Jobo ATL-2 rebuilding project

Raoul Butler · Oct 13, 2020

Fred of Wisconsin said:
Good morning from Milwaukee WI USA.. I realize this can be a long response but this is how I would do the first line of troubleshooting of your issue.
With my rebuilding projects I have not experienced any defective or broken e-proms but I have had to replace the SET/RUN switch on 1 board. The processor was very erratic when the defective switch was still installed and I was able to resurrect the processors by harvesting the switch from an older ATL board. The parts that Jobo uses are basic across most of the ATL 2/3 platforms.

With taking the processor apart and replacing the memory battery by any chance wasn't reinstalled backwards by accident? Gotta ask

Now the other item I would look at more closely is ALL the connectors that needed to be unplugged then reconnected to be able to turn the processor back on. Look very closely at ALL of the the ribbon cable board connectors for any bent or smashed pins preventing contact paying attention to the locking socket connector on the bottom edge of the control board. On more than one occasion I have found damaged connector pins because it is to do than one thinks. If you find a damaged connector use EXTREME caution on straightening them or they will break then you will be hunting for a replacement connector.
With everything taken apart inspect both of the ribbon cable connectors for any damage from the Display board (94018) to the control board (94019). If their is no damage reassemble the control board to the display board then move to the side back of the board where the connections are made to the Control Head Interface board (94017) ribbon cable connection. If you find no damaged pins reassembly making sure you have the 2 power wires (red and black) on the top corner spade connectors in the proper spots. Once you are sure everything is normal with the connections on the backside of the control board remount the board. With the main control board reassembled reconnect the ribbon cable from the Interface board (94015) to the control board.

That would be my very first step to troubleshooting erratic board behavior if I believed it was working prior to the issue and having taken the boards out to make a repair to one.

I hope this helps. Stay safe and healthy.
Fred

Giday Fred
Thank you for responding to my enquiry. The Russian gentleman from Moscow has also offered some very good insight, he found it was the Micro Chip/ Eprom that addressed his problem. I have a friend in NY who has the EPROM and can load the chip but he doesn't have the binary / hex file data. The gentleman in Moscow has asked his technician to make contact, with the hope he has a backup of the data etc. In the case where there is no back up.... Fred do you have a copy of the EPROM data? (The reason I suspect the EPROM it may have suffered static electric wiping ?)

In reply to your advice, Yes the battery is placed correctly Positive to positive / negative to negative. Good question, Ive checked it many times.

A friend who is very capable with electronics did point his finger at the ribbon cable, so its interesting you have made mention of the cable and in general all connections. Today I will go through the connections checking for pins and bad joins. We removed the Key switch and use the three wires to switch between run and set. The key switch was not working, but to no avail. Regarding the red black wires I did cell phone images and labeled the wires ... but we did find by cleaning the terminals we had an improvement of minor activities ... some work to do there.

I'll go through the connections as advised and will report any findings.

Thanks for your help...

Cheers Raoul

Fred of Wisconsin · Oct 14, 2020

Good morning Raoul.. my apology but I do not have the EPROM data that you are looking for. I do not have the ability to read eprom data but I wish I did. I cannot justify the several hundred dollars to get a device to allow me to dig into an eprom and see what the settings are. I might suggest scouring the European eBay for a prom from a parted processor or try reaching out to Mr. Klaus-D. Seynsche who owned Fotolaborservice in Germany. I last communicated with him in May of this year and email address I used then was kds@fotolaborservice.de. I know he has recently retired but possibly he can help you also.

AgX · Oct 14, 2020

In this thread there are hints that the Eprom in question as such is scarce. I just checked at a major electronic-parts retailer and they already list 280 models.

Raoul Butler · Oct 14, 2020

Fred of Wisconsin said:
Good morning Raoul.. my apology but I do not have the EPROM data that you are looking for. I do not have the ability to read eprom data but I wish I did. I cannot justify the several hundred dollars to get a device to allow me to dig into an eprom and see what the settings are. I might suggest scouring the European eBay for a prom from a parted processor or try reaching out to Mr. Klaus-D. Seynsche who owned Fotolaborservice in Germany. I last communicated with him in May of this year and email address I used then was kds@fotolaborservice.de. I know he has recently retired but possibly he can help you also.

Giday Fred
Good evening to you sir and thank you for the tip. I emailed Klaus as suggested, Im hoping Klaus has an EPROM with the data. Loading data onto an eprom is out of my game play, as is coding such devices, and buying a device to do so would render useless in my hands, I totally concur with your comments, I too wish I had such skill sets. Ive done some checking of the cables and solder joints etc... more to do on that, thus so far all look good.

Thanks again.

Raoul Butler · Oct 14, 2020

AgX said:
In this tread there are hints that the Eprom in question as such is scarce. I hust checked at a major electronic-parts retailer and they already list 280 models.

