New to the list (long!)

Hi everyone, I'm new to the list and thought I'd introduce
myself...
I sent Gregg some email and he put me on to the list, thanks.

I live in Australia and have been looking around for
Battlezone and Star Wars bits here for a while (years), there was
not so much stuff here and I have had all the usual horror
stories-
'I remember that one, we took 6 of them to the tip about 10
 years ago, sorry, I remember how nice they looked and
 said we shouldn't throw them but they were unreliable junk'
uugh!!
I have very fond memories of playing Battlezone and Star Wars
when I was a kid, and kept looking...

A year ago I finally stumbled across two dead Battlezone's,
not complete, and got them both for about US$300.
One is a cabaret and one upright, in reasonably good condition.
They both have LAI "Leisure and Allied Industries (Australia)" B&W
vector monitors in them instead of the Wells Gardner.
The part numbers are LAI-KZ-14XYB for 14" and LAI-KZ-20XYB for 20".
I have 2 dead WG monitors spare that came with them, but the
PSU had been redone for a DC supply for the LAI monitors so
I didn't bother.
The WG was unreliable here, so LAI sourced this no-name monitor
from Japan to fit into Battlezone, it works pretty good actually
and has hybrid darlington amp transistor packs to do the
deflection. I have schematics and some knowledge of it if anyone
needs it.
The upright was missing a monitor and with much calling around
I was very lucky to find an LAI NOS complete monitor!

To cut a long story short, I found a blacklight tube,
control sticks, some spare dead pcb's, made a piece of the
reflective perspex, did a lot! of work on the pcb's to get
2 working sets, and now I have my Battlezone, I love it.

I'm an electronics engineer, and without knowing any of the
info available, went off on a search through data sheets to
try and find replacement chips, I had discovered these available
chips work fine in the board, I sourced them off the shelf
from a local supplier that has stock at inflated prices,
( RS Components ). Of course now I see most of this info
on the vectorlist!!

Original: Replacement:
AM6012PC 12bit DAC DAC312H ~US$13.50 'retail'
                         Analog Devices
                         12bit multiplying DAC DIP20

DAC-08CN Still available ~US$5.00 'retail'
                         8bit DAC DIP16

LF13201N DG201ACJ ~US$7.00 'retail'
                         Siliconix
                         Quad NO SPST Analog switch DIP16
                         also probably DG211-Analog Devices
                         ,ADG201AKN, and others not tested.

TL084CN Still available
LM319N Still available
TL082CP Still available

I had the boards hooked up to a CRO in XY mode for my output
testing. The other most common faults on the boards were
bad sockets, I did a lot of socket replacement there,
corroded mathbox prom IC legs, bad 2114 RAMs, bad
74LS244@K3, 74LS245@P2, dodgy interconnect cable, and dead
4066's in the sound/explosion output section.
It was very rewarding at the end to play the game! I love it.

An amazing trick I learnt along the way with debugging was
to use a known good IC on top of an IC of the same number.
I've used this to find dead RAM chips and 74 series IC's,
it works great. It doesn't work all the time depending on the
chip fault, but can be amazing when it does, just clean the
legs, bend them in a bit, push and wiggle it on top of the
IC to be tested, and fire it up.
Sometimes even if it doesn't fix it immediately it will change
the way the board acts, enough evidence to desolder or cut
that IC off and replace it. Sorry if you already know this!
I've been slowly picking up test equipment, and will soon
have an old logic analyzer and an in-circuit IC tester,
and have a Tektronix/Sony 308
Data Analyser (which does signatures I hope the same as needed),
a desoldering station, CRO, etc.

Now I've been finding some Star Wars parts and am well on the way
to getting a cockpit back together, it was gutted and had
Road Blasters in it. There are two more gutted cockpits
that are good for the cabinet, with some repair, so I hope
to get those soon and start on them.

This is not a vector part, but somebody here may need bits;
I have an Electrohome G02 (G02704) 25" monitor, don't know
if it works, has some screen burn but all parts seem there.
It is from ~1978 and has the 'MIDWAY COLOR DIFFERENCE INTERFACE'
board on it. If anybody wants it or parts from it, you're welcome
to it. It looks like it takes Video, R-Y and B-Y inputs.
It looks old and weird, I thought someone may need it.

Thankyou very much to Gregg Woodcock and Al Warner for
helping me out with the parts needed to get my Amplifone and
WG chassis parts working!

If the people who are doing the 'new' vector monitor chassis
could send a msg, I'd like to join in, and can do schematic
design, pcb layout, mfg. etc.
What is the raster monitor that is being considered for the
base unit?

Best regards,

Marc

------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Alexander
Advanced Engine Management Pty Ltd.
22 Melrich Road Phone: + 61 3 9761 3161
Bayswater, Victoria Fax: + 61 3 9761 3162
Australia 3153 Email: marc@wolfems.com.au
PO Box 532, Ringwood VIC 3134 http://www.wolfems.com.au/
------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
** To UNSUBSCRIBE from vectorlist, send a message with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the
** message body to vectorlist-request@synthcom.com. Please direct other
** questions, comments, or problems to neil@synthcom.com.
Received on Wed Apr 12 00:53:14 2000