodore computer, the famous PET, but first ?!
Before starting the adventure on computers, 2 consoles were produced !, more or less in the years 1975 - 1976, we are talking about two Pong.
The first was the TV Game 2000K which had 4 paddles, 2 integrated with cable and two connectable via a special jack. It also had the ability to connect a rifle for skeet shooting and was powered by batteries or via a 6V power supply.
The successor of this console was the 3000H which in some respects is worse than the previous model, it is more compact, a controller has been inserted into the case of the machine and one is connected via a cable but has no place to place it. Here too the possibility of connecting 2 external sliders and a rifle. Slider? we no longer use a paddle but a slider like the ones we find on mixers .. a slide potentiometer so to speak.
Here the successor is visible with a probable cost reduction.
The release of this machine is only in RF since at the time it was already a lot to have a b / w TV at home.
As components we find a custom MOS chip that has the task of generating the audio and video signal, managing the inputs / outputs and contains a small memory with programs / games.
The integrated in question is the MOS7600 for NTSC consoles and the MOS7601 for PAL consoles.
Fine isn't it? needless to say that they are rare to find and that now they are very expensive .. an example? a 3000h was sold in 2016 and the auction ended at € 26 now they see very few and when they turn up the prices are around € 140 and are often international sellers, so there will be added in case the cost of import and international shipping.
How is it made?
I couldn’t buy it and leave it like that without first seeing what it’s like inside.. 😀
The composite signal?
If you are wondering if it is possible to transform this console with a composite signal instead of the TV antenna signal, well I have found these points to take a composite signal, but unfortunately it is not perfect. I noticed that on the CRT I use the signal is read well even if it has a low luminisity, I tried it on a tv and on an hdmi converter but the result was a black screen or an unrecognized signal.
In the picture you can see where I took the signal, the pin at the bottom is the video while the one above is the gnd. Unfortunately there is no schematic of this machine and therefore this mod is blind, I cannot assure you that it works or that it is the best point to use. I'll try to reconstruct the schematic from the pcb and I'll try to better understand how it is made.
Unboxing and testing videos.
