Omega Race PCB repro

douglasgb

Well-known member

Donor 11 years: 2012-2022
Joined
Nov 17, 2003
Messages
3,393
Reaction score
485
Location
Santa Monica, California
Hi all,

I wanted get this well underway before announcing it, but now it's time to let the cat out of the bag (or is that gas out of the battery?). There's still some work to be done, but it is definitely going to happen.

For your consideration: new Omega Race mother board reproduction PCBs. These are exact, drop-in replacements of the same size so they reuse the smaller daughter board and triangular brackets and will mount in the cabinet in the same spot. No design changes were made other than a single extra hole for attaching the negative lead for a remotely-mounted battery pack.

Pricing will vary depending on how many show an interest - the more orders, the lower the cost-per-board - but it looks to be around $150 for the blank board. The good news is there are no super-rare chips or other components needed to build up the board (other than the sort-of rare 561J DACs) and some could be transferred from dead boards. Still working on the bill of materials but worst case would probably be around $250 for all the parts.

You can see the progress at www.gauck.com/arcade/reprOR

So, who's interested?

---

Talon2000 x 4
TVsFrank x 1
Malice95 x 1
James_in_MD x 1
ArcRevival x 1
Pimpbot5000 x 1
cnlmoore x 1
supadave1 x 1
GaryMcT x 1
cloggans x 2
wolfeel x2
Braido x1
joeycuda x 1
hatrick x 1
seinologist x 1
4mike4 x 1
fuko x 1
xsysceo x1
tta583 x1
RLEVIN x5
TimothyC x1
mrbill08 x1
Arthur Dent x1
total: 32
 
Last edited:
At 250 I'd be down for a kit.

Sorry, the $250 is an estimate for the parts - chips and such - that are needed to populate the board (in addition to the price for the blank PCB). Riptor is looking at the BOM to see about putting together a package as he did for Quantum. If you move your DACs that's $50 off right there, further deduct any of the socketed chips (ROMs, RAM, CPU, etc) and the parts price should come down. Building one from scratch could be done but you'd also need the daughter board.

Have you built a fully working PCB with your board yet?

Not yet - I still have to desolder the 36 position edge connector off the donor board to finish routing the last hidden traces on the top of the board. Then it'll be ordering a prototype; hopefully it will be close enough on the first try that I can populate it and verify operation. Then production.

There are 338 parts and 3,060 holes on the board.
 
No design changes were made other than a single extra hole for attaching the negative lead for a remotely-mounted battery pack.

It would be pretty simple to change the layout to use a standard 2K NVRAM... then you don't have to worry about batteries ever again.
Seems odd to go through all this work and not just completely eliminate what killed so many of these boards.... Sure you can remotely locate the batteries, but people shelling out $250+ for these would really appreciate not having to deal with batteries at all.
 
It would be pretty simple to change the layout to use a standard 2K NVRAM... then you don't have to worry about batteries ever again.
Seems odd to go through all this work and not just completely eliminate what killed so many of these boards.... Sure you can remotely locate the batteries, but people shelling out $250+ for these would really appreciate not having to deal with batteries at all.

I think it's $250 for all the parts to go on the board... and $150 for the board... if I read it correctly.
 
Also, modifying it to take cheap DACs (like the DAC312) that are not obsolete would be fairly simple too. Just sayin'....

+1

I think it's fabulous that people are willing to take the time and effort to do this kind of stuff. Especially since they're only charging about the cost of manufacture, this is to be applauded.

That said, newer replacement parts, smaller devices, and compressed logic into common PLDs and such would make it a smaller board and lower the cost while keeping the functionality original.

I keep thinking about jrok's prototype setup where he had a new replacement board that was pin-compatible with the originals. That's was so cool.

Kerry
 
Sure you could build a board with all kinds of modifications, but why not just build a whole new board and make it smaller and emulate the original?

No, this is about making an exact replacement for the original. Minus the leak prone battery. That way when you look in your Omega Race you see a board that works and is almost indistinguishable from an original.

Personally I think its a great idea.
 
It would be pretty simple to change the layout to use a standard 2K NVRAM... then you don't have to worry about batteries ever again.
Seems odd to go through all this work and not just completely eliminate what killed so many of these boards.... Sure you can remotely locate the batteries, but people shelling out $250+ for these would really appreciate not having to deal with batteries at all.

I'll look into it but I didn't think it was a big deal. The 5101 has separate input and output pins but they're tied together after all. But three AAs velcro'ed to the aluminum frame with leads running to the original location would be tidy and supply 3.6v as original.

I think it's $250 for all the parts to go on the board... and $150 for the board... if I read it correctly.

Correct. Hopefully less. I'm doing the board only.

Also, modifying it to take cheap DACs (like the DAC312) that are not obsolete would be fairly simple too. Just sayin'....

Good call again; I'll consider it. It's painful whenever I need them (561Js) to fix an Asteroids board.

+1
...newer replacement parts, smaller devices, and compressed logic into common PLDs and such would make it a smaller board and lower the cost while keeping the functionality original.
I keep thinking about jrok's prototype setup where he had a new replacement board that was pin-compatible with the originals. That's was so cool.

I hear you, but that would require even more work (although at least we now have the net list for this half of the game). For vector games you still need the analog section, and I also wanted to retain the original connections to the daughter board and cabinet wiring. As with the Quantum repro, this may not be for everyone.
 
I'll look into it but I didn't think it was a big deal. The 5101 has separate input and output pins but they're tied together after all. But three AAs velcro'ed to the aluminum frame with leads running to the original location would be tidy and supply 3.6v as original.

Also keep in mind that the 5101 is another obsolete chip that is not terribly reliable and becoming harder to find at a reasonable price. My board has it replaced with a 2K Dallas (using a little adapter board).
 
I had thought about this, but hadn't done it yet. But for asteroids, and it could be done with or. What about a daughter board that plugs into the sockets of ad561. I haven't done this because currently cost vs replacement 561 is a current obstacle. But with the 561s getting higher in cost a harder to source this may be a viable option.

That way those who want original recipe are happy, and those that want extra crispy are happy.
 
Back
Top Bottom