Star Tech Journal

Issue: 1996-February - Vol 17 Issue 12

February 1 996
CD
STANDARDIZATION:
PINBALL
COIN MECH
BECOMING Too
IMPROVEMENTS
CONFUSING?
AMOA! AAMA Industry
Standardization Committee
AMOA Expo '95
New Orleans, Louisiana
Dave Grossman
Jake's Place Family Arcade
Geneseo, New York
SUBJECT
REVITALIZE
YOUR VIDEO!
With STAR*TECH
Journal's
Increase your profits by
increasing the brillance
of your video monitors!
COMMITTEE NOTES
Re: Shadow Diverters ...
On the subject of coin mecha-
nisms the committee noted: The
coin-op amusement industry is the
last segment of the industry that still
uses mechanical coin mechs. Elec-
tronic mechs wou/,d solve all the ex-
istingproblems. Many foreign opera-
tors purchase electronic mechs.
I just want to make a point here.
SAFE
And this is as an operator.
INSTALLATION
The committee is currently
evaluating two mechs used in
photo booths that don't jam or
accept bogus coins. Reports due
at next committee meeting:
ACME '96 in March at Orlando,
Florida.
01.!Y:tllfi:j
Journal
BACK ISSUES. STAR*TECH Jour-
nalbackissuesavailablefrom 1979.
Publishing year starts in March.
Any volume (March-February) any
year from '79-'83 or from '89-'94
only $42 each. Order from S*TJ,
P0B 35, Medford, NJ 08055.
Phone: 609/654-5544.
COD OK USA. Fax: 609/654-1441.
People get confused with more
than one button on each side of
the cabinet.
As much as I love the Shadows
diverters (although I've seen
more broken ones than working
ones) and I love johnny
Mnemonic's matrix, my customers
often have problems. Of course
I'm talking about newbies here.
Often, the player will have one
hand on the correct button and
the other hand on the diverter/
matrix button and complain one
flipper doesn't work. They'll un-
derstand (kind of) when I ex-
plain, but what about the ones
that don't say anything and just
leave?
I really believe we need more
Theatre of Magic style -easy for the
newbies to grasp and love- type
games. They outperform games
like Shadow in the earnings be-
cause so many more can under-
stand it. And us, the people who
like the fancier stuff like diverters,
can still play all day on 50 cents.
& EASY
Firs ALL 11 " ro 36"
MONITORS
FOREIGN
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See page 16 for details
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Little Smiles are Big Business for Us! @
STAR*TECH
Journal
February 1 996
CD
IVIC>NITC>R REPAIR
WnHourScHEMATtcs (PART
2)
Douglas "Enzo" McCallum
Shiawassee Technical Services
Lansing, Michigan
The essence of troubleshooting is isolation of the problem.
Identify the symptom, what does and does not work. A monitor is a system.
Power goes in, signals go in, pictures come out. If is a process.
Troubleshooting is a linear process as well, in parallel with the system.
If we follow the flow of the system it will lead us to the fault.
ON TO SECTIONAL PROBLEMS.
COLOR AND VIDEO PROBLEMS
There are color or video prob-
lems that affect the picture ap-
pearance. Sweep problems in-
cluding deflection affect the
shape of the image.
Color problems have the built in
advantage of multiple circuits.
There are three color circuits so
you can compare readings and
waveforms between them. If a
color is missing or stuck on full,
suspect the driver transistors on
the neck board. Drivers are gen-
erally in a TO 126, TO220,
Power supply trouble can affect
the other two. Sync affects the
stability of the picture.
TO202, or similar tab top case.
Smaller case types generally con-
tain signal transistors, no the
power types the color guns need.
Look at these transistors with
your scope, comparing the good
color with the bad color. If the
signal on the base of the bad
color driver is about the same as
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COLOR GUN
& CRT CIRCUIT:
Note filter cap on video B+ line at
the common end of the transistor
collector load resistors. Failure of
this cap results in overbright
picture with poor contrast. Resis-
tors in series with CRT cathodes
protect the circuits in the event of
high voltage shorts within the
tube.

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