Month: July 2026

Atari Lynx 2 handheld games console

Meet Mikey, and Suzy! Well it’s actually an Atari Lynx II from 1991. Mikey and Suzy were the names given to components within the console. Anyway it doesn’t work, so let’s try to breathe some life into it.

What the listing stated:

The product is an Atari Lynx 2 handheld console, originating from Japan. It is a spare or repair item, as it is not in working condition. The package does not include a charger. This vintage gaming device, released by Atari, offers portability and gaming capabilities. Ideal for collectors or enthusiasts looking to fix or restore a piece of gaming history.

EBay

The item I have purchased

It’s a faulty item, one of many I have been chasing over the last few months, however their resale prices even when faulty, can command some quite hefty prices. I’ve managed to purchase this one at £65:00GBP and that is a price I am content with, as some of the recent ones I have seen went for a higher price even with parts missing or body damage. Cosmetically this one appears to be in a good condition with everything intact. However, the actual fault has not been declared, just that it is faulty and not working. I will have to do a little fault finding to pinpoint the issue, though I suspect initially that a full capacitor change will be the order of the day.

I want this to be part of my personal collection, alongside the Lynx 1 that I also have.

Here’s a little bit of information regarding this unit:

The Atari Lynx II, released in 1991, is the sleeker, redesigned version of Atari’s pioneering 16-bit handheld color console. It addressed original flaws by offering improved battery life, a backlit LCD, and stereo sound, while retaining impressive hardware features like hardware sprite scaling and a unique “lefty” flip mode. 

Key Features and Design

The Lynx II packed advanced technology for its time, including several highly unique design choices:

The Display: It features a vibrant 3.5-inch color LCD. Unlike the original, the Lynx II included an option to toggle the backlight off to save battery. 

Left-Handed Mode: Because of its symmetrical control layout, the entire system can be flipped 180 degrees. The internal software features a “flip” button to invert the screen, converting it into a truly left-handed console. 

Vertical Gameplay: Some games, such as Qix, are designed to be played holding the system vertically like a book, taking advantage of its unique design architecture. 

Comlink Play: It supports up to eight players for local multiplayer over “ComLynx” cables. 

Hardware & Power Specs

Processor: 16-bit custom CMOS chip (nicknamed “Mikey”) running at 16 MHz.

Graphics: Custom graphics chip (nicknamed “Suzy”) featuring hardware sprite scaling, zooming, and distortion.

Battery Life: Runs on 6 AA batteries, which deliver about 4-5 hours of gameplay with the backlight on. Due to this high power consumption, an AC adapter was a common necessity. 

Courtesy t’internet

So, without any further suppositions as to what’s wrong with it, let’s just await its arrival to carry out a full assessment.

Assessment:

I believe that to do a proper test on these units you have to have a game cartridge installed, this is my first issue, I don’t have any cartridges so I have had to purchase the cheapest one I could find for testing purposes. I’ve managed to pick one up for £11:00GBP and to be honest that isn’t too bad. It may well be the worst game they ever produced, who knows? But it will be fine for testing purposes.

Checkered flag for the Atari Lynx

Well, we still wait. Two weeks down the line and only the game cartridge has arrived. Not much I can say about that apart from it looks ok.

The game cartridge.

If the game doesn’t function there is not a great deal I can do here. As you can see it’s just a wafer thin plastic plug with no user access available. About the only thing you can do is clean the contacts.

We just need the console to arrive now……

And it’s arrived and to be quite honest it is in a good condition cosmetically, and for an item that’s now 35 years old it has been well looked after. No need to put any batteries in as there are already a fresh set in there, I have checked their voltages and they are fine. 6 x AA batteries turning out around 9 volts, the units requirement.

As I have previously stated, without a game cartridge installed the unit does not turn on. When a game is installed and the unit is turned on, I get an audible short “click” and the back light of the screen comes on, I get nothing else and am unable to get any sound or adjustment on either the volume or screen contrast dials.

