Atari Firefox

[Jodo]

Here's the video that I shot; this one of the coolest days I've experienced since I started the hobby and I am still sat here grinning from ear to ear

Mr Gant spotted that it was the motor at fault using a highly technical process of poking it with a cotton swap; it would come unstuck for a minute but then freeze again, so it was clear that the brushes had gone inside. One newly 'borrowed' motor later from a donor player and she's playing fine' nice quick lock on, full colour and sound. We've played it to the end of the disc with no issues too

Now all I need is a rot free disc! I have one more disc here to test but if that's no good I'll be on the lookout

Next up: Check my cab voltages and then put the whole lot back in ready for testing

 

[Alpha1]

Nice work guys. I still have that disc that was in one of the two players that you didn't want.

 

[Jodo]

I'd really appreciate that disc Ol. I hope we can work something out.

 

[karlcdoe]

Outstanding. So when are we all invited round for a game?

Actually, we should try and assemble some of the better laser games in one place whilst they are working. I have at least one of the less common ones but no Firefox of course.

 

[Dex-Jay]

Hi,
If Oll can't find one and you get desperate drop me a mail. I'm sure I have 3-4 and although I'll have to test them don't have that amount of rot.

- At least they didn't when I tested them last....and it is something that comes with age. The Atari laserdiscs really did seem to be extra crappy. I tried a batch of brand new NOS unmarked Dragon's Lair discs once. Every singe one was as rotten as then next....

 

[Alpha1]

Outstanding. So when are we all invited round for a game?

Actually, we should try and assemble some of the better laser games in one place whilst they are working. I have at least one of the less common ones but no Firefox of course.

I would like to have a laserdisc corner at SCS'14

 

[karlcdoe]

Ah yes, that would be interesting. It could be the LaserRot (c) corner by the sounds of it

 

[Del Griffith]

Good to see it up and running

 

[Jodo]

Hi all,

It's been a massive sequence of ups and downs since my last update. After excitedly packing up the LD player at Mitchell's, I headed home full of hope and optimism that we had achieved something pretty incredible; a working Firefox LD player that actually played a game. Unfortunately for me I took the wrong route home (I wasn't concentrating) and ended up going over a series of new speed bumps in the area; I don't mean just one bump - I mean the yellow kind that consist of about 15 consecutive bumps like the ones you get at the end of dual carriageways

*bump* *jigger* *bump* *jigger* *bump* *jigger* *bump* *jigger* *bump* *jigger* *bump*

As expected this caused the mirror assembly to come out of alignment and well.......when I got home the player wouldn't lock for sh*t. One dead player

When I opened the player up again I noticed the motor belt that drives the optical assembly was also slipping by quarter turns now. One of the lenses that routes the beam was also spinning freely now; it shouldn't. Happy Days

Many swear words were said. I was also gutted; not just for me but for Mitchell after all the hard work and advice he had given me too.

I replaced the motor from another duff player in the hope it was working and swapped out the loose lens for a good fixed one. The good news was my mirror repair had held nicely and both mirrors in the assembly were pivoting freely and returning to centre as they should. Not all bad then!

I have to be honest at this point. The player would only play forward; the minute I attempted to rewind the disc, it lost lock and had a fit that only a power down would solve. It was 2am. I was tired and ready to throw in the towel and just wait for the solid state LD emulation PCB.

Sleep is a wonderful thing however and in the morning I re-read the Firefox LD repair guide on DLF and set about trying to film what the mirrors were trying to do in the hope that I could manually re-calibrate them. I found my HD webcam hooked up to a laptop to work a treat and I was able to focus on the mirrors and film without risking looking at the laser. Excellent

It's not a very action packed video but I find it interesting seeing how the player works and how the mirrors behave. It's clear that the right mirror is struggling at around the 3.35 mark and losing lock. I would need to remove the entire optical assembly and adjust it

 

[Jodo]

With the player in pieces, I thought now would be a pretty good time to clean all the plastics and Novus them for that minty fresh shine

