wasnt someone selling new repro williams cpus for black kn..

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

I got some strange problems with mine thanks to me and only me

I bought this black knight DOA and I replaced the 5101 and socket, got
it up and running nicely. Was working perfect. Well I started having
display problems so I replaced the 2 header and plug connectors at the
very top of the CPU board. I put the board back into the machine, and
played a few games and then went to bed. Everything was working fine.
Got up this morning tried to fire the machine up and its constantly
blowing the 2.5 A solenoid fuse. It tries to kick the ball return
solenoids. Ok, so I unplug the 2 connectors I replaced at the top, put
in a new 2.5a fuse and it fires up. Plugged the 2 connectors in again,
and played a few games.

Just went back down there and its doing the same damn thing, blows the
solenoid fuse. Have any expert advise for me? I really hate Williams
CPU's! I can do the Bally's but these things are junk to me

If theres not a repro out then Im sending it to the 'master' Clive.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

http://www.pinballpcb.com/

james is your guy. i have his sound board and love it. he is very
nice and definately does everything he can to make sure his product
lives up to your expectations.

phil

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

no driver board repro yet? I dont know whether its the cpu or the
driver board?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

I am working on the Driver Board right now. I should have a prototype
in 3-4 weeks, and a production version, 3-4 weeks after that. You can
order the CPU board, and if that does not fix it, I offer a 30 Day
Money Back return policy (minus shipping cost), but I still have not
had anyone return a board yet!

And Phil, Thanks for the great remarks - $5.00 of your next order!!

James Kohout
www.pinballpcb.com
jkohout@yahoo.com

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Are you going to have a combo cpu/driver board? You should be able to
get the footprint down even smaller I would think, right now you are
making them full size because of the interconnector right?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Just dropped you an email. Sounds like a deal I cant refuse at least
its worth a try.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

BTW: Everyone I just ordered one I forgot to say it was for a Black
Knight but anyways, I have an Eprom burner and it looks like it uses a
standard 2732.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

That's wonderful!

I've looked for a replacement board for my Flash for some time now.
The board I have now has intermittent problems, causing entire
rows/columns to be lost occasionally, and the interboard connector is
dodgy, causing it to go completely berzerk at certain times (when on
display at a show, for instance -- sigh).

I like the addition of more LED's for diagnostic purposes.

Some questions:

1) I'm surprised the replacement boards are not a single combined
CPU/driver board, without the connector. I'd love a single-piece board
that does completely away with that split-board design. Can a computer
IDE cable handle the higher voltage of pinball circuitry?

2) I'm surprised that all Williams games ever made to use this board
weren't put in a single modern high-capacity EPROM chip, like on the
Ni-Wumpf board for Gottlieb games. My guess is that copyright issues
are a concern here?

Thanks!
Josh

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

There is no high voltage going between the CPU and driver board - just
logic levels. There is high voltage ON the driver board that gets its
grounds switches on and off, but the high voltage doesn't travel
between the boards. I'd like to see a combined board also. I think
the driver board will be able to use the IDE cable; the cpu board
already has the 40 pin connector. Seems logical that the driver board
will too.

I wouldn't want all the games in one eprom chip, I like the
modifications people have been coming up with and like to try some of
them out. The NiWumpf (and PL-1) do not use any original code from the
machines, avoiding the copyright issue. (They are both completely
rewritten). The Alltek board has all the bally/stern games on it; not
sure how they avoid the copyright issue...... unless it could be argued
that there is no point to having the software on the board UNLESS you
are putting it into the pinball in question, and if you own the pinball
in question, you have a right to use the software.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Yes, the driver board will have the same 40 pin connector.
I did not combine the boards two few reasons:
1. Cost - Some people have a perfectly good CPU board or a good
driver board, and only need one replaced. To combine them would
drive the cost up to probably $250-300 range. This way you can
buy only what you need.
2. Connector location/mounting issues - The way the backbox
mounting is, there is now way to use one big board. Since they
are staggered, you would have to fit everything on the driver board
or on the main board. Then the connectors/wiring would not line
up and you would have to rewire the backbox, which would probably
cause more trouble than when you started.

For EEPROM, I could have done something like combining, but on
top of the copyright issues, that would leave you only one place
for the source of the eeprom, namely me. By keeping the same
eeprom, anyone can download the code from their game at a number
of places and change out the ROMs. I think it is much better
for long term availablity.

Regards,
James Kohout
jkohout@yahoo.com
www.pinballpcb.com



seymour-shabow@excite.com wrote:
> There is no high voltage going between the CPU and driver board - just
> logic levels. There is high voltage ON the driver board that gets its
> grounds switches on and off, but the high voltage doesn't travel
> between the boards. I'd like to see a combined board also. I think
> the driver board will be able to use the IDE cable; the cpu board
> already has the 40 pin connector. Seems logical that the driver board
> will too.
>
> I wouldn't want all the games in one eprom chip, I like the
> modifications people have been coming up with and like to try some of
> them out. The NiWumpf (and PL-1) do not use any original code from the
> machines, avoiding the copyright issue. (They are both completely
> rewritten). The Alltek board has all the bally/stern games on it; not
> sure how they avoid the copyright issue...... unless it could be argued
> that there is no point to having the software on the board UNLESS you
> are putting it into the pinball in question, and if you own the pinball
> in question, you have a right to use the software.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

What is the CPU and projected driver board price?
-Mark

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Thanks for responding.

About separate CPU and driver boards: since I've had intermittent
failures on both boards, I'd want to replace both anyway. If just one
board is replaced, and the other remains Williams factory, then won't
the old-style connector will still have to be used?

About batteries: Am I correct in reading that your new boards use a
modern memory for its NVRAM, that doesn't require batteries? That's a
great idea, otherwise I'd also suggest a remote battery holder as part
of the board redesign.

About EEPROM: For long-term availability, I've heard that the very old
and low-capacity EEPROM's as used in the games are getting harder to
find. Is this true, or am I just mistaken?

About the new Google Groups' lack of quoting of previous conversations:
Doh...!

Josh