Atari Engineering was about 35+ years ahead of their time when they designed their 1st Atari 8 bit computers (800 / 1200XL). They installed Composite Video (CV) out ports on their Atari 8 bit computers. Back then, NO company in the Commercial Electronics Industry had a CV out video port on their Consumer Video / Computers products. Now some 37 years later, just about any state of the flat panel video Display / Video product, still has the now industry standard old CV input ports.
A little Atari 8 bit computer Trivia. Early (37+ years ago) made Atari 8 bit computer Composite Video cables did not use the modern industry wide standard CV cable Color codes on the RCA cable connector ends (Yellow = Composite Video out, Red and White = Audio Right and Left out lines). Because 35 years ago, there was no Industry color code standards for the unheard of / Brand New cutting edge CV video standard. So an early made Atari and other cable vendors 8 bit computer CV cable manufactures could use a Black, White, Red, Gray color RCA connector body for the Video out and a Black, White, Red, Gray, Yellow RCA connector body color for the single Audio out channel.
Best knew mid 2016 that our local Cable manufacture could not meet our current and ever increasing demand for the custom made Best 1st generation hand assembled Atari Composite Video (CV) cable for Atari 8 bit computers (65XE / 800 / 130XE / 800XL / 1200XL Computers). So Best made the decision to make a Second Generation Improved / Upgraded custom made Atari Composite Video cable. After several weeks of searching for new custom Cable manufacture to make a new Atari CV cable, Best found a cable manufacture we could work with. We sent a 1st Generation Best Atari CV sample cable to our new cable manufacture to examine, test its electrical functions and dissemble to see the inner working of the CV cable. A couple of weeks latter, our new cable manufacture came back with the final costs for the new 2nd Generation Atari CV cable production run, including the cost for a brand new mold for the Best custom designed 5 pin din connector body. Best send the funds to the new cable company. After 4 months of back and forth questions, new Engineering cable prints which required many corrections and Engineering Revision changes, sample pictures, the machine shop time to make the new cable connector body custom mold, lead time for the new CV Gold plated connectors and lead time to make the 2 different extruded wire conductor production runs) with New Cable manufacture, so began the 2 to 3 week wait for the new 1st article sample cables.
Best received 2, 1st article sample 2nd Generation Enhanced / Upgraded Atari CV cables early in October 2016. Best spotted some problems with the sample cables right off.
1st Article sample Best 2nd Gen. CV cable. 3 loose cable conductors (hand assembled / shrunk wrapped together, for prototype purposes only) that were not extruded (molded together) like the Best 1st Gen. Enhanced Atari CV cable was.
1. The Red and White RCA connector bodies were much smaller length wise compared to the 1st generation sample cable Best Enhanced CV cable we sent the cable molder.
2. The outside diameter (and inner wire gauge) of the Red and White audio conductors were much smaller than the sample 1st generation Atari CV cable and give the 1st article CV cable assembly a cheap / knock off look.
3. The Yellow color on the RCA connector body was a very light color and did not match the original CV sample cable dark yellow jacket / body color.
4. 1 of the 2 sample cables had a bad (not connected) Yellow wire (Video) in the wire harness and that sample cable was rejected.
5. 1 of the 2 sample cables had wire outer jacket damage (copper RF shield braid was damaged / exposed) on the 5 pin din connector back strain relief, between the flexible strain relief flutes (this is caused by the mold half’s of the 5 pin disk molded body over clamping (pinching) on the wire jacket during the injection of the black molding compound into the mold / connector jacket / strain relief cavity, damaging / pinching open the black wire outer jacket. That second sample CV cable was also rejected.
6. The Best custom shape and design of the new molded Atari 5 pin black tapered back connector body / housing did meet Best’s new design specifications for it.
So Best rejected the 1st article sample 2 Atari CV cable samples and sent a rejection report back to the New cable vendor. About two weeks latter, they said they have located the larger diameter wires for the Red and White audio wire conductors to match the 1st Generation CV cable sample we sent them. But they said when the two larger diameter audio conductor diameters are added to the extruded wire bundle, it will require a rework (enlarging the mold cavity) to the back end of the new 5 pin connector strain relief body to accept the 2 larger diameter wires. For Best, this was a no charge modification to the new 5 DIN connector mold for once.
