Play Meter

Issue: 1979 December 01 - Vol 5 Num 22

AMOV convention held Oct. 4-6
The twenty-first annual conven -
tion of Amusement and Music
Operators of Virginia was held at
Howard Johnson's Midtown Lodge
in Richmond, Virginia , on October 4 ,
5 , and 6 .
Kick-off began Thursday evening
with a hospitality session for directors
.and distributors held in the AMOV
President's Suite .
Exhibitors at this year's show
included Banner Specialty Com-
pany , Brady Distributing Company,
General Vending , Peach State Dis-
tributing Company , Sefco Distri-
butin~. State Sales . Tara Records ,
Greater Southern officials called the two day service seminar "most
successful. "
Approximately 75 participants came from Georgia , Tennessee , Florida,
and South Carolina to attend the Bally-Midway service seminar in Atlanta .
Greater Southern Hosts Seminar
Greater Southern Distributing
Company in Atlanta , Georgia , in
conjunction with Bally and Midway ,
recently held a two day service
seminar in Atlanta .
Gene Williams of Bally and Andy
Ducay of Midway conducted the
school , which drew approximately
75 participants from Georgia , Ten-
nessee , Florida , South Carolina , and
Mississippi .
"The instructors gave us an
overview of the games," Rubin Piha ,
office manager for Greater Southern ,
reported . "The Midway representa-
tive went through the games, such as
Space Invaders , Phantom and their
bowling alley games , teaching tech-
nicians proper maintenance and
troubleshooting of the boards .
" Bally covered operation of the
microprocessor and the prefabricated
integrated circuits, as well as the
proper maintenance and care of the
boards ," he said . "Gene Williams
also had a problem solving session ,
where he'd create a problem , then
call on people in the audience to
solve it."
and Amusement Emporium .
During the two day session of
business meetings , new officers were
elected for 1980 . They are as
follows : C. H. Hudson , president; C.
E. Morse, first vice president; John
P . Newberry , Jr. , second vice
president ; and Lou Corso , secretary-
treasurer.
New directors for 1980 include
Arthur Bazaco , Bob Burner, John
Cameron , Carl Coleman, Doug
Colbert, R. W . Claud , Jim Donnel-
ly, Harry Fake , Lewis Jones , Robert
Minor, Ken O 'Connor , Arnoff Pante-
lides , Mary Peery , Richard Peery,
Jesse Richardson , Ed Shell, Tom
Stanley , Claude Smith, and Rex
Whitley.
The association was very honored
to have as guest speakers for the
general sessions Wayne Hesch ,
president of AMOA , who discussed
the AMOA Legal Action Fund ; Nick
Allen , counsel for AMOA , who
discussed the fight against the
Copyright Royalty Tribunal (he also
urged the support of Virginia opera -
tors in opposing bills now being
introduced to raise the royalty per
jukebox per year) ; and J . Edgar
Pointer , counsel for AMOV , who
brought operators up to date on
Virginia House Bill 1718, which
involves the gross receipts tax and a
clarification of the State Attorney
General's opinion on the bill .
An added attraction to this year's
exhibition was a snooker pool
tournament sponsored by Sefco
Distributing Company and Dynamo
Corporation . Trophies and cue sticks
were awarded to the winner and
runners-up. The snooker table was
presented to the AMOV member
operating company that had spon -
sored the tournament winner .
AMOV was , also , very fortunate
in being able to coincide an Atari
Mechanics School and a Stern's
Electronics Seminar with their con -
vention. This provided an additional
highlight for their operator members .
On Saturday evening a banquet
and dance concluded one of the
largest conventions in AMOV his-
tory . Certificates of appreciation
were presented to all officers and
directors for their service during the
past year , and Mrs. John " Dot"
Cameron , who served as convention
chairperson .
A twenty year continuous mem -
bership plaque was presented to
State Sales in appreciation for their
support of the association throughout
past conventions .
By Doug McCallum
How to find those pesky shorts
Editor's Note: Operators still in
possession of some of the electro-
mechanical games may find this
article on shorts helpful. However ,
the information does not apply to
solid state games .
Shorts and their symptoms (circuit
path interruptions due to faults in the
current limiting circuitry - also known
as blown fuses) can be exasperating
little devils to figure out, and I regret
to announce there are no simple
ways to find them.
However , I herein offer some tips
and techniques that should help . I
will limit this essay to 24 volt shorts,
but light shorts (six volt) can be dealt
with similarly .
First , shorts come in different
types : the dead short , the "slow"
short (blows the fuse after a couple of
seconds rather than immediately) ,
and the occasional short (blows fuse
only when the shorted path is turned
on).
Dead shorts can be tough - often
they can't be helped by the schema-
tic . As with any short we use a
breaker .
First look for loose quarters or
hardware lying about , nuts and bolts
seem to fall across relay blades while
quarters usually find their way under
jones connectors and other goodies
near the front , but you never know .
If nothing obvious shows up and you
dori't see any burnt up coils, it
becomes time to isolate the prob-
lem - unplug the playfield .
Short still there? Unplug the
head ... short still there? Time to
check out the mechanical board .
Once you've found where the
short is (say , the playfield) you can
further narrow it down by figuring out
which jones plug carries the shorted
line .
Many machines, especially Bally
and Williams, list jones plug connec-
tions either on the schematic or in the
instruction manual. Once you nar-
row it down to a few wires , you
should have no trouble finding which
one is shorted and where . Just
think - you're done before lunch .
Slow shorts are found similarly but
an ammeter is a better tool than a
circuit breaker because you don 't
have to wait for the breaker to blow .
Occasional shorts are the best.
Generally, you can associate them
with some activity (pop bumpers,
advance bonus, whatever) , which
are simple enough. Sometimes it
involves the scoremotor (reset se-
quence , etc .) No problem : pull out
the scoremeter service jack and step
the scoremotor around slowly by
hand . When you find which stack
controls the short , look it up . Most
games have scoremotor contact
listings either in the schematic or the
instruction book .
If these basic maneuvers fail , well ,
take your lunch break and stick with
it - it's time to start unhooking wires .
When you have something like a ten
point line shorted you have no
course but to disconnect and thus
isolate areas of the machine and , ta
da , if you keep narrowing it down ,
you 'll find it , by golly .
Technical tip on Atari's LUNAR LANDER
There is a letter in a square on the bottom of the main PCB near the
edge connector : A , B , or C . If your board is A or B , perform the
following modification to protect the 4016B in location A 12 from excessive
input voltage .
Install (2) ln914 diodes next to the device in location B-11 as shown .
B- 11
- -•Ill Ed ge connecto r
AD561JD
-1
.1 uf
Add { 2 ) 1N914's
r
'It Band same end .
.;j
-c=o-)
---1)1-
Note : DO NOT replace the 4016B's with 4066's . Switching characteristics
of the 4066 make it unacceptable for use in sample and hold circuit
applications .

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