General – Page 21 – JAMMArcade.net

Updating a Chipmaster digital IC tester

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Feb 272015

Ive always wanted to update the software on my ABI Chipmaster as it was outdated when I originally got it. The issue is ABI like to try and extract every last penny from people that own any of their equipment and in order to do any updating then you have to buy their software and that costs A LOT!

Today I opened this thing up and found a 29LV040 chip in there which I obviously was the thing I was after. The device is in a 32 pin PLCC package and is soldered directly to the PCB.
I fired up the how air rework station and removed that chip.

After fitting a socket I downloaded the latest software from the ABI website and reflashed the ROM

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Now I have the software file Im going to pull this thing to bits in IDA Pro and see what interesting things I can find, maybe its even possible to fix the Z80 testing function that ABI cant be bothered to fix themselves.

‘Arcade sync stabilizer’ by Martin Jones

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Jan 152015

Sync troubles, i.e. rolling/flickering picture,curved sides, etc.., on your beloved arcade PCBs?

Now the “sync stabilizer”, copyright by ‘MARTINJONESTECHNOLOGY’, beats ’em all !

Today I assembled on a stripboard this little circuit and installed it in my supergun.It really fixed all my sync issues with my troublesome boards (mostly bootlegs) which I never been able to solve in other way (trying, for example, the LM1881 sync stripper/cleaner)

Circuit is simple to do (but very effective),it requires only few common components.Technically speaking, it doesn’t modify the sync signal frequency but only the horizontal pulses lenght bringing them back in the broadcast standards.

For bill of materials and other technical explanations, I refer you to the official page of the creator:

https://martin-jones.com/2014/09/16/that-syncing-feeling-classic-arcade-games-that-wont-stay-still/

I highly recommend you to give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.

Welcome to Corrado

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Jan 092015

Welcome to a new contributor, Corrado.
Another source of repair logs and general tech info is always good.

SEGA NAOMI multi BIOS

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Jan 042015

P1pkin has released his NAOMI/NAOMI2 multi BIOS for everyone.

By changing the dipswitches you can change the region of your system
DSW2 DSW3
OFF OFF Japan
ON OFF USA
OFF ON Export
ON ON Korea

Original thread can be found here

Thanks very much to P1pkin for this.

ABI Chipmaster Pro – FAIL!

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Jan 022015

Here is a sad fact and its one I picked up on quite a while ago when I compared the Chipmaster Pro to my Boardmaster 4000.
Both of these devices test the Z80 CPU out of circuit yet the Chipmaster Pro seldom gives a PASS result where as the Boardmaster always gave me a true PASS or FAIL result.
I bring this up now as Andrew96 reminded me of this issue and has even made a short video of it here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCA_KPoa18I&feature=youtu.be

As he states, ABI refuse to fix this problem and that is just unacceptable.
Be warned before you shell out a good amount of cash on one of these devices. You can’t even add your own test without spending another load of cash on the extra software.

Im glad I never paid much for mine.

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