and I feel like this dude:

I can’t imagine what it will feel like when I hit 40. If this site is still up then I will let you know.

My wife got me a very cool electronics project that I’m tempted to post about today, but I think I will hold off until it’s all together and working. In other news…

I finished up my Baby Pac control panel:

I couldn’t decide whether or not to paint the bolts black. Many of the pictures I saw online showed black bolts, but they also looked like they had refinished control panels. I saw some with unpainted silver bolts, and most of the bolts on mine showed no sign of paint (just rust)…except for the bolts along the top that hold latches in place:

Those bolts look to me like they were painted half black to line up with the black stripe at the top of the overlay. I didn’t bother doing this, and I went with unpainted shiny bolts for the whole thing. Here are some glamor shots.

I finally got around to working on my Baby Pac-Man control panel this past weekend. Here it is before:

and with all parts removed:

Look how nasty this hinge is!

I had to shut the radio off for this part, because I only have 1 circuit in my garage and it usually blows when the heat gun and something else is running at the same time.

Here it is naked:

The picture above is AFTER I removed the adhesive left over from the overlay. I use Jasco Adhesive Remover, which is messy and a little toxic but works great. I figure if I have any brain cells left, they are tough enough to withstand a few minutes with this stuff.

Here it is with the new overlay on:

I used Windex first on the bottom half in case I didn’t get the alignment right the first time. It was a mistake. I’ll never use it again for a CPO. It made it not stick as well as the rest, and I had to mess with it for a long time to get it to stay down.

The controls are upstairs soaking in Pinesol in the sink…I’ll post a pic when I have them installed.

Good afternoon! I’ll make this post quick, because I really should be working. I somehow woke up around noon time today. I guess that’s what I get for staying up too late all the time.

I did a cap kit on my Baby Pac-Man monitor last night. It has a Wells-Gardner K4800 series 13″ monitor in it. I had plenty of capacitors, so I didn’t need to order a cap kit for this one. I went by Bob Robert’s cap map for a K4900 which is basically the same monitor but in a 19″ version.

Here it is before:

and after

Did I mention I like doing cap kits?

No, this is not a singles ad. I spent most of the day today replacing all these old crappy connectors from Baby Pac-Man…

with shiny new ones:

This took sooooo long. It seemed even longer because there is no heat in my garage and its pretty cold today. I can’t wait for the Spring!

If you are REALLY bored, here are before and after shots you can click on to see the old vs. new connectors:

One thing that I thought was strange was the factory placement of the polarizing key for connector J1 on the solenoid board. That is a 15 pin connector, and they put the polarizing key dead center on pin 8. Because of this, the connector could be flipped around and connected backwards. I didn’t want to replicate this, so I found an unused pin towards the end, snipped it off, and put another polarizing key in that spot:

Changing the first connector got the game up and running again (it stopped for no reason). In between changing each connector, I fired the game up to make sure everything was still OK. This gave me a chance to get used to playing the game. There were 20 connectors, so I played it at least 20 times. It’s incredibly hard, but I am just starting to get the hang of it.

Next on my list is a cap kit for the monitor. Then, I’ll probably put on the control panel overlay. After that, I want to sand down the new cabinet, patch any scratches and paint it. Unfortunately I’m going to have to wait for warmer weather to do that.

Happy Friday! I finally got the new (well, new to me) Baby Pac-Man cabinet from Kentucky. Its in great shape!

If you look at it closeup, it’s got a few scratches here and there. I’m thinking of sanding it down, patching any deep scratches with filler, and painting it. I’m not 100% sure that I will do that at this point though, as it is in such good shape. I could probably just touch it up a bit.

I have new sideart for it, and a new CPO. Both of those will definitely be done whether I paint the cabinet or not.

I didn’t realize that this had the playfield glass on it, which is a plus seeing as I shattered the other one.

Here are some pictures of the old soggy cabinet for comparison:

Checkout how much the “wood” swelled on the old baby. You can really see it if you look how it is sticking past the edges of the t-molding on his back corner:

Now, here’s the same corner from his dry brother:

The only damage on this new cabinet is on the very back, along the top edge:

It looks like something heavy was sitting on top of it or something, and it has a crack running along it. I should be able to glue that back together easily.

