Play Meter

"For n the spot repairs," adds Jim, "a pulser
probe is great. I t inject a spike manually or
automatically about each s cond, cha nging the
existing conditions on the IC ( integrated circuit)
chip to determine whether it is good or bad.
Art Freeman . director of training, omit Coin
perated Machine Institute of Technolog , 2115
Beverly Blvd .. Los Angel es has a brief case tool kit
for field repair. Upon opening hi brief case, it
revealed:
- I ng-n s pliers, wir tripp r ; cu tt e r; a et of
X elite 99-P -50 crewdriver-nut driver com pact
et: an ice pick: as orred lamps used in coin-
machines (44 s. 47's. et .), assorted nuts: bolts;
screw: an assortment of integrated circuits; transis-
tor and diode; a magnifying glas; mall (ac id )
bru h: and an Allen wr nch et. (Th ice pick i
used for prying up I ' . marking and scor ing
boards for hole, etc.)
Of cour e. the oldering iron go
wherever
Freeman. Tomei or an game technician goe .
Freeman and Tomei emphasized one difference
between electro-mechanica l game and video/so lid
state games i m re of a need on the latter to work
in a hop-laboratory atmo phere.
An oscilloscope is frequently needed to view
variou waveforms on video game and is a must
tool for video game technician. " I perso na lly
would not haul a 'scope' out on location," cautions
Tomei.
"External distraction are a real hindrance o n
location when attempting to locate problem on
video game ' he add. " Beside, " he joke " 1 say
a lot of bad word when 1 m diagnosing pro bl ems
and I pr fer the privacy of our shop's back room . '
Freeman agree, but i qui k t o add that an
operator can benefit by u ing ome of the ba ic
tool to determine when t
bring game from
location to hop for repair.
Atari, in conjunction with Kurz-Kasch I nc., an
e lectronics firm in Dayt on, Ohio, has d velop d
the n w LP 600 tv te t pr be to ena ble the
operat r to diagno e hi game. This instrument
will h ·Ip dctermin wheth r the problem i gener-
a ted from the computer board r the tv failing to
tra k the board' information.
Example: You have a loss of video. Ha s the logic
board failed? r i it the tv that failed?
The new LP 600 tv te t probe will enable you to
determine which as embl has failed. A imple
readout
tcm indicates "one ." "zero" or "pul 'e"
reading through color-coded visual electronic read-
o ut in the probe tip. Absence of logic levels is
indicatcd by all readout remaining" fE."
The probe is small enough to be carried in a shirt
pocket. Es entially, the logic prob knows more
about each logic family then technicians, reducing
an urgency for advanc ·d training before using the
pro be.
Here i how to connect the probe:
COMIT COIN MACHINE SCHOOL'S Art Freeman, seated,
shows one of his advance students, Ken Berian, of Los
Angeles, how to trouble shoot a video game logic board.
Note the oscilloscope in background.
First connect the red and black leads from the
probe to the computer boards +5VD a nd ground.
Second the tip of the probe i pl aced on the
appropriate pin :
Test function!
video·pin 2
video· pin ,
.
1
Type!
Television!
MGA·
Pin , .
Ground
Pin 2·
Video and sync
Pin 3·
Audio Motorola
Pin , .
Ground
Hitach i and Zenith
Pin 2·
Video and sync
Pin 4·
Audio
> •
2
If +.5v video level i pre ent. the red lamp of the
probe will illuminate.
(Please Turn Page)
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