So... video signal is coming out of IC1 pin 5 and is making it all the way to IC 6 pin 2. I believe there is signal coming out of IC 6 pin 4 but it is not making it to the RF output. I'm unable to test any of the capacitors between IC 6 pin 4 and the RF output unless I desolder them.
Any tips on figuring out where to troubleshoot next or do I just need to start desoldering stuff?
Thank you,
- Wil
I'm not totally convinced there is anything wrong with the console itself. The RF signal coming out of pin IC6 pin 4 will be very small and very difficult for your scope to trigger on. Easy to appear as just noise.
If you really did get sound as stated in your first post then the output from IC6 is definitely getting to the output socket. The audio FMed 4.5 MHz and the composite video are combined inside IC6 before that mix is applied as a single input to the 60 MHz amplitude modulator.
I'm wondering if your TVs just don't like the video signal that the console generates. Those old consoles only generated an approximation to the pukka NTSC standard. TVs of the era when that console was designed were much more tolerant of deviations from the strict standard. For example, your console probably generates non- standard non-interlaced video which the upscaler in your Samsungs may not be able to deal with.
The only way to conclusively prove that the console is working OK is to see it working with at least one TV. Do you have access to, even temporarily, an older TV?
Update: I just realised you
can test the console's output. Hook it up to the coax to 3 phono output box that you have. Look at the video output (yellow socket?) with your scope. Do you see the same waveform shape as when you looked at pin 5 of IC1?