With the optical assembly out of the player, I identified the calibration screw on the right mirror (I had no intention of touching the left as that was calibrated perfectly.) Calibration is effectively done via a metal 'wedge' that pivots the mirror either left or right in microscopic increments, depending on which way you turn the screw. I decided small, careful adjustments were for girls though, and I went for 1 full turn, before re-installing the assembly into the player for testing

It was immediately noticeable from the LD test mode that the player was staying locked for longer but it was still falling over on maximum rewind speed. Out came the assembly for another full turn of the screw! Every time I did this there was a tangible improvement in lock and performance. It took 4 or 5 attempts before I got something resembling stability on both fast FWD and fast RWD though. It was at this point I switched to quarter turns for fine tuning. I couldn't believe that a few speed humps at 35 mph had knocked the alignment off so bad.

A further 3 adjustments, rinse repeat as above, were necessary before I was confident to flick the machine from Test mode into actual game mode.

Will it actually play a game though?

Here's some pictures of the player going back together:

 

[Dex-Jay]

Will it actually play a game though?

I sure hope so!

I really hate those players!

Give me a Lasermax anyday of the week! Unsuitable for Ffx though!

Don't work late on it, or enjoy beer while working on it either!

 

[Alpha1]

So does it now work!!! You're killing me!!!

 

[Jodo]

....Success!!!!!!

A quick video before bed. I've had about 5 games of varying difficulty and taken different routes to see if I could get it to fall over but it's fine

Playing with one hand whilst filming with the other in the dark on an older model iPhone = sh*tty picture but you get the idea

 

[Urgentemente]

"Boy, is this a machine!"

Ahh, memories of playing this on the North Pier in Blackpool (I think it was North Pier anyway!), many many many years ago..

Major well done for the work in getting it running (again), I think you should be able to charge the council for time spent restoring the alignment knocked out by the speedbumps!

Urgentemente2013-09-21 04:32:25

 

[karlcdoe]

This is good to see. Good work on putting up some interesting refresher videos on laser alignment and the inside of the player. When you get bored of it I'll take it off your hands or swap it for an Astron Belt/Galaxy Ranger combo

 

[Jodo]

This is good to see. Good work on putting up some interesting refresher videos on laser alignment and the inside of the player. When you get bored of it I'll take it off your hands or swap it for an Astron Belt/Galaxy Ranger combo

You and Ordyne would need to face off against each other in a pit like that Episode of Star Trek where Kirk is forced to fight Spock (you know the music!) I've never heard of Astron Belt or Galaxy Ranger; am I going to hell?

In other news, Neil has kindly allowed me access to 3 other Laserdisc players to 'play with for shiz and giggles'; yes - I am going for the double!!

Is it possible to fix two players? Watch this space

I have also taken delivery of 2 more FF Boardsets - a bargin I thought at £16.75 for the pair

 

[Jodo]

Second mirror assembly repair.

Diagnosis: One mirror completely jammed. The other moves freely and pivots as it should.

I marked everything up as before and gently removed the stuck mirror:

Both magnets had fallen off and were left behind in the casing

Getting them out *just* enough to mark them was an absolute *!"(^"%!

.....but I managed it. We are not home and free yet though.

Everything gets a good but careful (!) clean with ISO. This time I used an old empty 0.5mm nib maker pen dipped in tiny amounts of the glue to literally 'write' the glue onto the surface of the magnets; this works beautifully and gives you precise enough control so that you don't get any glue near the edges of the magnet that you will be handling.

Once the glue had been applied, I aligned the markings correctly and held the magnets in place against the mirror. This never gets any easier and watching pRon doesn't help either. You still get cramp. But eventually.....you get a chance to take a really artistic photo

I slowly pushed the mirror assembly back into the casing, pushing gently on opposing corners of the mirror until the 'pin' poked out of the rear; at this point its best to grab it with a small pair of pliers and pull the mirror through from the rear until you can see the line where the 'twist' is. Twist it.

....and cleaned with ISO and back in the main optical assembly and pivoting freely. I'll let the whole thing cure overnight and likely do some testing later this week

 

[karlcdoe]

So when are we coming round for a game then or are you bringing it to the slam?

 

[karlcdoe]

well, if you insist...

karlcdoe2013-10-01 04:38:33

 

[IDCHAPPY]

Top work again mate