Screen off
Screen on
Bottom
Top
Rear

It’s looking very much like either a screen issue, or an issue related to the failed capacitors on the main board. There is one particular capacitor “C41” that controls the main power board that is notorious for failing. I will check this initially to see how it is fairing, if it is ok I will make my way through the board checking other components as well as looking for other points of known failure such as weak solder joints.

Repair:

Firstly, let’s get into the unit, and this requires the removal of five screws in total.

After removal of the rear of the consol
Board removed
Ribbon cables detached
The power side of the board

The back should then lift off. Carefully remove the two screen ribbon cables, the power jack and the speaker jack and the whole of the main should just lift out.

A word of warning here. The power side of the board has a number of points that if touched will give you a nasty jolt of many hundreds of volts, a very quick and potent shock and you will certainly know what’s happened. Be very careful handling anything in this area, especially around the capacitors, and always make sure you bleed the power once the power source has been removed. If you are working live in this area, please be very careful. It’s amazing that just 9 volts of injected power can create such high voltages. You have been warned!

I’m going to order a full replacement capacitor kit, for an item of this age it’s probably a wise investment if you want the unit to be around for a good few years yet, even if the caps are not at issue they would probably need doing in the end anyway. The capacitor kit in its entirety (number of caps*) costs £9:80GBP and that’s a really reasonable price to pay to ensure the units usage can continue for many years to come.

The capacitor kit has arrived and there are 24 included. I think there are only 20 to replace (I could be wrong) so I may have a few left over.

The capacitor kit

I’ve started by removing the most prominent known capacitor that falls and that is C41. It’s a 10v 470uF value and has a tolerance of +\- 20%. So in Theory this capacitor has a value that can fluctuate between 376 and 564 micro farad, and the one on this board is registering 514uF. In theory it is still working, however it’s gradually creeping closer to to the limits of its tolerance.

Old C41 capacitor removed
New C41 capacitor installed

And to be honest, that was pretty much the same result with the other 19 I replaced. All were within their tolerance but at the higher end. The problem here is not capacitor related, however it’s always a wise move to replace them, before they finally go bad and cause other issues.

As replaced I marked them with a black marker
Black marker everywhere, job complete
The old removed capacitors

The recap has been successful, however I know it’s not going to make a difference, and putting it back on power confirms this. There is no difference to what I was experiencing when I first tested the unit.

No change

Annoying though this is, it is a job that needed doing and I’m now going to have to focus my attention elsewhere. I’ve checked the polarity of all the capacitors and I’m confident they are installed correctly and in the right positions. There are a few tests and checks to yet carry out, I’ll just have to do a bit of investigating to take this repair further.

These boards and their components such as the main chips and ram were developed to work with a power of 5 volts. However the problem here is that the supply via batteries or via an external power supply is 9 volts. Here lies the issue. On these units the power suppression part of the circuit, those components that filter and lower the voltage from 9v to 5v were known to fail, and when they did they failed quite spectacularly. With no protection built in to stop a surge of power, if some did fail, the full 9v would be supplied to most sensitive components rendering them beyond useless, and non repairable unless you have another donor board. Worst case scenario here is that the main CPUs of which there are two, could both be dead. In which case I may have purchased an expensive paperweight! But hey, let’s not go there just yet as there are a number of things we can do to check.

Next thing I have been doing is testing voltages around the board, and they are a little erratic to say the least. It is pointing towards the power board having its usual known issues. I’ve bypassed the power circuit to run a pure 5v through capacitor C14, same outcome here, this disappointed me as I was hopeful the game would kick in, it’s looking more like one of the chips have blown, the further I investigate.

I have done a bit more testing around the power components and I have definitely found an issue with a diode D13, it’s letting power through in both directions and this is not right. I suspect there are more affected components in this area so I’m just going to go ahead and purchase a complete pack of replacement components for those known and prone to fail, on the power circuit. This will cost me £6:79GBP, another cost to add to this project.

