6 May
1997
6 May
'97
2:01 a.m.
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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