In this episode Ben solders an entire Atari 2600 system from scratch. In a future episode he will test it out and create a cool case around it. Join the element14 community! - bit.ly/21ki0aB
+muh1h1 "This week on the Ben Heck Show, we will make a thing." *Makes thing* "So here's what we made, see you all next week." These are my hopes and dreams.
+PNathan maybe my above comment was filtered because i linked to the video, but it's from the "Hacking the Zombie Apocalypse" episode :) was definitely one of the funnier episodes i've seen lol
+JgHaverty LOL nah, I just know what I'm talking about. His joints have far too much solder - the solder fillets are supposed to be concave. (And if you look at other comments here, you'll see many people saying the same thing.)
it's always fascinating seeing how small you can make old tech, even build full systems with a few chips, some wire and a few components. There's something quite thrilling about it, even though I type this on a quad core 1.2ghz cell phone, it's somewhat amazing to see an atari the same size.
I basically have zero idea what he's talking about when he explains what the parts do, but I find this amazing to watch. The closest I get to this is the eventual soldering a household power wire when I'm changing a socket or something. Still, you can tell the man knows his stuff
Finally, the intro was changed! If I had to hear "How can we make this portable?" and "Batten down the hatches!" again, I think I would have gone insane.
Thanks, I have been soldering and running bodge wires for a long time, but I learned a lot from watching you build this. Now I just need to find something as ambitious as building a perf board Atari 2600.
Best EPISODE not extreme builds but a lot of behind the scenes work and technics. Moreover Felix will give us a great episode because even Ben need vacations. Might look like human but even androids need some days of in order to upgrade themselves! haha
i just wanted to say thank you so much for your inspiring videos ben heck and your team i have watched almost everyone of your videos and i got into console hacking after many attempted fails #nevergiveup you guys have inspired me to go to school for electronic engineering. your videos always seem to peak my interest and give me more determination to trouble shoot my projects and push myself further in school. im sure you hear this often but whole heartedly youve changed my life thank you
Oh man! I seriously can't wait for Felix's episode! That sounds like an awesome project and I am looking forward to finding out if he is a musician. I actually didn't know. He's so full of surprises! Enjoy your vacation, Ben.
I'd love to have a complete guide to make an Atari 2600 using new, widely available components. Tried to find one already written on google with no luck. Also I loved this video, very satisfying to watch the electronic 'sewing' and hear you explain the details of what you're doing.
Another awesome video! definitely harkens back to some older TBHS episodes that featured the assembly process a little more prominently than some later episodes.
AHHH I JUST REALIZED HER SHIRT WAS A TRENT/DARIA SHIRT!!!!!!!!!!!! ............ that's so cool (and i'm not sure how many other viewers will note it, but, i felt compelled to mention it). Also -- your solder / wiring work is very impressive. Thank you for this video.
this is really cool because I know exactly what you were saying about everything because we learned all of this stuff in my college classes with the oscilloscopes and "and, or, not, xor gates". it's really interesting and cool stuff to learn and to play around with.
I bought a Haako soldering iron tip cleaner, and have never gone back to the sponge. It does a great job. Also, with the cost of custom printed circuit boards dropping like crazy, all you need is about a week and a half of patience to do away with all the fiddly wiring.
Here's an idea for you Ben, when soldering the wire with your method(by smelting the outer tubing) you can verify a good bond by have a multimeter in continuity mode attached to your soldering iron's frame and the wire you are currently soldering.
He's been modding for 16 years, that's something! I'm just watching the dream cast mod and it's a fair amount of work! I just look at this guy and think, wow - well done Ben :D Inspirational
+Pete Brown I see you explain it later, to say you want to make sure there's enough. But for folks unfamiliar with soldering, they need to know this isn't a model to follow. I do enjoy your projects, though.
I ended up watching this for the soldering technique - which I totally lack. Also, the iron I use currently has a pointed tip, so that doesn't help. Luckily, I have tons of old-fashioned lead-based solder, which is much much better than the modern stuff. I really need to get my skills up to speed before I dissemble my DX7s synth to change its backup battery, that is hard-soldered to the PCB. Thanks Yamaha for making this an easy task !
Yeah, I hate conical tips too. Chisel or bevel tips are the way to go! (And a drag soldering tip, which has a little well to grab solder. Freaking amazing even for other things.) Good leaded solder is still available. I use Kester 63/37 with 44/66 flux core (3% rosin core) in a few different thicknesses, which you can get on Amazon. MG Chemicals solder is also very good. Multicore brand is supposed to be awesome, too, but I've never tried it.
Early in the video Ben mentioned handedness when soldering and I realized I prefer to heat components with my left hand while feeding solder with my right. I'm right-handed. Is this unusual or is it fairly common when soldering? I feel I have more control feeding solder with my right hand. I dunno. Just wondering if I'm a weirdo or if other do this too.
This was great to watch! What gauge of wire did you use for the 'tiny wire'? I also thought it was neat that each piece of Ben-made hardware has a custom signature in the form of your hot glue fingerprint holding down the wires.
