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Andy's
Atari CTF-1 test rig page

last updated May 30, 2014

This is a rough page for now detailing my CTF-1 test rigs, both are in need of work.
I intend to make one original rig, and one for use on my workbench, fortunatly of the
two i have, there are enough parts to make one nice original one (eventually) and one
will be perfect for my workbench setup.

 

Sales Flyers for the CTF-1 :

 

Backstory:
In December of 2008 i was lucky enough to finally get my hands on an Atari CTF-1 test rig. I purchased it through eBay from Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, USA, it took a while to ship, but it landed just fine! I know eBay isn't exactly orignal detective work, but these things just aren't that common! While the machine didn't look complete, I knew i had to have it, what with my Atari 1970's pcb collection as it was.. i took the chance to grab it while i had some money kicking around and i fealt like cheering myself up (as you do at christmas time). So, with my ridiculous impulse purchase secured, i sat and waited. I told some guys online about the new aquisition, one of whom said that he remembers actually talking with a guy who still had it in his workshop a few years back, and he said there was a big box of plugs that went with it.
	So i asked the seller of my new CTF-1 if there was any chance he had picked up a box of plugs with it, but hadn't realised what they were... Sure enough he got back to me a few days later and said he found them, we negotiated a further payment and he wrapped them up with the machine and shipped it. I could already see from the auction pictures that some weird- re-wiring had gone on, there was an AR1 hanging off of it for a start, and a little wooden panel marked 'Asteroids on/off' on the front. No doubt it got to the end of its useful life and became useful for asteroids only.. who knows.
December 20th 2008: After having a few phone calls with the shipping company to sort out the obligatory customs import charges and related shenanigans, a big curtain-sided lorry turned up outside my house.. The driver was very good, and helped lift the damn thing off the 6ft high bed of the truck, and carry it into my house. I think it weighs in the region of 80 kgs And there it sat... ready to be unpeeled...
	Removing the layers off revealed a cardboard box full of plugs... inside the box with the plugs there lay half scrunched up - lots of sheets of paper which look like real Atari pinout information sheets, no doubt provided with the plugs themselves when you bought them.. Look in the table further down the page for photos of the plugs themselves.

	An overall picture of the rig itself..
	The monitor.. Judging by the flyers i've seen, my rig is probably a later version, with the re-styled monitor housing. Mine also has some added pots for volume. I will add some silver knobs to tidy up the monitor adjustment controls too i think.
	The mulitmeter is missing, but this is no big deal, its just a fluke 8000A that i will pick up at some point. - update aug '12, found, installed! Above this panel is a big gap, this is where the universal expansion module should go, its entirely missing which is really quite annoying, and i dare say will be a pain in the arse to find or replace.
	Here are the controls, very robust!