The failed diode D13
Same reading in either direction

I’m not hopeful though. Current testing results are all pointing to something more terminal. We will persevere for the short term though.

The parts required for the power board refresh have arrived.

6 of the tiniest replacement parts

And they are minute in size. Installing these components is going to require a lot of patience and concentration.

The company that sell this power board refresh kit in the UK is ZedLabz.com and this is what their accompanying paperwork states:

Within this kit you will find a replacement Mosfet, two transistors, a resistor and two zenner diodes of different mounting types.

Part locations:

Q11 – Mosfet

Q4 & Q13 – Transistors

ZD1 – Zenner diode (two mounting types included)

R56 – Resistor 30ohm

This parts kit can be used on an Atari Lynx 1 or 2 handheld. One surface mount SMD and one axial through hole zenner diode are included, making it suited to both Atari Lynx 1 & 2, you can choose which type of diode you want to fit.

The kit also includes a resistor which can help with some models to push up the voltage enough to get it stable.

The parts we supply in this kit are from Major distrbutors only ensuring they are genuine.

Console dissasembly and internal soldering required.

ZedLabz.com

No kidding there! It should really say some soldering of components slightly smaller than a grain of rice is required. Let’s stop the whining and just get on with it.

I have replaced all of the five components that needed to be replaced, I’m really quite pleased with the job I have done considering just how tiny these components are, my soldering skills appear to have improved somewhat as a year or so ago I wouldn’t have even attempted such a job. That’s the positive.

But now the negative.

It’s Dead, very dead.

There is still no improvement despite pretty much an entire rebuild of the circuit. I have checked all voltages and they are in the right place showing the correct values. It’s been recapped, the power board has been rebuilt, all solder joints have been checked and ribbon cable connections have all been reflowed.

Result:

My conclusion that the previous owner was well aware of the issues, they probably contributed to the problem and the unit has been sold on as “spares and repair only”. I have failed to pay attention to the old Latin saying “Caveat Emptor” or buyer beware.

The situation is this. A new LCD screen can be purchased to drag the unit into the 21st century, but there is no point when we have no sound and vision being produced. The problem here is that the 9v power supply has already been able to get to the delicate parts of the circuitry where only 5v should be in attendance. I am 99.9% certain that the ram chips as well as the two logic chips “Mikey & Suzy” have long departed. And there lies the problem. The two logic chips are as rare as hens teeth and are pretty much only available when transplanted from a donor unit. The unit is basically dead, it’s just a paperweight.

I will put the unit into storage until a later date, when I have done a lot more research and who knows I may even find a suitable donor board to transplant those two logic chips.

For now the project is on hold. I don’t like writing of failures as many hours of work over many weeks has been dedicated to this project. You can’t win them all though, and some you just have to step away from a project to get a fresh aspect on it. Having this log of activity is fantastic for me though as it will now become the reference for where I go next.

It’s a learning curve, that’s for sure.

When I come back to the project I will obviously link to this post.

Thanks for passing by. It’s always very much appreciated.

Dewalt DW087 Self-Levelling Cross Line Laser

Just picked up a badly damaged Dewalt laser levelling unit. Old and damaged, can I bring it back to being useful again? I can only try.

What the listing stated:

think the batteries melted in the chamber. does not work at all.

EBay

Straight to the point, the words “severely knackered” I think, would probably be a more appropriate quote, however I must be patient and await its arrival.

The unit I have purchased

When working and from new, these little laser levelling units retailed for approximately £175:00GBP. However they are of the older red laser model and new units use a green laser, so the older red laser version is now out of production, but still well sought after on second hand markets where it can still command prices in the £50-60:00GBP range. I’ve paid the princely sum of £6:00GBP for this one, so I’m very happy with that. If I can get it working it will go into my own tool kit for use.

