RE: New to the list (long!)

Marc,

You and me are the only Australian's on the list.

I actually passed up on that pair of Battlezones as I had no spare cash at
the time. A month later they were gone... good one... they went to another
collector.

If you ever want to sell one...

I would be interested in those schematics - I have a bootleg Asteroids
cocktail and the monitor doesn't fit any of the known vector monitors.

I have for the last two years been unable to find a color vector in
Australia - so I paid a small fortune to ship an upright Star Wars from the
US (bought from one of the list members - Chris Loggans)

Welcome aboard!

Cheers
MacMan

> ----------
> From: Marc Alexander
> Reply To: vectorlist@synthcom.com
> Sent: Wednesday, 12 April 2000 14:45
> To: VectorList
> Subject: VECTOR: 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/
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
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Received on Wed Apr 12 01:22:19 2000