Superully's Superduper PCB Testing Station

[Superully]

Dont you read responses to your own topic ? 

i do, but i still don't understand what the use of the two machines on the right is. they are both turned OFF with only the left section running and everything's working!

[level42]

OK....the varistor part can put out a variable AC (hence the name VariAC) voltage. This can only be done with a special transformer, as said called a variac. The advantage of this is that you can slowly turn up an AC voltage for f.i. a monitor. If fuses are blowing on that monitor and you don't know the cause, you can start with a low voltage and slowly turn it up. Maybe some part will start getting hot then before the fuse blows..

Now, there are two different kind of variacs (just like normal transformers). You have the "Autotransformer" type. This has a single brush contact and this type does NOT provide isolation from the mains like an isolation transformer does.
The other type has two brush contacts and these DO provide galvanic separation from the mains.

Considering what this stuff was built for it would SERIOUSLY surprise me if the one they used was the "autotransformer" type. It would just not be very logic. OR they put a separate isolation transformer in front of the variac but that would only raise cost.

As mentioned I was given the variac that my uncle used for his TV repairs for many many years, but although I own it for a couple of years now I haven't found a use for it.

IF it is NOT the autotransformer kind, it is very useful for testing monitors outside the cab since it will provide 230V or 120V or even 100V for the Nintendo (Sanyo) monitors but again ONLY if it is the right kind.

So if you understand that this has a completely different function is makes sense that the left section runs separate from the right one's...

[level42]

Note the variac section is the middle section.

The dial is very likely indicating a percentage (from 0 to 100%). You will have to check the voltage meter to see to what voltage it goes, but seeing we're in Europe and the goal of the machine I bet it goes to somewhere like 250VAC.
You can simply switch it on without connecting anything to the outlet and turn up the know and see what the voltage does. It's great to have a volt meter on the output because that's much more accurate, some variacs have a voltage dial but that's not very accurate.

[level42]

The right most section is quite simply an adjustable power supply.

The switch on the top right switches between AC and DC (DO NOT MAKE MISTAKES WITH THIS OR YOU CAN FRY ANYTHING YOU HOOK UP TO IT).



The blue arrow points to the outlets. The straight and curled line indicate that it can output both DC and AC. This depends on what you select with the switch indicated by the red arrow. The curl indicates AC the = symbol indicates DC.
The yellow arrow points to the on-off switch for this section.

IMHO this is the weak point of this system....it's pretty dangerous to have an output that can output both DC and AC. A mistake with the switch is very easily made. If I would have designed this there would be separate outputs for DC and AC so you can't make (or less risk) this mistake.

Again with the dial you set the output voltage (watch the Volt meter on the left). It IS nice to have this for testing old boards that want AC input voltages, like original Galaxian boards F.I.

Again, be extremely careful with the switch. If you feed AC into a board that expects DC you can bet you have blown a lot of parts....

[level42]

The arrow on the A (Amperes) meter on the right most section is bent....try to VERY carefully bent it back to 0....

[Superully]

great detailed information, andré, thx a lot for the effort. so basically i have three independent sections which can be used for various purposes. i had originally thought that they are somehow connected and that for example the right section is for adjusting the +5V of the left section - but this is done with the unlabeled grey know of the left section.

i'll have to get / build adapters now from msg / tv ideal to jamma and learn how to use this thing properly. but from what i have already learned, having a testing station is not the worst thing that could have happened to me ...

one more question (for now): what is that thing / symbol underneath the voltage display of the right section? never seen anything like it!

[level42]

You mean above the red arrow ? That's the European symbol for a fuse.

There's a fuse holder right there....

[Superully]

You mean above the red arrow ? That's the European symbol for a fuse.

nope, not the one under the ampere display on the right but under the voltage display on the left!

[Etienne MacGyver]

That looks like a "make contact" symbol to me.
i dont know the purpose, but it could be that it only outputs voltage when you press this

Hook up a DVM and press the button while its on and see if there happens something.

ps, my earlier comment was not ment offensive, and Andre did a great job explaning it in detail 

[level42]

It might be a "zero volt" switch to set the meter to 0 correctly ?
It indeed looks like a "push down makes contact, spring loaded will jump back up" button indeed But it's use is not clear from this IMHO...

[old school]

anyway, today i fired up the testing station for the first time and i wanted to start with that yama adapter and a jamma klax pcb, but there was a slight problem



it just wouldn't fit! i've checked the wiring against the jamma pinout yesterday and everything seemed to be a perfect match, i just wonder what's wrong. unfortunately, i don't have any other jamma pcb to test the connector on. any ideas?

I got this kind of problems a couple of time
there is two way to handle this:

1) cut your pcb board  
just the little corner piece with a Dremel tool

2) Cut the end of your adapters and it will fit !!


Please choose the second option    it will be better
 

By the way i'm the new owner of ZORG TESTING STATION !!!

sound like a super vilain movies !!!!
Incredible tool !!

I'will add some little modification

This way (in french )
http://lejrs.e-monsite.com/pages/content/banc-de-test.html

[level42]

http://translate.google.nl/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Flejrs.e-monsite.com%2Fpages%2Fcontent%2Fbanc-de-test.html&act=url

Same page translated....

Is Zorg going to mass-produce these ? I want one

[old school]

unfortunately Zorg made only one PCB Testing Station
 

And it's mine
 

But it's not so hard to create a Testing Station from scratch
just need some time and tools to do a proper thing.


By the way thank's for the translation
 

[Zorg]

Is Zorg going to mass-produce these ? I want one

nope, I'm currently running out of time trying to mass product another thing  .

furthermore, as old school said, it's an easy task to make such a simple "mastermind" testing station. just some time and patience needed.

just solder on each pin of the jamma connector 2 wires instead of just one as usual, then solder one of the wire to one plug, then wire the other one to his dedicated destination (joy, sound, button, video.... etc...)

NB this one can be improved in a lot of ways.
direct voltage control and fine tunning
additional volatage for some specific PCBs that requires other voltages that the classics 5/12 V
sound control and or amplification
video sync control (instead of using the available settings from the monitor)
etc etc....

[Superully]

unfortunately, i'll have to start with something unexpected and not so funny this time: i broke the little finger of my right hand yesterday during the sports lesson . but not only that, it was also dislocated in various spots and the tendons are torn! luckily though, it's the right hand's finger (i'm left-handed), but nevertheless i'm handicapped and using the computer's mouse with my left hand is just something i'm not used to. with that being said, don't exect too many posts over the course of the next few weeks, using the computer like that is pretty annyoing at the moment!



however, this did not hold me off from going on a short roadtrip today. normally, i would have postponed it, but the stuff i bought was stored in an old barn which is going to be torn down soon, so i had to get it out! i did not discover the usual "green energy" today, but something slighty different



what looks like some kind of extraterrestrial communication attempt is in fact the satellite earth station of intelsat - pretty impressive if you ask me!



but i was not here to watch satellite television , i was on a mission to add slighty smaller (and different) devices to superully's superduper pcb testing station. i'm extremely happy with the catch, but since i haven't been able to unload the stuff and install everything yet (and will probably not be for some time because of the plaster on my right hand), here's a quick teaser photo!



gotta stop typing now, finger's itching ...