Willie Wonka (Elaut) Looking for replacement MB

[roweef]

As usual the Biostar A68N-5600 is no longer available except for $765 from Elaut. Does anyone know if a similar board will work? Thanks!!!

 

[andrewb]

I think the guy who designed that is a member here.

(Paging @pcjohn...)

 

[pcjohn]

I think the guy who designed that is a member here.

(Paging @pcjohn...)

Yep, that be me. PM me more information.

As much as I like to make fun of Elaut I can't blame them
for this one. We pretty much cleaned out Biostar's stock when
we built the machines and apparently Baytek also used this
board in some of their machines too.

It's pretty ridiculous what these amusement companies charge
for parts. Off the top of my head I think we were paying around
$65 or so per board.

I had toyed around with a Raspberry Pi when I designed the
hardware but the Pi's available at the time were too slow to
do what I needed.

 

[Dr. Willy]

Here is one on ebay

Biostar A68N-5200 Mini ITX Motherboard | eBay

Perfect for light duty, and this is actually a fairly full featured ITX board. 16x PCI E for full size GPUs, dual DDR3 ram, multiple USB headers and audio and also multiple sata plugs. hard pressed to find another ITX with this many features unless you spend big on board and CPU.

www.ebay.com

 

[pcjohn]

Here is one on ebay

Biostar A68N-5200 Mini ITX Motherboard | eBay

Perfect for light duty, and this is actually a fairly full featured ITX board. 16x PCI E for full size GPUs, dual DDR3 ram, multiple USB headers and audio and also multiple sata plugs. hard pressed to find another ITX with this many features unless you spend big on board and CPU.

www.ebay.com

Might work. Slower CPU, may or may not have issues communicating with the IO board.

 

[AaronT]

Might work. Slower CPU, may or may not have issues communicating with the IO board.

Well since youre here... been having problems with the right side of my wonka, half the time the mobo wont boot and Ill have to jump the pins, half of the time i get i/o communication error. when I get i/o errors it will be loading something delicious, waiting for cpu to settle then it will throw the i/o error or it will boot. i/o error follows the i/o board... pretty straight forward there, however booting issue follows the mobo. two parts failing at the same time?
Can wonka i/o boards be repaired by elaut/benchmark? I have three sitting in my shop, two predate me... or do I have a cancer part killing other parts?

 

[pcjohn]

The I/O board is pretty rugged, I put a lot of thought into the design.

First off is the power up issue - I found that if power is interrupted to the MOBO
and quickly restored (such as a breaker tripping) the motherboard will go into a
safety mode and won't restart unless you jumper the power pins. It's not in the manual
but I was able to replicate it easily on the bench.

Next for your IO errors - check the fuses in the top of the machine. If they are
white ceramic fuses immediately throw them out and replace them with glass
slow blow fuses. We found that the ceramic fuses act like resistors when they get
warm and the 12 volts going to the IO and MOBO drops and causes the IO errors.

Also verify your 12 volts at the motherboard connector is exactly at 12 volts (after
you check the fuses). Those little micro power supplies don't regulate the 12
volts. If it's too high or low you may see computer problems.

I can do the IO board repairs. I will omit my usual remarks about Benchmark's
tech skills. Contact me via PM if interested.

 

[AaronT]

The I/O board is pretty rugged, I put a lot of thought into the design.

I will omit my usual remarks about Benchmark's
tech skills. Contact me via PM if interested.

Omit what? You cant preach to the choir and not say anything.
Its abhorrent, a man with an M his name at benchmark gave my ticket circus cancer. Once I started moving my cancer EMOS controller around, I started losing XY boards, bonus circles etc. It was "repaired" and didnt work, so I was instructed to give cancer to the other playfields.

Ive had other issues with benchmark, and they keep repeating the same problems with their games.

You're a true electrical engineer, I got a BS Comp Sci, then got arrested and became a journeyman in demolition, steel stud framing and then a licensed electrician. 10 years ago I had a NDE, and I wanted to work doing what i love, until I die...... fixing computers in really big boxes.

and thats it for the drunken disdain and rambling about benchmark

 

[pcjohn]

The first summer the Fixit Circuses were on location I spent most of my
time running up an down the Jersey shore keeping them all working.
In the beginning they were even a bigger nightmare than they are now.
I had to spend several days in California doing upgrades to machines out
there as well. Elaut did eventually get most of the bugs out and the machine
is fairly reliable.

The EMOS* controller automatically tries to program the XY and bonus
boards with its own current firmware. Once it programs the firmware
with a version that doesn't match the other EMOS controllers the
chaos begins.

In all fairness to Benchmark, they had nothing to do with the design -
they just don't have anyone intelligent enough to understand it.

*EMOS

Elaut Model Of Shame
Expect Maintenance On Startup
Every Machine Often Stops
Engineering Mistake On Site

 

[AaronT]

I have one of the early models, bought used, from a new jersey arcade bulk buy.....now living in Texas. at least halfmark figured out I had some old jersy boards and EMOS in my machine and they managed to take it down in Nov 2019... its still in my shop, i use it to block my computer from the camera... about all its good for.

You have anything to do with WOZ? ROI in three months? Standard issue cabinet at a new center at my old job. Only problem I have EVER had with a WOZ is damage caused by employee. Had to be my apprentice too.

 

[pcjohn]

I have one of the early models, bought used, from a new jersey arcade bulk buy.....now living in Texas. at least halfmark figured out I had some old jersy boards and EMOS in my machine and they managed to take it down in Nov 2019... its still in my shop, i use it to block my computer from the camera... about all its good for.

You have anything to do with WOZ? ROI in three months? Standard issue cabinet at a new center at my old job. Only problem I have EVER had with a WOZ is damage caused by employee. Had to be my apprentice too.

The WOZ came out early near the beginning of my job with Elaut. Everything was designed
over in Belgium although it was not a WOZ, it was a totally dull generic themed machine
called the Minstral (or Menstral as we called it). The WOZ theme was done by the American
CEO at the time and was a vast improvement over the original theme.

 

[Quantammass]

Riddle for @pcjohn. I have a fixit circus and a quarry quest what the heck causes the door xy board to fail and not run the coin hopper and the pusher deck? no errors and no output to the motors but it will control the left right motor for aiming? I am a lead tech for a large arcade and we love running the older games but the parts a not available or are made of diamonds and gold

 

[pcjohn]

Any short or overload on the 12v line will fry a surface mount
resistor on the XY board. I don't remember the designation off the
top of my head, it is on the long side of the board, there is a short black
6 (or 8?) pin connector. The resistor is right along side it.

You need to replace it with a .1 ohm 1/4 watt 0805 package
current sense resistor.

It's Elaut's idea of a fuse.

 

[Quantammass]

Any short or overload on the 12v line will fry a surface mount
resistor on the XY board. I don't remember the designation off the
top of my head, it is on the long side of the board, there is a short black
6 (or 8?) pin connector. The resistor is right along side it.

You need to replace it with a .1 ohm 1/4 watt 0805 package
current sense resistor.

It's Elaut's idea of a fuse.

Thats what I thought but the design of the board is difficult to figure out. One other question do I have to buy a programmed board our will any work meaning the game will flash the correct firmware? I.e. take from ticket circus put in quarry quest? And vice versa?

 

[pcjohn]

The EMOS system will flash the board automatically when you power it up.
The red and green leds on the board will blink differently while the
board is being flashed. If you interrupt power while updating it can also brick the board.

 

[Quantammass]

Thank you for helping out. Glad there at least one person out ther to help us keep these working.