One of the misdiagnosed Lynx II known
problems and Best Electronics final Cure / Upgrade fix for it.
One of the misdiagnosed Lynx II known
problems and Best Electronics final Cure / Upgrade fix for it.
Lynx II owners have noticed that some of the Lynx II's they have owned for the last 10 to 15+ years have developed a problem most think the Lynx II is slowly going bad and most assume the problem is with the Lynx II motherboard sound out circuit going bad. But in fact it is the stock Lynx II Internal mini speaker going bad.
Symptom: Lynx II sound volume out is very very slowly decreasing over years and years of use. This Lynx II symptom is very easy to notice if you compared an old Atari Lynx II sound level out to a brand new Lynx II out volume.
If you were lucky enough to properly diagnose the Lynx II sound volume decrease problem as the internal speaker going bad, tying to find a new small mini speaker that would properly fit into the Lynx II small mounting bracket with the right wire harness and 2 pin Lynx female connector and have the right sound out volume (as a brand new Lynx II) was a very very hard thing to find. As many Atari Lynx II owners have found, most replacement mini speakers they found (and would even fit into the Lynx II), did not have the same sound volume out as the original new Lynx II speaker and most mini speakers that were found had a toy type of tinny sound out with very low sound volume.
Best Electronics studied this Lynx II speaker problem for about 6 months. We contacted many different mini Speaker Manufactures and sent Lynx II good and bad speaker samples to all of them. Most said there was a design flaw in the Lynx II mini speaker that would cause a percentage of them to loose sound out volume with age / use.
Best received many many different mini speakers samples from these Speaker manufactures. A few of the new sample speakers we received matched the original Lynx II 16 ohm sound volume out. But at Best we are always trying to improve / upgrade / push to the limit any new Atari parts we design. We will never settle for a as good as the original Atari part. We always push our suppliers to give us the very best Atari parts they can. Atari CX40 Joysticks, Atari CX30 Paddles, Atari CX52 Joysticks (just a few of the Atari products Best has improved over the years) that use to fail all of the time (sometimes prematurely from the original Atari Engineering spec's for those Atari controllers) with Best's upgraded / new Atari replacement parts turns them into lifetime Atari controllers.
Just a few of the many different New Sample speakers Best Received and ran Engineering tests on. Some with paper or plastic center speaker cones, different rear size magnets and 8 ohm to 16 ohm samples. None of them passed all of the different Bests Lynx II speaker tests we ran and did not make the final choice for our Lynx II upgrade replacement speaker.
We pushed our Speaker manufactures to give us more sample speakers with different features like larger (up to 1 5/8 inch in diameter) rear magnets (some with so large of a diameter and height (up to 1/2 inch high) on the rear magnet, the Lynx II would have to be modified internally by the Lynx II owner before the new speaker would even fit inside), different speaker cone materials, different 2, 4, 8 and 16 ohms rated speaker samples. After running Lynx II sample speaker tests for a couple of weeks, one sample speaker was the Best of the Best sample speakers we received and tested.
Comparison of Bests new Upgraded Lynx II Internal Speaker and stock Atari Lynx II Speaker
Best Upgraded Speaker Stock Lynx II Speaker
Ohms: 8 16
Speaker Cone material: PET Clear Plastic Paper
Watts Rating: 2 (10X Watt Increase) .2
Rear Speaker Magnet (W / H) 18 mm X 5 mm 17 mm X 3.45 mm
Speaker Outer Diameter: 40 mm 40 mm
Bests New Upgraded Lynx II Speaker Stock Atari Lynx II Speaker
Bests Upgraded Lynx II Speaker with Clear Speaker cone and Larger rear speaker magnet, Right picture, Left picture stock Lynx II Speaker
Here is some sound bytes / audio samples from an Atari Lynx II speaker going bad (sound volume is lower, sounds are not as crisp and are muffled), a New stock Atari Lynx II speaker and a used Atari Lynx II with the Best upgrade speaker installed. All Atari Lynx II's used for these speaker tests, had there volume control wheel turned to Maximum sound volume out and the recording microphone was placed the same distance from each Lynx II built in speaker. The Atari Game cartridge used to run the sound tests is the Lynx California Games start up screen and then the second California 4 game selection screen. Listen to each of the sound bytes all of the way to the end (you may have to have open your Media player 1st). To get the best sound test comparison, you should use your best Head phones or your favorite Ear Buds compared to lesser quality built in computer speaker, lap top speaker or phone speakers. Then to get a very good comparison of Lynx II speaker sound outputs, click on left button below listen for a few seconds, then click on the middle button listen for a few seconds and then click on the right button for a few seconds in a row (you may have to 1st down load each sound file (in Firefox look in / open your down load file (down pointing arrow) and click on each WAV or MP3 file) then quickly click on each sound file in row).
