Re: WTB: Power supply for Heathkit "home" version of Fireball (Bally?)
- From: David Schulpius <dschulpius@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 10:20:28 -0700 (PDT)
On Sep 10, 7:06 pm, americannleag...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Sep 10, 6:18 pm, DavidSchulpius<dschulp...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi I have a nice "home" version of Heathkit's Fireball. Only problem
is it has no Power supply. From the kit owners manual is looks like
the Power Supply that came with the game is one the the new owner had
to solder together their selves. Is there a power supply from a full
sized bally pin I can use in it's place? Is so which PS can I use?
Here's a pic of the one that should go in the game:
http://ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=4116&picno=32967
Any help would be welcomed,
Thanks, Dave
That power supply board is the same one used on Midway video games of
that era. Gun Fight, Check Mate, Amazing Maze and Space Invaders. They
are pretty simple to fix. Three main voltage regulators one could be
bad. Otherwise, replace the electrolytic caps as no good can come from
a 30+ year old one.
After some studying and consulting with some of you guys out there I
was able to make a power supply from a Captain Fantastic home version
pin (thanks Dave P.) work in this Fireball home version pin.
It took a lot of thinking, rewiring the connectors and an added
switching power supply (the Captain Fantastic power supply didn’t have
a 12vdc supply circuit). I also had to build a pass through circuit
that carried fuses and returned back to the board for the 22v (coils
and flippers) and 18v (controlled lights) returns. Looks like the
Captain Fantastic power supply is an improved second generation board
with a better thought out protection for these circuits. It sends out
two different 22vdc circuits, one to the flippers and one to the logic
board coil drivers. It then splits the 22v coil return circuit into
two different circuits for the returns (Right side and Left side
coils). These as I stated above pass through the Captain Fantastic PS
board and then go directly off board again through fuses. They are
then tied together after the fuses, then return back to the board for
the 22v (coils and flipper) return. The 18v (controlled lights) return
also does the same thing and is also fused and also ties into the same
return as the 22vdc return after the fuses. Fireball only uses one
return for the 22vdc (Flippers and coils) so only one fused pass
through circuit is needed along with the 18vdc (controlled lights)
fused return. One note; the scamatic shows the fuses for the 22vdc
coil returns to be two 2.5 amp fast blow fuses for the Captain
Fantastic. Since Fireball has all coils and flipper returns on one
line I had to up this value to one 5 amp fast blow fuse. The 18vdc
(controlled lights) return stays the same at 2.5 amp fast blow.
The other involved thing I had to do was match up the scamatic from
the fireball wiring diagram to the Captain Fantastic power supply
board and rewire the connectors so they matched the needed voltages.
Not too hard to do but I had to pay close attention to where each wire
needed to be and where it went (or didn’t go).
I also had to rebuild the Captain Fantastic power supply as it was
DOA. Once I cross referenced the parts and got them installed it
powered up just fine. One odd thing; once I got it rebuilt the 18vdc
output was putting out 23vcd. The voltage regulator I installed was a
18v regulator but after reviving the info on this part it showed a .
33uf cap needed in circuit and the scamatic shows a 33mf cap needed.
Nor sure what this means or if it made the difference but everything
seems to be working with the extra 5 volts supplied. I can supply a
list of the crossed referenced parts I used for this rebuild if
needed.
I'm thinking about writing up the process and sending it along with
the diagrams I have to Clay (Marvin3m.com). He showedsome interest in
setting up a repair guide on his pin repair web site for these little
pins and was looking for manuals and other info.
Anyway, now I have a working mini pin here. It belongs to a friend
but if it had been mine I would probably had let it sit in storage.
Glad I did it now as it was a real learning experience and I got a
great feeling when the game came alive. It's actually not such the
stinker everybody says it is. If your not comparing it to a full sized
pin from that era or later it holds it own. It's really pretty
interesting and cool from a collectors point of view. It would just
right for a kid.
The biggest problems are that some of the chips on the CPU board
are obsolete (As John Robertson put it: "...... the 3850 CPU or the
two 3851 ROM/IOs then these games are just waiting to die...these
parts are all obsolete and made of unobtanium). If these go bad then
the owner is screwed. Also I think some of the other parts under the
playfield on the boards are hard to find also. Parts like the board
mounted switches. One bad design in my opinion is the board mounted
switch with the target mounted right to the actuator arm. The force of
the ball hit goes right to the board. There is a stop behind the
target but I'm sure the shock still travels down to the board and
could cause solder joint fracturing.
Anyways, thanks to all for all the help and support. This was a fun
and satisfying project.
Dave
.
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