I’m still working on the boards for this, and probably won’t do anything on the new cabinet until I have everything working 100% in the old one. I had gotten the Vidiot board working, but now it’s no longer starting the game. Supposedly if you have a communications problem between the MPU and Vidiot boards that will happen. I can get into the communications test after boot up and it definitely isn’t communicating properly. It wasn’t before either, even when the game was working so I’m not too concerned about it. I’m going to put new connectors on the wiring harness today and see if that helps.

Here’s a picture of the twins side by side:

Wow…it’s February already. Time flies when you are soldering the heck out of stuff.

I’ve written a new tutorial for you:

I still consider myself a newbie when it comes to electronics. I’ve picked up things here and there but have a lot to learn. I read on PinRepair.com that the 40 pin video processor chip in U16 of Baby Pac-Man’s Vidiot board is prone to failure because it gets ridiculously hot, and that a heat sink should be installed on top of it. The chips are expensive and hard to come by, so now that my Vidiot board is working I wanted to make sure to take this advice. I wasn’t exactly sure how to best go about this, so I figured I would write a tutorial on it. This might be moronically simple for some, but maybe someone will find it useful.

Materials Needed

1. Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive & mixing thingy (the first three items above from left to right)

$5.95 on eBay

2. 40 pin glue-on alluminum heat sink

$1.50 at DigiKey.com – part #HS274-ND (thanks PinRepair.com!)

3. Any IC chip that needs a heatsink

4. CD that you don’t care about

$.01 on eBay

5. One rubber band

$1.48 for 1/4 lb bag at Staples (shoot the extras at unsuspecting passerby)

General Ramblings

I headed to Radio Crap to see if they had some sort of adhesive for heat sinks. They didn’t, so don’t bother going. They have heat sink grease, which is NOT adhesive and will not work for this. They do have loads of batteries, crappy remote controlled toys, and cellphones. Are you interested in any batteries? Me neither.

Instructions

1. Get out the outdated CD. If you need to play it once for old times sake before wrecking it, go for it. I’ll wait. All set? Let’s continue.

2. The CD is going to be used to mix the adhesive on because that’s all its good for anymore. This adhesive is magical in that it supposedly transfers heat from the chip to the heat sink. Instructions for using this stuff can be found here. Apparently it’s highly toxic and you aren’t supposed to eat it.

Squirt out equal parts of the two compounds onto a clean area of your Michael Bolton CD.

3. Mix it up with the spatula like you are making some sort of homemade tooth paste, but DON’T brush your teeth with it (yet).

4. Spread a thin layer on the top of the chip…just enough to cover it. Try not to get it all over the pins.

5. Put the heat sink on top…press it down a bit but don’t go all “hog wild” on it. Wipe or lick off the excess.

6. Double up the rubber band and carefully put it around the heat sink/chip sandwich without bending the pins. This was a little tricky.

7. Wait a few hours and remove the rubber band. If you did your’s right it will look like the one above but without a rubber band on it. If it looks completely different it’s time to get a new hobby.

Epilogue

I did something pretty stupid when I did mine. The heat sink is EXACTLY the same length as the chip. After gluing it on, I couldn’t see the notch in the chip that shows you how to orient it when inserting it in it’s socket! Luckily I had another identical chip. I used my meter set to continuity to find 2 pins on one side of the “non heat-sinked” chip that were connected. Then, I found the same pins on the “heat-sinked” one which let me match up the direction properly. After that, I marked where the notch would be on the very end of the chip, and wrote on the underside of it (with a paint pen).

Don’t be a dummy like me…mark your chip first.

Howdy folks! I’ve been spending every free minute I’ve had working on the Vidiot board for my Baby Pac-Man. The last thing I was going to try was to change the 10.7386MHz crystal directly above the video processor chip in U16. The crystals I ordered came in. I put a new one in and it didn’t fix the problem. I was still getting only 8 flashes on the LED during bootup.

