TVisitor
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Posts posted by TVisitor
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13 hours ago, holygrailvideogames.com said:
Allen Schweitzer - AtariAge Forums
If you decide that do not want to deal with the repair then Allen might be able to sell you a working system or maybe you could send your system to him and have him repair it. He is known for being very good at what he does. He also sells reproductions of very hard to find Astrocade games.
I found a transformer document that has a nice writeup on the Bally power supply, so I believe with 3 of them I can make my own. I'm going to give it a shot first before pursuing other avenues!
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On 9/6/2023 at 11:37 AM, 128Kgames said:
Allen Schweitzer might be able to help 😉
I don't know who Allen is, is there a way to contact him?
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I bought an untested astrocade. In addition to some other issues, the power supply is blown (there's a melted spot through the case).
I have the specs on the PS and can make one using 2 transformers, but I have to wonder - does anyone out there have a PS for an astrocade I could buy reasonably before I go down this route?
Thanks.
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@SainT thank you, I'll update AA with this info.
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@SainT : I actually tried a 32 Gig memory card (formatted as FAT32 as well), and the same exact issue. I have verified it's seated. I did verify in partition manager in Windows that neither SD card has anything but 1 partition (the first card I used, the 4G did have multiple partitions of which I deleted them all and then reformatted the card; the 32G card was one partition from the beginning). All that shows initially is the directory [7800] and the / directory. Attempting to select one shows the strange garbage.
I apologize for the interference in the picture, hopefully you can make it out (top and 2nd line). I am using a crappy RF cable and the unit is open (no shield) so things are a bit ugly. If there are issues, I can close it up and take a better picture, let me know what you think.
I also did run the 7800 Utility (from the Concerto) and from what I could see it doesn't find any fault with the 7800, though I do not know how extensive the utility is.
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I wrote in to AA to ask, but I a friend directed to this thread, so I might as well try to get visibility.
Got my 7800GD. I formatted a 4 gig SD card as FAT32, copied Trebor's pack over and then made sure to "eject" the SD card from Windows to be sure the files were all closed and flushed.
When I turn on power, I get the "Saint" boot screen, a message about firmware upgrades (press start to upgrade firmware), then I get dumped into the file explorer. I can't see the highlight bar move, and when I hit fire, all I get at the top of the screen is "./00". If I hit fire 3 times, I'll get "./00./00./00".
My 7800 is not modded; the only thing I have done to it is reflow the pads around the RF modulator as they were cracked (My intent is to modify this unit for AV out at some point). I do not have a cable to try the AV out (they are pricey) from the 7800GD.
I have tried Dig Dug as a standalone cart, and it boots and I can play on my 7800. I also tried playing Ballblazer on my Concerto cart with the POKEY installed, and it plays fine. I cleaned the cart port for good measure on the 7800 just in case, but no dice. The concerto is using the exact same SD Card that was intended for the 7800GD, just in the size adapter and it seems fine.
Thoughts/help?
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Does anyone have any technical information on anything to do with the MBX, such as Joystick pinouts of the MBX controllers? I'm repairing one and it's a little vexing that while the buttons work, I do not see any lines being brought out on the DB9 connector for the buttons - all I can buzz out with my meter is +5V, Common, XPOT, YPOT, ZPOT. There's one that has no pin, so it's NC. There are 4 pins leftover, perfect number for the buttons, but no lines for them. Anyone have a clue how this works?
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If they're still available, I'd like to be on the preorder for (1) Basic Version + (1) Pokey Max + (1) YM Module.
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Wait a minute. You have (that is, you own) a full-size Sea Wolf II arcade cabinet with the periscope?!?
Sorry I meant I could scan my board meaning the one in my Astrocade
You know I'm getting way ahead of myself, but it seems that the 7.5VAC part of the supply is ONLY used to derive the +5V internally. I'm not sure why the regulator VR3 can't be dumped and a one like a LM7805 can't be used to take the input voltage and derive +5 off it. It looks like VR1 can be substituted by a LM7815, VR2 by a LM7810, and VR4 by a LM7905 as direct replacements though. 24VAC supplies can be much more readily found given that they find application in the HVAC world.
I guess I should get the damn thing running first before I screw around.
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Maybe I'll try to get some high-quality pictures of one of my two working motherboards. I've always wanted high-quality pictures of some of the various hi-res arcade boards (especially Sea Wolf II, since it's supposed to be very similar to the first release of the Bally Arcade PCB).
I certainly can take some pictures of mine and try to stitch them together or get my friend to take a picture of mine with his DSLR.
Really? All I see is a picture of a schematic; posting a picture of your actual motherboard would make things a lot easier, especially for people to match up to what they have, is what I was implying.
As the boards and the revisions may not be 100% accurate or the same across the line with the system and various suppliers, possible in house repairs etc. I have some spare motherboards I can look at but it would make things easier if I knew what I was looking for, visually.
Ah Ok. I had taken the component layout picture from the manual and marked up what was (mostly) missing in orange figuring someone could say "whoa, that's not right..." However, from what I've read within this post I can garner that it's not a result of someone using my board for parts. However, I can still take a picture and post it up (at least since Adam also would like to get some pics of the boards for the site).