About two weeks later the new cable vendor sent Best a new picture of the new modified 5 pin larger cable connector. Right off, Best spotted a new problem on the 5 pin molded cable connector body. When the cable molder modified (enlarged the outside diameter) the back end of the molded connector body, they also increased the thickness of the front end black jacket over the 5 pin DIN round metal connector area. This gave the front end of the molded body a large / thick right angle shoulder over the 5 pin DIN metal connector body which defeated the New Best original design that had a tapering down to almost nothing front end of the black molded connector jacket. See the information below why Best told the new cable vendor this latest modification to the 5 pin din molded front black jacket is not acceptable.
The main reason why Best did not go with a stock off the shelf 5 pin connector body (the existing injection mold for a stock 5 pin connector body that would not of cost Best anything) is the many many different Atari 8 bit computers this Atari CV cable is used on. From the original 1980 Atari 800 computer with its angled brown plastic connector opening / bezel around the female connector for the CV cable connector to all of the other 8 bit Atari computers made over the years. One thing for sure, if you checked 10 to 12 different 800, Atari XL or XE computer CV ports, the CV female right angle connector (on the 8 bit computer motherboard) face was never properly centered in the 8 bit computer bottom case CV hole / opening.
Atari CV port female input connectors on different Atari computers below that are all off center in the CV port opening.
800 CV Port 800XL CV Port 1200XL CV port
So this meant that any old Atari CV cable Male connector molded body with a thick front right angle large diameter lip on the black molded connector body, would hang up on the 8 bit computer CV port outer plastic case opening and would not let the 5 pin DIN CV Male connector fully slide into the female CV right angle connector fully. In many cases the large front right angle lip would prevent the CV cable connector male pins from fully making electrical contact with the female contacts on the right angle Atari computer CV connector.
Best 2nd generation Enhanced Atari CV cable 1st article sample cable with custom made 5 pin din connector body (left) with tapered down front connector lip / housing. Two older (15 to 25+ years) Atari CV cables (middle and right) with molded thick right angle front connector lip over the 5 pin metal connector shell.
In some cases you had to push the old Atari CV cable connector body (with the stock large diameter right angle lip) into the right angle female CV connector on the Atari computer with a great deal of force to get it to properly seat / work. Some extreme cases, the Atari CV cable 5 pin din connector body would not go into the female CV port at all. Best got around this female connector interface off center problem on the 1st Generation Atari Enhanced CV cables by having the cable assembler move back the black shrunk wrap covering / jacket (over the 5 pin din metal cylinder) back about 5/8 of an inch from the front of 5 pin metal nose front edge. But this connector body option was simply could not be applied to a fully injection molded 5 pin black connector body. So on the new Best custom designed / made 5 pin CV connector black molded jacket, has a back tapered (angled backward) design (above picture, far left DIN connector sample). So this gives the front of the black molded body almost no lip to bind / catch / hang up on the Atari 8 bit bottom case CV opening hole when you are trying to insert into the CV connector into the Atari CV port. In some of the extreme cases where the top, left, right or bottom sides of the 5 pin female CV connector face is way off center and behind the CV opening hole on the bottom computer case, the new Best New tapered CV 5 pin din connector body black jacket design will help you to insert the 5 pin male connector body smoothly into the off center / practically blocked CV female connector port.
The third week of October 2016, Best received a single 2nd article sample CV cable from our new Cable vendor.
1. The new 2nd article sample cable, corrected the two undersized Audio wire conductor diameters.
2. The two short Audio RCA connector body (Red and White) lengths was also corrected.
3. The three separate CV conductors / wires was now fully extruded / molded together into a single cable bundle. But lacked the molded on strain relief to keep the 3 cable conductors from separating near the end of the Best CV cable.
4. The 5 Pin DIN black molded connector body diameter was enlarged (new connector mold had to be modified) on the back end of the molded cover to accept the two larger audio conductor diameter wires.
5. The new Yellow RCA body color was closer to the final Yellow color Best wanted and was a closer match to the 1st Generation Yellow RCA body color
It was 5 steps in the right direction, but one backward. When the cable molder modified the back end of molded black cable connector body diameter / mold, they also increased the front edge / lip of the molded cable body so it now has a large right angle lip, which defeated Best original specification that the front edge of the molded cable body have a thin tapered front edge.