Jerry E. of CA Placing another Atari order with Best for 3 new boxed Atari Lynx games, Jerry said: "Also those Best Atari lynx II speakers are still going strong after several years ! Still no rattles, distortion, or loss of volume."
Taro K. of Japan Taro purchased from Best, a reconditioned Atari Lynx II upgraded with Bests exclusive Lynx II upgrade speaker, a replacement Lynx II replacement snap in clear window (for an old Lynx II he had), a new loose Atari Lynx Klax game and the Best Rev. 10 all Atari Catalog. "I received the products today. Thanks for the fast shipping. I really love them! I was impressed by the condition of the Lynx2. It's like a new one. I really love the sound of upgraded Lynx2 speaker. The catalog is amazing. I'm a very happy customer." We have told by Atari users in Japan, because of the very very high Japanese incoming Customs and other fees, a typical Atari shipment to Japan can almost double in cost to the Atari end user.
Steven C. of CA Steven had purchased some of Best exclusive Atari Lynx II upgrade replacement speakers. Upon placing his second Atari order with Best Steven said: "I actually just purchased 3 of your Lynx II speakers a couple weeks ago. Awesome! Fixed my sound issue."
Sean R. of WA. On upon placing his second back to back Atari Lynx order with Best. "Thank you again. I'm loving this upgraded Lynx II speaker... it's so loud"
Follow up Comment: "Had a good laugh about the original speaker being low volume and the new one needing to be turned down. I would highly recommend anyone wanting to refurbish their Lynx II to add this speaker."
Gary F. of CA. Gary is an old Atari Lynx II owner. He decided to order one of Best Reconditioned Atari Lynx II consoles with the new Best Lynx II Upgrade speaker already installed. "Thanks a lot! I got it today. I thought the speaker wasn't already installed." Best had given Gary the Atari Lynx II OEM speaker we had just removed and replaced with the Best better Lynx II upgrade speaker in his Atari order. "But I noticed the speaker was in there, wow, the sound is way louder and more crisp. Thanks again, and I liked all the extra papers with the interviews and extras from the catalog."
Jerry S. of CA Jerry purchased two sets of new Lynx II replacement rubber grips and 5 of the new Best Lynx II internal upgrade speakers. "Thanks for the fast shipping ! I was not expecting the shipment till during the week. The speakers sound better then new originals and I wasn't expecting oem grips. I'm looking forward to the next order.
Best New upgraded replacement Lynx II speaker, is a 100% form and fit replacement for a dying old Lynx II internal speaker and will not require any changes or modifications to the inside of a stock Atari made Lynx II console.
Because of limits of the original Lynx II stereo sound circuit design, the Atari Lynx II's do have a limited sound volume out and will never match the louder mono sound volume out of the Atari Lynx I. During our weeks of different speaker tests, a 8 ohm speaker sample give us best sound volume out. The clear plastic PET speaker cones give us the much more clearer sharper sound quality out and are not subject to the different humidly levels effects that paper speaker cones are subject too. All of the paper cone new sample speakers we received (and the original Lynx II paper cone speakers) gave a muffled / muted sound out quality. Our speaker manufactures all said the all mini paper speaker cones have a fixed useful life and will degrade with time / use / abuse (dropping the Atari Lynx II against a hard surface) because of the constant flexing of the paper cones, but this will not happen on the plastic PET clear speaker cones.