So, what made you pick an Astrocade?
Like a lot of people, nostalgia is a driving factor. I didn't have one when I was a kid, but growing up I remember going to Crazy Eddie's and seeing their display with an Atari 2600, Colecovision, Astrocade, and one or two other systems that I can't remember. I remember that the Astrocade just had this cool look to it. I also enjoy tinkering with older hardware. A friend had one growing up and I think it would be fun to have a walk down memory lane with him when I get this one running.
By the way - on a separate note - I remember reading that the 3 custom chips in the Astrocade were also used on several of their arcade games, Gorf being one of them. What were the others?
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1) 8K ROM - On the early Bally Arcade systems, the 8K ROM was made of four 2K ROMs (U1 - U4). Later revisions ditched three of the ROMs and replaced them with one 8K ROM. So, that sounds okay.
Certainly looks like that's the case with mine.
If you have any more problems write me back. We can do this!
Thanks kenzre! I will follow up with this this weekend when I have some time for more troubeshooting.
Just an FYI but a picture is worth a thousand words...
Indeed they are - I did post a picture of what seemed like it was missing, though later pictures people have posted seem to confirm what looked to be missing are just later board revs and it's not an issue.
The dust cover that you describe is one of the more popular ones, but (as Lance Squire mentions in his Astrocade FAQ), you can't tell which Bally Arcade/Astrocade system that you have from this. Try using the label on the bottom of the console. My console is an "Astrovision Arcade." Model ABA-1000-2. Serial # 049240. All of this information came from this label:
Mine says "Bally Arcade" model # ABA-1000-2, Serial D 47263. It's Patent Pending Astro Vision Inc, PO Box 133, Garner Iowa 50438.
Oh as well, the pictures you provided were really useful. Looks like the parts that are missing on mine are definitely not on yours either. I was worried that once I found it wasn't working and then opened it, that it was possible someone hacked it up for parts.
Now as a further questions, I know these units run hot, and the wall-wart runs hot itself. I realize it's subjective, but how hot would you say that wall-wart gets? Warm? "Damn, that's hot" or "don't freaking touch that, you'll burn your fingers" hot?
It's interesting as the parts lists on the newer astrocades don't quite seem up to date with the original service manual, such as U24-U31 are 4027 chips, where th manual says they're 4096. Of course, I can just read the part #'s on the actual board to replace, but I"m wondering if there's any other documentation that's further up to date?
By the way - I know you said the website can be hard to get around and such, but I'm not complaining. You're one of the few resources out there. That's how I went from "WTF is this board?" to "Oh, that's the (video) kludge board!"
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Hi Adam,
I've got the one that actually says "Bally Computer System" with the white smiling face and the black face nested inside of it with the gold "star" inside of it as the badge on the front. Sounds like that's one of the more popular ones. the board itself is labeled as "A084-90701-B620 A080-90704-B620" in the upper right.
I'd love a picture of the board showing the areas I've marked in orange (in addition, the section below the modulator labeled Q1 and "Jumper")
By the way - your site has been a great resource.
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I purchased an astrocade that was not working and I'm trying to fix it. I've found internally that once AC power is plugged in, the voltages get dragged *way* down (the 7.5VAC gets dragged down under 3, and the 23 or so VAC gets dragged down under 10VAC). I think that big smoothing caps in the supply are toasted and was going to replace them. So I started looking over the motherboard, and started looking at it compared t the parts layout on the bally alley website.
All I can say is "Huh?"
First, I did realize that someone did the "Kludge board" modification in this system for video issues. OK, at least that explained why the video section under the shield was not what the board layout says. They also did the power modification where there is a jumper wire running from one of the bridge diodes to the + of the C6.
However, I see that there are a bunch of components missing.
Specifically it appears that the custom roms U1,3,4 are gone, and the associated caps are gone - C88,93,94.
Above the big smoothing caps C1 and C6, it seems that C61, 55, 56 are gone.
C58, 59, 60 in the vicinity of U14 towards the bottom of the board are gone.
Near the Q1 transistor (with the heat sink, just under where the modulator plugs in), it appears that there is a resistor where the jumper should be.
Now that gives me a *tad* of hope is that near U15, there exists C53 and C52 which are missing on my system. I did a search of motherboard pics, and I saw one person's where those were also missing.
I'm at a loss to describe these issues. I'm not WTF this is, if someone scavenged this, or it's normal, and if I should continue to fix it.
I also noticed that when I took the main cover off, I there were 2 screws that I could not remove until I removed the RF shield. The service manual seems to indicate that there are punched holes in the shield to do this, mine didn't have them.
Does anyone have any photos of working astrocades that they'd be willing to post? Or better yet, any knowledge of what's in my system?
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While I'm hoping to see a reply, my hopes aren't high given that others have asked with no response...
I just bought an Astrocade and am wondering if this is still for sale also.
