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Very Irritating noise from my Getaway

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What the hell was he doing with that drill? My brain hurts just trying to figure out what the deal is with the three playfields. Presumably he's just going to glue the new one on top. Yes, that would make sense.
 
I internally groan when I open this thread.

Power and DMD boards back from a service.

If you recall, noise went away when ribbon cable was detached from DMD board.

DMD board a bit burny, but not faulty.

Power had some 20v and 5v issues, caps replaced that were bit bulgy etc, won't go into that.

Power and DMD back in. Noise persists.

@myPinballs kindly sent down a DMD and CPU of his for me to swap for diagnostic.

DMD now in. Noise persists.

I'll move on to swap the CPU board in to see if the pinled new board, is more sensitive than originals and doesn't like something that another board is doing...

I popped the ribbon off the fliptronics board, but kept it on the DMD, to see if it was something in that board tweaking things. Still got the sound.

We continue.. in a structured manner (I wonder if it's the bloody ribbon cable!)

After CPU, we can pop in the pinsound..to test if it's a sound board problem..
 
I internally groan when I open this thread.

Power and DMD boards back from a service.

If you recall, noise went away when ribbon cable was detached from DMD board.

DMD board a bit burny, but not faulty.

Power had some 20v and 5v issues, caps replaced that were bit bulgy etc, won't go into that.

Power and DMD back in. Noise persists.

@myPinballs kindly sent down a DMD and CPU of his for me to swap for diagnostic.

DMD now in. Noise persists.

I'll move on to swap the CPU board in to see if the pinled new board, is more sensitive than originals and doesn't like something that another board is doing...

I popped the ribbon off the fliptronics board, but kept it on the DMD, to see if it was something in that board tweaking things. Still got the sound.

We continue.. in a structured manner (I wonder if it's the bloody ribbon cable!)

After CPU, we can pop in the pinsound..to test if it's a sound board problem..
[emoji20] Feeling your pain

Regarding ribbon cables - I have had flaky ones cause all sorts of mad stuff, though on a Data East game.

Sent from my D5833 using Tapatalk
 
You definitely should try swapping the ribbon cables. They're even described on the Pinball Heaven listing as prone to failure.
 
I internally groan when I open this thread.

Power and DMD boards back from a service.

If you recall, noise went away when ribbon cable was detached from DMD board.

DMD board a bit burny, but not faulty.

Power had some 20v and 5v issues, caps replaced that were bit bulgy etc, won't go into that.

Power and DMD back in. Noise persists.

@myPinballs kindly sent down a DMD and CPU of his for me to swap for diagnostic.

DMD now in. Noise persists.

I'll move on to swap the CPU board in to see if the pinled new board, is more sensitive than originals and doesn't like something that another board is doing...

I popped the ribbon off the fliptronics board, but kept it on the DMD, to see if it was something in that board tweaking things. Still got the sound.

We continue.. in a structured manner (I wonder if it's the bloody ribbon cable!)

After CPU, we can pop in the pinsound..to test if it's a sound board problem..

Hi,

Glad the boards package arrived ok. So, can i confirm that you swapped my dmd driver board in place of yours and the sound fault is still there, but if you remove the large ribbon cable the sound fault stops still.

The next step is to swap the cpu board as we discussed before. (and you mention above)

We will get to the bottom of this! Have no doubt

A note on the ribbon cabe. I doubt this is the problem as its a parallel cable and the one you have i believe is a pinball heaven remake one
 
Probably being naive, but why hasn't someone come out with a better ribbon cable yet? Like, a round one?
From my days of PC modding - there are round cables available, but it was more to do with maximising airflow in a case than for reliability, which is somewhat redundant in a backbox. Ultimately the termination points are still loads of little pins, and that is where the weak point is. As I understand it ribbon cables have a finite number of pulls in them before they start getting flakey.

PC technology ditched IDE cables a long time ago, so ribbon cables are a dead end technology.

Pins like Alien, Stern SPIKE use RJ45 connections which are far better for this sort of communication.
 