So Best sent word to the cable molder to correct / go back to the tapered front lip again that was on the 1st article sample cable samples. After a couple of weeks of back and forth talks with the cable molder, pictures sent of the different off center Atari AV port female connectors, the cable vendor finally understood why Best required the 5 pin din molded connector body front edge / lip to have a thin tapered front end of the black connector body. The second week in December 2016 the cable molder sent a revised Engineering print to Best of the AV cable 5 pin din black molded connector body for approval. They said they could not do a straight back tapered design on the connector body like the 1st article sample cable. They said they could do a back tapered design for a set distance and moved the sharp right angle thick shoulder back about 5/8 of an inch backward on the connector body. Best double checked all of the new proposed connector body dimension changes and compared the new revised stepped AV Connector body design to all of the many different Atari 8 bit computer Composite Video Port configurations (that were on center and off center). Best approved the new AV connector body changes and sent word back to the cable molder. This would mean another mold rework again.
Left is the 2nd article sample cable Right is the 1st article cable
with the extruded wire bundle with with the tapered front thin
the 2 larger diameter audio cables. lip molded black body
Note the large diameter black a new upgrade feature
molded thick front lip. Best required on the final
Atari AV cable.
The 2nd article sample cables with the thicker front lip were not to the cable molders current AV cable print Best had approved on the 1st article sample AV cable and was one of the main reasons why Best had to reject the 2nd article cable samples.
Another Best upgrade feature that was on the Cable molders revised AV cable print, but not on 2nd article sample cables was a molded strain relief near the 3 AV RCA male wire connectors ends to prevent the one piece extruded 3 wire bundle from unraveling into 3 separate wires along the full length over the AV cable. The cable molder said they had planned to just put a piece of shrink wrap plastic sleeve on the cable to keep the 3 wires from unraveling / separating. Best spend the next 1 to 2 months back and forth with the cable molder, arguing with them about the print showing a molded on black textured strain relief. Since the complete funds for this 2nd Generation Upgraded Best Atari AV cable project had already been paid up front (before this project even started) to the cable molder, Best proposed a compromise with the cable molder. Best would pay the extra cost for a second new mold to make the molded on strain relief, but the molder would have to absorb the extra labor and material to mold on the strain relief. So we both agreed to this compromise and the cable project was back on track.
The next month was spent on the shape, size and texture on the new molded on cable strain relief with the cable molder. Prints of the proposed molded strain relief received and rejected over and over. We finally agreed on a final design of the new molded on strain relief. Early April 2017, the cable molder sent Best a picture of the redesigned new 5 pin connector molded cable body and second picture of the new molded on strain relief. Best approved the two pictures and requested the molder to send us 3rd article cable samples.
On April 10, 2017 Best received the 3rd article sample Best Enhanced Atari Composite video cable short cable ends. After a very close inspection process, Best approved the new tapered 5 pin DIN connector body design and the new textured strain relief molded on body shape and style. But we did notice a few new problems on the new cable end samples the cable manufacture sent. There was excess molding flash (thin plastic molding compound, that flashes / squirts outside the mold cavity part line edges, leaving a very thin plastic edge / tags around parts of the circumference of the molded strain relief edges. Since the cable manufacture only sent cut up CV cable section samples this time, Best noticed an internal problem with new larger diameter wires used on the two Audio cables, that was not acceptable.
Side view of the final version of the Best 5 pin custom made New tapered connector body sample,
5 pin metal connector body is not Gold plated on this latest sample cable end.
New Custom made Molded on cable strain relief with textured top and bottom surfaces
On April 12, 2017 Best sent a 3rd article receiving report back to our cable manufacture with the items we approved and the items that needed to be corrected on the Best 2nd Generation Atari Composite Video cable.
On June 14, 2017 we got word from our Cable manufacture that they had 29 pieces of the Best New Atari Enhanced / Upgraded 2nd Generation Custom made Composite Video Cable preproduction samples they were going to send to Best for the final approval.
June 21, 2017 The Final Approved Best 2nd Generation Atari Cable
CB101280E2 Atari Enhanced 2nd Generation 12 foot Custom made Composite Video Cable CB101280E2 $17.95
Best Electronics in the Atari business since February 1, 1984.
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