Hi all. I have a pair of these that are very close to working. Both have the common symptom of the video "slurring" to the right and ghosting a bit. One has a slight additional problem, but let's ignore that for now. I haven't opened up the RF modulator (PITA to unsolder the shielding), but that seems a likely culprit based on other similarly old systems. Unfortunately I don't have an external RF modulator I could try running the composite video into, and I'm not sure if these provide a composite signal powerful enough to drive the composite input of a VCR or TV with composite input. I'll give these things a try, but thought I'd check here and see if anyone has thoughts on the issue. There aren't any electrolytic caps outside of the RF modulator, but there might be inside. MB has a tuner external to the RF modulator, and two adjustments on the RF modulator available through the shielding. Any help/ideas appreciated!
Hi there! I have a Coleco Telstar that is in need of some TLC. I am an amateur at this and thought this might be a good way to get my feet wet in terms of console repair.
Background: We've always owned it and it is in fairly decent condition, but hasn't been played probably since the 70s/80s.
Tinkering, thus far: I opened up the shell just to make sure it wasn't home to a spider or anything like that, and everything still looked right and tight. There was some minimal corrosion/rust, so I gave it a brushing off and dabbed a little IPA on the contacts to clean them up. After everything was dried, I popped some new batteries in it and it turned on. There's beeping and booping, the picture displays on the tele, and the paddles respond to potentiometer action. But there is definitely an issue.
Issues: The reset button. Point scoring/game functionality (?). I will explain.
The reset button: the only way to get it to function is to press it from the underside of the shell. (I have not determined of its something that's just loose, as I was using a screwdriver to press up on it and possibly shorting the button contacts to get it to work.) As I said, the Telstar's innards looked right and tight, but just a bit old. I did not remove the motherboard from the inside, because the shall is a bit brittle and I did not want to be too invasive. I suppose it could possibly there is some corrosion hidden that I did not see, but before doing anything else, I wanted to do some research about the console.
Point scoring/game functionality: After resetting the game to 0/0 the paddles function and will deflect the tennis ball only up until a score of 15. After reaching a score of 15, the paddles will still respond and move, however, the tennis ball passes right through them. At that point, the game then needs to be reset to 0/0 to be able to play it once more.
I guess my first question is: is the reset button a known issue? Will reflowing the solder around the connections help? If the reset button were to be fixed, I could possibly overlook the other issue. That said, I have no clue what could be causing the tennis ball to pass through the paddle. Any advise or encouragement would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
I found a Coleco Telstar at a flea market. Unfortunately it doesn't work, but I've been trying to fix it and I can't seem to find out what's wrong with it. It does give some video output, as my tv recognized the signal, but it was just complete static. Sound on the console doesn't work either, so I suspect it has something to do with the chip or perhaps a bad cap. It uses an AY-3-8500-1 chip.
Can I use the Atari 2600 power. Cord on the coleco Telstar?
I just got a Coleco Telstar Colormatic (1977) from my grandparents. I looked on eBay and found a boxed system for around $400. There is no box for this system and I am definitely not looking to sell it. I was just wondering what the rarity and current price this console would be.
I don't know if this fits here, let me know if there is a sub that's more appropriate.
I've had my Coleco Telstar a while and recently cleaned up a bit and pulled it out of it's tote box. Found out i never took the batteries so I had to clean it and open it up.
It's mostly running now but the video is terrible quality. I've got an RCA to Coax coupler and its going through a VCR so the picture isn't fuzzy in the traditional snowy sense but all of the text and objects on screen look like they were copied a dozen times and each shifted a millimeter, so it's got this sort of stretched out effect, this picture doesn't show it well but it's the best I could get:
https://i.imgur.com/JB9TErN.jpg
I swapped out the video/ rf cable from one that was 15 feet long to one that's 6 feet and put a ferrite bead on it, so the actual picture on the TV seems fine, theres no snow and its all solid, but i cannot figure out whats causing this weird fuzzyness. I'm assuming theres a part in the RF module that's failing but it's all soldered shut in a shield so im looking for other opinions before i either try to do the Composite Video mod or try to pop open the RF modulator.
I found a Coleco Telstar at a flea market. Unfortunately it doesn't work, but I've been trying to fix it and I can't seem to find out what's wrong with it. It does give some video output, as my tv recognized the signal, but it was just complete static. Sound on the console doesn't work either, so I suspect it has something to do with the chip or perhaps a bad cap. It uses an AY-3-8500-1 chip.
