ATARI Star Wars

[yorkshire_spam]

I've been working on fixing a spare Star Wars PCB set in between working on the Zero Hour table machine.

It started off in a bad state, a lot of the socketed chips (all roms, some rams) missing.

Replaced:

CPU, Roms and 1 ram and the PCB tests ok with the arduino ICT

I checked the AVG board using signature analyser and all the state machine etc was fine but no vectors on screen....

Using the comparator I found 3 dead 74ls161 in the Vector Timer.

YAY! Vectors and self test on screen!

The Divider shows errors on all tests.

I checked pretty much everything in circuit that I could except the adders and the shifters.

I desoldered all 4 adders and found 3 faulty

Replaced these and the divider tests now pass

Matrix tests show test "B" failure (Block Index Counter)

74ls191 @ 3F shows faulty - replaced this.

Working boardset that now passes all the tests

BUT! Strange fault persists, although the test screen shows the dip switch settings properly, in game in won't go onto free-play no matter what I do!

 

[DanP]

I think on Star Wars you have to set it to freeplay in the software settings instead of/as well. These are stored on the NOVRAM (X2212s). I think from memory you have to put it into self self then press aux coin once, then use the yoke control to move up and down the settings and press the yoke buttons to change em. Been a long time since I had to do it so might be wrong.

Cheers,

Dan

 

[yorkshire_spam]

I'll check that, thanks Dan!

 

[2huwman]

I had to do the same software settings that DanP said, regardless of where the hard dip switches were positioned.

Also had to do this every time I powered it up, so I guess the NOVRAM wasn't retaining the settings. This was fixed when I installed the ESB kit!

 

[yorkshire_spam]

The boardset had the novram missing when I started, so I replaced it with NOS from my spares, not expecting it to work. But I got into the settings and changed it to freeplay and so far it's retained the setting when powered back on. I must have found the only working NOS X2212 in the universe!