Star Tech Journal

23
121
This month's issue hJghlights the Service Department of Bally Mid west
in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Service Manager, James Zukowski. James
offers his insight to questions asked _by the Journal
TECH
SHOP
PROFILE
DON DAWSON: Has had 2 years in an electronic servicing course from a technical school. He repairs video games,
monitors, and pinballs. He's been working at Bally Midwest for 3 years. DAVE OSTRENGA: Has over 5 years of
electronic experience. He repairs monitors, video games, and solid-state pins. He's been with Bally Midwest for 1 ¼
years. STEVE CARTIER: Attended Parkland Junior College, Northeast Wisconsin Technical Institute, and is
currently enrolled in a digital correspondence course with the Cleveland Institute of Electronics. He repairs videos
and pins and is back-up for vending and juke repair. He's been in the coin business for6½ years, 2 of them with Bally.
RYAN KOPISH: Had 1 ½ years avionics training in the Navy. He has completed a correspondence course in
broadcast engineering with Cleveland Institute of Electronics and has attended several service schools while
working at Bally for the last 4 years.
ST J: Jim, what is your technical background and experience?
JZ: I had 4 years of electronics training at a technical high school in
Connecticut. I also had 2 years of computer and radar schooling in the
Navy. I completed a 3-year apprenticeship program for coin machine
repair while working for Bally Midwest. I've been with them now for 7
years.
ST J: What types of repairs and services does your shop perform?
JZ: We service all videos and solid state pins. We also service Rock-
Ola jukeboxes and Ardac dollar bill changers. In most cases, we can
work on most boards, but a lot of times we need the complete machine.
We do some cabinet work at the request of the operator, but most of them
do their own.
ST J: Besides in-house servicing, do you offer street service?
JZ: No, but in most cases a board exchange will take care of the
problem.
ST J: What types of test equipment do you use?
JZ: We have 2 Kurz-Kasch TF650 testers, Atari's Pat 9000 tester,
Midway's Universal tester, and several pinball testers for different
manufacturers' products, and a test bench for electronic dart games. We
also have an Ardac tester.
ST J: What about repair equipment?
JZ: We have a Tektronix and Leader scope, a Sencore capacitor
checker, a Sencore variable AC power supply, Sencore's Super Cricket
transistor checker and their 5C61 waveform analyzer. We also have
Atari's Cat Box, and numerous digital meters and video pattern
generators.
ST J: Is there any type oftest and/or repair equipment that you would
like to see designed?
JZ: Not in particular, but there are always excellent lines of test and
repair equipment on the market if you're shopping for something.
ST J: In your opinion, is there any specific repair that could be made
easier or less time-consuming if a certain type of tool or jig was
designed?
JZ: The only thing that would make a repair easier would be a less
complicated game in itself, but that would be going backward in time.
ST J: How can the mamifacturers improve their products?
JZ: In a lot of cases, the manufacturers make it very hard to even get the
logic boards out of the game. Some card cage systems are extremely hard
to do any work on at all. My suggestion is to make things easier to get in
and out of the machine.
RYAN KOPISH
ST J: Do you have any suggestions for the operators?
JZ: Unless they're qualified to repair a machine, bring it in for us to
repair. Leaving the machine on and looking for a problem in the dark on
location can only complicate the repairs.
ST J: Do you have any specific parts problems?
JZ: None other than getting the custom parts that have to be purchased
through the manufacturer. I can usually get a custom part in one day from
Chicago and two days from Califomi_a.
ST J: What brands of replacement parts do you use?
JZ: There are too many top name brands to mention for ICs, and our
Chicago home office is the major buyer. I pull from their stock, but in
most cases, we try to stay with manufacturer parts, especially for
monitors.
ST J: How long has your company been servicing at this location?
JZ: For almost five years at this location and about eight years at a prior
location.
ST J: Are there any areas that you, as manager, plan to improve upon
or update?
J Z: The only thing we could plan on changing is keeping up with repair
and test equipment. We have a top notch shop and an excellent crew of
techs now. We strive to give immediate service whenever possible.
ST J: How does this shop compare to others in the industry?
JZ: I would say we rate near the top as we have a huge board and parts
inventory and the newest in test and repair equipment.
ST J: Is there anything that sets your operation apart from the rest- a
certain advantage you feel is important to your service?
JZ: Displaying a welcome feeling to the customer is what we strive for.
We want our customer to know his problem is our problem, and that we
do care about him since his business makes ours.
ST J: Do you service any other type of electronic equipment?
JZ: As of right now, we repair only coin-operated machines.
STJ: What do you predict for the.future of this industry - service-
wise?
JZ: I think less repairs will be done by the operators as games become
more complicated and repair equipment becomes more expensive.
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