Dragon's Lair Fans - Arcade Lifestyle
General Chat => Technical Area => Topic started by: PaulSwan on March 12, 2014, 05:38:56 PM
-
I've been working on this project over winter since starting work on trying to fix dead Galaxia & Astro Wars boards that would otherwise be very difficult and time consuming without some sort of Fluke-like test equipment. The basic idea is similar to a the Fluke 9010 but simplified and targeting the 2650 CPU (that has no native Fluke pod anyway):
http://www.paulswan.me/arcade/ArduinoMegaICT.htm (http://www.paulswan.me/arcade/ArduinoMegaICT.htm)
(http://www.paulswan.me/arcade/tech/ArduinoMegaICT/DSCN0629.JPG)
An added bonus is that the probe head DIL 40 socket adaptor board can also be used to replace a broken Fluke probe head.
I've used it to repair a few dead boards now and as time goes on I'll update the software to add other Zaccaria 2650 games and additional features as I encounter the need for them. At the moment I have a small stack of Astro Wars boards to work through since I'm currently working on restoring an Astro Wars game.
Regards,
Paul.
-
That stuff is way beyond my scope, but i do love it !
Looks great Paul :spaceace:
-
I understand about 60% of technical stuff, but looks like a smart equipment. ;)
Also have a box of non-working Quasar and Galaxia pcbs, fortunately Marco could repair the Astro Wars. :D
-
impressive :spaceace:
-
WOW...just like Etienne, this is faaar beyond my knowledge. I'm very impressed!! :)
-
Nicely done Paul. I'm impressed :o keep us posted.
-
These Arduino can do some 'miracles' and you can see every days new applications for this!
My G-Loc is 'Arduino powered' ... but this was far less complicated to setup than what you've done here, congratulation!
-
Is there anyone in Europe that does Zac. board repairs? I probably have enough parts for another system if a Euro board repairer is interested in committing to fix Zac. boards for the Euro community...
Paul.
-
I am moderately interested, let me know what the conditions are...
I have had the opportunity to look at Zaccaria Pinball boards and was also repairing a 'Looping' board, both using the signetics 2650.
Some experience is there and also willingness, though PCB repair is not for free, when I do this.
My plan was also to use the Fluke Z80 to 2650 Adapter in their notes, so I am not depending on this item, if someone is deeply interested :-)
-
I have not the technical skill to repair these zacc PCBs.
but like bela i have enough PCBs that waiting for rebirth.
Cu
-
Amazing stuff....wouldn't it be possible to do it for more processors ? Fluke stuff is expensive....
-
@speleo_de: Hehehe, not free, no :) Just someone knowledgeable to use it to offer Zac. board repairs to the community.
Someone in the UK did a PCB for the Z80->2650 pod adaptor but doesn't have any more left and didn't reply when I asked for the plots to make more.
@Level42: In theory, yes. The bus timing is not 100% accurate compared with the Fluke, though, only an approximation so some games might have configurations that can't work with it. However, unlike the Fluke I can program the Arduino with built in game awareness so there is no need to figure checksums & memory maps etc. and I can run a full test of everything on a particular game as a single action. Thus, it's tailored to specific games. The Flukes a bit of a pain to do this with unless you dig into the scripting features to do the same thing. Also, the Arduino doesn't do run UUT of course so to run it up needs unplug and a CPU fitting instead (I use a ZIF socket for testing). That said, total parts is probably <$75 for this setup.
Paul.
-
@ Paul, thanks, then my offer is up for the tester.
I did look at the Z80 to 2650 Adapter, its just a couple of TTLs.
I should be able to make a PCB for that and make the plots public.
-
Hi Paul,
your project is very interesting, I'm from Italy and I repaired some ZZZ boards in the past but not 2650 based, I didn't own a Fluke 9xxx and normally use an old SonyTek 308 data analyzer.
My knowledge of Arduino is near 0.1, but that of the ATMEL micros is average and I can write test vector sw... I'm interested in PCBs, if you plan to sell them.
Best
BS
-
Hi Paul,
At the moment I do not have much time and space to do repairs :( Even the fluke I own has not been properly used since I got it. But I'm planning to do a lot more when my man cave project is done... after the summer. I just want to do repairs for the hobby but not commercially because I want to have fun doing it and no pressure. So yes I'm interested but just for doing repairs for the fun of learning and helping out friends and community members. Others that have more time on their hands should go first in line.
:-\
-
OK, over the next few weeks I'll try and get a formal bill of materials setup and make up some kits for it. It'll be self assembly :)
-
OK, over the next few weeks I'll try and get a formal bill of materials setup and make up some kits for it. It'll be self assembly :)
I can not do self assembly, i don't know how to use a Weller :P :D
-
OK, over the next few weeks I'll try and get a formal bill of materials setup and make up some kits for it. It'll be self assembly :)
That sounds great - thanks!
-
Amazing project. Truckloads of kudos from here m8 };-P
-
bump
... any news? The 'iron' is HOT and waiting for solder assembly!
BS
-
I was being honest when I said a few weeks - the show (http://nwpinballshow.com/ (http://nwpinballshow.com/)) is just a few weeks away so I'm busy preparing for that mostly but I'll see what I can do...
Paul.
-
I was being honest when I said a few weeks - the show (http://nwpinballshow.com/ (http://nwpinballshow.com/)) is just a few weeks away so I'm busy preparing for that mostly but I'll see what I can do...
Paul.
sorry Paul,
maybe I've lost a post (or more than one :D)... and I can surely wait!
-
I'm also interested. I already repaired one of my two Astrowars and the other one is waiting. I don't own a Fluke 9010a but I'm looking for it.
Normally I prefer to use PIC instead Atmel, although programming in assembler, I must admit that they have some instructions very comfortable compared to Microchip
-
I've ordered some more components and with the two spare PCB sets I have enough for two kits based on the initial board (I'll do another run over summer).
http://www.paulswan.me/arcade/ArduinoMegaICTPartsList.htm (http://www.paulswan.me/arcade/ArduinoMegaICTPartsList.htm)
...is the parts list, plus tax (10%) & shipping. Basically, $30 for the Arduino, $13.45 for the daughter board and $24.20 for the probe head.
Comes out at $75 tax included plus shipping at cost.
Drop me a PM if interested.
Paul.
-
Since my Sea Scare PCB set died (again), I decided to see if I could pin-drive 6502 to investigate it:
(http://www.paulswan.me/arcade/tech/ArduinoMegaICT/DSCN1014.JPG)
I managed to get the ROMS to read reliably but the RAM isn't reliable. The hardware on this board uses a clock synchronized strobe for the RAM writes, and the video display is hidden synchronously in the first half of the 6502 cycle. Since the tester is asynchronous to the input clock, no chance of it working properly on this platform :( However, more conventional 6502 hardware might work OK. I didn't really need it to fix this board since the chip selects were all bad due to a bad 7442, clearly visible on a scope.
A bit better luck with the tester on Z80 and Jackrabbit:
(http://www.paulswan.me/arcade/tech/ArduinoMegaICT/DSCN1074.JPG)
This one the speech died so I'd assumed that it'd be the speech board and I was only trying out Z80 because it was on the bench. However I noticed that the game music was wrong and some other sound effects were wrong. Poking the sound latch with the tester did generate some speech and the tester made it very easy to see that there was a stuck bit on the sound latch. So far the tester works mostly fine on this platform.
Paul.
-
even though this is way beyond my scope, i love to read things like this !
Thanks paul :spaceace: