Magnavox Odyssey 200 Troubleshooting Guide

Component view of the YF7015 (Odyssey 200) board, board 210996-3 (Magnavox Service Manual No. 6503, p. 6503-8)

Magnavox's Service Manual No. 6503 for the Magnavox Odyssey 200 (YF7015) has no symptom chart. It gives the specifications, what each of the six integrated circuits does, a voltage chart for every IC pin and transistor, and the adjustment procedures, which together narrow most faults to a control, a switch, the regulator or one chip. The owner's booklet IB 2900-2 adds a performance check list and explains several behaviours that look like faults. For opening the console and the adjustments see Magnavox Odyssey 200 General Maintenance.

Behaviour that is not a fault

• The ball is served by moving a player sideways with the horizontal control until it touches a white wall. If both opponents are touching walls at the same time, the ball does not come into play.
• With the PLAYERS switch at 4, the two fixed players have no controls of their own. Their horizontal positions are preset inside the console, and they follow the vertical movement of the main player on their side, more slowly than the main player.
• Smash shows only two players, whichever way the PLAYERS switch is set.
• Each ball control acts only while the ball is travelling away from that player in Tennis. In Smash and Hockey the last player to touch the ball keeps ball control until the opponent touches it.
• After 15 points the winner's on-screen score mark disappears. Moving the PLAYERS switch to its other position resets the score.
• The ball rebounds from invisible walls at the top and bottom of the screen.

Performance check list

Magnavox's check list in the owner's booklet:

1. No player images with the power switch on: check that the antenna-game switch is at GAME and properly installed and that the game cord is plugged into it; turn the horizontal and vertical controls on both sides; check that the television is on the channel set by the console's channel switch; check that the cells are fitted correctly, and replace them if the game has been in use for some time.
2. Picture distorted or scrambled: check the channel; switch the television to a local station with the switch box at TV and set it for a normal picture; switch back to GAME, select the game channel and fine-tune. If the picture rolls or tears, use the frequency controls as described on the maintenance page.

Symptoms

Odyssey 200 symptoms, causes and checks

Symptom	Where to look	Check
Nothing on screen, no beep	Cells or adaptor; power switch S1; regulator Q9, zener Z1, R104	+9 V at W1; Q9 collector 9.0 V, base 6.0 V, emitter 5.2 V; IC1 pin 3 4.5 V to 5.5 V
Picture rolls vertically	Vertical frequency control R4; vertical sync generator in IC1	Set 60 Hz ± 1 Hz at IC1 pin 14
Picture tears horizontally	Horizontal frequency control R2; horizontal sync generator in IC1	Set 15,734 Hz ± 30 Hz at IC1 pin 16
Walls or players not solid at the left of the screen	Blanking width R70 and centring R71	Set blanking to 16 µs, starting 6 µs before horizontal sync
Right wall missing or off the edge	Right wall control R6; right wall generator in IC1	IC1 pin 13 should vary with R6
Left wall missing or will not move	Center knob R55; left wall generator in IC3	IC3 pin 14 should vary with R55
Ball leaves the top or bottom of the screen	Rebound controls R8 and R10; rebound circuitry in IC1	IC1 pins 6 and 7 should vary with R10 and R8
No ball	Ball generator in IC3; Speed knob R51	IC3 pins 3 and 4 should vary with the ball's speed and travel
A main player missing or will not move	Player generators in IC2; controls R41, R43, R45, R47	IC2 pins 3, 14, 5 and 12 should vary with those controls
Fixed players missing in four-player Tennis or Hockey, main players normal	IC4; PLAYERS switch S2; fixed player controls R33 and R36	IC4 pin 3 should vary with R36 and pin 14 with R33; pins 5 and 12 should follow the right and left vertical controls
Fixed player off screen or overlapping a wall	R33 or R36 out of adjustment	Repeat the fixed player adjustment in Hockey with four players
No on-screen score, or score does not move	Scoring logic IC6; score position controls R77 and R78	IC6 pin 1 should vary with R78 and pin 13 with R77
Score will not reset	Score reset contacts S2B in the PLAYERS switch	Clean or replace S2
Ball control has no effect	Ball controls R74 and R75 and diodes D6 to D9	IC3 pin 5 should vary with the ball controls
One player cannot serve	Ball reset contacts in power switch S1	Clean, or open and polish the contacts
No beep	Sound switch S5; 2.5 kHz oscillator Q5; audio pulse generator in IC5; speaker	Check S5 is on; Q5 collector varies between 0 V and 3.7 V with the ball
Weak or noisy picture on a good television	Channel switch S4; RF oscillator Q1 and switch Q2; RF level control R29	Carrier 61.25 MHz (channel 3) or 67.25 MHz (channel 4); output 1100 µV to 1600 µV into 300 Ω

The "where to look" column follows Magnavox's list of IC functions and the notes on the voltage chart, which say which pin varies with which control. The ball reset and channel switch faults were found on an Odyssey 100, which uses the same power switch part (160546-3); Nerdly Pleasures cured both by cleaning.

Voltage charts

Magnavox took these readings with a VTVM, the GAME switch at B (Tennis), the PLAYERS switch at 4, sound on, the players centred and the ball volleying. The chart for IC1, IC2, IC3, IC5 and transistors Q4 to Q7 is printed once for both models and is reproduced on the Odyssey 100 troubleshooting guide. The parts fitted only to the Odyssey 200 read as follows.

IC4 (612087) and IC6 (612090) voltages (p. 6503-4)

Pin	IC4	IC6
1	0.4 V	3–5.2 V (15)
2	5.2 V	0.6–4.4 V (1)
3	2.1–3.8 V (12)	0.03 V
4	2.2 V	2 V
5	1–4.5 V (10)	4.6 V
6	0 V	1.3 V
7	1.4 V	1.4 V
8	0.07 V	1.4 V
9	0.08 V	1.4 V
10	1.1 V	0 V
11	0.2 V	0.15 V
12	1–4.5 V (11)	2.2 V
13	0.8 V	3–4.6 V (16)
14	1.5–3.1 V (13)	2.8 V
15	0 V	0.7 V
16	0.15 V	0.4 V

Numbers in brackets are Magnavox's notes: the reading varies with (1) ball speed and distance travelled, (10) the right player's vertical position, (11) the left player's vertical position, (12) the right fixed player's position, (13) the left fixed player's position, (15) the horizontal score position and (16) the vertical score position.

Q9, the regulator, reads 5.2 V on the emitter, 6.0 V on the base and 9.0 V on the collector.

Replacing an integrated circuit

IC1, IC2, IC3, IC4 and IC6 carry a group suffix in the parts list, and the schematic's table sets the timing capacitors for each group. A replacement chip from a different group needs the timing capacitors for its group; the values are on the main Odyssey 200 page. IC2 and IC4 are the same part, 612087.

Power faults

• Check that the cells are fitted the right way round; Magnavox warns that reversed cells can damage the electronics.
• The adaptor jack J1 disconnects the cells when a plug is in it, so a worn jack can stop the console running on cells.
• Magnavox advises taking the cells out of a console that normally runs from the adaptor, to prevent damage from leaking cells. See Battery Explosion, Capacitor or Corrosion Damage.
• The supply electrolytics C1, C2 and C9 are listed on Magnavox Odyssey 200 Capacitor Replacement Guide.

Related pages

• Magnavox Odyssey 200
• Magnavox Odyssey 200 General Maintenance
• Magnavox Odyssey 200 Capacitor Replacement Guide
• Magnavox Odyssey 100 and 200 Documentation
• Magnavox Odyssey 100 Troubleshooting Guide
• Capacitor Failure Symptoms