Is this a Gotlieb or aftermarket Qbert PCB?

priglmeier

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Is this a gotlieb or aftermarket Qbert PCB? If so who makes them and does anyone have the manual or pinouts?
 

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bootleg

Ok. Who's the expert on these knockoff PCBs? I'll take all the info I can get. Do the JAMMA pinouts match any common JAMMA adaptors?

What's the value of them compared to real Qbert boards?
 
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Definitly a bootleg board. The first obvious giveaway if you dont know a qbert board is it has a sound amp on the main pcb. The major drawback to using a boot qbert board is that the sounds are not authentic because it doesnt use a speech chip.
 
repairs

I've got the basic JAMMA adapter working. The video comes up and the board is randomly displaying colors and game characters. I'm going to replace some caps, but I'd really like a manual for this PCB.

Who made this bootleg? Does someone have the PDF manual?
 
I've got the basic JAMMA adapter working. The video comes up and the board is randomly displaying colors and game characters. I'm going to replace some caps, but I'd really like a manual for this PCB.

Never seen the schematics for one, I doubt anyone can find them. Schematics for bootlegs are pretty uncommon.

The board is basically the same schematic as Q*Bert but much more integrated. If you start at the Q*bert schematics and use those to figure out what does what, it's then some tracing of the boot board to get started.

I've got a couple like this, one even has the additional chips needed for speech populated. The biggest problem with adding speech is an SC01 which is uncommon and expensive.

- James
 
Here's a pic of the board with the additional chips for speech populated.

qb_boot_w_speech_top.jpg


- James
 
Jrok?

Here is what is labeled on the board I have:

6502
6532
6116
6116
2128
2128
4801
4801

Now with the image that would add a LOT of chips:

Appx. 8 more chips + the sc-01-a
resistors - 1k, 1.8k, 2k, 5.6k, 10k

None of the chips are socketed... I may be crazy. :) I'm starting to find these boards very interesting from a collectors view. It would be fun to gather all the info and get it up on my website when I'm done. I have already seen at least 2 versions of the 1 board unit without speech, 1 with speech (from JROK) and 1 version with 2 boards that don't appear to have speech.

THANKS for that image JROK!!!
 
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Just to get the board into a working state you will need to populate the socketed chips.

The 6502 and 6532 are only for the audio and can be left off to just get the game booting.
All the others are required. You can use 6116's for in place for the all the 2128 and 4801 RAMs.

- James
 
I haven't seen any aftermarket boards that trigger a knocker. JROK?

It's unpopulated on any of the boots I have but there is space for a single 2N6044 darlington transistor on the boot boards. See the top right of the board in the pictures.

By default it's wired to the equivalent of the 74LS377 'A8' on the Q*Bert schematics and specifically D3, output OP34 "coin meter".. HOWEVER.. there is a line of pads which correspond to OP37-OP34 ( d0-d3 ), it's wired to OP34 by default through a resistor. So the 1K resistor input to the base of the transistor could be easily swapped to the next pad OP35 to enable the knocker. See the diagram.

Pin A6 on the component side of the edge connector is the collector of the 2N6044 transistor, that would correspond to the Gottlieb schematics A1P1-F, with the coin meter hooked up, or A1P1-6 with the knocker control connected.

- James

boot_qb_transistor.jpg
 
Cool. I've got a QB boot too. I'm assuming you'd also need some kind of solenoid board as well. Having never delved into an actual QB I'm not sure what's in there.
 
qbert aftermartket with knocker

So all of us with these boards could swap the end of the 1k resistor to OP35 and then pin A6 on the parts side of the connector will provide some voltage for a knocker, yes? It wouldn't be too hard to wire up an LED or something to test it.

More questions for JROK:
So these boards are basically a complete clone of the wiring schematics on the Gotlieb PCBs?
Do you have any boards with the knocker?
Did the clone-maker of these boards provide a knocker option?

This is an interesting conversation.
 
The knocker circuit triggers the knocker by completing the ground path to the knocker coil. You would still need at least a 24v ps to power the knocker or change the coil out to something that could run off 12v. Im not sure if a standard switcher has enough umph to operate a pin coil.
 
The knocker circuit triggers the knocker by completing the ground path to the knocker coil. You would still need at least a 24v ps to power the knocker or change the coil out to something that could run off 12v. Im not sure if a standard switcher has enough umph to operate a pin coil.

The knocker will fire on 12volts just not as strong. The difference in noise produced between 28v and 12v isn't much different in my opinion.
 
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