[tech] salamander

LukeWells

LukeWells

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[ukvac] [tech] salamander
Hi,

I won a Salamander pcb on ebay.

The seller has contacted me saying that he has tested it and the sound
doesnt work now. (Why do i get this all the time?)

He has offered the pcb at £60 with the sound fault.

I got him to check and there is amp hum when the volume is turned up, so its
not going to be something simple :(

What I need to know is from anyone familiar with Salamander hardware, is the
sound section realistically fixable (i.e. is it a z80 and a rom and a ram)
and you'd take a risk at £60 or is it a surface mount custom chip and
therefore not possible / worth the bother

Kind Regards

Luke
 
G

Guests

Guest
[ukvac] Re: [tech] salamander
As far as I know, it is very similar to nemesis ( i could compare the
board sets if you like ?)

On a nemesis board, its mostly bogg standard parts (z80, ram , rom)
with one custom (0005289)in a socket and a couple of proms (6301 /
12s129's) holding a waveform table.

I was fixing a nemesis and at one point the sound died and if I
recall, it was the chip that controlled the SOUNDON signal.

Bear in mind that a salamander is stereo, but without having a board
to compare with, I'd guess it would be quite similar in design.

As for £60 with no sound, that seems a lot ( I'd chance it and tell
him to stick it back on ebay with broken sound description or knock
the price down - £40 ? ) as these boards are very expensive to have
fixed (dont tell him youll get yer soldering iron out !!)

There must be plenty of broken nemesis boards kicking about though
for spares !!

good luck and lets know the outcome.

Cheers,
Colin
 
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robotronuk

Active member
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RE: [ukvac] Re: [tech] salamander
>As far as I know, it is very similar to nemesis ( i could compare the
>board sets if you like ?)

I seem to recall someone saying that the bottom boards of the two
games are interchangable.

I have had two nemesis pcbs and they both had different bottom
boards, not just the layout but the customs that where on there
and they interchanged ok....

Cheers
Lee

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cliff_poole

cliff_poole

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Re: [ukvac] [tech] salamander
Luke,

It has a Z80, YM2151 and a LM5030 for speech. RAM is a 2016 and ROMs
are 27256 and 27128. There is also a jumper for mono/stereo, Don't suppose
its as simple as him loosing that ?. Weather or not you want to take the
risk is up to you but judging by recent prices I'd be tempted if I didn't
already have one.

The bottom board (Graphics), Is the same as the one on Nemesis. As a
point of interest I have a bootleg Salamader where the bottom board is
replaced by two boards. When I'm feeling a bit more adventurous one day I
may have a go at mapping out what they have used in place of the custom
chips.

Cliff.
 
G

Guests

Guest
[ukvac] Re: [tech] salamander
> I'd have happily paid sixty quid for a Salamander with no sound a
few
> months ago.

I happily paid about that for one I won on ebay (a few months ago !!)
with an input fault which was pointed out in the description.

It depends how confident Luke is that he can fix it (or if he wants
to take a chance that a generic part has blown or not) and really how
badly he wants it, plus how much has been knocked off the price due
to the sound fault.

I'm loosing faith in "valuations" given on here, cos you get "I got
one of them for £50 quid", "I'll have it at that price" and things
ke that. Were all just as bad, cmon , hands up lads.

In the end its all down to suppy and demand, I bet there were loads
of Starwars cockpits / Defenders / Robotrons / SpaceInvaders going
cheap years ago when the ops were getting rid / upgrading as no one
wanted them ( Dont quote me on that, lol as I'm a newbie).

If the guy wants rid of it, and luke wants it, I'm sure they can come
to a mutal agrerement :)

And yes, you do forget whos lurking on here too, lol

Cheers,
Colin
 
Alpha1

Alpha1

Do the Shake and 'VAC
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Re: [ukvac] Re: [tech] salamander
your connection huh? :)

'Yeah, let us all know. Salamander is the pride and joy of my
connection. It's the reason I got into this arcade collecting lark.'

/o
 
G

Guests

Guest
[ukvac] Re: [tech] salamander
'I'm sure they can come
to a mutal agrerement '

Oll, Don't even think about it !!

Col ( who reali shoud practise his speling )
 
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