Here’s a little about this unit:

A new DeWalt DW087 (or the DW087K kit) generally retails for around £178 to £185. However, because this specific model is an older red-beam line laser, used or refurbished units are widely available across secondary markets, typically ranging from £50 to £80 depending on condition.

The DeWalt DW087 (often sold as the DW087K) is a self-leveling cross-line red laser. It projects bright horizontal and vertical lines with an accuracy of ±0.3 mm/m and features an indoor visibility range of up to 15 meters. Powered by 3 AA batteries, it includes a built-in magnetic pivot bracket for quick metal mounting.

So. Basically it used by tradesmen and women to set up a visual laser projection around an area. Just think about putting up kitchen cabinets or worktops, and you’ve probably witnessed one of these in action. The one I have purchased sounds as if it is in a pretty poor condition, the lack of pictures showing the battery area speaks volumes and is probably hiding a crime scene, however I’ll just have to wait and see.

Assessment:

It has arrived. It’s as expected, looks like it’s been around a few building sites and most definitely does not work. The good thing is that the description of the batteries melting in the chamber was not so, in all truth it appears they have corroded the contacts a little, and one point of contact required to complete the circuitry appears to be broken.

The unit as it has arrived

It’s dirty no doubt about that, but it can always be cleaned.

The missing contact

There is a missing contact as highlighted in red, in the picture above. This connects with the battery contacts in the battery lid. When a circuit is made the level will work. There is a small piece of metal strip at the base of this hole, the remnants of the contact that should be there. I have managed to get the unit working by temporarily putting a small spring in here to bridge the contact. This will have to be replaced or repaired though.

Repair:

The first thing to do is to get the unit disassembled, and that is surprisingly easier than I thought. Four screws later and the body can be pulled apart. Another two screws removes the battery flap. Easy.

Upper body
Lower body
Laser internals

There are a couple of rubber gaskets that fit in between the two parts to ensure an airtight seal and to stop the ingress of dirt. I have given the lenses a clean with a camera lens cloth, I have cleaned both inside and out of the window and given a good blow through with some compressed air. I have used a multimeter on the power led in diode mode just to check that it is operational, and it is. There is nothing else needing attention within the internals.

Turning my attention to the battery chamber and battery lid I give both a thorough clean, the negative terminals in the battery chamber are cleaned with an IPA solution to improve their appearance, the whole chamber is cleaned in the same manner and is looking good.

Before
After

There was a collection of what appeared to be iron filings where the battery lid joins the body, and this is because on the opposite of this point, there is one of two strong magnets that keep the lasers level. Holding the unit over a bin and lifting the magnet out ensured a nice little rainfall of iron filings into the bin and not all over my workspace. With the magnet now replaced I gave this same area a further good clean with IPA.

Before
After

The battery lid has been left to bathe in a dish of white vinegar to help remove the remainder of the tarnishing to the battery contacts attached to it. It’s worked ok, a final tidy with a grinding pen has brought this up well, looking a lot better than it previously looked.

I now need to look at that broken contact.

Covered with hot glue
Part of the broken contact

The wiring for the contact has been hot glued into place on the reverse of the battery chamber. I used some IPA to loosen the old glue and that allows me to remove the remainder of the broken contact. The top part missing from the inside of the chamber has long gone. I will have to fabricate a replacement myself. The wiring you see above was also hot glued to a plug on the main circuit board. Again, an application of IPA softened the glue and I was able to remove the plug from the circuit board to be able to work freely on the battery chamber. When the work is complete I will re glue both these items back into place prior to reassembly.

I’ve formed a small contact out of a piece of pliable metal to use in the device.

The piece I’ve made
In place in the battery chamber
Fits well
Wire soldered on

It fits nicely and is cut in such a way that it won’t push through into the chamber when a slight pressure is applied. I’ve hot glued both surfaces that I had removed glue from in the first place to gain access. Now the unit is being reassembled they’ve been glued just as they were previously.

Hot glue re-application

Now the unit is back in one piece it’s now time to reattach the battery chamber lid, and in time honoured tradition, I’ve daubed my nick name on the lid, as this will now go into my toolbox in my garage.

