Weekend Finds

From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_crl.com>
Date: Tue May 6 02:01:47 1997

On Mon, 5 May 1997, Isaac Davis wrote:

> 1) Odessey2 with joysticks attached. But no power supply. Anyone know the
> voltage and polarity for this old thing? Of course no cartridges either,
> but maybe next time.

I think it uses a standard 9V DC (don't know about polarity, probably
standard) but I can't back this up. I have a few but they're all tucked
away. Hopefully someone else can jump in here.

> 2) Mattel Aquarius with box, manual, and cassette cables and software.

Awesome.

> 4) Coleco Gemini Video Game System. It plays atari 2600 cartridges, and it
> turns on, but the screen stays black. No clue, and I don't really have the
> electronic equipment or knowledge to fix it. I might let my dad check it
> out. He's a radar technician with a lot of equipment. Maybe I should get
> him to teach me.

I think the contacts where the carthridge plugs into is probably dirty. I
had the same problem with some carts I bought from a swap meet. At first
they didn't work and I thought I was screwed, but after inserting them
over and over, the build-up of crud (oxidation) on the pins eventually
eroded and the carthridge started to work. You probably need to try and
clean the carthridge slot somehow.

> 5) An 8-track tape - Spotlight the greatest hits of Gene Pitney, Del
> Shannon, and Tommy Roe. I'm debating whether or not to dig out the 8-track
> player.

Random.

> 8) A piece of telephone testing equipment I think. Has a switch (tone, off,
> pulse), a telephone plug, and two wires with alligator clips. I think it's
> for tracing telephone wires.

That's a toner. You also need the wand (or in lineman speak, the banana)
which is an inductive pickup device with a speaker that you use to
pinpoint which pair you are tracing. You put the toner on one end (ie.
plug the mod plug into the jack or clip on the alligator clips) and then
go to your punchdown blocks and run the wand over the terminals until you
find your pair. Very useful.


Sam
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Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Received on Tue May 06 1997 - 02:01:47 BST