Cinematronics Rip Off: No display on the monitor

MajorHavoc

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So, I am digging into my first Cinematronics machine. Searching through KLOV I found a great diagram for testing voltages. Everything looks OK there.

Plug up my Rip Off board, and the LED stays lit (which means there is a problem. Should turn on BRIEFLY at power up and then turn off). So I get out my pile of Cinematronics boards, and plug in an AA. LED lights and then off. Screw around with the volume and I hear "dit dit dit dah dit ..." YAY! It's working!

Power off machine and plug power to monitor. Turn it on. Nothing on the screen. Go behind the machine and realize I forgot to plug in the data cable to the monitor! ARGH! Power off, plug in data cable, and power on. Still nothing on the screen. Did I possibly damage something when I powered up without the data cable?

I will dig through the pages at biltronix, flippers, outerworld, and andysarcade.de this weekend and see if I can get farther.

Thanks!
 
Rippoff was the 1st arcade I ever worked on and it was nearly 15 years ago. I believe I remember that if you power up without certain cables connected, you could pop something else. At least I believe it was on that one. Can't remember for sure though.
I had schematics for the machine back then, but I let them go when I sold it.
I know this post really isn't helpful in your case, but wanted to say, yes, I think it's possible you may have blown something else by not having all cables connected when powered up.
Good luck on it.
 
From
The Cinematronics Monitor FAQ

Never power up the monitor board with the ribbon cable (leading to the CCPU board)
disconnected. If you do this, there are undefined values going into the digital-to-analog
converters on the monitor board. These undefined values may (and usually will!) cause the
deflection circuits to drive very hard and burn out components.
 
Hope you didnt blow that fancy and assumably hard to find DAC on the monitor. I will see if I can swing by in the next day or two and help you take a look at it.
 
$35 is not bad really. They never were a cheap part and the price goes up when supply goes down. Grab me the numbers off it and I will check to see if any of my suppliers have them.
 
From cine_faq_v096.pdf:

DAC80s
The Burr-Brown DAC80 used in the Cinematronics monitor comes in two "flavors"; the DAC-80-CBI-V "voltage output", and the DAC-80-CBI-I "current output" type. All Cinematronics monitors used the voltage version - the DAC-80-CBI-V.

The following are drop in replacements for the DAC-80-CBI-V:
• National Semiconductor DAC1280
• Burr-Brown DAC800-CBI-V
• Burr-Brown DAC800P-CBI-V
• Beckman 7580V (needs some resistors changed)
• Analog Devices ADDAC80N-CBI-V

The Beckman DAC (7580VS) is not directly compatible with the Burr-Brown DAC-80. If using a Beckman 7580VS, R101 must be changed to 11.0k 1% metal film, and R201 must be changed to 7.5k 1% metal film.

The DAC811 and DAC813 on TI's website (they bought Burr Brown) look like they could replace the DAC80 on the Cinematronics board. However, the pinout is different (it has more pins), and some resistor changes would need to be made on the Cine monitor to get the offsets and gains right. But at first glance it looks like one of these (if not both) could be made to work as a DAC-80 substitute. Each one has its advantage and disadvantages. But by holding low the WR, LDAC, and NA, NB, NC, LMSB and LLSB lines, the data lines are passed directly through to the DAC, making it act like the DAC-80.
 
Couple of ideas...Reset the 2 circuit breakers? Is the ribbon cable installed the right way (there is no key and they can easily be reversed)?

So, I am digging into my first Cinematronics machine. Searching through KLOV I found a great diagram for testing voltages. Everything looks OK there.

Plug up my Rip Off board, and the LED stays lit (which means there is a problem. Should turn on BRIEFLY at power up and then turn off). So I get out my pile of Cinematronics boards, and plug in an AA. LED lights and then off. Screw around with the volume and I hear "dit dit dit dah dit ..." YAY! It's working!

Power off machine and plug power to monitor. Turn it on. Nothing on the screen. Go behind the machine and realize I forgot to plug in the data cable to the monitor! ARGH! Power off, plug in data cable, and power on. Still nothing on the screen. Did I possibly damage something when I powered up without the data cable?

I will dig through the pages at biltronix, flippers, outerworld, and andysarcade.de this weekend and see if I can get farther.

Thanks!
 
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