[TECH] BOMBED JACK!

[John Bennett]

[ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
My bomb jack turned up today, which I am very pleased about coz I wanted one for ages!

Wired up an adapter, chucked it in my cocktail and it won't sync. I checked all the connections, played with the monitor knobs and it just won't stop scrolling top to bottom.

Any ideas before I moan to the seller?

Cheers Jake



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by jake.lee (jake.lee@ntlworld.com)

 

[LukeWells]

[ukvac] Re: [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
Herro!

You need to try it in another cab with a different monitor before the
seller gets it in the neck.

I find that it is common that some monitors wont sync some games.
(e.g. a brand new hantarex polo will sync every game I have apart
from Lethal enforcers ... but the Lethal enforcers will sync in every
other cab)

Luke

 

[John Bennett]

Re: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
Are you sure you have the correct sync pin? Is the board a bootleg?

A bootleg galaxian I had swapped the blue? & sync pins compared to a genuine board so that although the image almost looked like it was syncing, it wouldn't no matter what adjustments were made.

>
> From: "jake.lee" <jake.lee@ntlworld.com>
> Date: Wed 27/Feb/2002 15:30 GMT
> To: <ukvac@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
>
> My bomb jack turned up today, which I am very pleased about coz I wanted one for ages!
>
> Wired up an adapter, chucked it in my cocktail and it won't sync. I checked all the connections, played with the monitor knobs and it just won't stop scrolling top to bottom.

>
> Any ideas before I moan to the seller?
>
> Cheers Jake
>
>
>

DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by (steve@coule.freeserve.co.uk)

 

[guddler]

RE: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
All the bootleg bomb jacks I have are the same as the original pinout
wise, but still worth checking out that you have pins 1->6 round the
right way, ie, the connector for the video plug connected the right way
round as none of my boards have the pins numbered aside from the
original StarForce and BombJack and Guzzler!...

Guddler.

> Are you sure you have the correct sync pin? Is the board a bootleg?
>
> A bootleg galaxian I had swapped the blue? & sync pins
> compared to a genuine board so that although the image almost
> looked like it was syncing, it wouldn't no matter what
> adjustments were made.

 

[guddler]

RE: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
> It's a genuine board but I don't think there's anything
> coming from the sync as it makes no difference if you
> dis-connect the sync. All the colours seem fine.
> Unfortunately I have no scope to see if anything is coming
> out. Just my luck I was looking forward to playing it as well!
>
> Jake

Jake, check it out with a multimeter (DC volts between ground and sync)
to see if there's anything coming out. At a "is there or isn't there"
level, you won't need a 'scope...

Guddler.

 

[John Bennett]

Re: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
It's a genuine board but I don't think there's anything coming from the sync
as it makes no difference if you dis-connect the sync. All the colours seem
fine. Unfortunately I have no scope to see if anything is coming out. Just
my luck I was looking forward to playing it as well!

Jake



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by jake.lee (jake.lee@ntlworld.com)

 

[John Bennett]

Re: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
Definitely got the right pin outs on the connector. The seller had even
stuck a bit of masking tape next to it and I can see ground going to ground.
Tried replacing the ribbon cable that the sync goes through but it's not
that.

Mmmmmmm



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by jake.lee (jake.lee@ntlworld.com)

 

[John Bennett]

Re: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
I've got a reading of 4.98. Is that good or bad?



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by jake.lee (jake.lee@ntlworld.com)

 

[guddler]

RE: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
Um, well, it's good that you have a signal there. Whether it's within
the expected range or not I'd rather leave to someone else to say as I
don't have time to plug my BombJack in at the moment - and my scope
still doesn't work (

If noone else knows, I'll have time this evening when me work's done
though...

Guddler.
>
> I've got a reading of 4.98. Is that good or bad?
>

 

[MrMish]

Re: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
"jake.lee" wrote:
>
> I've got a reading of 4.98. Is that good or bad?
No idea

But if anyone feels like an adventure... Take a line from the sync
output into your computers soundcard (line input). You may not need to
connect the earth on the soundcard if your computer & pcb are already on
a common earth.

Now fire up a program like Cool Edit or some other sound recording
program, and record your sync output!

Warnings - make sure your speakers are off! Set your soundcard line-in
gain very low or at zero to start with, then work it up slowly until you
get the signal. And really, make sure your speakers are off.

After recording you should see some large spikes - approximately 60 a
second. This is your vertical sync. You should also see much, much
lower amplitude, much higher frequency spikes in between the big ones.
This is your horizontal sync, the waveform won't be very accurate
because it's a below Nyquist sampling frequency (20kHz on the soundcard,
the sync rate is about 15kHz).

Try it on a working board and see how it compares to your Bombjack.

Final warnings - if you don't like the idea of putting sync into your
soundcard, don't do it. You could probably blow up your
computer/room/town. I'll just say that I do it all the time and all my
hi-fi gear/computers/pcb's are fine.

Bryan

>

 

[guddler]

RE: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
Umm, I really ought to get this damn write up done for work, but this
sounds much more interesting!...

So, are you saying that this is almost like have a visual digital scope?

If the soundcard can cope with having up to +5v input, then surely this
is a crude 'scope isn't it?

Any idea what the peak voltage the sound card can cope with would be? If
it could cope with up to +12v then that would do me as I don't really
use my 'scope for properly examining the shape of waveforms, more really
for just detecting the presence of signals that are outside of the range
of digital pulses, ie, above 1.8, but below 3 (or whatever the
thresholds of a logic probe are!).

Have I compleyely missed the point and lost the plot?, talking bollocks
as per usual?

Answers on a postcard please!

Seriously, this COULD be really useful as I have one of them sound cards
with all the inputs on the front and could get my scope's probe
connected in there really easily... A cheap way to fill the void since
the scope gave up the ghost.

