Star Tech Journal

Issue: 1986-November - Vol 8 Issue 9

STAR*TECH Journal
SILVER SKI Hopper Mod;
Betson Does It Free!
By Frank 'The Crank' Seninsky
Alpha-omega Amusements & Sales
F.dison, New Jersey
I received the following letter from
Betson Enterprises, the distributor of the
Crorrpton SILVER SKI, regarding IT!Y (S*TJ,
Oct86) article, which deserves to be
printed in their behalf:
Dear Frank,
First, I think congratulations are in
order for another very well written and
informative service article. I can't begin
to think where our industry would be today
without people like you doing this type of
reporting that you do so well. Please keep
up the good work, and keep the articles
coming.
Second, and to the point:
Frank, I regret that your service
depart:Irent spent so nuch unnecessary time
on this project. All you had to do was
call Betson on any of our 800 nunbers and
we would have inmediately informed you of
this problem and advised you of the cure.
A MOD like your "Iodice Mod" (as you've
appropriately named it) was first
developed some six (6) ronths ago, and
Frank, this "MOD" is supplied by Betson on
a No Charge Basis to any customer who owns
a SILVER SKI Mark II rood.el with hoppers or
ticket units, no matter when, where, or
from whom it was purchased.
Although your pricing for this conversion
work is a fair one, why should any
customer pay $495.00 for work that can be
had on a NO CHARGE basis, and also, why
wait two (2) to three (3) weeks when these
boards can be had in (2) to three (3)
days.
(It should be noted, here, that this
roodification only affects the Mark II
rood.el SILVER SKI'S that are equipped with
hoppers or ticket units, and not the
standard tube load units.)
our roodification has been successfully
tested and has been used out there rost of
the last season with little or no problems
at all. At the present time, Betson is
making this roodification to all SILVER
November 1986 [ 4)
SKI's in it's inventory before they are
shipped out.
~
We at Betson are all working very closely
with the Crorrpton Machine Company in the
United Kingdom in trying to have them
adopt this roodification as part of their
standard manufacturing procedure when it
comes to units that they produce for the
USA market.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Neal Rosenberg
Betson Enterprises
Director of Operations
FRANK'S RESF(R;E
Let me begin by saying that the response
to last ronth's article on the SILVER SKI
rood has been overwhelming!
It is appreciated that Mr. Rosenberg wrote
me directly to clear the air. Prior to the
release of our rood, I was unaware of any
other modifications or fixes available. It
is now the middle of October and I haven't
been operating any SILVER SKI's since our~
season ended 5 weeks ago, and would
therefore have little reason to keep
contacting Betson on this 'sore' subject.
As a Betson customer, I do feel I should
have been notified that they had a rood
available, charge or no charge. If there
was a problem in the rood's development, I
would certainly have been somewhat
understanding. This is really IT!Y only
complaint.
I think that it is simply fantastic that
Betson has a roodification being made
available to ALL SILVER SKI owners at NO
C~E!!! For that I certainly coimend
Betson and feel that all SILVER SKI owners
(including IT!Y company) should inmediately
take advantage of their generous offer.
The roodification of the boards is said to
take between 2 to 3 days. I shall be
patiently awaiting IT!Y package from Betson
containing 24 modified boards. "Free" is
difficult to compete with! •
The end result is that all the SILVER
SKI's will now work properly and all of
Betson's customers should be happy. I
heard that Crorrpton is also upset with rey
STAR*TECH Journal
article, but perhaps they will now realize
,-., that they should adopt this nodification
so Betson and/or their customers won't
have to deal with these problems.
I'll never understand why manufacturers
sometimes resist obvious product
irrprovements. Crorrpton, by the way, has
always had II\Y respect as an excellent
manufacturer of rederrption equipment.
I hope that operators will continue to
rronitor this column as I will be
discussing several irrportant nodifications
for cranes, rotories, and other rederrption
equipment. If anyone has a specific type
of application or comnents, we at
Alpha-Qrega Amusements & Sales are
interested in hearing from you. Contact us
directly at 201/287-4990.
*
November 1986 (5)
Back By Popular Demand:
THE VIDEO PROBE
By Atari Field Service Departnent
Milpitas, California
'Ihe video probe is an extremely si.nple,
but invaluable piece of test equipment.
'Ihe probe can be assembled in a few
minutes from cofflIX)nents which are
probably already in your lab. If you do
not have all the parts, you can usually
find them at your local electronic
supplier.
The probe is constructed from a 24" length
of 20 NIK:, (American Wire Gauge)
rubber-coated wire, a 4.7K 1/4 watt carbon
resistor, Paoona or hook-type clip and one
test probe.
'IO .ASS9IBLE 'l'BE P103E:
1. Strip 3/16" off both ends of the wire.
Solder one end to the Porrona or hook-type
clip and the other to one side of the
resistor.
2. Unscrew the plastic body of the test
probe from the point. Thread the resistor
and wire through the hole in the plastic
body. Solder the end of the resistor to
the metal point of the probe.
'IO mE THE VIDm PROOE.
1. Blank the screen by renoving the red,
green and blue inductors (usually Ll, L2,
L3) from the video PCB.
2. Attach the video probe to one of the
red, green or blue test point and touch
the probe to a convenient source of the
suspected signal, while watching the
rronitor for that signal's display.
The video probe displays signals used in
the development of other signals, where
the developmental signals are not
otherwise visible on the rronitor screen.
The probe sirrply picks up the desired
signal and couples it to the video line
going to one of the color guns on the
rronitor, where it is directly displayed on
the CRT.
The video probe is especially useful in
troubleshooting bad or distorted video. By
coupling the video up to the rronitor, we
can trace bad video signals back to its
source.

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