In desperation, I ordered new chips for U7 and U8 from Bob Roberts, which should be here tomorrow. I also ordered new RAM earlier today. I had changed about half the sockets on the board with new ones. I figured while I was waiting for parts, I’d keep changing the rest of the old sockets. I started with the socket for U12, which is the ROM that contains the programming for the video portion of the self test. That did nothing. I moved on to the socket for U11. When I pulled the plastic part of the socket off the board, I noticed that the pins were very corroded, even though the socket right next to it was fine. Popping a new socket in U11 fixed the problem, and I got 10 flashes at bootup. I can’t tell you how excited I am. I actually danced a jig, and I’m not Irish.

Here’s a video of it working. Keep in mind it’s hard to play while holding a camera in one hand. The cabinet is very tilted, so the pinball portion doesn’t play quite like it should.

Now, next on the list is to change the rest of the sockets for preventative measures. Then I’ll do a cap kit on the monitor and hope that my new cabinet gets here sometime this year.

Hey. I’ve been spending a lot of time the past week or so working on the Vidiot board from my Baby Pac-Man. The last thing I mentioned here is that I was getting 8 flashes from it on boot. You should get 10 when everything is working properly. 8 usually indicates that the TMS9928 chip in U16 is bad. I ordered (2) NOS replacements from Jeff at Classic-Arcades.com. I don’t think they are listed on his site, but he mentioned he had them in the RGP newsgroup. I figured it would be good to order an extra because they are hard to come by.

I waited patiently for the chips to arrive, and popped the replacement in. Unfortunately, it still had the same problem.

I’m suspecting the crystal that controls the timing for U16 might be bad. Someone mentioned they had that problem (in the RGVAC newsgroup?). I don’t have another crystal, so I ordered some. I’m hoping they’ll be in tomorrow. In the meantime, I tested just about everything I could on the board. I won’t bore you with all the details, but let’s just say I spent a ridiculous amount of time working on it this past weekend. I worked on it most of the day Saturday, up until about 4AM Sunday. Then, I slept a few hours and went back at it again. (Yes, I’m insane).

One of the things I noticed is that there was a capacitor (C87) that was broken off the board:

Seeing this made me excited, because it was obviously wrong. Changing it didn’t do squat to fix the problem with U16, but at least its replaced now.

I figured I would replace the rest of the old sockets with machine pin sockets in case one of them was making a crappy connection. I started with U8, because that’s the chip that is reporting that U16 is bad. By the time I got to working on this, I had lost a lot of sleep. I’m not sure if that factored in or not, but I really screwed up a trace. I usually cut off the old sockets, exposing the pins. Then, I grab each pin with pliers, heating the solder until it melts, and the pin pulls right out. On one pin, the trace came right up with the pin:

This is the first time I’ve ever lifted a trace like that…I hope it’s the last! I repaired it on the underside with a 24 gauge solid core jumper:

I told you I wouldn’t bore you with all the details, but I guess I lied. I’ve been keeping a list of everything I’ve done in notepad on this board…here it is in excruciating detail:

1. All voltages on board OK
2. Changed socket for U16 and put new chip in….still N/G
3. Every pin on U16 is connected to where it should be, via continuity test
4. C73 is OK
5. C62 & C63 seem OK (they surround the Y2 crystal)
6. Tried to get a pulse on crystal Y2 via logic probe and couldn’t…not sure if it should pulse or not.
7. Changed C54 – no effect
8. Diodes are OK: CR1, CR2, CR3
9. C87 was broken off…replaced it  – didn’t fix problem
10. Pulled all socketed chips, cleaned, reseated
11. Swapped 2114 RAMs in U13 and U14. No change…put old ones back.
12. Changed C92
13. Changed C107
14. Changed C109
15. Tried a 10mHz crystal from Kangaroo….N/G
16. Changed C62 & C63…N/G damn it
17. Changed socket for U8.

