Re: Cinematronics Tailgunner Start Light

If I take out the 2N3904 NPN transistor and put in a 2N3906 PNP
transistor - the start light works as I would expect (off when there's
no 'Press Start' message). The manual specifies a typical *red* (mv50)
led by the way. Just to give it that extra cheezy space control panel
effect.

I guess the guys over at vectorbeam wanted that light to be on solid the
whole time. I wonder if Cinematronics was the deciding factor for not
including the light when they acquired Tailgunner just to save a coupla
bucks?

Oh well, looks like I'll make a compromise and put in the pnp transistor
instead.

Matt

On 4/13/2010 1:47 AM, Andrew Welburn wrote:
> Try wiring your LED the other way round, that'll give you the inverse
> lit sequence.
>
> Cool hack tho, i love adding the bits that the designers intended, but
> the manufacturing side didn't because of cost-cuttinng/time saving.
>
> They probably designed it this way because all atari TTL games of the
> 70's did this to indicate credits (as there was no on-screen credit
> annunciation). If you don't want to confuse your players, make your
> machine act like all the others around you...
>
> I know TG has on-screen credit display, but maybe they coded that in
> after the pcb design was done? or maybe they just wanted to do both in
> order to blend in with the times... after all, asteroids also does
> both...
>
> Andrew Welburn
> www.andys-arcade.com
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Matthew Rossiter"
> <matt@rossiters.com>
> To: <vectorlist@vectorlist.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 3:41 AM
> Subject: VECTOR: Cinematronics Tailgunner Start Light
>
>
>> Question#2: I don't think the inverter circuit is working properly
>> because the LED stays on solid and then blinks when a coin is
>> inserted. I would expect the led to be *off* when no coin is
>> inserted - then blink when coin is inserted. Is that right?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Matt
>
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Received on Tue Apr 13 16:32:52 2010