this one's for you, rekarp!
so i bought one of rekarp's unassembled atari 2600 video mods. here is what was inside the glorious package:
i figured i should get a shot of what the rf looks like on my hdtv:
i then went back to the package. i separated the contents into a more organized pile:
i then went to work on following the markings on the board and placing all the components correctly. about an hour later (due to having to calculate resistors - my eyes weren't cooperating with me):
it was then time to open up the atari:
i had bought a very nicely refurbished 2600 that was back to looking and working brand new. the people who had worked on it had soldered the shielding back on in two places. i found this odd...
i went about taking off the unneeded resistor and pulling the 3 pins off the ic chip:
i then soldered the pretty colored wires rekarp mailed onto the video mod board:
now, here is where i started to do my own thing. you see, rekarp includes the ports for s-video, composite, and left & right audio. i did not want to drill holes into my atari. i wanted to keep it as close to stock looking as possible. so, i got my old ps2 composite/s-video cord (i recently upgraded to component). and i chopped it apart:
i then went about using my multimeter to figure out which wire is what so that i would know how to wire it up to rekarp's board. here are my notes (if you can make out my terrible writing):
here are the wires almost prepared to solder to the board:
i then hooked the very colorful wires up the the atari board as instructed on rekarp's site (by the way, rekarp, there is a misprint on that picture on your site. you have purple listed twice. the first one should say brown):
it was then time to test before putting it all together and closing it. i hooked everything up, crossed my fingers, and turned on the atari... nothin... crap... i realized i had my tv on composite input. i change the input to s-video, cross my fingers again... nothin... double crap... i then try switching it to composite and switch the tv's input accordingly, cross my fingers... still nothin... what the crap? what's going on? and then i remember... i didn't have the power strip turned on the 2600 is plugged into...
stupid atari not having a power led... anyway, i get it all hooked up correctly, cross my fingers, turn it on, and:
sweet! it works! and looks amazing!!
so it was time to close it all up. i line everything up and stick rekarp's board down. i feed the wire through where the rf wire went to keep it out of the way. i then put a bit of electrical tape over it just to help keep it in place:
i then bend the bottom of the shielding so it will fit with all those wires:
i close it all up, and voila! as close to stock as an s-video modded atari 2600 can look!
for those of you who would like to do this mod in this fashion, simply make sure you string the wire through the atari case before soldering the wires on. the plugs do not fit through the hole that the rf wire was going through.
i am very pleased with this mod. it was a great price, and very easy to do. a nice saturday afternoon project.
now, rekarp, hurry up and finish the 5200 and 7800 boards!
thanks for looking!
chevy's back!!!! YAAAAAAY!!! 
1970's TV's FTW!!!!
