Omega Race Acid Damage

brfoss

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OK, so I think I figured out the problem with my OR game - the battery leaked. Ugh. How did I miss that when I bought the cab?? Web search finds several posts from 8-10 years ago suggesting that a battery damaged board is almost always junk.

Ever the optimist, I don't think the damage is THAT bad. Chips & sockets have some blue fuzz, but it doesn't look like it etched into the board or the ICs. I'll post some pics in a bit. I'm planning on giving it a try. Before I do, is there anyone out there that will clean/repair OR boards?

Alternatively, does anyone have a working OR board they're looking to sell?
 
So I cleaned off some of the green fuzz and, yes, the traces are damaged. One of the IC sockets fell off while I was handling it. Will post pics in a minute. FML
 
yup, that's a good amount of damage there.

I've been able to fix some Bally pinball MPU's that had battery acid damage but nothing like this. Theres another thread here that shows a board with about that much damage. The guy manged to fix it but it took him at least 15 hours to do it.
 
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I'm really not sure I have the expertise or the patience. I'm really just looking for a replacement board. Very interested in the repro boards the douglasgb has been doing.
 
Yeah, that's a daunting project for sure.

If it were my board and I had nothing to lose (cant make it much worse) I'd totally go for it. I'd probably socket and replace all of the 74LS parts in the area too.
 
I use to do these mail-in, but no longer. Only regular local customers now. Here is what I can tell you that you need to know. Cadmium sucks.

Any busy tech that needs to move things along the bench will tell you they don't like *any* repair on the bench for an entire day. It's not even about the money, after it's about the money - if that makes sense. Not only can these easily consume that, they chew up consumables at an unreasonable pace. I know I can get many repairs done in a day and many repairs out of a $16 Hakko tip. As soon as that tip touches this shit, it might as well only touch this shit until it's a nub. You can use a whole roll of wick on one of these boards. Flux, too. Your tank solution becomes a waste product immediately.

You actually end up getting less done and using more consumables for the same rate at the end of the day. It's not an attractive venture you'll find people lunging out of the shadows to do. At least not in their right minds. And the news gets better. Even with a proper soak, the electrolyte has permeated areas you can't reach. These areas will continue to degrade and lead to premature failure. So now you've spent a bunch of money to get it fixed and you need a tech to babysit it until it's done throwing fits. Some boards never need another thing. Then 7 years later they start turning green again. You're pretty much better off buying a repro PCB and this is why the demand is healthy.

Minor damage tends to fare much better. Little to none is ideal. What you have there is a labor of love and a sanity check all rolled into one.
 
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Minor acid damage tends to fare much better. Little to none is ideal. What you have there is a labor of love and a sanity check all rolled into one.

This is where fixing Bally MPU's comes in. Those usually have minor damage and dont take an entire day to fix. I was forced into a position to fix the last one I did. But I'm glad I did it. It only took an hour or so and saved the guy form having to buy a Rottendog CPU.
 
I dont even have an Omega Race but think it would be fun to build one of those repro board sets.
 
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