¢VCS FUTURA¢¢2600 Audio Modification¢¢by Ye Olde Atari 8-bit owner¢¢¢Tools/Part required:¢¢Philips type screw driver¢small pair of pliers¢soldering iron & solder¢a 1K OHM resistor¢¢¢Open unit:¢¢1) Turn unit upside down. Remove the five visible screws, and store for re-assembly.¢¢2) Open the unit, letting the side with the Reset key act as a pivot point. There are three plastic connecting hooks at the front of the unit, so wiggle slightly on opening while maintaining a pivot. When the hooks disconnect, open the unit and disconnect the ribbon at its connection jack mounted on the circuit board. Store the top part of the unit for re-assembly later.¢¢3) Locate the two plastic locating hooks (near the front on either side of the circuit board), push both to either side and remove the circuit board.¢¢5) Turn the circuit board upside down when removed from the casing and use the small pliers to straighten the shielding attachments, to remove the top and bottom halves of the shielding from the circuit board. Store shielding halves for re-assembly.¢¢Modification:¢¢ At this point you should have the bare circuit board to hand and with your hot iron and a component waiting to be sentenced the proceedings can begin.¢¢1) Locate resistor R56. See FIG-1 below, and description of location.¢¢ FIG-1, Resistor location.¢¢ R R R R D R C R D R C R L L L¢ / 5 5¢ X_<-point X 5 6¢¢Key:¢R=Resistor¢D=Diode¢C=Capacitor¢L=Inductor¢¢NOTE: "<-point X" indicates as a pointer to be ignored in this mod, as should R55, it has been put in for future reference for another mod to follow - sorry for any confusion.¢¢ At the bottom right hand of the circuit board there is a big formation of components all positioned vertically and side by side. Starting from left to right as shown in FIG-1 above, follow the components across until you get to R56, the 8th component from the left (NOTE: not all VCS's have the same component line up so ignore any differences).¢¢2) Trim the 1K OHM resistor so it can be positioned over R56, onto the circuit board in the same component location slot so both resistors will be in parallel when soldered. At this point if you like, you can place the board into the base part of the case (without shielding) and connect it up, and on running a cartridge if you position the 1K OHM resistor in place and listen you should be impressed at the noise killing power of this modification.¢¢3) Playing aside you can now solder the 1K OHM resistor into place as described in step No.2.¢¢4) Mission complete, now re-assemble your 2600.¢¢ The audio quality is now more than a match for any 8-bit Atari computer connected via its RF connection to a domestic TV set.¢¢¢Any blunder(s) you make are of your own doing, so congratulations.¢
