Optic boards, which parts die ?

Level42

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Maybe too obvious, but is it mostly the optical units themselves dying on optical boards ?
There are so few parts around them. I measured two transistors on a MC (upright) optical board and they seemed fine.

Is there a way to replace these optical units only ? Maybe not the original one's but compatible ?
 
I know on the off road optical board the lone 74ls14 can go bad. It is the only chip on the board. Maybe start there?
 
The little optical gates themselves do go bad. They're really just an IR diode and a photodiode in a little plastic package. They are very interchangeable, and used in lots of things. I repaired my friend's Gorf optical joystick with an opto scavenged from a printer :D

-Ian
 
So far, I've not had an opto go bad. I did have a spider lay an egg ball up against the detector side. Rule #1 always look for an obstruction first before checking the electronics (only took 2 hours for me to learn that rule :().

ken
 
On Tron spinner boards it is almost always the optical switch that goes bad. OPB822S is the part number and it is available from a variety of suppliers for around $5. I've replaced enough of them that I don't even have to look up the part number anymore.

I can't say I've ever had any other game with a bad opto on it though...
 
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