I’ll let you know what happens when I put the new crystal in…

Good evening. I was planning on testing my Baby Pac Vidiot board “on the bench”, via the instructions at Pinrepair.com’s awesome Baby Pac-Man page. I ordered some 12 pin and 2 pin .156 Molex in-line housings from Bob Roberts. Because they were so cheap, I ordered some extra connectors, including some headers and sets of monitor connectors. Here’s what I got today (picture taken after I ate the Moon Pies that he included in the box)

The 4 small bags in the upper left that are the same size are sets to make monitor connectors. They contain (1) 3 pin .156 housing, and (1) 6 pin .156 housing. Below those on the left are .100 headers that can be snapped to get the size needed. Below that are 24 pin .156 headers that are also “snappable”. The right side shows (4) 12 pin .156 housings, and (4) 2 pin .156 housings. That’s what I’m using for this tutorial.

OK…I needed an easy way to hook up alligator test leads like this (from Rat Shack)…

…to header connectors on my Vidiot board like this:

That image shows a 5 pin header. The Vidiot board has 12 pin and 2 pin headers, but you get the idea. I can’t just hook alligator leads to these because they could touch each other. It would also be difficult to put 2 clips right next to each other in that small footprint. I decided to make some test connectors that I can reuse…there may be a better way to do this, but this is how I made mine.

First, I took some .093 molex socket connectors that I got from Bob Roberts and opened them up by forcing a small screwdriver in the end and wiggling it around. This pic shows one of those pins, before and after.

I crimped the end on an 18 AWG wire. Then, I took some shrink wrap tubing, and cut it so it would be a little bigger than the connector.

Next, I slid the shrink wrap tubing over the end, making sure it was sticking past a little bit. After heating it with a lighter, here’s what it looked like:

The idea with this is to have a connector I can easily clip a lead to while still being insulated, like so:

The 2 pics above show the first connector I made for this. The end of the shrink wrap tubing didn’t shrink tight enough around the wire end. For the rest of these, I put a small piece of narrower shrink wrap tubing on that area to build it up a little thicker before putting the wider tubing over it.

Here are 2 finished test connectors ready to go. I alternated the length of the wires so adjacent connectors won’t have any chance of touching.

Hey there. I have an order in with Bob Roberts for some connectors so I can test my Baby Pac Vidiot board “on the bench”. The Vidiot board is the main board for the video game portion of Baby Pac-Man.

I changed the rest of the lamps in the playfield this morning. I couldn’t wait to get the connectors to test the Vidiot board, so I figured I would hook all the boards and playfield back up in my old cabinet to test it that way. Here’s a video showing what the game is doing when you boot it up:

When it first comes on, it tries to play the startup music but it is a bit broken up.

It looks like I have one bulb out that I’ll have to checkout. The playfield looks very cool lit up and blinking like crazy.

The video on the monitor is a bit screwy. It’s only showing blue. When you play the game, it won’t switch over to the pinball portion. After the game is on for just a little bit longer than shown in that video, the monitor changes and just shows blue bars:

According to the info on Pinrepair.com, the Vidiot board’s LED should flash 10 times to indicate everything is working properly. On mine it only flashes 8, which usually means the TSM9928 chip in socket U16 is bad.

I pulled the chip, and the legs on it were really dirty…almost black. I thought for sure I took a picture of it before I cleaned it but it looks like I didn’t. Here’s a pic after I cleaned the legs with a fiberglass sanding pencil:

I popped the chip back in, and it still didn’t get past 8 flashes. I figured maybe the socket might be bad, so I changed that as well. I didn’t have a 40 pin socket, so I used a 24 pin, and cut down a bigger one to make up the difference.

Changing the socket didn’t help, but it probably should have been changed anyway. It looks like I’m going to need to replace that chip. They are supposed to be very hard to find. Bob Roberts had them listed on his site, but I contacted him and he just sold his last 2. ArcadeChips.com has them. I’m waiting for an email reply to see whether or not I’ll order through them.

One thing kind of interesting is that these chips were also used in Colecovision consoles. If I can’t find a replacement chip I’ll have to try to get a Colecovision on eBay and pull that chip from it.

When I do replace the chip, I plan on putting a heat sink on it. I’ve read that the chip gets very hot and a heat sink should help.