Arcade Collecting > Pinball
Pinball 2000 Tech Problem: Power Driver Board Damaged?
jasonbar:
Yup, naked switches are the way to go--the armature just jacks up the price! =O
My SWEP1 was nigh perfect too: 1 broken P-clamp at back of light saber, several bulb sockets needed to be popped & cleaned/bent & reinstalled, & the Naboo ship needed to be adjusted. That was it. NOS, baby! =D (Which makes up for the heavy use that this RFM saw--BTW, along w/ the microswitches, I also replaced most of RFM's stationary targets too--foam gone, bent up, ugly, etc.)
While I've got your generous ear, there are 2 more quirks that irk:
1 - SWEP1 saves settings but seems to lose high scores on power down--bug or feature? I know there's a coin battery on the UNIX PC mobo that's easy to replace, & apparently there's a hard-to-replace battery on the PRISM card. Any idea?
2 - My "ATTACK MARS" art on the banana flasher insert in the middle of the RFM playfield is about half gone--any leads on where to buy a replacement? I haven't found a source for a decal. I did find some DIY options on Pinside--if I can get a high-res scan of the art, I can probably have an artist friend print it on clear adhesive-backed "paper." I'm tempted to remove the remainder of the existing art just so it looks cleaner...
Thanks,
-Jason
ChadTower:
Hrm. IIRC the high scores battery is on the CMOS card (daughter card to the prism card) and is a 2032. Doublecheck that, though. Obviously you want to verify that battery anyway to be sure it's not in danger of leaking.
I can't seem to turn up any off the shelf decals either. I'd offer to get a good pic of mine, since the playfield isn't in the game, but it is in deep storage during my gameroom construction project. I won't be able to get my RFM playfield out for a while. :-\
jasonbar:
2032 coin batteries everywhere!!!
1 on the mobo. It was reading 1.3V, so I put in a new one.
RFM had one in the meat of the PRISM/ROM card sandwich. It was reading strong, so it stayed.
SWEP1 was missing a battery in its PRISM/ROM card sandwich. Probably why SWEP1 high scores weren't saving.
Interesting...RFM & related system settings didn't get lost in the battery swap. The only thing needing redoing was the date & time. We'll see if that sticks now.
As for #89 bayonets, I just handled 4 of them on my Congo & none had spinny tabs. Might as well swap them out on RFM with new ones to keep the flasher bulbs safe & sound.
Thanks,
-Jason
ChadTower:
Nice. I usually replace all batteries whenever I'm in the head of a game I haven't worked on in a while. If it even still has batteries. Batteries are cheap but MPU boards are very much not. And that Prism card is unobtanium. The more I think about it the more I want that 2032 out of there. There has to be some alternative.
jasonbar:
Some Googleage revealed mixed messages about button batteries leaking, but the general consensus seems to be that they're way less of a risk than AA batteries. I saw no hard evidence one way or the other. However, I do have some spare 2032 holders leftover from when I was refurbing Sega Dreamcasts (which have the battery spot-welded in place, so you need to provide & wire up a replacement holder if you want to be able to change out batteries), so there's no harm in a little remote button battery action.
On the PRISM/ROM cards, there are 2 nice big solder pads that are exposed when the sandwich is sandwiched--these are the + & - tabs for the battery holder. Simply remove the battery & solder two wires to those pads & run them to a little 2032 holder elsewhere in the backbox. I'm going to see if I can fashion a short stubby cantilever beam that picks up the same screw used to secure the card to the PC chassis (plus probably a neighboring unused screw for the card's neighbors--with 2 mounting screws, the diving board will be fully constrained), & hang the battery over the edge on the outside of the PC case.
I'll report back after I figure out materials (might have some thin G10 Fiberglas sheet leftover at work) & details & survey what else is in that neighborhood, so that I'm not dangling the battery over something else fragile & expensive.
-Jason
PS--as for the PC's 2032, I haven't given it any thought. I'd rather not decase the PC to get to the solder side of the mobo--I'll probably just carefully solder to features on the top side of the battery holder & run wires to a new holder secured to the outside face of the PC case.
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