The NEW and improved Logic Boards were designed, and a tentative plan was made to manufacture them, transfer the parts over, and snap-in new CPLDs, but before this could happen, there were a few hurdles to overcome. First, find new CPLDs to replace the failed ones. That was fairly easy. Even though the manufacturer, XILINX, had stopped producing them in 2011, they could still be found on eBay for $15-25. Second, and the MOST important, how do I clone the program from the GOOD boards to the blank CPLDs on the NEW boards?
CPLDs are loaded with instructions and rules via a JTAG Programmer. Okay, next task - find a programmer. That was easy... eBay! $30 later, I had one. Now, what to DO with it? Reading and writing the device requires software from XILINX. Luckily, they still provided the Development Environment, free of charge, on their website- a 6GB download. GOT it! Uh oh! The Development Environment is free, but requires a license. I created an account and requested one. I was fully expecting them to demand hundreds of dollars for it, but amazingly enough, it was FREE for hobbyists! So NOW we were ready to go!
Saturday, February 21, I popped-in on PNatB and connected my JTAG Programmer to one of the functioning boards. Lights! Camera! Action? FAIL! Up popped an error message that said the CPLD was “Read Protected” and that the game software was essentially locked-down and could not be copied OFF of the chip. DAMN! Just in case, how about connecting it to the OTHER working board? Same error... “Read Protected.” And with that, the plan of cloning the software from a working old CPLD onto new blank ones got tossed into the trash.
There WAS one possible alternative along this path - to write a NEW game program and load THAT one onto the brand new boards. Two things put the kibosh on this idea. First, I’d have to learn the programming language and write it. Second, and probably most important, doing THAT would mean loading the new program onto technology that is KNOWN to fail and is no longer made. In other words, I COULD learn and load the new CPLDs, but eventually THOSE new ones would also fail and we’d be right back in the same predicament. A new solution would have to do. And by new, I mean OLD... a newly created version of what worked in the past. Relay Logic.
next... New Life from Old Roots
Friday, March 27, 2015
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Fascination: Can I Help?
This is the story of game play restoration of Playland Not At The Beach’s Fascination Tables.
While checking on the Playland Museum’s Website, I noticed that their Fascination Page had a message saying their Tables were down.
Now, since I’m an old time tech with a long history of servicing Pinball Machines, Video Games, Juke Boxes, Vending Machines, Telephone Systems, you name it, I emailed PNatB to volunteer my services. I just KNEW I’d easily be able to get their electromechanical toys working! Mind you, I had NO idea of their “conversion” history; I thought they were still running on the old Relay Logic system.
Friday (01/30/2015), I grabbed Todd and one of my best friends, Paul, who has his own history in getting old stuff working, and visited the Playland Museum. Once there, we met with two of the techs responsible for most of the maintenance on their collection of Coin-operated games and antiques. We all went to the Fascination Parlor and the unexpected happened... they handed me four Logic Boards and said, “our machines were converted.”
In my head, I screamed, “AHHHHHHHH!” I was NOT expecting this!
OK, I thought, it won’t be THAT bad, maybe the boards aren’t too proprietary and can be serviced. It looks simple enough; a few Schmitt Trigger ICs, caps, lots of resistors and transistors... easy peasy!
Then, I flipped one of them over and... Dun, dun, DUUUUUUUN... saw the giant chip on the back of it.
What is it? It’s a Complex Programmable Logic Device or CPLD.
Developed in 1996 (perhaps earlier), CPLDs were designed to perform the same tasks as hundreds of Logic Gates, thus replacing the discrete ICs and Relays found in older equipment and Circuit Boards. The question now became... did the problems lie in the CPLDs or was there something wrong with the supporting components? As it turns out, it was both.
None of the tables appeared to be working. Paul noticed a power supply issue and quickly corrected it, bringing one Lane back to life. He also discovered a bad solder joint on the sound card which prevented a Game Start command from being sent to the tables. Once that was fixed, we turned to evaluating the other boards and, after testing, placed an additional one back in service. The only problem... THAT Board was playing a “Blackout” game. For now, this would have to do. Further repairs would need to be done, but where to start? Documentation.
