Star Tech Journal

Issue: 1990-December - Vol 12 Issue 10

STAR*1ECH Journal
Leland Ataxx Kits
Volunie Control
Vic Fortenbach
United Artists
Palm Springs. California
ii
December 1990
Drew's Deuces Wild
Video Probleni
Phillip Caldwell
Drew's Distributing
Fairforest. South Carolina
SUBJECT
PROBLEM
The Ataxx kits we just received don't have a
volume control so you will have to add one to the
board. There is a place for one but you have to
install it!
Screen white out causes loss of hand.
PROCEDURE
• Locate and remove R28, a 4. 7k ohm resistor
(it's in the upper left hand corner of the board)•
Next. obtain a 5k ohm potentiometer. • Cut the
tabs off of the pot so that the terminals are
straight and can go into the holes left by the
removed resistor. • Solder it and there you go! •
If you want to get creative install 3 wires and
route them to the coin door for that almost
factory-new volume control.
SOLUTION
The solution here could be one of two things, or
possibly both. The Honest Dealer and Deuces
Wild are fitted with a static detection circuit that
protects the CPU Board against static. It is
possible to shorten the antenna and turn down
the potentiometer that controls the sensitivity
(VR2).
The other possible fault is brokenfilwnents in
the bulbs in the buttons. (This is most likely the
case of white outs if the players slap the but-
tons.)
NoTE
Leland is now shipping a volume control with the
Ataxx kits. I guess they thought a volume control
might come in handy after the 2nd run of kits!
Arachnid Dart
Revised Spiders
Dan Reynolds
Melody Music
Champaign, Illinois
PROBLEM
New spiders will not accept old segments with-
out being extremely tight. This condition, in
tum, causes segments to stick during play.
SOLUTION
After being made aware of the problem, Arachnid
has enlarged their spiders and shrunk their
segments. All distributors have replaced such
spiders and now have revised ones. The new
spiders now have no numbers stamped along
the edge.
Rowe BC-25 Coin
Changer Problenis
Erik Wittenzellner
Kemp Enterprises
South Windsor, Connecticut
Nintendo
Playchoice-10 Mod
Dennis C. Dove, Technical Service
Nintendo of America
Redmond, Washington
PROBLEM
SUBJECT
ToeBC-25MCunitwascountingtoomanycoins
into the escrow buckets. Sometimes up to
$16. 75 or more for $1.00 before going out of
order!
Dr. Mario Rom Pcb.
SYMPTOM
It took some time to track down this problem as
I was not sure which system was failing. I knew
the coin sensors were good because the unit
would go out of order if a lamp was covered. Toe
unit would vend when a bill was inserted or a
vend button pushed. The control computer was
tried in a good changer and checked out fine.
What's left?
SOLUTION
Toe power supply board assembly. It turns out
that the emitter-collector of Q201, an MPSA06,
was shorted on this board. I was quite surprised
when I found this and happy I did not condemn
the control computer. I have found a lot of
problems can be traced to this little board, so do
no forget about this one in a problem situation.
To ensure proper operation and to prevent po-
tential IC damage, check the following Short
Land (SL) and Cut Land (CL) locations of the Dr.
Mario Rom PCB before installing onto a
Playchoice Main PCB.
SHORTS
Short Land locations SLl, SL9, SLl0, SL14,
SLl 7 and SL18 should be connected by solder.
Remove solder from all other Short Land loca-
tions.
Curs
Toe trace of Cut Land locations CL5 and CL6
should be cut. All other Cut Land locations
should be connected by a trace or, if previously
cut. connected by solder.
Wells Gardner 7000 Series 25" Vertical
James Beck
Greater Southern Distributing
Atlanta, Georgia
PROBLEM
SOLUTION
Vertical rollover on the top (this is in a Teenage
Mutant Ni.rya n.u-tles) and horizontal lines in the
middle of the screen. Capacitors check good.
Changed the vertical output transistor. Ad-
justed the 50-60 control. Still no luck.
Check D25, it might be open. If that doesn't do
it, try evaluating R80. It might be out of toler-
ance. Replace it if it has a slightly higher value
than specified (even a couple ohms difference).

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