Play Meter

Issue: 1978 September 01 - Vol 4 Num 16

Jones produced this disc . Goin'
places- right down the road to solid
gold! (B-Pop) (A-R&B)
Don't Look Back-Boston-Epic
8-50590
This band has it all-experience, a
following, and TALENT . In true
Boston fashion they're not lookin'
back on their previous successes and
are just aimin' straight ahead with
some dynamite rock 'n' roll. Excel-
lent harmonies and powerful guitars
highlight this gutsy number from a
group that has been, let's say,
overd ue. (A-Pop)
Right Down The Line -Gerry Raf-
ferty - United Artists UA-X1233-Y
Fresh on the heels of "Baker
Street ," the ex-Stealer's Wheel-er is
back again. It 's sort of a love song
and is a definite example of the
Beatles influence which abounded in
his music when he was with Stealer's
Wheel. Easy and flowing, not quite
as electric as his previous effort,
making it a sure shot to cross over to
Adult MOR Radio . The vocals are
irresistable . This along with the lyric
should make it very popular with the
ladies. (A-Pop) (A-MOR)
Back In The U.S.A.-Linda Ron-
stadt- ASYLUM E-45519-A
What does a new album , a fresh
haircut (oh, Linda you didn't) , and a
Chuck Berry classic rocker add up
to? Another hit for the prettiest thing
in music today! It's true to form, rock
'n' roll wise, and Linda's vocals fit so
perfectly . It moves tough . You won't
be able to resist a little jitter-bugging, I
guarantee it. (A-Pop)
Mind Blowing Deci<>ions- Heat-
wave - Epic 8-50586
From the platinum "Central Heat-
ing" album, soulful Heatwave is back
in the Always and Forever genre .
Breezy and jazzy best describe it, but
how it's gonna sell is a bit hazy. The
lyrics are corny in spots . Besides , the
Spinners have been recording in this
vocal style with only spotty success
recently . The arrangement is good ,
but I just don 't know . (A-R&B)
(B-Pop)
WORTH A LISTEN
Fish and Whistle-John Prine-
Asylum
Can't Get No Booty-Stephen
Stills-Columbia
Don't Stop, Get Off- The Sylvers-
Casablanca
You- The McCrarys-Portrait
A Rock and RoD Fantasy-The
Kinks-Arista
Sweet Life-Paul Davis-Bang
Paramou1
to a trivial problel
In the past few months I have
repaired more than 20 Ramtek
Trivias with the same problem . The
symptoms may vary from game to
game; but the source of the problem
is usually the same -the + 5V Power
supply in the Motorola monitor.
Here's how to recognize the
problem and fix it with store-bought
parts and a little solder.
This problem doesn't usually
present itself until the game is a few
months old . Other games I have seen
with this problem are Maneater,
Clean Sweep, Pursuit, and Cobra
Gunship using Motorola XM501 and
701 Series Monitors with the built in
+ 5 Volt 3 Amp Power Supply.
It seems that the logic board draws
so much current , almost in excess of
the specifications of the power
supply , that the supply will grunt for
a while and eventually roll over and
die. You can fix it when it grunts or
you can fix it when it dies.
I recommend this complete exer-
cise when .you have the first problem
in this area . '{his repair involves
removing the set from the cabinet
and is best done on the work bench .
However, our industry is blessed with
the greatest bunch of paper clip and
rubber band guys who will do
anything to keep a piece up and
running until convenient to pull it into
the shop . You don 't have to be as
neat as shown in this article .
The weak points in this supply are
capacitor C4 7 5000 Microfarad 20
Volts and the socket holding Q20 the
+ 5V regulator transistor.
If one day you have a beautiful
picture and the next day it looks like
an electric worm race , sure as guns
are iron , C4 7 has blown its guts all
over your chassis and must be
replaced .
When Q20 transistor socket is
about to hurt itself, errors in
punctuation, sentence structure , and
garbage data will appear on the
screen and eventually no picture .
Humbars, gray one-inch bars
drifting slowly from top to bottom of
the screen , will indicate that C47 is
on its way out, Q20 socket is shot, or
015 , 16, 17 , or 18 is breaking down.
Making this repair, following the
instruction of this article , should
insure you from having to make the
same repair again six months later
and at little or no more expense .
Figure One is a view of the top
side of the Motorola Chassis showing
the location of C47 and Q20 . Also
shown is F New Guy . Trivia Monitors
use a soldered-in fuse for the + 5V
supply mounted on a terminal strip .
These can be fun to replace and even
more fun on the street. I recommend
at this time , on the bench, to replace
it with a conventional fuse (5 Amp
Fast Blo) and a clip type fuse holder
as shown . A #6 by 1 /z -inch sheet
metal screw is best fo mount the fuse
holder .
Figure Two shows the bottom
view of the chassis in the area of the
components to be monkeyed with .
For around the same price as the
Motorola Replacement C4 7 , you can
buy a computer grade capacitor from
your local supplier. Use 10 to 15,000
Microfrad 25V to 35 Volts (Bigger
and Better) .
To remove the old C4 7 , bend
mounting tabs with pliers, break off
the one post connecting all the wires ,
and de-solder ground lug from
chassis.
Your computer grade cap doesn't
look anything like the original C47 ;
however, it can be easily mounted as
follows : Position new cap, terminals
toward chassis with positive terminal
over center of large C47 hole .
Position negative terminal toward
chassis corner, centered . With posi-
By Tom Howarth of Amusement Game Services
~I solution
k1
!
tive terminal over center of hole,
mark chassis at negative terminal.
Drill hole in chassis to accommodate
screw for negative terminal.
Mount new capacitor negative
terminal to chassis with screw . Use a
star washer to insure good contact .
Install a solder lug under positive
screw of cap , tin lug and solder
terminal of old cap to lug , wires and
all . Splat-new C47!
To insure that the new C4 7
doesn't move around and cause
grief, apply a wad of silicone RTV
(silicone rubber bathtub caulk) be-
tween top of chassis and cap .
Transistor sockets are great for
mounting the TV's devices; how-
ever, they just can't seem to hack it
when used for power supply pass
tran sistors. The two leads on Q20
should be soldered in the socket.
This job is not as easy as it looks,
because the leads of Q20 have been
,.-rnnning super hot for a long period of
fime and will be reluctant to tin easily .
They can , however, be roughed up
with a small file and should then take
solder. Secondly , the socket solder
terminals may fall off when worked
with . If this happens, solder wires
directly to the two pins of Q20 .
On the Trivia Mon itor , the pow-
er I audio board , located in front of
the power transformer, has been
modified so that + 5 volts is
adju stable via trim pot on the board.
This modification has been done to
co mpensate for losses at connections
in harness . Always adjust + 5 volts
measured on logic board .
Other games using the Monitor
+ 5 volt power supply (XM501 and
70 1 Type) , can be made more
reliable by making this simple
modification . Simply replace R91 ,
1.8k resistor with a 2 to 5 K trim pot .
Pot wiper and one lead must be
common.
FUSE: F NEW GUY

NE.W C47
50Lt::>E:R HERE
Figure Two

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