The Buttons on a Channel F II Console.

[BassGuitari]

The console buttons on my Fairchild Channel F System II are acting funny. And by funny, I mean they don't seem to do anything at all. The system itself works fine (some of my Videocarts don't work though), but the control buttons yield no response.

 

Hopefully this is repairable...I really don't want to have to purchase another Channel F.

 

Any advice?

[e5frog]

The console buttons on my Fairchild Channel F System II are acting funny. And by funny, I mean they don't seem to do anything at all. The system itself works fine (some of my Videocarts don't work though), but the control buttons yield no response.

 

Hopefully this is repairable...I really don't want to have to purchase another Channel F.

 

Any advice?

 

I recently discovered that my ITT Telematch Processor, which is closesly related to the Channel F II, had the same problem. I'm hoping it's just a ground wire that has come loose or something. I don't know about the Channel F II - are the buttons soldered directly on the PCB? I'm guessing you should check the circuitry, if you're lucky there's only some oxidation on a socketed chip. Buttons are read from port 0 - which is on the 3850 CPU, pin 5, 10, 11 and 16. Or something between them... Perhaps you are helped by studying the circuit schematics of VES at veswiki.com. There seems to be a 7404 circuit between the buttons and the CPU at least. This might be busted.

 

Maybe you could connect signals directly to the port on the cpu, to check that this is OK. If it not - easiest way is probably to find another unit.

Edited December 1, 2007 by e5frog

[y-bot]

I can't remember what the model II buttons look like but a long time ago I had a model I that was missing some springs under the buttons and it didn't work correctly. Your problem is probably more complex. Good luck.

 

y-bot

[BassGuitari]

I can't remember what the model II buttons look like but a long time ago I had a model I that was missing some springs under the buttons and it didn't work correctly. Your problem is probably more complex. Good luck.

 

y-bot

 

My reset button is missing a spring, so that one's obvious. The others have theirs though, and sometimes they work, sometimes (usually) they don't.

 

Perhaps the springs and contacts just need a good cleaning?

[FND]

I vaguely remember having a problem like that some time ago, cant remember if it was a system I or II, I used the spray

contact cleaner you can get at places like Radio Shack and that seemed to work, I had to take the system apart

to get a good shot at the button top and bottom.