Exploring a Digital Controls Countercade (Exidy Fax) ... WARNING : pic heavy

ballytablewiz

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Exploring a Digital Controls Countercade (Exidy Fax) ... WARNING : pic heavy

*I wasn't sure if this should be "General.." or here, Mods feel free to move as needed.*

So I picked this... thing, up, from a well-known local. For a working 13" and the peanuts price, I couldn't resist...

*captions/info under each pic*

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This is how it was advertised :eek1:

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But I immediately recognized it as this.

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Which was a modular unit that is also this.

This has long intrigued me, and I had to get my grubby little mitts on it to investigate further, as there is very little documentation on them here or elsewhere I've found. I'll try to change that a little bit here, as I unfurl my master plan on this little sumbitch...mwhaha!

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This is where it sits 24 hours after acquisition. After "cabinet" cleaning, disassembly, and reassembly. You can see the control panel on the table next to my cat (Stella). I am attempting to show it's relative size there with the measuring tape, the numbers are hard to see, but it's about 21" high, 19" wide, and 22" deep. Kind of a hulk, which is what I want, and we'll discuss why as this thread continues and I post pics of it's disassembly and internals. But right now I need a smoke, so TBC...

Discuss amongst yourselves, I'm all verklempt :p
 

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The Master Plan...

Ok, let's start by saying this thing was FILTHY!!! In the advertised pic, you'd almost think it had woodgrain sides, there was so much brown filth covering it. Because of it's apparent dilapidated state, I had to buy it practically sight unseen, as a working 13" monitor, psu, and dead Exidy Fax gameboard. I frankly don't need another 13", but what the hell right?

My master plan was to build it into a Nintendo VS Uni-Unisystem countertop (possibly the world's first?!) - if the size and condition were up to the task. Fortunately, it looks as though it will be perfect for my desire. Now I say "Uni-Unisystem" because I plan to omit the second player controls (gasp!).

I'm really only in this arcade game because of unique titles that can't be played on console, because they were either never released, butchered when transferred, or don't "play right" for whatever reason. VS Super Mario Bros. and Goonies stand out, and Mario is alternating play anyway. Balloon Fight and head-to-head Ice Climber will have to wait for another day. I'll of course dig into Castlevania and Gradius, among others, but I digress.

I'm a stickler for cycle-for-cycle play when I want it, and Nintendo VS offers a good selection of unique titles, without being a glorified NES itself (Playchoice, yeah, I said it). So I was bit by the VS bug last fall and began accumulating a large supply of all things VS. This will be it's brainchild...

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We begin by removing the housing and scrubbing the living shit out of it. I grabbed a plastic bristle brush and some Dawn, slapped it up on the draintubs, and got down to business. Here is the bare clean "cabinet."

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The whole cabinet is made of lightly textured ABS in an effort to save weight. It's kind of the Duramold of countertops. Wicked. It isn't cracked, broken, or full of extra holes, so it's looking good.

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The bezel comes apart in 3 pieces. The threaded inserts are held by the outer piece, and the bezel and plastic shroud screw into it from the inside. Neat.
 

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So here's the frame and guts, on it's back.

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Monitor. No burn! Score.

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The underside. This is where the speakers live. The right one has a small tear, that is unfortunate. And some rusty lazy susan that, while original according to the flyer, it going to go.

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From the top. All the pcb connections run through this interconnect board. It will also go, once I try to get the original board at least working to recoup $.

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And we top it off back at the cabinet's underside. Showcasing the threaded inserts that they did fuse/glue into the abs for the control panel.
 

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Live vicariously through my photos

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Now back to the cabinet itself for a minute. This side is where the coin mech would go, which is the one item this cabinet did not include...

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Close up of the coin mech area and it's threaded inserts. Does anyone know which style of coin mech would fit in here? I may humor the idea of having one there, just for completeness. I may also have a plate made to fit at my father's metal shop. This may or may not include a holster for a gun, should I ever decide to stick the shooters in here...

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The control panel. It's faceplate is made of aluminum.

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Close up of the buttons and control harness area. In another effort to save weight, they used all plastic buttons, holders, and associated hardware. Even the microswitches and their mounts are plastic. Unique. They may go up for sale once the CP is populated/modified/replaced for my use.

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The cabinet and guts, side by side. Here you can see the stock/included switcher under the monitor. I'll probably be using it, and it actually has outputs for +5v, -5v, +12v, and -12v - more than my other switchers (except N* gold boxes)
 

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I'm in the process of trying to get some parts for my poker countertop from the folks who built this thing. I'm having discussions with a lady who worked with Digital Controls in their heyday. I'll update as soon as I've made some progress...
 
Looks sweet. Maaany possibilities opened up there, on what you can turn it into. K.U.P.
 
That is awesome! I'd love to see more progress on revamping that old cabinet. It looks like you have a pretty fun project on your hands.
 
Monitor ID time...

Thanks for the kind words fellas.

Let's continue with insides and construction tonight...