Lid attached
Name added

Now all that is left to do is switch it on.

And it works just fine….

Superb, works perfectly

Let’s now just give it a practical clean, it’s a working item for rugged situations so it isn’t going to look “Shop” new. But it will be an awful lot cleaner.

Result:

The finished, working article

A tool that originally retailed for £175:00GBP and available on the auction sites, in good working order of between £60-£90:00GBP was purchased, non operational for the grand total of £6:00GBP. If that isn’t a bargain then I don’t know what is.

For little more than a couple of hours work I now have a valuable practical item to add to my toolbox because someone else just couldn’t be bothered to spend the time on it to get it working. Lucky me.

Definitely another item saved from landfill, with a new lease of life that should go on for many more years yet.

I’m very happy with it, this was a pleasure to work on.

Many thanks for passing by, as always it is very much appreciated.

Burying our heads in the sand

History shouldn’t be cancelled. It should be used as a tool of learning, and ensuring atrocities are not repeated.

If you could erase one trend from history, what would it be?

Easy. That would be the modern trend of trying to erase history and pretending it never happened. I never thought that in my lifetime I’d ever witness people deliberately burying their heads as depicted by old time cartoons.

Let’s erase history

But hey brother, that day is already with us, and it is happening.

It’s true that there are horrific, disgusting dehumanising aspects of history that we would have all preferred not to hear of or witness, and humans are responsible for creating all of those words listed above, throughout the timeline of history. Life is about learning, learning of other’s mistakes and wrong doing and making things better, ensuring such atrocities never occur again.

Yes, we learn from history, we can correct what went wrong, ensure that others learn and do the same, pass the learnings on and ensure we are all aware of the difference between right and wrong. Unfortunately there are a few who are a bit behind us at the moment and need to play catch up. There is always that underbelly of society who just don’t get it, their heads are already well and truly buried.

Don’t erase history. It happened, it can’t be hidden and we should all learn from it. Mankind has erred throughout history, we should learn from those mistakes, and ensure it never happens again.

It’s how a civilised society develops. Erasing what has happened in the past is pure ignorance, and is totally irresponsible.

But for some, it’s just easier to bury their heads. Out of sight, out of mind. That attitude will never work, but they will sure give it a go!

Be careful out there, stay safe 👍

Add a sprinkling of common sense

A prompt from Wordpress that pretty much answers its own question. If only common sense could be a lesson.

Do you think we’re shaped more by our experiences or by who we are?

Experience defines a person and their relative behaviours and beliefs, so the choices in the prompt above are both closely related.

Who you are, how you appear to others is a result of experiences that have shaped you throughout your life.

You live and learn. That’s how it has always been.

Now, if only common sense could be taught, wouldn’t that be nice?

Have a great weekend all.

Owl be back – hoot hoot

I’d want to be an Owl, what a “Hoot” it would be……I’ll get my coat

If you had to be an animal for a week, which one would you be and why?

Great grey owl

I’d probably like to be an Owl, just like the big fellah “Elvis” in the picture above. A great grey owl I had the pleasure of meeting a few weeks ago on a falconry day that was purchased for me as a birthday gift.

Sleep all day (that would be nice 👌) awake all night (pretty much standard for me) and exceptionally good hearing (another sense that I am truly blessed with, just as well as everyone else in the family are as deaf as posts 😂)

Silent hunters, lone operators and super senses, they are just a wonderful creation to set your eyes upon.

Who wouldn’t want to be an Owl.

Have a “Hoot” of a day 👍

Oi! Nosey

Sometimes Wordpress drop some really banal prompts to answer. Most I don’t bother with, I think you can see I’m now a tad miffed by it all. Simple answers are all that’s needed. No explanation necessary.

What’s one habit that has improved your life the most?

Easy really and quite simple.

Minding my own business

Stay safe. Don’t be nosey 👍