Tayto Arkanoid (Bootleg) - Coin Up Issue

EagleTG

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I'm working on a friend's Tayto (yes, Tayto, not Taito) bootleg Arkanoid board/cabinet. The wiring harness is a disaster in it, but I think I've traced out where everything goes. Currently, there is nothing connecting to the coin door from the board. It looks to have been wired for a "free play button" that is currently not connected to anything.

Comparing the wiring I've found to the 22-pin Arkanoid pinouts I've found on the web (there isn't much info out there for this board), I've been able to determine that the "free play button" should connect to pin 8 of the board. My theory is further bolstered by pin 8 on the connector having previous solder on it (yet nothing connected to it currently).

The issue is, when bypassing the wiring rats-nest and just jumpering from pin 8 to ground, I get no coin drop. There are two grounds at the board connection, I've tried jumpering to both. I still get no coin drop.

This leads me to believe there is something wrong with the circuitry of the board (that's fine, I've troubleshot them before). I just don't know where to begin without schematics (as it's a bootleg). Anyone have any tips, maybe common things that go bad on switch inputs of boards? I'm thinking about just starting to trace out the board and see where pin 8 leads me.

Oh, and I know this thing isn't worth the time I put into it, but it's in a rec-room for a charity. They don't have any money to switch out the game, and I'd like to get it going again for the kids.

Let me know if you have any suggestions!
Thanks!
 
Bump. And another idea... Anyone have one of these bootleg Arkanoid boards they'd consider letting go of cheap?

Or if you don't want to sell, anyone have one I could borrow for troubleshooting?
 
This is resolved. As I am a beginner in board repair, I will explain the process here in case it might benefit others on the forum.

First, I built a test rig for this board (traced out what's left of the wiring in the cabinet to figure out the pinout), all coin wires were missing. I suspect the wires shorted against something they shouldn't have (this cabinet is a disaster inside). Some of the pinouts from http://www.coinop.org/kb_dl.aspx/KB/pinouts/Arkanoid.txt were very close, but none appear to be exact.

Once I had the test rig up and running, I traced out the two leads that I suspected were the coin input lines. The pinouts all seem to expect coin on either pin 8 or 11, I didn't know exactly which one was right but it turns out that this board expects coin drops on Pin 11.

Working without a lot of info on this board slowed progress a bit, but I was able to determine that the input lines (naturally) run through resistor networks then to the upper-left section of the board. I had a false start by tracing the input line from pin 8 (which was the pin I originally suspected as the coin input according to the pinouts and because that's where the remaining solder was on the existing card-edge connector in the cabinet) however that wound up being a waste of time. Tracing pin 11 made much more sense on the board, even though the cabinet has no evidence of ever having anything connected to pin 11. I did notice that a lot of the wiring in the cab is twisted, not soldered... so that probably explains the lack of evidence.

Turns out that I was getting some very odd resistance readings from the resistor network that Pin 11 runs through compared to other resistor networks on the board. I started by removing the resistor network, it tested perfectly out of circuit. I resoldered the resistor network, and began following the traces to the nearest chips. I found a 74LS257AN that was directly in-line at board position IC88. The board has two of these chips (luckily) so I had something to compare to. I found that another resistor network connected to a neighboring chip of the same part was reading "normal" resistance levels (or at least closer to what I would have expected). I poked around for a bit with a logic probe, things seemed to be working as-expected on both the 7407N at IC87 and the neighboring 74LS257AN at IC89 (according to the datasheets I found online). The suspect 74LS257AN chip at IC88 was just giving "odd" readings all around. Found one on a parts board (sorry Pole Position, but it was not I who killed you, thou died by the hand of a NiCad enemy), and things are much better. The board is now accepting coin drops!

I haven't tested the board in the cabinet yet (want to fix the wiring first)... But I'll keep everyone updated.

Some pictures for the fun of it.

ArkanoidBoard.jpg


ArkanoidBoardClose.jpg
 
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I'm working on a friend's Tayto (yes, Tayto, not Taito) bootleg Arkanoid board/cabinet. The wiring harness is a disaster in it, but I think I've traced out where everything goes. Currently, there is nothing connecting to the coin door from the board. It looks to have been wired for a "free play button" that is currently not connected to anything.

Comparing the wiring I've found to the 22-pin Arkanoid pinouts I've found on the web (there isn't much info out there for this board), I've been able to determine that the "free play button" should connect to pin 8 of the board. My theory is further bolstered by pin 8 on the connector having previous solder on it (yet nothing connected to it currently).

The issue is, when bypassing the wiring rats-nest and just jumpering from pin 8 to ground, I get no coin drop. There are two grounds at the board connection, I've tried jumpering to both. I still get no coin drop.

This leads me to believe there is something wrong with the circuitry of the board (that's fine, I've troubleshot them before). I just don't know where to begin without schematics (as it's a bootleg). Anyone have any tips, maybe common things that go bad on switch inputs of boards? I'm thinking about just starting to trace out the board and see where pin 8 leads me.

Oh, and I know this thing isn't worth the time I put into it, but it's in a rec-room for a charity. They don't have any money to switch out the game, and I'd like to get it going again for the kids.

Let me know if you have any suggestions!
Thanks!
I know it's been over 10 years, but any chance you could post the pinouts of this PCB?
 
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