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Here is the decased unit from the side. Here you can see the coin chute on the lower right. It goes to a coin box encased in the black undercarriage, with a locking access panel on the back.
To the left of the coin chute is the isolation transformer.
Further left we have a distribution block on the monitor frame.

Now is a good time to mention the frame's construction. Notice the "swiss cheesing" throughout. And now something truly interesting : The entire chassis is constructed of ALUMINUM! Including the black undercarriage that houses the pcb area. Pretty much every piece of metal except the coin chute are aluminum, including the coin box itself. Nice, thick, automotive-style aluminum. Ultra kick ass. It kind of jumped out at me when examining the undercarriage. The rusty lazy susan - it's the only rust anywhere.

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Now a close-up of the neck board. Note the color correct gain pots.

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And the upper 2/3rd's of the chassis. Not seeing any identifying marks on the bugger...

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And most of the chassis again. This time note all the adjustment pots on this thing. The large black one is horizontal width, with a user-friendly knob.

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Now most of the chassis and the neckboard - for posterity. WTF is this thing? I can't find any manufacturing labels, and it doesn't look like any of the chassis on Bob's site, nor anything I've come across in my limited knowledge.
 

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The tube

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And here, the tube itself. A Toshiba, it's id is : 370KRB22 - socket 31.

What make and model is this monitor? With all those adjustment pots, it should be evident, but I really only know Sanyo's :confused:
 
I like the color coded drives and cutoff pots. I especially like that horizontal width coil. Wish all manufacturers did that. Makes it easy to adjust at just a glance.
 
omg progress!

So it's been a few months since I visited this project, and there has been some progress.

(I'm going to change to comments before the photos)

So here is the control panel and the PCB tray removed from the underside of the unit and powered on. The lit controls are kinda neat and look very cool all lit up, but again, they are being scrapped and replaced, as well as the PCB. (If anyone wants the buttons and holders, LMK)

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Here is the best image I could get on the screen out of the Fax PCB, no matter how I futzed with reseating chips and cables and such. No way was I going to waste the time dumping/checking the EPROMs, as there is a staggering amount. Plus it's relatively worthless even if it did work, so w/e.

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Here is a close up of the PCB and it's tray. Again, the tray and everything else is aluminum. As you can see, the 3-tier Fax PCB fits no problem in the generous tray, so Nintendo VS PCBs and daughtercards will fit as well. Since I couldn't get the PCB to do anything and it's worthless, I opted to strip it for it's many EPROMs. (22) 2764's, (8) 2732's, (4) 2716's, plus (4) 2114s and a couple of nice 6116s - much handier than that useless Fax board.

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Here is the tray stripped of it's PCB and wiring. You can see the nice PCB holsters. They sit in the tracks and have set screws underneath to accommodate PCBs of different widths - effing awesome.

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control panel replacement...

So earlier I mentioned my father and his metal shop. He's been working in sheet metal for most of my life, 30+ years. He's now the head operator and programmer of a CNC laser mill or some such stuff he's always bragging about, so I figured I'll put him to work for me :D

The original control panel has all these damn holes in it for stupid trivia buttons. I thought maybe I could reuse the ones I need and patch the others, but who am I kidding? That's just stupid. It IS aluminum, after all. So i planned a layout and gave my father the original panel seen below, along with some measurements for N* fittings, a N* joystick and a N* button.

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We discussed materials, and I stressed the need to stay with aluminum construction, for weight and aesthetics. He proceeded to make a steel prototype for me to make fitting adjustments and to make other changes before delivering the final product in aluminum. I ended up tweaking the button placement between proto and final stage, so he was wise to include that step. But the proto isn't nearly as pretty, and not what you came to see - you came to see the final panel he delivered to me, which is this! :

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It truly is a thing of beauty. All sized up to take my N* control set for my dream VS Uni Unisystem Countercade. Precision machined with a fancy dancy laser and programmed in some wicked CAD software. Beveled edges and holes all around. He applied a surface finish with a random orbital sander, and it's just glorious. It sparkles and shines, I am ecstatic.

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One more for posterity. He actually gave me two of them, just for the hell of it, and since he has the program now he can churn them out. But alas, there are virtually none of these things around. However, you can bet I'll be having him fab up some things for me in the future, surely I can think of something useful to more people...

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Since a couple of these have popped up in threads recently, I figured I'd close this thread up for posterity.

I did end up populating the controls with Nintendo VS hardware, as planned. However, after many technical issues and acquiring an actual Nintendo VS 'Red Tent,' it was ultimately decided to run the Countercade with a Konami Classic harness (and PCB's), with a JAMMA adapter for other PCB's in my collection.

The monitor was eventually determined to be a 'Sanwa PM1718.' Bob sells a capkit for it - I bought one, but this example dialed in beautifully as it stands now, so later.

Here is the 'finished' product. I still need a few more of the black oxide allen bolts for the control panel and coin mech, but she's together and playing :)

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*Note : In the name of preservation, the original PCB's and CP have been saved and stored.
 

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