FS Parts: New Atari AVG chip replacements available

Biltronix

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Just to let everyone know, I have finally put up my pages for my new single-chip replacement for the Atari AVG chip.

These are now for sale for $30 CAD + shipping.

See details here:
http://www.biltronix.com/BXAVG.html

These are good for the following games:

Black Widow
Gravitar
Major Havoc
Quantum
Space Duel
Star Wars

Bill Boucher
http://www.biltronix.com
 
For want it is worth, I can personally attest to the quality of this product.
Very well made, (and easy on the eyes as well) and worked great for me.
Jeff
 
Just to let everyone know, I have finally put up my pages for my new single-chip replacement for the Atari AVG chip.

These are now for sale for $30 CAD + shipping.

See details here:
http://www.biltronix.com/BXAVG.html

These are good for the following games:

Black Widow
Gravitar
Major Havoc
Quantum
Space Duel
Star Wars

Bill Boucher
http://www.biltronix.com

Way to go Bill, I could certainly use one shipped to the UK.
 
I'm going to wait for the US $/$CAN exchange rate to get better. Oh wait....that might be 5-6 years. Thanks for making these. Great writeup on your site. Very informative. Will be ordering some as soon as I can get some more cash.

Pat
 
Wow, nicely done Bill. I am impressed by the thoroughness and polish of your projects.
Oh, and for anyone wondering about the exchange rate, the CDN and USD are essentially equal right now.
 
Forgive my ignorance, but what are the symptoms of an AVG chip needing to be replaced? The vector graphics on my Major Havoc are very "jumpy" when moving, and a lot of the lines are all over the place now (the game used to work great). Could this be an AVG issue, or is this more likely some other kind of problem?
 
Back in the day I had a Space Duel and a Black Widow that
needed an AVG replacement. My symptoms for both machines
were the same. I recall fixing a few others for someone else.

On power up, they would both just sit there and go click, click
click. The sound was coming from the coin door lockout
coils. The game would never boot.

I don't recall how I figured it was the AVG, but since then,
replacement always worked for me.

BTW

Bill is Top Notch !

I've used his products before.
 
Just to let everyone know, I have finally put up my pages for my new single-chip replacement for the Atari AVG chip.

These are now for sale for $30 CAD + shipping.

See details here:
http://www.biltronix.com/BXAVG.html

These are good for the following games:

Black Widow
Gravitar
Major Havoc
Quantum
Space Duel
Star Wars

Bill Boucher
http://www.biltronix.com

Bill brought up a good point about the original ones that were sold through Arcadeshop. That SHOULD have been a 820 Ohm, NOT 82 Ohm resistor and was a bad oversight if that is what is on there. Removing it will fix things but of course mean no more pretty LED function, which was really not necessary. Removing it is as easy as swiping a solder iron across it with a little bit of solder on it. Thanks Bill.
 
Thanks to all who posted thus far. I was having a lousy day and was feeling a bit down and maybe a little picked on. Then I read all of your very kind comments and I'm happy again, thanks to great guys like you all.

When an AVG goes bad, it generally stops the entire vector state machine in its tracks. You can get garbled graphics but usually nothing works because the vector ROM reads and RAM reads/writes will fail due to incorrect addressing and nothing will draw. The best way to know is to swap it out. If you have a scope, start probing the AVG0 through AVG13 outputs. If they are inactive, it's likely dead. Check all the control inputs for activity /VGGO and ST2, ST3, /STR0, /STR1, /STR2, OP0, OP1, OP2. They should all be active. However, be aware that the AVG chip runs a looping network of logic so if it's outputs are screwy or dead, the inputs will be all wrong as well. Again, easiest way to tell is to swap it out so it's always a good idea to own a spare AVG chip for troubleshooting purposes.

Braido, your BXAVG modules are shipping Wed. Jan. 11 in the morning.

Again, thanks everyone. Your encouragement and support is much appreciated.

Bill Boucher
http://www.biltronix.com
 
Thanks to all who posted thus far. I was having a lousy day and was feeling a bit down and maybe a little picked on. Then I read all of your very kind comments and I'm happy again, thanks to great guys like you all.

When an AVG goes bad, it generally stops the entire vector state machine in its tracks. You can get garbled graphics but usually nothing works because the vector ROM reads and RAM reads/writes will fail due to incorrect addressing and nothing will draw. The best way to know is to swap it out. If you have a scope, start probing the AVG0 through AVG13 outputs. If they are inactive, it's likely dead. Check all the control inputs for activity /VGGO and ST2, ST3, /STR0, /STR1, /STR2, OP0, OP1, OP2. They should all be active. However, be aware that the AVG chip runs a looping network of logic so if it's outputs are screwy or dead, the inputs will be all wrong as well. Again, easiest way to tell is to swap it out so it's always a good idea to own a spare AVG chip for troubleshooting purposes.

Braido, your BXAVG modules are shipping Wed. Jan. 11 in the morning.

Again, thanks everyone. Your encouragement and support is much appreciated.

Bill Boucher
http://www.biltronix.com

Thanks Bill, guess you got the PayPal. Don't feel down, many appreciate all the cool stuff you make. Have you thought about setting up your website for payments/orders?

Thanks again and no rush on getting the items, i am out of town for a while anyways

Shayne...
 
Well, Bill shipped me two of these AVG replacements all the way to the UK and I thought I would give some feedback on them.

Firstly, these things are very pretty and well made, quality construction and PCB is of good quality. Alot of love has gone into these.

picture.php


The BXAVG's are of a nice compact design, so there is less chance of them causing any kind of obstruction when placed on the PCB of choice. This is due to the non TTL design. I have previously had TTL solution AVG replacements, these are much larger.

I tested the BXAVG in Black Widow, Space Duel and Star Wars, worked perfectly, I could not tell any difference from the BXAVG and original AVG chip.

On my older TTL AVG replacement, occasionally I would get streaks of lines flashing while playing Black Widow. It did not affect game play but did start to bug me. No such issues with the BXAVG.

All in all, a very good product, perfect solution for replacing the original AVG chip.
 
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On my older TTL AVG replacement, occasionally I would get streaks of lines flashing while playing Black Widow. It did not affect game play but did start to bug me. No such issues with the BXAVG.

Thanks for the review!

Who produced your TTL AVG? I am troubleshooting some BW/Gravitar PCBs with Mark Spaeth's and want to know whether it may muddy my results.
 
Thanks Bill!

I got mine a few days ago. I haven't installed it yet but when I do my SW/ESB upgrade it will go in. Definitely a quality product! Thanks for doing these for the arcade community!

-Muel
 
Bill, these are great. Used two of your new replacements tonight to get two boards going again. I'll need two more to replace the ones i just used, sent you an email.

Thanks,

Shayne...
 
Those BXAVG chips managed to save a couple of SW PCBs, here is what it should have looked like;

right.jpg


This is what a bad AVG made the screen look like;

WP_000037.jpg


Here is another;



In both instances, the resolution was to replace the AVG chip. I have to add that it is essential to have at least one known good working AVG chip to rule that out, before you start to get the Scope and schemes out.
 
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