Guddler.

> But if anyone feels like an adventure... Take a line from
> the sync output into your computers soundcard (line input).
> You may not need to connect the earth on the soundcard if
> your computer & pcb are already on a common earth.
>
> Now fire up a program like Cool Edit or some other sound
> recording program, and record your sync output!
>
> Warnings - make sure your speakers are off! Set your
> soundcard line-in gain very low or at zero to start with,
> then work it up slowly until you get the signal. And really,
> make sure your speakers are off.
>
> After recording you should see some large spikes -
> approximately 60 a second. This is your vertical sync. You
> should also see much, much lower amplitude, much higher
> frequency spikes in between the big ones.
> This is your horizontal sync, the waveform won't be very
> accurate because it's a below Nyquist sampling frequency
> (20kHz on the soundcard, the sync rate is about 15kHz).
>
> Try it on a working board and see how it compares to your Bombjack.
>
> Final warnings - if you don't like the idea of putting sync
> into your soundcard, don't do it. You could probably blow up
> your computer/room/town. I'll just say that I do it all the
> time and all my hi-fi gear/computers/pcb's are fine.
>
> Bryan
>
> >

 

[John Bennett]

Re: RE: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
Hard to say if it's ok, since it's high you need to check if it's pulsing low ... do you have a logic probe? That'd at least confirm it's not stuck high.

Steve

>
> From: "Guddler" <martin@guddler.com>
> Date: Wed 27/Feb/2002 16:54 GMT
> To: <ukvac@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: RE: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
>
> Um, well, it's good that you have a signal there. Whether it's within
> the expected range or not I'd rather leave to someone else to say as I
> don't have time to plug my BombJack in at the moment - and my scope
> still doesn't work (
>
> If noone else knows, I'll have time this evening when me work's done
> though...
>
> Guddler.
> >
> > I've got a reading of 4.98. Is that good or bad?
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
>

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DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by (steve@coule.freeserve.co.uk)

 

[guddler]

RE: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
Oh well, I got all excited then for a minute - another one to add to the
pile named 'must play with one day' )

I DO have a number of cheapo sound cards knocking about though I think,
so I could check it out and see what happens.

Guddler.

> > So, are you saying that this is almost like have a visual digital
> > scope?
> Not really - it's not real time remember - or at least the
> software I use doesn't have a real-time display. I guess
> some software might do it.
>
> > If the soundcard can cope with having up to +5v input, then surely
> > this is a crude 'scope isn't it?
> Your soundcard can only sample between 20-20kHz - so your max
> useful range is going to be less than 10kHz. A very crude scope
>
> > Any idea what the peak voltage the sound card can cope with
> would be?
> > If it could cope with up to +12v
> I would shudder at putting 12v into it, but hey, you could
> use a cheapo old soundcard to test
>
> Bryan
>
>

 

[MrMish]

Re: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
> So, are you saying that this is almost like have a visual digital scope?
Not really - it's not real time remember - or at least the software I
use doesn't have a real-time display. I guess some software might do
it.

> If the soundcard can cope with having up to +5v input, then surely this
> is a crude 'scope isn't it?
Your soundcard can only sample between 20-20kHz - so your max useful
range is going to be less than 10kHz. A very crude scope

> Any idea what the peak voltage the sound card can cope with would be? If
> it could cope with up to +12v
I would shudder at putting 12v into it, but hey, you could use a cheapo
old soundcard to test

Bryan

 

[John Bennett]

Re: RE: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
Ah I have a logic probe! Unfortunately not a pc with a sound card (it looked
too scary anyway!). What setting to I put it on I only used it once before!
CMOS or TTL, MEM or PULSE?

Cheers Jake



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by jake.lee (jake.lee@ntlworld.com)

 

[LukeWells]

Re: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
I tried this 3-4 years ago.

There actually exists software (or did) to use your soundcard as a scope.
It was shareware, I can't remember the name but i will have a flick through
download.com in a bit to see if anything rings a bell.

using a soundcard as a scope is quite pants really, the only thing that
actually looked alright was some simple waveworms i made using a couple of
555timers as an experiment, using a silly radio shack experimenters
notebook.

Luke

 

[John Bennett]

Re: RE: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
It should be ok on TTL ... just look for the Pulse to glow .. if you're not sure whether it's glowing, hold it on the sync pin (having already connected the 5v + 0v croc clips) and then slide the switch from pulse to MEM .. if the pulse light stays lit you are at least getting some kind of changing signal. Whether it's a valid sync signal is another question but it's a start.

>
> From: "jake.lee" <jake.lee@ntlworld.com>
> Date: Wed 27/Feb/2002 17:42 GMT
> To: <ukvac@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Re: RE: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
>
> Ah I have a logic probe! Unfortunately not a pc with a sound card (it looked
> too scary anyway!). What setting to I put it on I only used it once before!
> CMOS or TTL, MEM or PULSE?
>
> Cheers Jake
>
>

DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by (steve@coule.freeserve.co.uk)

 

[John Bennett]

Re: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
Just in case anyone's interested I plugged in the non-syncing board into my
cab at work today and it synced no problem. Anyone know why it won't sync on
my microvitec cub monitor? I would quite like to play it on my cocktail cab!

Jake



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by jake.lee (jake.lee@ntlworld.com)

 

[LukeWells]

Re: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
What was the first thing i said?

Try the simple things first, they normally work.

 

[John Bennett]

Re: [ukvac] [TECH] BOMBED JACK!
I know, I know but I only had access to another machine today. All other
games I own play okay on it. I'm just curious why it doesn't work on it.

But hats off you were right!



DATA Imported from archives: originally posted by jake.lee (jake.lee@ntlworld.com)