Star Tech Journal

Issue: 1990-November - Vol 12 Issue 9

Atari Afterburner
Throttle Sub
Taito Chase HQ
Steering Parts
James Beck
Geater Southern Distributing
Atlanta, Georgia
Todd Erickson
Summit Amusement
St. Paul, Minnesota
PROBLEM
PROBLEM
So, you want to put an Afterburner into one of
your convertable cabinets but the throttle was
destroyed. So, you decide to use two microswitch
pushbuttons (fast and slow) instead. With no
button pushed, it would make the "game" nor-
mal speed.
I recently needed steering parts for my Chase HQ
byTaito. They had been backordered at my local
distributor for many weeks!
So, you try to connect the pots to the
pushbuttons (pushing the button would con-
nect the pot wiper to the game, but some how
that does not work). You would like to get rid of
the pots completely and use resistors.
Sot.unoN
Try this: Take your normal push button switch
that has a N/O, N/C, and COM and connect the
input to the board to the COM terminal, the +5
to the N / 0 terminal, and the ground to the N / C
terminal. That should give you a button that is
normally slow and goes to wide open on being
pressed.
This assembly has been one of the most
troublesome items on my route today. It was
never designed right in the first place. I can
equate it to General Motors changing a gas
motor into a diesel. It will never be right!
SOLUTION
The game is still an excellent game. I feel it was~
worth the investment to purchase a replacement
steering wheel kit from Happ Controls. I felt the
360 degree wheel would be better for my appli-
cation.
The kit worked out perfect! I am now upgrading
all of my Chase HQ games. This kit will also fit in
upright Continental Circuits.
The kit may be purchased direct from Happ
(708/593-6130) or from your local distributor.
Cine:matronics Baseball Season II Reset
Paul Maglinger
Maglinger Electronics
Evansville, Indiana
SYMPTOM
I recently had a Cinematronics Baseball Season
II which would reset after entering initials,
birthdate • or sometimes the team color. Also.
there was numerical garbage in the statistics.
REASON
I found out that the strange data in the RAM was
caused due to the 3.6 volt lithium battery being~
completely dead.
SOLUTION
Replace battery and reset all bookkeeping and
statistic totals.
Bally Squawk &
Talk Audio Problem.
Todd Tuckey
TNT Amusements
Southhampton, Pennsylvania
Another Super
Power Supply Deal
Frank"The Crank" Seninsky
Alpha-Omega Amusements & Sales
Edison, New Jersey
PROBLEM
SUBJECT
I had a devil of a time figuring out why the Mr. &
Mrs. Pacman pin I was reconditioning kept losing
sound or speech or both after I closed it all up.
We have been testing quite a few power supplies
and monitors from new companies wishing to
sell their products to the amusement game
industry.
I changed the sound boards twice and kept
thinking I had bad boards- I even burnished and
cleaned all the chip sockets.
SOLUTION
I discovered that one of the 2 screws -which
holds the board to the metal door that opens on
this 2 piece head, when tightened, would cut into
foil trace of the J2 connector! Smaller screws
don't help. but a piece of fish pa per for insulation
fixed the problem.
NOTES
1. The J2 connector has only six pins on some
boards, so they have no foil near this screw.
Check and see if your J2 is the ten pin version
and you'll probably see the green foil cover worn
away around the screw.
2. Other Bally pins using this board have white
standoffs in these holes, but the 2 head pinballs
like Centaur 2, Mr. & Mrs. Pacman, & 8 Ball De-
luxe Limited Edition use these holes to secure it
into the metal door.
TEST
Recently, I was sent a Power Systems Model PS
1500 (made by AT&T) which originally sold for
$325. I was curious as to how such a power
supply would perform up against our industry
standards. It is rated at 20 amps at +5v; 3 amps
at +12v; 300 milliamps at -12v.
RESULTS
The Power Systems supply did quite well. Its only
drawback was that it did not have a tap for -5v,
but we don't really need -5v, as the coin door
lights can be+ 12v (change the bulbs).
SOURCE
A limited supply has been purchased by All-
Tronics of Gladwin, MI. Phil McGourty can be
reached at 800/ 458-6587. He is selling these
supplies at $45 each for five units or less and the
great price of$24.95 each for six or more! I have
no way of knowing how many will be left by the
time this is exposed to S*TJs readers. Good
hunting.

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