Leaderboard

mk2 just don't unplug / plug in alpha while it is switched on, and as long as no lamps short out you should be ok!

alphas definitely kills the actel chip on the mk2 lamp boards, had a good few like that, and yes the transistors still blow in the mk2 boards like they do on the mk1, never seen a bad actel on a mpu board myself, they seem reliable to me unless battery rot gets them, but that's my experience, also there are no files to be able to change any of the actel chips and reprogram with the data they need. this is a mk2 lamp board and clearly the silicon inside the middle has blown the top of the chip up!

Yes. Have seen it happen with lots of different Techs The last were Mpu4 , plentiful and people threw away and replaced rather than repair. Then Epoch, Sc4, next will be mpu 5 boards. Kept many different boards over the years, had recent clear outs and made good money on things that were once just regularly binned Moving away from repairs and machines. Everyone thinks what they have is worth a fortune now. In fairness, I believe machine prices and interest is starting to decrease unfortunately

I love the new search system on the site

I remember buying maygay M1 boards non working for £15 to £18 , and £20 being my absolute tops! now it seems £50 for non workers is standard, so I won't buy them at that price!!

no idea, ebay prices have sky rocketed, but no point buying anything while just guessing at whats wrong, its like saying my car wont start whats wrong, it could be anything!!

OK, I'll have to stop drinking. 😊

Never heard of it myself to, he’s not credited for it on the board

Some like the obvious stuff. Coin acceptor MPU PSU Alloy frames. Odd ball stuff like video cabs they scrapped loads. They scrapped a LOT of gear

Yeah that's a great read... it's really interesting to find out about the Eclipse! What good have been with it?? The only thing he didn't mention is the huge variation in build quality between Epoch system boards. Visually you can see it in different colours ect. Working with them is a different matter you get waffer thin pads and traces, poor amounts of solder paste on the SMD components. You can also get fantastic boards with a lot of decent solder, great thick copper and pads and a decent solder mask. I've no doubt SMD transistors fell off mark1 lampboards and it is a fairly high stress areas of the system. I put that down to poor amounts of crap cheap solder paste rather than the boards getting heating to over 350'c. I've had it on main boards where a spray of contact cleaner and a toothbrush scrub and components come off. I'm using 1998 mk1 lampboards still in 2 machines. They've been working for 21 years so I dont put it down to Epoch tech itself it's just some very poor build quality batches. It's a shame because a few incidents tar's the whole great system IMO

@MattyL

I know on a system 80 game I had called Piggybank, I wired a relay to the win lamp with the contacts connected to the gamble button. The poor machine won every gamble to jackpot and it did indeed reduce the winlines and features to reduce payout. It was funny as hell to see the desperation of the program kicking in to reduce the %

Think the 5 Win spins is suppose to only pay £4 due to it being all cash. Poor programming on JPMs part

The mk1 lamp boards used to get so hot the solder would melt and chips would fall off the board. The PSU's were just cheap and go super flickery very easily. They buzz like mad with all 512 lamps on. Wouldn't surprise me if a few of them set alight. The evolution of Epoch is actually quite interesting. It wasn't even supposed to exist as the story goes. Again we look to Dave Powell, who designed Castle, M1, Epoch, & Eclipse. I think spACE tech was also a revision of his Castle tech, TTX can confirm or deny I am sure. The story goes something like this... Dave Powell designed the "Eclipse One-Stop" tech. Which was a multi-purpose fruit / video board. It had quite a few novel features for the time. It had a video port for an add-on video card, compact flash, multiple com / serial ports, native 6 reel support, on-board cctalk port, and unlike Epoch was all on one board, not streched around lots of daughter cards. I can only assume what happened next, but reading between the lines, I think Maygay asked him to design a cut down version of the board, which took most of the novel features off, and thus reduced costs. Thus Epoch was born. Whether it was crap because it was designed to be as cheap as possible, or maybe DP made it rubbish in the hope they would move to the bigger board, or maybe he just made a few mistakes. Had Eclipse stood the test of time it would have been the perfect board to build on when S16 came into the picture, a video ready board with compact flash on board. Unfortunately Maygay went bust before then, and Epoch was always known as a poor tech. There are a few games on the Eclipse tech, Mostly Extreme Gaming / Scientific Games / Cool Games machines (Viper Drive, Billy The Quid, Buck$ Bunny), etc. I've not heard whether they were any better in terms of reliability. So few of them seem to be around. Eclipse and Epoch both suffer hideously from a leaky battery, which I assume was deliberate to sell more boards, built in obselesence. Dave Powell's Castle, and Eclipse techs were both ahead of their time, and both techs ultimately were doomed to only be used on a few machines, likely due to higher costs because of extra features. The techs he designed which ended up being used on many machines (M1, & Epoch) were both produced for Maygay and it seems suffered from having to be cheap as a result. If Epoch had been as bombproof as MPU5 in terms of reliability, Maygay may still have been an entity in its own right. Though given the way some of their machines played, maybe it's best that Maygay went the way they did. The Maygay compensation tecniques is a subject for another story.