The Best New Replacement / Upgraded Lynx II internal speakers will give on average about a 10% to 20% louder, sound volume out compared to a brand new Lynx II speaker and a very big improvement on an old going bad low sound volume out Lynx II speaker. The new Best Upgraded Lynx II speaker sound quality out is a clearer / sharper quality out compared to a stock Atari Lynx II internal paper cone speaker because of the clear PET speaker cone. You may now hear Lynx II game sounds that was very muted / muffled by the old Atari Lynx II paper cone speaker design. One of the interesting effects of the new clear speaker cone mounting location within the Lynx II console, is you will now see a faint blue glow refection (thru the Lynx Top case speaker slits over the internal speaker) on one side the new speaker clear cone from the internal Lynx II LCD display. On a stock Lynx II speaker you can not see this LCD reflection because of the black paper speaker cone.
Most of the speaker Manufactures we got sample speakers from, wanted to supply the new Lynx II speakers without the 2 pin custom female wire harness attached. Best told all of the speaker manufactures that we would only accept the new complete Lynx speakers with the wire hardness attached only. This is so the new Lynx II upgrade internal speaker would be a solder less installation for our Atari Lynx II owners. All of the speaker Manufactures said the same thing, we could not find this custom made old 2 pin female custom connector and we would have to go out and buy a new $,$$$ mold to produce this Lynx II 2 pin female connector. Best spent another two weeks trying to locate this custom 2 pin female connector. We finally located a manufacture that could make (had the molds in stock) the custom 2 pin female connectors (and could make the Lynx II mating wire harness assembly), but we had buy twice as much connectors and wire harness assemblies as were going to use because of a Min. Sale required by the connector manufacture. We gave this connector new manufacture information to our New speaker manufacture we decided to have our Lynx II custom made speaker made.
New Upgraded Best Lynx II upgrade / replacement complete speakers CB102577-BEST are $12.50 each. Buy 5 or more for $10.00 each.
How hard is it to install a new Best Lynx II upgrade Speaker? Here is the Best Lynx II Speaker Install Instructions:
Atari Hint: If you are not sure if you can do this Lynx II Speaker replacement / upgrade, practice on your Atari Lynx II using the install instructions below before you buy the Best Upgraded Lynx II speaker.
Tools required: Phillips screwdriver, small straight blade screwdriver, small flash light and small pair of Needle nose pliers, optional contact cement.
On an Atari Tech Skill level this Lynx speaker upgrade / swap out is a 2 to 3 range. 1 never picked up a screwdriver to 10 expert can do any Atari repair.
Put your Lynx II LCD side down (Lynx Game cartridge opening facing toward 12 noon) on a soft white cloth or a stack of white paper towels with No Atari Lynx game cartridges installed. Atari used two different adhesives on the left and right Lynx II rubber grips back sides. One version you can completely peal off both rubber grips and still reinstall them with no problem. The second adhesive (black double sided tape) used on the other style of Lynx II rubber grips, the black double sided tape will stay the Lynx back case when you peal off the rubber grips and will require you apply a new layer of adhesive (contact cement) to reinstall the two rubber grips back on the Lynx II back case. So Best recommends you only peal down the Lynx left and right rubber grips the lengths we recommend and no more. Then you will not have to use any adhesive to reapply the second version double sided tape Lynx II rubber grips.
Peal down / back the upper right rubber grip end (you may have use the small straight blade screwdriver to start to peal up the end of the top right rubber grip) about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. Reach in with the Phillips screwdriver and unscrew the Phillips screw that is under that upper right rubber grip end (on the double sided black adhesive tape Lynx II rubber grips, you will have to push the head of the Phillips screwdriver tip thru the black double sided tape left on the Rubber grip case grove / channel to locate the Lynx hidden under the black adhesive tape case screw locations). You can remove the upper right Lynx II case Philips screws or just leave it under the rubber grip when it rolls back flat again and covers that case screw hole. Do the same procedure on the bottom right rubber grip end, but peal it up about 3/4 to 1 inch and again unscrew the Phillips screw. Do the same procedure on the left Lynx II top and bottom rubber grip. There are 4 total Phillips screws that hold the Lynx II front case to the back case.
Now with both of your thumbs in and on both front and back case sides around the battery cavity / tray. Gently pry the Lynx II front and back case sets apart. The Lynx front and back case half's have 6 outer case locking latches (two on the top side, two by the battery cavity and one each on each side of the Lynx II case). So you might half to work clock or counter clock wise unlocking each of the 6 locking latches before the Lynx back case will lift off the Lynx II front case set.