From my days of PC modding - there are round cables available, but it was more to do with maximising airflow in a case than for reliability, which is somewhat redundant in a backbox. Ultimately the termination points are still loads of little pins, and that is where the weak point is. As I understand it ribbon cables have a finite number of pulls in them before they start getting flakey.

PC technology ditched IDE cables a long time ago, so ribbon cables are a dead end technology.

Pins like Alien, Stern SPIKE use RJ45 connections which are far better for this sort of communication.
Limited number of unplugs is because of the ****ty IDC (insulation-displacement connector) design. Literally just smash the wires onto a fork/scissor per pin. You get a whopping whole two razor edges worth of contact per pin. Marvelous.

I'll also say that parallel communication in cables has dropped out for PC use because of the high susceptibility to crosstalk between wires, and the cables themselves' lack of resistance to outside noise/interference without doubling the number of conductors.

Serial communication is the de facto in modern computing (where possible) because you just need a positive and a negative version of a data signal and you can use those compared to eachother at the other end to cancel out any interference that attacked the signal in transit. Also, the cost + complexity of implementing a serial communication system instead of a full parallel one becomes negligible versus the performance benefits once you get to a point.
 
Hi,

Glad the boards package arrived ok. So, can i confirm that you swapped my dmd driver board in place of yours and the sound fault is still there, but if you remove the large ribbon cable the sound fault stops still.

The next step is to swap the cpu board as we discussed before. (and you mention above)

We will get to the bottom of this! Have no doubt

A note on the ribbon cabe. I doubt this is the problem as its a parallel cable and the one you have i believe is a pinball heaven remake one

Confirming, yes. Both DMD boards give us the fabulous noise that started this thread initially.

I'll have a cup of tea and give the cpu a swap, see what we get.

Thanks for sticking with me!
 
@myPinballs your CPU is in place (thank you again!), with your supplied ROM, MPU and RAM in it ... and running. No irritating noise (IN) on start up, as often the case. I have run it for 20 minutes in full play with NO noise. Have been into menu where there was often the IN . Cant trigger it so far.

If you agree, I suggest I run this for a few hours play (well it is Friday!!) and see if we can trigger the noise.... If we get the IN back, I will re-install my board and see if it comes back (we may have just re-seated a dodge connection with all this action!)

If my board doesn't create the IN, then...dunno... if we do get IN, should we swap a RAM chip from yours to mine? I dont have the tool for MPU so wont be touching that..

All the best

Your intrepid field operative

BL
 
@myPinballs your CPU is in place (thank you again!), with your supplied ROM, MPU and RAM in it ... and running. No irritating noise (IN) on start up, as often the case. I have run it for 20 minutes in full play with NO noise. Have been into menu where there was often the IN . Cant trigger it so far.

If you agree, I suggest I run this for a few hours play (well it is Friday!!) and see if we can trigger the noise.... If we get the IN back, I will re-install my board and see if it comes back (we may have just re-seated a dodge connection with all this action!)

If my board doesn't create the IN, then...dunno... if we do get IN, should we swap a RAM chip from yours to mine? I dont have the tool for MPU so wont be touching that..

All the best

Your intrepid field operative

BL

So, we may have finally solved it! Yes, i say leave my cpu board in and enjoy your game this evening as it was intended and see if anything odd happens. I'm sure it will be nice not to hear that sound ever again!!!

If its all ok, then i would suspect one of the buffer ics on the pinled board has an issue with timing, or perhaps the asic is dodgy. As the cpu board is new(ish) then it would seem more logical to swap the asic first. Or get a completely new/different cpu board :)
 
I just have to say that I'm really, really not a fan of these. If a chip is in a crusty socket (maybe just from age) then I find that these tend to give way on one half of the chip only and you end up levering a ton of pins to either right angles or breaking them off totally. Pulling things free always ends explosively if you need significantly more force than is required to move something normally.

The best thing is to carefully lever the chip out from the sides with a thin, small flat-blade screwdriver, and to alternate the sides that you're levering from repeatedly. Much more controllable even for really stuck in chips, and you're not going to damage any part of the socket or the chip that is important even with the most aggressive of levering. Levering is also a much more controllable force than pulling for when something finally breaks free.
Agree with this, but be careful as tracks may run on the surface of the board under the chip. I cut through a track on my BK2K when doing this 🙁 The trick is to only insert the screwdriver enough to get under the edge of the chip.
 