Give it another year or two and they will be like gold dust.......

right my last post on this the wrong machine was not sent down its one out of my front room as i needed space will accept the thing about rants calling me a liar,tosser etc.but threats to me and my family i will not the £50 quid was not a sign of guilt or anything i just wanted the buyer to be happy with the machine and i am glad to reimburse any costs to get it within reason we did meet and if you did not like me thats your problem.I regret the whole experience dealing with you and will never sell a machine untill buyer has inspected in future(and a double check myself) no more half way meets its courriers in future i am not on here to make money i have fixed boards for nowt,run the reel band thing at a loss for 2 years dropped machines off i will PP you £50 first thing tomms gladly(i dont need the money even in theese hard times and i am no saint) and please do the last two lines in post #62

end of the day , the machine is over 10 year old , everyone please note , you will never get boards thats had 10yrs + use looking new. have a look in back of a tv after a few years , looks 20yrs old . do what we all do give it a vinegar wash while its turned off seeing as your a newbie . people on here give all there past experiences and know how to fix these machines , don't come on here pulling people down who try to help , its like bite-ing the hand that feeds you.

ohhh i love it when you talk dirty gimme some more lover boy :love: or would you prefer me like this honey bunch

right i have just about had enough of the bulshit this guy is spouting off and does anyone think this is worth the hasstle for a 240mile round trip just to ripp someone off with a machine would never post a pm but my hand has been forced ****************************************** Sent 16 June 2012 - 10:14 AM I have opened the PSU and looked at the caps. The PSU board looks like a modified MK1 board. Its does state modified 1998 on the front so I guess that ties in. The caps are a bit swollen but not burst. The output is not consistent. The lights flicker and also flicker off when many lights are on and the machine is functioned. I cannot find any fault with the light board. There is an on/off alarm on this machine I believe although there was no alarm sound? Shows "on/off ALM" and I think this is due to the PSU? Im not an expert by far and really could do with a manual to see the DIL functions etc and what fixed outputs should be. This is mainly when the machine is "cold" as when its been on running for a while on attract mode it seems to behave itself. I really hate to be a complainer lol I am happy to do the work if you are happy to help with the parts? I have seen this listing: http://www.ebay.co.u...49#ht_500wt_985 its would seem that the MK1 multi cap board is interchangeable with the MK2 board? less caps too so less prone to failure? Other than that its a nice little unit and I am pleased with it. ******************************************************* note the last line fair point from him that he did not know abut the lamp flicker and i had not noticed it as this machine was used mainly for the kids Paid £120 with transport help when he raised the point about the lamp flicker first i offered £10 for a psu board but then he said it could be the MPU or lamp board so then i said this thusrday i will refund him £50 and still will to help with any boards so the machine will pocket me about £35 quid after fuel and it was working and in good condition for its age but still getting slagged off and snidy comments i have had machines on here from members ans they have needed th odd cap replacing or minor repairs all in all this was just not worth it and anyone whos has had anything off me can gladly post after me with honest comments i will never sell or swap with a new member again

Why didn't barcrest just make a simpsons game, wouldn't of had any problems then

It could be anywhere if a short or open cct has damaged components. Damage is usually around the battery and the surrounding components like the Eprom holders with the ram underneath them, dip switches etc etc. My Beanstreak flickered in Attract and during gameplay until i changed the mpu for a different one (although not as bad as yours) Played with Epoch for quite a while now... Built this test rig...

Nah it's not that one, it came in the usual Sys-5 cabinet and was a proper JPM machine. Plus I think Aladdin's Cave was MPU4? It's really starting to bug me now 'cause I can't remember the name of the bugger in question