Gun talk - Sega Type-II IR Gun setup

Main > Lightguns

<< < (8/19) > >>

Howard_Casto:
BTW.... has happcontrols lost it's mind? I looked up the gun sensor on their site... it was 250 dollars! WTF? They do realize that you can buy many of the compatible games for that price right?

twistedsymphony:
Happ lost their mind a long time ago... most of their prices are ridiculous AND the same time they decided to start cold-calling collectors to drum up business (I've received several calls because I ordered from them before) they also instituted a $100 minimum order policy... :lol you can't do both... you ether put in a high min order to sell only to businesses that need you, or you sell in small lots to increase your customer base.

I need to buy new nuts and bolts to hold my gun halves together, Happ carries the official parts for $7 a set, which I'd be willing to pay, but I can't buy them because there's no way I'm interested in placing a $100 order with them.

Howard_Casto:
Yeah I get calls from them every once in a while, which I find odd considering the only thing I've ever bought from them is a bezel and that was in 2000. They offered me 10% off, which would be nice if they didn't have a 1000% markup on their stuff.

twistedsymphony:
attempting to figure out what we CAN identify I took a look at one of the LED boards:

Aside from the resistors and caps there are 3 ICs
The largest is an 8-pin chip with "7W74F" and "6W" printed on it.
this identifies as a D-type Flip-Flop: http://www.alldatasheet.com/view.jsp?Searchword=7W74F

The next largest chip has 3 small pins on one side and 1 fat pin on the other it has "TQ" and "6X" printed on it, on the older style LED board this chip has "TQ" and "7Z". the label is too vague to find an exact match but it looks like a typical transistor to me, especially considering the fat pin is tied directly to the LEDs. if you look at the picture I posted earlier of the newer 4 LED board it has 2 of these, probably because it's driving twice as many LEDs (on the 2LED boards they're wired in series surprisingly) The other end of the LEDs are tied to the large through-hole resistor, which is tied to ground.

The smallest chip looks like it would be a 6-pin but with the middle pin removed on one side. the chip is simply labeled "E2" and it's barely larger than the surface mount resistors... I'm not really sure what this is. and the label is way too vague.

The LEDs themselves are a bit weird too. There's a white ceramic cylinder with a gold prong in the middle and another gold prong coming up from the side (like a spark plug) and then it looks like the "lens" is created with a crystal clear epoxy that also covers the cylindrical base. it's a weird design that I haven't seen before... maybe they're highly directional?

the older style LED board with them vertically mounted they're all sticking out slightly from the board and angled toward the center of the screen slightly, and then there's a grey silicon glue holding them in position, the newer style board with the two horizontally mounted LEDs have the LEDs mounted flush against the PCB like you'd expect, but it has the plastic hood which might help reflect the light toward the center of the screen, or maybe keep light from leaking out past the screen (there was a section in the manual about games interfering with each other if they're too close, so maybe this was done to help address the problem?) the 4 LED board doesn't have any sort of hood or any special angle to the LEDs.

Howard_Casto:
I can confirm that the 4 pin chip is a surface mount transistor.... they use them in the tv I'm trying to troubleshoot. ;)

The 5 pin chip could be another variant of a flip-flop... a gated sr latch. (Scroll down).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip-flop_(electronics)

So the pcb for the blinky lights has chips on it to make things blink.... no surprise there. Most likely all the resistors and what-not are a complicated (but cheap) way to regulate the timing so that pcb 1 blinks before sending power on to pcb 2 so that it blinks next or however the pattern goes. This is all good news if you ask me because it means the parts aren't terribly expensive nor is the circuit terribly complex.

In this day and age the circuit probably isn't even needed.... an avr could drive the leds directly in whatever pattern the main pcb is looking for. The trick no matter which method used, would be to get the timing synced up and everything blinking exactly how the main board expects it to.

Have you tried putting a camera on the assembly while it's running to see what is going on? Most can see IR.

Navigation

 Message Index

Go to full version