Hello

Yes I understand the EPROM is available, its the data on the EPROM that is not so common, perhaps you have an EPROM with the relevant data you could assist us with. That would be a great help. We are looking for an EPROM loaded with the binary/ hex code for an ATL3 JOBO.

Thanks for your interest.

nbagno · Oct 14, 2020

Great work Fred! I was happy troubleshooting and replacing the BCD temp switch on my CPP2 and fixing a broken chemical arm on my ATL-1. Both are now "backups" I've since found a mint ATL2000. I really like the 2000.

Greg Moscow · Oct 15, 2020

Hello. A am technician in Moscow. ATL 3 has EPROM and PROM ICs. There some different board and different microchips with different code. Usually PROM microchip loses some data. It is TBP 18S030N. I could not find this microchip in Russia and trued to program russian microchip. It heeded modification

to solder resistor network to board. The board has a standard place for installing a resistor network.

Greg Moscow · Oct 15, 2020

I also have an ATL1 board, I can try to make copies of the firmware

AgX · Oct 15, 2020

Welcome to Apug (Photrio) !

Thank you for your advice. (I do not even got a Jobo processor with such dato storage, but who knows...)

Fred of Wisconsin · Oct 16, 2020

In my box #1 I have a substantial parts inventory of both raw electronic component parts to repair/rebuild the ATL series power supplies and certain repair parts for the interface board that I have found can fail and cause issues. I also have working major boards that I keep on hand for the what ever comes at me..

In my box #2 I have all the physical mechanical components and parts I tend to need to rebuild an ATL 2/2+/3 and 3000.

What I have on the table is not all the parts but a representation of the parts at my disposal.
In my box #3 I have housing parts.. both in the earlier black and later gray.

I am posting a couple of images of my parts house.. I am willing to help out with any parts questions if possible but I cannot give these parts away for free..

Fred of Wisconsin · Oct 16, 2020

These images are of the 4 completed restored Jobo ATL's I have on the shelf. The two that are wrapped under plastic are complete ATL-2's including all the components as when they would have been purchased. that includes the spare bottles and even the end chemical reclamation units that tend to be missing on units when I see them being offered usually on eBay.
The ATL-2 PLUS is also fully restored with all the covers and this is the unit I use to process my B&W film.
The other unit I have restored is just the full head, It came to me without any body parts but the head is now rebuilt and it can be configured an ATL and basically dropped into place with minimum parts being put back together.

What started me on this rebuilding craze was the intention of helping the local photography group that met at my local High School. I had arranged for the school darkroom to be accessed by the group with a donation to the school photo club of a fully restored ATL-2 and the necessary tanks in exchange for allowing a couple of the members of the now no- photo group as mentors to the photo students but because of COVID it is now not happening.

VVN_777 · Oct 17, 2020

Dear friends , does anybody have chemical bottles (1.8 l) for ATL-3 for sale ? Need one or two.

Raoul Butler · Oct 17, 2020

Greg Moscow said:
Hello. A am technician in Moscow. ATL 3 has EPROM and PROM ICs. There some different board and different microchips with different code. Usually PROM microchip loses some data. It is TBP 18S030N. I could not find this microchip in Russia and trued to program russian microchip. It heeded modificationView attachment 257081 View attachment 257082 to solder resistor network to board. The board has a standard place for installing a resistor network.

Hello Greg
How is Moscow today?

I have an EPROM that I believe has dropped out, I managed to arrange a replacement logi-board but there seems to be a few variations. Do you have the binary code for the EPROM? This is my board for an ATL3 (early model) The number on the chip is 3902, does that mean anything?

Cheers Raoul

Raoul Butler · Oct 17, 2020

Fred of Wisconsin said:
These images are of the 4 completed restored Jobo ATL's I have on the shelf. The two that are wrapped under plastic are complete ATL-2's including all the components as when they would have been purchased. that includes the spare bottles and even the end chemical reclamation units that tend to be missing on units when I see them being offered usually on eBay.
The ATL-2 PLUS is also fully restored with all the covers and this is the unit I use to process my B&W film.
The other unit I have restored is just the full head, It came to me without any body parts but the head is now rebuilt and it can be configured an ATL and basically dropped into place with minimum parts being put back together.

What started me on this rebuilding craze was the intention of helping the local photography group that met at my local High School. I had arranged for the school darkroom to be accessed by the group with a donation to the school photo club of a fully restored ATL-2 and the necessary tanks in exchange for allowing a couple of the members of the now no- photo group as mentors to the photo students but because of COVID it is now not happening.
View attachment 257200 View attachment 257201 View attachment 257202 View attachment 257199

Giday Fred
That is very interesting. Do the ATL2 and ATL3 interchange? For the next two weeks my machine is going to be nuts and bolts, when I get some time I'll take a close look and see what I might need.
I just organised a some boards to be sent from the USA, but if Im short I'll contact you...

