Color TV Game 15 questions

[amclean_nintendo]

I am the happy new owner of a Color TV Game 15.  I know a lot about the history of these types of systems, but have never actually seen one until I bought mine.  I have searched the web for any help, but all I find are little history lessons about Nintendo.  I stumbled across this board along the way.  I saw a previous post by PatMan33 with a similar problem.  However, I'm not sure if he finally got his working or what happened.

I have a few questions.

1.)  Can I use a power chord from my NES to power this system?  If not, what kind of power chord do I need?  I know I can power this with batteries as well, but I would rather "plug it in."

2.)  How do I connect this to my american television?  I know this is an old system, but there should still be a way to do this.

3.)  If for some reason there isn't a way to get this connected to my television, how can I tell if the system is still working.  To my knowledge, there is no power light or anything like that to tell if it is on or off.

Please keep in mind I am not all that electronics savy, but I know enough to get myself in trouble.   

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks
amclean_nintendo

[PatMan33]

I had asked many of these same questions here not too long ago, I'll see if I can help you with what was told to me.

The power cord should be interchangeable, at the very worst I'd say you should unplug it from the wall when you are done playing to avoid any potential hazard (Although I don't and my house is still here for the time being).

Most of the your second question was answered by 133MHz so I'll let him do the talking...

The problem could be that those didn't use an automatic RF switch like the Famicom/NES, instead, they used the classic COMPUTER GAME/TV switch, the one with the slider. The signal coming from the TV Game is not strong enough to activate the switching circuitry inside the NES RF switch and so the TV Game signal never reaches the TV.

You need one of those manual RF switches, but I prefer a 'female RCA - male F connector' adapter for maximum picture quality (obtainable from RF of course). You plug this into the end of the RF cable coming from the TV Game and then into the aerial socket on the back of your TV set. I assume if you play Famicom you already know how to deal with NTSC-J frequencies, so you're good to go

Picture of the connector

I was able to get this connector at Radio Shack for about three bucks. At first it did not work but I reread what was told to me and note that he says to connect it directly to the TV. Make certain that you do this, it seems that the signal is too weak to pass through any adapters or whatever you may have hooked onto the TV (I've got about nine consoles hooked up to that TV so it was a heavy traffic zone). Also you may need to wiggle the wires a bit, helped me get the best possible signal that I could out of it.

As for the third one, I have no idea.


Hope that helped. And make sure to thank the folks here, they're amazing, they know everything about this stuff.

[2A03]

1.)  Can I use a power chord from my NES to power this system?  If not, what kind of power chord do I need?  I know I can power this with batteries as well, but I would rather "plug it in."

2.)  How do I connect this to my american television?  I know this is an old system, but there should still be a way to do this.

3.)  If for some reason there isn't a way to get this connected to my television, how can I tell if the system is still working.  To my knowledge, there is no power light or anything like that to tell if it is on or off.

1: Never, ever use an NES power supply on any unknown system! If it's designed to use DC, you may end up frying something. Just use batteries for now until you can find out exactly what power supply it needs.

2: What PatMan said.

3: I have no idea what the insides are like, but if it has a voltage regulator (it looks like a little black box with 3 leads coming out of it; it's normally attached to a heat sink), use a multimeter on it and see if you get any voltage coming out of it.

[amclean_nintendo]

Okay...

The system works, and I can get signal to my TV.  I can actually make out the score in the upper corners, and can see some other parts of the game.  The picture is very blurry though, and is bad enough that one could not play it.  I have tried messing with wires etc.. and nothing happened.  Nothing else was hooked up to the tv either.  Just the tv and the console.  Any more ideas?

[2A03]

Okay...

The system works, and I can get signal to my TV.  I can actually make out the score in the upper corners, and can see some other parts of the game.  The picture is very blurry though, and is bad enough that one could not play it.  I have tried messing with wires etc.. and nothing happened.  Nothing else was hooked up to the tv either.  Just the tv and the console.  Any more ideas?

What channel are you using?

[133MHz]

Does your TV have a fine tuning control?

Also, thanks for quoting me PatMan33 .

[PatMan33]

What channel are you using?

I'll second this. I know for mine I have it on channel 96. As well I've noticed that along with moving the wires. Also if my console starts lacking in any extra clarity I tap it fairly hard on the silver part where the buttons and switches are and everything usually pops back into the proper place.

[133MHz]

Also if my console starts lacking in any extra clarity I tap it fairly hard on the silver part where the buttons and switches are and everything usually pops back into the proper place.

That's caused by cold solder joints. Open it up and resolder everything in sight (it's not much after all). I say it because it'll eventually stop working, so better prevent it.

[amclean_nintendo]

I'm using channel 96.  Fine tuning achieved no better results. 

I appreciate everybody's help.

As far as resoldering everything, if thats the problem I have, I am not comfortable doing that.  I may have an electrical engineer friend take a look at it.  I am just happy to know that the console is still working.  I bought it mostly as a collector's item, but it would be cool if I could break it out every once in a while to play it.

Once again, thank you to everybody that has helped.

[PatMan33]

That's caused by cold solder joints. Open it up and resolder everything in sight (it's not much after all). I say it because it'll eventually stop working, so better prevent it.

Really? I guess it wouldn't be too hard to do... can you estimate how long it'd last before it dies?