Atari Jaguar Power/Sound Fix and Rotary Controller

The other day I prepared my Atari Jaguar to build a rotary controller for Tempest 2000. I hadn’t used it in a while and accidentally picked the wrong power supply – smoke was rising from the console immediately.

The culprit was easily found, chip U38 (MC34163DW):

Toasted U38 (MC34163DW)
Toasted U38 (MC34163DW)

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Serial Terminal on Atari Portfolio

In order to access the Low-Level Test of Philips CD-i players or debug other units with a serial port, you will always need a VT100 compatible terminal. An old laptop with Windows 98 and HyperTerminal works fine, but I was looking for something more portable. The Atari Portfolio with Serial Interface add-on is a good portable choice.
Update: Meanwhile, I’ve found the Psion 5mx Pro to be a better choice.

First of all, we need to transfer the terminal software ACOM to the Portfolio. This is possible via the serial port, but I had to back up some data from the old memory cards too. I hooked up the Atari PC Card Drive HPC-301 to transfer the data and software.

Atari Portfolio and PC Card Drive HPC-301
Atari Portfolio and PC Card Drive HPC-301
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