I’ve finally decided to repair my ColecoVision!

I have several neat memories about the ColecoVision but I’ll save them for later.  For now let me get you up to date on this beast.  About 5 or 6 months ago I won this ColecoVision on eBay.  I knew full well it was broken but it has only been recently that I have decided to repair it.

The original auction explained that the system turned on but it wouldn’t read games because of a broken pin in the edge connector.  Easy peasy right?  Well sorta, I did a McGyver manuver and soldered a tiny wire from the bottom of the pin connector and bent a thicker piece of wire where the missing pin was.  It worked, but it was only a temporary solution.  I knew the edge connector would have to be replaced.

Since I decided to take the steps to repair it, I decided to do two other things.  The first would be to clean the rust off the RF shielding.  The first time I opened the system I was really disappointed by the amount of water damage the unit had suffered.  Not only was the RF shielding rusted but the mother board had some rust as well!  The games that came with the system had water damage on the labels as well.  I don’t think the unit was submerged, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was left in a damp dank basement.

The second thing I did was to install an AV composite video and audio mod.  The traditional RF plug is fine but is not convinient for newer TV’s.  Benheck.com has a nice and easy ColecoVision video mod.  I used Ben’s mod on three Atari’s and they came out great, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong by him.

Anyways this is the ColecoVision with the top part of the shell removed.

You can see plenty of rust in the shielding.  You can also see the temporary fix for the edge connector.

The guts of the system.  Under the lid of that silver box rests the RF modulator.  Here is where the mod occurs.

I decided to drown the rusted shielding in sme CLR.  It didn’t remove anything, but some Comet cleanser and a sponge did quite well.

And kablammo!  The AV mod works.  It didn’t at first, but suddenly it started working for no apparent reason.  I therefore have nothing to complain about.

And finally here is some footage of the mod in action.  The edge connector is coming this week so hopefully I’ll get this ColecoVision back together soon and play some Front Line!