Removing Caps from Custom Sound Chip

titanfan

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I've been searching the last few hours for an answer to get my 6 player xmen's sound in operation. I attempted to remove the chip from my 4 player with zero success. The chip is very brittle and broke. I am now going to just repair the original chip with new caps. How do I remove the caps?
 
I've been searching the last few hours for an answer to get my 6 player xmen's sound in operation. I attempted to remove the chip from my 4 player with zero success. The chip is very brittle and broke. I am now going to just repair the original chip with new caps. How do I remove the caps?

It should just be a matter of using desoldering braid or a desoldering bulb and removing the solder from the bottom of the caps. If you don't know how to remove something as simple as that then you shouldn't use an arcade cab as your first experience doing so.
 
It should just be a matter of using desoldering braid or a desoldering bulb and removing the solder from the bottom of the caps. If you don't know how to remove something as simple as that then you shouldn't use an arcade cab as your first experience doing so.

I think his problem is the caps are encased in epoxy with the sound chip. Or at least I think it is epoxy. I'm not sure if there is any easy way to replace the caps, but maybe someone else has tried.
 
I think his problem is the caps are encased in epoxy with the sound chip. Or at least I think it is epoxy. I'm not sure if there is any easy way to replace the caps, but maybe someone else has tried.

ohh sorry, my mistake if its in epoxy. Thats an entirely different story.
Good luck mate.
 
No problem. I know how to remove everyday stuff from a pcb. But these caps have some kind of coating over the entire chip. I don't know if I can access it from the underside of the chip. But in order to get to the underside of the chip I have to remove solder from 64 pins on the bottom and then 64 pins on the top.
 
The problem with that is mulitple...

The electrolyte likes to eat things... like the painted on conductive traces near the caps AND where the legs solder to the top and bottom of the module.

Additionally the solder used on it is contaminated by the electrolyte and is a mother to try to remove. The last (and only!) one I tried to repair ended up a disaster. I removed the caps by peeling them away from their legs, breaking off the plastic base, then desoldering one leg at a time. It took a LOT of heat to do this.

The module needed massive amounts of rewiring with Kynar wire and after all that I discovered that the electrolyte ate the traces on the bottom of the module too. At that point I gave up.

Maybe some super genius like Spaeth can come to the rescue of every owner of a Konami game by redesigning the hybrid module. :rolleyes:
 
I wonder if the non-amplified audio can be tapped from somewhere else on the board and routed to an external amp? This would effectively bypass the dead capacitor network IC.
 
I wonder if the non-amplified audio can be tapped from somewhere else on the board and routed to an external amp? This would effectively bypass the dead capacitor network IC.

This would only work if you can somehow still use the ICs and transistors on the bottom of the module.

On the module I was working on this couldn't be done as the electrolyte ate up things on the bottom side of the board too.

Oh... and it would only work until the electrolyte spread to the bottom of the board and ate it... which it would eventually do if you don't remove the bad caps and clean all the electrolyte off the module.
 
What would you suggest to clean of the module to get rid of the electrolyte. I just replaced the one main cap that had a minor leak and another cap at the top of the module. The sound is now loud and clear from one speaker but nothing from the other. I am going to leave it alone until Monday and replace the rest of the caps.


Did I mention this board is Freakin Awsome.


MANY THANKS.
 
Not sure... I tried 409, 409 orange, flux remover, and isopropyl alcohol... nothing would touch that stuff.
 
Looks like someone did it here:
http://www.flippers.com/vid-tips.html

Also, looks like it is just an amplifier. If that's all it is, I'd say screw it take it out and wire in another amplifier. No sense in fixing that.

Nope... Look at the bottom of the module and you'll find a custom Konami IC there.

OK,

I have a couple of bad hybrids here... # 054544 and 054986A

Both hybrids have 3 chips on the bottom:
  1. QFP Chip: Konami # 054321
  2. SOIC chip: AD1868R
  3. SOIC Chip: 4558

If you power up the board without the hybrid it will work but your sound RAMs, ROMs, and custom ICs that are related to sound will show up bad on the self tests.

If the hybrid is cracked into 2 you'll end up stuck at a "ROM RAM CHECK" screen. ;) (I had one in for repair that did that.)

The only way to fix a hybrid module is to get lucky and replace the caps before too much damage is done or to find one from a donor board.

RJ
 
Thanks for the info on the chip, I'm trying to figure out what the voltage is for these caps. I'm basing the replacements on the flippers repair site schematic:
http://www.flippers.com/images/Fujitsu_MB3722_Capacitors.JPG

Current status of my sound chip:
konami_054544.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c196/cyberfluxor/QnA/konami_054544.jpg

Trying to get the caps and repair this before Saturday. :)
 
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I need this done on my gijoe as well. Any chance you could give detailed instructions on how you got the one side working. ..thanks
 
I need this done on my gijoe as well. Any chance you could give detailed instructions on how you got the one side working. ..thanks

Yea, from what is out there about these it appears the audio chip is easy to break while working on it. Certainly that is not an outcome people want. Any tips and advice on removal and install is appreciated. I really dislike jumps to attach components as seen in some of these repair jobs.
 
Thanks for the info on the chip, I'm trying to figure out what the voltage is for these caps. I'm basing the replacements on the flippers repair site schematic:

Trying to get the caps and repair this before Saturday. :)

According to this:
http://garakuta.homelinux.org/~nosuke/tsubo/files/misc/054544_memo.pdf

It looks like 16 volt.

What a mess.

My big question is, what is the purpose of the chip? I was thinking we could move to a car amp for the audio amplification, but that is handled by the other chip MB3733 or whatever near it (on the heatsink.) The Yamaha chip below it is probably the fm synth for the background music. What does the 054544 do? Digital audio?
 
OK,

I have a couple of bad hybrids here... # 054544 and 054986A

Both hybrids have 3 chips on the bottom:
  1. QFP Chip: Konami # 054321
  2. SOIC chip: AD1868R
  3. SOIC Chip: 4558

QFP = konami custom chip... prob a MCU, if you're getting errors w/o it...

AD1868 = dual audio DAC
4558 = opamp (pre-amp after the DAC)

Those pins on the hybrid are pretty fragile... good luck even removing that hybrid w/o damaging it further, let alone decapsulating it for repairs...

Safe bet of 16V on all caps is good... that hybrid shouldn't be seeing any more than 12V...
 
Ugh... surface mounted electrolytics leaking corrosive gunk... Suddenly had visions of fixing Macintosh SE/30 logic boards...

-Ian
 
Yeah... several models of Apples had that. :(

The problems with taking those caps off the hybrid is that the silly white ceramic substrate makes a wonderful heatsink. It pulls off the heat too fast and makes it difficult to desolder.

As for the pins, they are easy to desolder if you have a good desoldering station. I have a couple of Pace units here and they'll desolder the pins cleanly.

RJ
 
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