Sinister - No Sound

teckkev

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Not mine, but I fellow Klover.

Game did not work at all. Installed a switcher for now to run the +5v from. After that, game fired up. Once game starts, the board lef gets like a small c error on it. No sound. The +12 is good, but he could not detect +5v on it. Any tips for him? I'll let him take over thread as replies come.

Thanks,
Kevin
 
Not mine, but I fellow Klover.

Game did not work at all. Installed a switcher for now to run the +5v from. After that, game fired up. Once game starts, the board lef gets like a small c error on it. No sound. The +12 is good, but he could not detect +5v on it. Any tips for him? I'll let him take over thread as replies come.

Thanks,
Kevin

Small C is normal.

The only way to test for sounds is to play the game or use the Test mode. Pressing the Button on the sound board will not produce any sounds.

There are several test points on the sound board itself, make sure all the voltages are present.
 
Game play is fine.. just no sound. Volume works. You can hear the amp waves get high and lower when turning volume dial.

Kevin


Small C is normal.

The only way to test for sounds is to play the game or use the Test mode. Pressing the Button on the sound board will not produce any sounds.

There are several test points on the sound board itself, make sure all the voltages are present.
 
Pressing the Button on the sound board will not produce any sounds.

Emphasized -

PRESSING THE BUTTON ON THE SOUND BOARD WILL NOT PRODUCE SOUNDS.


Oh, and if the SPEECH board has problems or the ribbon cable between the speech and sound board is bad you may not get sounds either.
But you can't just unplug it to verify.
You have to add a jumper at location W1 on the sound board and then also unplug the speech board.
Then if the sound board is working you will have "sounds" but no "speech" like the roar and such.
 
Game play is fine.. just no sound. Volume works. You can hear the amp waves get high and lower when turning volume dial.

In my experience.. start with the RAM on the board, the MC6810 those seem to have an uncanny ability to die also the 6821's go bad.
Also just check the soundboard isn't missing the 3.58MHz crystal, those also get knocked off the board.

Also check to see that the correct sound ROM in on the board and it's strapped correctly for the EPROM type.

But put the sinistar into test mode, get into the sound test and set the auto up/down switch and it'll step through each sound line. Put a logic probe on the IC10 (6821) pins 10 through 14, you should see pulsing as it goes through the sounds. Also put a probe on pin 18 as that should pulse each time the CPU outputs a sound to the sounboard.
If those aren't pulsing, check the inputs on IC5, see if you are getting pulsing there, but not on the outputs would be bad IC5 ( haven't seen one of those go bad ), if there's nothing on the inputs it's most likey the 6821 on the ROM board.

So if the inputs are all good, then put a probe on pins 2 through 9, those pulse when a sound is being played, it's output to the DAC.
If those are pulsing check/replace the DAC at IC13 and transistor Q2, I've seen Q2 physically knocked off a board before (!)

If there is no output from the 6821 to the DAC, then swap the RAM, 6821 and CPU in that order.

- James
 
Not mine, but I fellow Klover.

No sound. The +12 is good, but he could not detect +5v on it. Any tips for him? I'll let him take over thread as replies come.

If there is no 5VDC...it'll never work. The board uses 12VDC, 5VDC, and -12VDC.

Edward
 
If there is no 5VDC...it'll never work. The board uses 12VDC, 5VDC, and -12VDC.

No, the 5v is not required as the soundboard only needs +12v for the on board regulator for the 5v supply. You can run the soundboard fine with just +12v and -5v only,

- James
 
No, the 5v is not required as the soundboard only needs +12v for the on board regulator for the 5v supply. You can run the soundboard fine with just +12v and -5v only,

- James

I should have explained better.....5VDC at the board....not the input connector :)

I assumed, when the OP stated 5VDC was missing.....he was talking after the regulator...at the voltage test points. Oops, sorry for the confusion.

Edward
 
Correct at the test points.

Sorry Gregafree hasn't responded yet.

Kevin


I should have explained better.....5VDC at the board....not the input connector :)

I assumed, when the OP stated 5VDC was missing.....he was talking after the regulator...at the voltage test points. Oops, sorry for the confusion.

Edward
 
I should have explained better.....5VDC at the board....not the input connector :)

I assumed, when the OP stated 5VDC was missing.....he was talking after the regulator...at the voltage test points. Oops, sorry for the confusion.

Edward

If you are not getting +5V on the sound board, you need to check BR1 and IC8.

For IC8, check the input to Pin 1 and output of pin 2.

EDIT/CORRECTION: Pin 3 is the output. The Schematics are labeled incorrectly.
 
Last edited:
Thread resurrect. Confused by Sinistar dwgs and sound reqs

I should have explained better.....5VDC at the board....not the input connector :)

I assumed, when the OP stated 5VDC was missing.....he was talking after the regulator...at the voltage test points. Oops, sorry for the confusion.

Edward

Having sinistar sound problem
Background: I have a Williams "test rig" made from what is basically a Stargate harness on a table. Was able to test all the Sinistar boards fine.

Problem: I installed them in the machine and no sound. EVerything else seems fine. Can play the game with no sound.

Research and tracing revealed that there is no +5vdc on the harness to the soundboard at 10J1 Pin3. The Sinistar drawing set seems to contradict itsself on different pages. One page shows +5vdc on the harness, another doesn't. The missing 3rd wire goes to the 49way stick, and that makes sense.

Question: should I wire a +5vdc to the soundboard at 10J1 Pin3? This post seems to indicate that the soundboard makes its own 5v, but then why was it wired that way for the other games (which use the same soundboard).

Thanks
 
Having sinistar sound problem
Background: I have a Williams "test rig" made from what is basically a Stargate harness on a table. Was able to test all the Sinistar boards fine.

Problem: I installed them in the machine and no sound. EVerything else seems fine. Can play the game with no sound.

Research and tracing revealed that there is no +5vdc on the harness to the soundboard at 10J1 Pin3. The Sinistar drawing set seems to contradict itsself on different pages. One page shows +5vdc on the harness, another doesn't. The missing 3rd wire goes to the 49way stick, and that makes sense.

Question: should I wire a +5vdc to the soundboard at 10J1 Pin3? This post seems to indicate that the soundboard makes its own 5v, but then why was it wired that way for the other games (which use the same soundboard).

Thanks


You may actually want to read the thread - It discusses that the sound board regulates its own +5v derived from the +12v supply; there is no +5 to the sound board via the harness...
 
Agreed: Reading Is Fundamental, However....

You may actually want to read the thread - It discusses that the sound board regulates its own +5v derived from the +12v supply; there is no +5 to the sound board via the harness...

That's what I read, but when all (most) the early WMS sound boards use the same design (with the exception of some jumpers, and the speech header on some games), it makes me wonder why the Stargate, Robotron, etc... had that 5vdc wired to the board.

The fact that it worked when 5V was applied externally leads me to believe that the internal 5v regulator is not working. That will be the next thing I check. Thanks for all your help!
 
Got it working, was just stupid weak connections. Grrrrrrr. Mostly works right. Am having a problem with the sounds holding or not playing correctly. I am confident in the rom chips, so after I recap the sound board we shall see what happens.
 
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