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The only other iron I ever filed was a giant iron with a tip that was about 1/2" in diameter. It was a beast from the 50's. Put out TONS of heat. The only time I *ever* used it on "electronics" was to solder a bundle of 20 ground wires together. Probably could have found a better way to do that
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Well, I'll give my experiences. I have a background in electronics, went into programming. Never really did much circuit work. Go into pinball about 10 years ago, started doing some small board repair (replacing some damaged connectors). Later did some more board repair (rebuilding areas damaged by battery corrosion) and doing some stuff lately like putting the AV mod in my 2600 - among other odds and ends. I had a lot of theoretical knowlege about electronics, but very little practical hands on building. Soldering sounded easy in practice, but as Ketah said it's very much an art. I started out trying to use the Radio Shack 15/30 Watt irons, and I never cared for them. I popped $90 for a Weller temperature controlled iron (the one with the temp on an analog dial; didn't need to have a digital readout). I did buy myself a flux pen, but later found it was much cheaper to just buy a bottle of flux and use a small paintbrush. Things I've learned the hard way... in no particular order.
- 650 is what I keep my iron on for general work. Any less and it seems to take too long to melt (and I don't like holding heat on things for long), any more and it's way too hot - risk of melting things or burning things.
- Always tin the tip, and clean/retin liberally
- Don't soak the sponge, wet is good... some people think that if you give the tip too big of a temperature "hit" when you touch it to a soaking wet sponge can cause thermal damage to the tip over time. Not really sure, but I do know that inadquate cleaning of the tip can really seem to foul things up.
- Most people say don't file tips for those irons. The tips do have a coating on them. I used to file the radio shack ones, they had no coating.
- Hold the pre-tinned iron in contact with the part, and apply the solder to the the pad (or if you're using a wire, hold the pretinned iron on one side of side of the wire & apply solder a little further down the wire) - doing so insures you have adquate heat for the solder to melt and flow.
- Most people say you usually don't need flux on most things, especially if your solder has rosin, but for me it just seems to make things flow a little nicer. I have a spray bottle of flux remover to clean thigns up when done.
- I use both the solder-pult and the wick to desolder. I buy the wick with flux in it. I found that if I'm desoldering big blobs (like the power connector on the 2600!) the soldapult is the best. melt with the iron while holding the cocked soldapult right near... pull the iron away, quickly move in and trigger it - clean! For small things like removing a chip, I like the wick approach. Sometimes when working with old stuff, I find adding a bit of solder helps a joint to melt nicely and makes it easier to remove (by either soldapult or wick).
- Make sure your parts are clean before you solder!
The one problem I still have is finding the finesse of tinning a wire, then tinning a lead from a connector, and then soldering them together. My hands jitter a bit, so I use a tweezer to hold the wire - the only probelm is the heat sometimes (especially on small wires) tends to deform the insulation leading to a little impression of the tweezer teeth. I think I'm heating it a little too long, plus I have to sometimes melt it again - the jitter leads to a dull joint, and I'd rather try to make it shiny. I often will use a bit of heat shrink when joining a wire to a lead from a connector to make the final thing clean and neat.
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Ah! Got an answer. In case anyone else is looking for similar information in the future... batari himself told me that it should not matter - wherever it fits best.
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Hi all,
I recently purchased the mod board from electronic sentimentalities (thanks Joe!) and had a question.
What's the best place to mount it? (This is in a 6 switcher case) I was thinking of a few choices:
1. Mount it to the plastic half-circles on the right hand side of the unit where the RF Cable used to be pressed into - this is what's shown on the ES site.
2. Mount it to the side of the heavy metal shield (of course with appropriate insulation!)
3. Mount it on top of the motherboard, again, with appropriate insulation (that would at least provide the shortest set of wires to the chip it's attaching to).
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Thanks, StarshipUK!
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Found, it nevermind :-)
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Hi Lincoln,
I'm sorry I'm bypassing your question a bit, but you mentioned the "field repair guide" - can you post the link to that?
Thank you.
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Mine came yesterday, and it's great! Thanks guys!
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I told a friend of mine about it, and his eyes opened wide and said "BUYITBUYITBUYIT!" So... I just did
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What is this componenent (power supply related)?
in Bally Arcade/Astrocade
Posted
I've wired up a new transformer using 3 transformers, getting the idea from https://ballyalley.com/faqs/Astrocade_Power_Transformer_Substitution/Astrocade Power Transformer Substitution (2018 04 25)(Michael Matte).pdf.
Voltages look decent, but when I plug it in, the magic smoke seemed to get let out of one of these components. It looks like a filtering section for the power supply, this is hanging off the main board; component is in the metal enclosure, left of center, black and labled "100J AP2-". What is this and what is it's value and is it needed (I'm assuming this is filtering/noise suppression)? A trickle of smoke came out and I could see ever so small arcs. I don't see this on the schematic.
Let's just hope the rest of the circuit down the line is not fried.
BTW, this is an old pic of when I first opened it. I've since replaced the electrolytics on the main board, and C10 with something that can withstand a little more voltage.
Thanks all.