Nicole’s Atari 2600jr feels the heat – replacing the voltage regulator

Nicole looks to replace the hot linear voltage regulator in an Atari 2600jr. Linear regulators reduce voltage (in this case 9 volts to 5 volts) but do so in an inefficient way, generating heat in the process.

For quantification, I decided to run Pitfall II for 5 minutes. My thinking was that since Pitfall II uses a special chip on the cartridge… And running that long, and then using a cheap IR thermometer, I get… 153.6F (67.6C). Ouch!

The chosen solution was to replace the regulator with a Traco TSR-1-2450 switching regulator.

To my eyes, this looks just as clean as the original 7805, if not cleaner. (And my eyes are the ones that have to look at this console output) Definitely better than the poor overheating L78S05CV. But the proof is in the temperature, and that was… 80.0F (26.7C), barely above room temperature. Excellent!

See how things were done with screenshots in the post here.


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