Caius

Sega System 16B motherboard repair log

Mar 132021

Lately I’ve gone through all the faulty/untested PCBs I never looked at (tons of them…) to check if there was something that was worth a repair.I found this Sega System 16B motherboard :

I plugged in a Golden Axe (conversion) ROM board and powered up the set.Board booted up, game was playable with good graphics but sound was missing :

The audio hardware is made of Z80 CPU plus a Yamaha YM2151 for music (and a NEC uPD7759 for speeches) :

Looking at schematics the serial data from the YM2151 (pin 21) is sent to the YM3102 DAC (pin 4) which then routes the analog signal to the TL084 OP-AMP :

Probing with the oscilloscope revealed the YM2151 serial data were present on the input of the YM3012 (pin 4) but the output (pin 11) tied to the OP-AMP was silent :

The DAC was likely fault so I replaced it :

This brought the sound back but it was faint and corrupted (except the speeches that was fine) :

The TL084 OP-AMP is the only part between the DAC and the final sound output :

It’s a well known prone to failure part so I went straight to replace it :

The sound was completely restored and board 100% working.End of job.

Passing Shot (Sega System 16B) repair log

PCB Repair Logs Comments Off

Oct 122020

Got an original Passing Shot PCB for repair, as you may know it’s a tennis game released for System 16B hardware by Sega in 1988.

Board had its ‘FD1094’ battery-backed custom CPU module which was still alive since the board booted but sound was missing at all:

These are the times when an audio probe really comes in handy in diagnosing the fault helping you to figure out the nature of the lack of sound (if digital or analog).So I fired up this tool and started to listem to various points of the audio circuit :

For first I probed the outputs of the YM3812 DAC and I got sound from them, this meant the fault was in the analog circuit.Looking at schematics I followed the path, the sound was still present on the input of the volume potentiometer :

But then it was silent on the output which gives the signal to the Fujitsu MB3733 amplifier :

Schematics shows there is nothing between the output of the potentiometer and the input of the amplifier (apart from a 10uF electrolytic capacitor that was tested as good)

Metering the amplifier I found that pin 1 ( the input which takes the signal from the potentiometer) was almost shorted to pin 11 (+12V supply), there was only 12.4 Ohm of resistance :

The amplifier was likely bad so I removed it :

And replaced it putting also some thermal silicon grease for a better heat dissipation :

I powered the board up again and the sound was back.No other issue found hence I could declare this board 100% fixed and working.

Konami ‘082’ reproduction

Reproductions Comments Off

Sep 242019

This is my own implementation of the Konami ‘082’ custom IC with the use of simple logic gates.Original part is a 28 pin 600mil IC found on many PCBs of 80’s.As often happens with most of Konami custom ICs it comes with scratched-off part name:

I was able to shrink my board layout to almost same dimensions of original part by using TSSOP devices :

Perhaps not the neatest design, you may call it a ‘poor man’s’ version of the existing CPLD based solution but it works fine and I’m happy with it.Here’s final testing on a Track & Field PCB :

Heavy Barrel repair log #2

PCB Repair Logs 2 Responses »

Sep 212019

Received from Austria this Heavy Barrel PCB, a run and gun arcade game released by Data East in 1987 :

Board was in really good shape and game was fully playable too but lacked of sound :

Using an audio probe revealed no sound came out from analog circuit hence the fault was of digital nature.Audio system is ruled by a 6502 CPU located on top board :

Its pinout :

Checking it with a logic probe revealed that the /NMI line (pin 6) was asserted as well as two address lines were stuck low (A12 and A14)

A non-maskable interrupt triggered is usually due to some hardware failure hence for first I dumped the ROM containing the audio code (located on bottom board), it turned out to be good.Then I focused on the RAM accessed by the 6502, a 8K x 8-bit device (6116 compatible)

As soon as I piggybacked it with a good chip I got some random sounds played.The scope revealed weak signals on some data lines of the RAM (a good signal on the left of below picture for comparison)

I removed the IC :

And sure enough, it failed the out-of-circuit testing :

New chip fitted :

Sound was thus restored and another board fixed.

Namco ‘CUS98’ reproduction

Reproductions Comments Off

Sep 102019

As someone may recall I’ve recently done a reproduction of the custom ‘CUS99’ used on Namco PCBs :

Namco ‘CUS99’ reproduction

After done it I thought it was good to take into account its “companion” too, the ‘CUS98’ which most times come along with the first.Package is pretty the same but with two further pins than ‘CUS99’

But functions are totally different and, as Rolling Thunder schematics suggest, the main one is to generate the master reset :

Secondary functions are coin counters and lockouts handling as well as lamps driving, it seems only few games (like Pac-Land and Gaplus) use this last feature :

I was obviously interested in reproducing at least the reset generation function which is essential for correct operation of the PCB (but it seems Rolling Thunder can boot into game also with a missing ‘CUS98’).Therefore, as usual, I studied earlier Namco hardware where the custom had not yet been used and I came to a prototype developed on a breadboard:

The protoytpe worked pretty good :

Hence I developed a proper board :

Final testing on a Pac-Land PCB:

As said some functions have been intentionally omitted favoring the needed ones (watchdog circuit ad reset switch were implemented too).This will at least allow to save PCBs with a faulty/broken or missing ‘CUS98’.

Older Entries