Cheers Raoul

Fred of Wisconsin · Oct 17, 2020

VVN_777 said:
Dear friends , does anybody have chemical bottles (1.8 l) for ATL-3 for sale ? Need one or two.
View attachment 257262

Good morning.. I can help you out.. How many do you need? I have 12 new old stock and I think 2 slightly used ones in my inventory. Do you need them with or without the opening for the chemical temperature probe?

VVN_777 · Oct 17, 2020

Fred of Wisconsin said:
Good morning.. I can help you out.. How many do you need? I have 12 new old stock and I think 2 slightly used ones in my inventory. Do you need them with or without the opening for the chemical temperature probe?

Oh, great! Thanks a lot!
Generally speaking , I need : 1 bottle with sensor hole and 1-2 bottles without it
and
2 bottles for solution collection

They may be used

Oh, another question I have to ask May be , by any chance you have solution collector like that:

ic-racer · Oct 17, 2020

Fred of Wisconsin said:
These images are of the 4 completed restored Jobo ATL's I have on the shelf. ]

Are you selling these or are they your backups. Sorry, I did not read the entire thread.

Fred of Wisconsin · Oct 17, 2020

Raoul Butler said:
Hello Greg
How is Moscow today?

I have an EPROM that I believe has dropped out, I managed to arrange a replacement logi-board but there seems to be a few variations. Do you have the binary code for the EPROM? This is my board for an ATL3 (early model) The number on the chip is 3902, does that mean anything?

Cheers Raoul

Good morning Raoul..
On your photo of the ATL-3 board..The Toshiba TC5517APL-2 chip in location IC4 is a RAM chip and my question is why is there open pins in the chip socket? On my ATL-3 board the socket is filled and those 4 end pins that are open in your photo are active pins on the board. I attached a photo of the board I have here and that is what caught my eye.

Fred of Wisconsin · Oct 17, 2020

ic-racer said:
Are you selling these or are they your backups. Sorry, I did not read the entire thread.

If I can find a good home for one, meaning someone who will ACTUALLY take care of the unit, being that I am a little protective of them then I think I could sell one.. I do not need 3 ATL's in my basement.. sitting on my shelves and these will better serve the analog photo community. They wouldn't be bargain basement priced though and not because of greed but because of all the parts that needed to be hunted down and only a partial consideration of the labor hours it took to bring them back to life..

Fred of Wisconsin · Oct 17, 2020

VVN_777 said:
Oh, great! Thanks a lot!
Generally speaking , I need : 1 bottle with sensor hole and 1-2 bottles without it
and
2 bottles for solution collection

They may be used

Oh, another question I have to ask May be , by any chance you have solution collector like that:

View attachment 257271

I do not have the collector piece.. that is the same that is used in an ATL-3000 if you could find a pieced out unit. I also do not have the 2000ml collection bottles. I saw someone had some on eBay recently and here is the eBay item number: 143475560573. Hope this helps.

VVN_777 · Oct 17, 2020

Fred of Wisconsin said:
I do not have the collec
tor piece.. that is the same that is used in an ATL-3000 if you could find a pieced out unit.

Yes. Possible , collector can be printed on 3D , I will ask my friend who has 3D printer.

Thanks!

Raoul Butler · Oct 17, 2020

Fred of Wisconsin said:
Good morning.. I can help you out.. How many do you need? I have 12 new old stock and I think 2 slightly used ones in my inventory. Do you need them with or without the opening for the chemical temperature probe?

Giday Fred
Thankyou for the reply
That is an interesting question. Everything is in bits right now, all things going well I'll have an idea what I need when the parts coming from the USA arrive, Im hoping 2-3 weeks. My unit has the opening for the probe, if its what I think it is. I'll keep in touch, when I know what I need I'll contact you.

Raoul Butler · Oct 17, 2020

Fred of Wisconsin said:
Good morning Raoul..
On your photo of the ATL-3 board..The Toshiba TC5517APL-2 chip in location IC4 is a RAM chip and my question is why is there open pins in the chip socket? On my ATL-3 board the socket is filled and those 4 end pins that are open in your photo are active pins on the board. I attached a photo of the board I have here and that is what caught my eye.

Giday Fred
You have a sharp eye.
I have never seen a different JOBO circuit board other than the boards I have. I see what your talking about, I also noticed a different configuration to the left of the chip, a wire loop is connected differently. My board the loop is East West and your board is North South... I wonder if my board is an earlier version of your board? The sticker on the chip, is this the batch number ... any idea what it means? I see your board is 09/93 / I suspect my machine is earlier, do you know how I can date when my machine was made?

Thanks for your interest

Regards Raoul

AgX · Oct 18, 2020

Seemingly concerning the Eprom data issue no one has contacted Jobo.

Raoul Butler · Oct 18, 2020

AgX said:
Seemingly concerning the Eprom data issue no one has contacted Jobo.

I asked JOBO if the logiboard was the issue, they sent me a PDF file of the manual, they explained it was possibly one of many things. I figured from that they didn't have the answer. I was very impressed they responded as ATL3 JOBO's haven't been made in years. Have you contacted JOBO?

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