Agree with this, but be careful as tracks may run on the surface of the board under the chip. I cut through a track on my BK2K when doing this 🙁 The trick is to only insert the screwdriver enough to get under the edge of the chip.
I am confused here. I thought the CPU was a brand new Pin Led board. how could that have caused the problem?
 
I am confused here. I thought the CPU was a brand new Pin Led board. how could that have caused the problem?

Timing issue with new boards parts vs old board parts, variations with types of 74 logic ics hct, vs hc vs ls etc , or an old asic with some issues. It may be one of those things where a certain combination of boards is required to trigger it and that it doesnt occur in all games. As was shown above swapping the cpu board for an original cpu board and leaving all the other boards the same stopped it.
 
Timing issue with new boards parts vs old board parts, variations with types of 74 logic ics hct, vs hc vs ls etc , or an old asic with some issues. It may be one of those things where a certain combination of boards is required to trigger it and that it doesnt occur in all games. As was shown above swapping the cpu board for an original cpu board and leaving all the other boards the same stopped it.
So not exactly a fault as such. I expect it did not help with the guy removing the chips on it. I must be careful with games I replace the CPU with. Is there any way to tell a specific game will cause a problem?
 
I just had the clown that sold this sorry state of a game on Facebook messenger threatening me. He has google as his lawyer and has come out with all sorts of laughable nonsense about how he might take me to court. He said he is “ready” to take legal action - he doesn’t even know what law he would take action under; nor even had the basic grasp of how the legal system works. But states his brother is a QC! I’m going to follow that up on Monday.

I asked him for the name of his lawyer so I could contact him- Nadda. Based on his threatening behaviour I strongly advise that everybody avoids dealing with this person for anything. He even used my wife’s name as some sort of idle threat!

I’d urge the moderators to ban this ugly person asap - he is a vile bully. As with others on this forum I will speak out about my interaction with him and what I have observed of his “work” on the forum.

Neil.
(Apparently still hiding behind my keyboard being a keyboard warrior!).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
So not exactly a fault as such. I expect it did not help with the guy removing the chips on it. I must be careful with games I replace the CPU with. Is there any way to tell a specific game will cause a problem?
Removing the sound board chip and replacing it had no effect at all.

So many things wrong with this pinball machine that it could be any mix of things, it wasn't even wired for UK voltage! Hahahaha..

Just facts.
 
I am confused here. I thought the CPU was a brand new Pin Led board. how could that have caused the problem?
Maybe the ASIC that was put in the new pinled board was the old one from the original 300 quid machine he got and not a new one? Hard to say as the seller hasn't offered advice regarding that since the group here started to work through the issue.
 
I am completely confused now. I have a TOM and am thinking of buying a Dracula that has battery leakage. I would buy a new CPU Are you saying that new CPU's are not always compatible with some games? If so does anyone have a list of what is good for what machine?
 
I am completely confused now. I have a TOM and am thinking of buying a Dracula that has battery leakage. I would buy a new CPU Are you saying that new CPU's are not always compatible with some games? If so does anyone have a list of what is good for what machine?
If you have questions it might be worth starting a new thread so people with the answers can find that directly, instead of posting on another thread
 
I am completely confused now. I have a TOM and am thinking of buying a Dracula that has battery leakage. I would buy a new CPU Are you saying that new CPU's are not always compatible with some games? If so does anyone have a list of what is good for what machine?

Nice try.
 
Ppl on here will know more than I. But the noise went away when tested in the machine with all original boards and a different (original) CPU board with different ASIC in it.

So we are now trying the pinled CPU board with a new ASIC chip. To see if the chip itself is faulty, as you rightly say, the pinled board is new...

Old cpu board with my ROM and my cpu chip did not show symptom of irritating Sound.

So it's either the new pinled board being more fussy than the older CPU board with existing boards..(as per @myPinballs mentioned) or the ASIC is suss because it's old or knackered becoase maybe it wasn't swapped when pinled went in
(@myPinballs is testing that now)
 
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