Now you will see the bottom / solder side of the Lynx green motherboard with the Atari Lynx game cartridge right angle female connector. At the same time you might want to inspect the Lynx Game cartridge connector for any damaged contacts or foreign material in the gold metal leaf contacts. If you do find foreign material or dust bunnies in your Lynx II game Cartridge connector, use a tooth brush with rubbing alcohol and clean out your Lynx game cartridge connector.
You do not want lift up the Lynx II motherboard too much off it 4 plastic front case inner support studs / pads that support the Lynx II motherboard. There two mylar pinch connectors behind the battery tray on the Lynx Motherboard. They are for the LCD Mylar connecting strip and the Lynx II controller buttons Mylar. If you lift the Lynx II motherboard up too much, you will pull out these two Lynx II Mylar connecting ribbon cables out of their pinch connectors on the motherboard. Then you will have completely take apart (remove the Lynx II battery tray) your Lynx II to get to these two Mylar connecting strips and mating pinch connectors to properly reassemble it together again.
Hold up the front Lynx II case at eye level and look directly at the Battery tray end of the Lynx case half. You will see the left bottom corner of the Lynx II motherboard. About 1 inch from the left hand corner (under) of the Lynx II motherboard, you will see a Tan / Light Orange colored 2 pin female Molex mini female connector / wire harness plugged into a 2 pin Male soldered to the Lynx II PCB board mating connector. This is the Lynx II speaker wire hardness Male / Female connector assembly. Note the color code (red and black wires) sequence on this keyed connector female speaker connector and what sides of the connector the color coded wires are on. This old wire harness information will help you properly install the new Best Upgraded speaker wire harness 2 pin female connector back on the two pin male speaker connector on the bottom side of the Lynx II motherboard.
Now follow the two speaker wires from the Tan / Light orange female 2 pin plugged into the mating PCB connector back toward the Lynx II speaker, that is sitting in a round black mounting hole with 3 evenly spaced outer small black locking latches around the outside of the speaker outer metal ring. Now looking from the left side / end view of Lynx case, if you look inside and down, you will see at least one or two of the three small black locking latches around the circumference of the mounting hole holds the Lynx II internal speaker outer metal ring onto the holding tray. Take the small straight blade screwdriver reach inside the Lynx II front case and pry between the speaker outer metal rim and as close to the far left small locking latch. Usually if you unlock this one of the three Lynx II Speaker locking latches, the speaker will come out of the speaker holding tray very easily. Next reach in with your needle nose piers (or if you have small fingers, with your finger tips) and grab the Tan / Light orange speaker 2 pin female connector (the 2 wire attached) and pull down on the female wire connector body only (not on the speaker wires themselves). This Male and Female connector set is a locking / keyed type of mating connectors, so it might take a little more effort to pull off / down the female connector body off the mating 2 pin male connector. If you have a hard time separating this mating connector set, try pulling down and toward the bottom / back of the Lynx case half to unlock the connector locking latch. Before you remove the old Lynx II speaker and wire harness, look at the end of the 2 Pin Female connector body. You will see that this 2 pin female body has a alignment extended rectangular raised ridge, that has a mating female cavity / channel on the 2 pin Male PCB connector body. Basically it is keyed so the new Best 2 Pin female Speaker connector will only go onto this 2 pin Male connector body one direction only.
Once you have stalled / locked your New Best upgraded Lynx II speaker into the round holding bracket with the 3 small locking latches, just reverse the above disassembly instructions.
Best Electronics in the Atari business since February 1, 1984.
Current Pacific Standard Time is:
Because of the big volume of Spam E-Mails we receive everyday, we had to install E-Mail Spam filters on our server. When sending an E-Mail to Best, Please put the word "Atari", Atari item or Atari part number, Atari Question or Atari Sales inquiry in the Subject line. E-Mails with the typical Spam subject matter like: Urgent, Must read, Regarding, FWD, HTML Code, Blank subject line (RE:) or other SPAM E-Mail Subject lines you receive, will be automatically deleted on our E-Mail Server and never reach us.
After sending your E-Mail to us, if you do not hear back from us within a day or less, please resend your E-Mail inquiry with a different Subject matter information or from a different E-Mail address. We do
100% respond to every Atari E-Mail we receive. But sometimes Spam Filters on your Internet Service Provider or your own personal E-Mail Spam software filter you have installed may delete or send our return Atari E-Mail to your Trash can.