You solder at such a low temperature. I guess that shows what you can get by with when you have a decent iron. If I tried that with mine I'd probably destroy something waiting for the solder to melt.
A good soldering station makes soldering a joy. Indeed, you can set a reasonably low temperature, because the station will sense the tip temperature and feed in the right amount of heat to maintain that temperature, no matter the size of the joint you're soldering (which is drawing away heat). Your goal should be to make a joint in about 2 seconds.
+kieferonline Hah, not even close. This is as un-nuanced as you can get in soldering. Ben does great wire routing and overall design, but his soldering is really bad. (And none of the components he used are especially small. Most new components are much smaller.)
Can you please do a video on the SNES mods (region, Htz, led) that are widely known. The current mods are really messy but there is one nice implentation that is really neat. Id like to see how you tackle lifting the pins etc.
Just starting up the episode…but…wouldn't you want to solder sockets? That's a very popular mod to do to existing 2600 PCBs by the fans in the community. Obviously makes it much easier to replace defective chips like the RIOT or TIA if they eventually fail.
That was killer! I do a lot of that kind of work making my Arduino shields from scratch, although I don't use SMDs. I don't know if I can handle them right yet that's just too fine of a work for me :-) but I like to know what kind of solid wire that was used because I'm using that fine wire from IDE ribbon cables, it stranded and hard to work with. Nice work, Ben!! :-)
I found it interesting to see Ben Heck doing a Super Solder on the Atari 2600 three main chips, but my big question is "what is Ben intending to make out of this device?"
There are diagrams here: github.com/thebenheckshow/226-tbhs-Super-Soldered-Atari-2600 , and docs/Schematic_Atari2600_2000.png seems to be the main diagram (can someone confirm?), but I'm not sure how much of it was actually used (it seems to be a diagram for the original console). I wish to reproduce this on solderless protoboard, but I'm still struggling to figure out a materials list from there (electronics is not my super strong skill). If anyone could figure that out it would be great.
Good episode. Neat soldering and arrangement of the wires, but also nice background music and animation. EDIT: It appears that you lost the font for the end warning card. When you fix it, could you please fix the _("element14)"_ bit, swapping the last parenthesis with the quote character?
Hey Ben, Great video. I was left wondering What kind of solder and flux/resin core do you use? Also, what gauge of wire is the black wire? Thanks again for the great video!
17:02 What might be a better idea would be to add a socket, and solder to the socket rather than directly to the chip, since it leaves the chip unmolested if you suspect you may want to remove it later. Of course, that adds vertical height, so it's a trade-off.
Ben. Sir. As a multi-year fan, I believe I have a large enough sample size to make a recommendation: please clear your throat when you expect to speak on camera. The gargle of phlegm audible in nearly every episode makes for a tough listening experience. Aside from that, please keep doin' what you're doin'.
+Frank Sandqvist Agreed :) But if you watch his movies in general, many of his soldering jobs, looks like they are close to cold :P And sooo much solder!
+Rasmus Jørgensen Well, he doesn't use flux neither and especially the SMD soldering part was cringe-worthy thanks to that - solder dragging into those sharp, pointy spikes is a sure sign of oxidized solder and lack of flux.
A newbie question about flux: This video shows leaving excess solder on a pin/pad for future use when connecting wires. In this first connection, the flux in the solder core melts and deoxidizes the pin and pad to form a strong bond. In the subsequent connection with the wire, there is no flux to help remove oxidation from the wire. How does this affect the quality of the second bond? Do you find you need to introduce more flux (such as with a flux pen) to make this technique work? Are you melting the wire casing and the solder in a single operation with the iron? Thanks for making these slower-paced vids! I like seeing a good mix of interesting builds and skill deep dives.
If your skilled at soldering, you can often get a 2nd reflow with remaining flux that hasn't evaporated. Skilled meaning a quick and efficient solder connection. But always have a flux pen handy. 2nd and 3rd or more reflows will always need the extra flux (especially that crappy lead free solder) to get a clean solder without icicles. Icicles are the pointy edges left on solder as it oxidizes. Just as flux and reflow to cure icicles. Hope this helps.
+The Dollar Guy he didn't even tin the wires which can cause all sorts of problems. You should always tin the leads. Poor soldering technique. If you want real answers look up the IPC J-STD.
Steffenwolfe You are absolutely correct. I always pre-tin the wire and it is so automatic/assumed, I forgot to mention it. Sorry about that. But with an already tinned wire and existing clean solder connection, you can make 2nd solder reflow usually without additional flux.
Is really hard to find videos showing these skills. Is a really important skill but is often overlooked in tutorials etc. Now if we could just convince @The Post Apocalyptic Inventor to do a similar video!
Just curious, when creating your own project like this with Atari chips, how easy would it be to include optional peripherals like the components of the Starpath Supercharger?
That took some effort. The end result still looked quite messy. I had the same once doing the circuit, more or less exactly the same way, but only one chip. I think in the end would be better to make the circuit itself than use a proto board.