The Logic Boards on the Fascination Tables were basic enough, but it’s still advantageous to have a schematic and PCB layout, to more easily understand the “hows” and “whys” of board operations. I fired-up my handy-dandy CAD programs to do these and got to work.
Upon completion, the relationship between the sections and components could more easily be followed. Unfortunately, all signs pointed to a CPLD failure.
The folks who designed the original Fascination conversion used CPLDs that were made to plug into a socket, however they actually SOLDERED all 84 pins to the Circuit Board. There was NO way I was going to de-solder all that mess, replace the CPLDs, and solder ALL those TINY pins back again! A PCB re-design was in order. Knowing how the components interconnected allowed me to come up with a “new and improved” version of the board. While I was at it, I also removed components and circuits that were never used. Once new boards were manufactured, all the other parts could easily be relocated to my new design, saving production costs. THIS was the original plan of attack for “Saving Fascination.”
next... LOCKDOWN!
While checking on the Playland Museum’s Website, I noticed that their Fascination Page had a message saying their Tables were down.
 | |
| Sorry. Not today. |
Friday (01/30/2015), I grabbed Todd and one of my best friends, Paul, who has his own history in getting old stuff working, and visited the Playland Museum. Once there, we met with two of the techs responsible for most of the maintenance on their collection of Coin-operated games and antiques. We all went to the Fascination Parlor and the unexpected happened... they handed me four Logic Boards and said, “our machines were converted.”
In my head, I screamed, “AHHHHHHHH!” I was NOT expecting this!
.jpg) |
| Defective Fascination Logic Board |
Then, I flipped one of them over and... Dun, dun, DUUUUUUUN... saw the giant chip on the back of it.
.jpg) |
| Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD) |
Developed in 1996 (perhaps earlier), CPLDs were designed to perform the same tasks as hundreds of Logic Gates, thus replacing the discrete ICs and Relays found in older equipment and Circuit Boards. The question now became... did the problems lie in the CPLDs or was there something wrong with the supporting components? As it turns out, it was both.
None of the tables appeared to be working. Paul noticed a power supply issue and quickly corrected it, bringing one Lane back to life. He also discovered a bad solder joint on the sound card which prevented a Game Start command from being sent to the tables. Once that was fixed, we turned to evaluating the other boards and, after testing, placed an additional one back in service. The only problem... THAT Board was playing a “Blackout” game. For now, this would have to do. Further repairs would need to be done, but where to start? Documentation.
The Logic Boards on the Fascination Tables were basic enough, but it’s still advantageous to have a schematic and PCB layout, to more easily understand the “hows” and “whys” of board operations. I fired-up my handy-dandy CAD programs to do these and got to work.
 |
| Drawing defective board into CAD |
Upon completion, the relationship between the sections and components could more easily be followed. Unfortunately, all signs pointed to a CPLD failure.
The folks who designed the original Fascination conversion used CPLDs that were made to plug into a socket, however they actually SOLDERED all 84 pins to the Circuit Board. There was NO way I was going to de-solder all that mess, replace the CPLDs, and solder ALL those TINY pins back again! A PCB re-design was in order. Knowing how the components interconnected allowed me to come up with a “new and improved” version of the board. While I was at it, I also removed components and circuits that were never used. Once new boards were manufactured, all the other parts could easily be relocated to my new design, saving production costs. THIS was the original plan of attack for “Saving Fascination.”
next... LOCKDOWN!
Monday, March 2, 2015
Saving Fascination
Fascination is an amusement game, found in many seaside amusement parks, from the 1920s. It’s a combination of Skee Ball and Bingo. Players roll a rubber ball down a four-foot table into one of twenty-four holes. A switch in each of those holes detects the ball and lights a corresponding lamp on the table’s backglass. The object of the game is to light 5 lamps in-a-row. Winners can be paid in Tickets, Prizes, or Cash.
Fascination was such a popular game that there were THREE Fascination Parlors in San Francisco alone! One was located at Playland at the Beach and another was on Market Street. I’m not sure where the third one was. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk had a Parlor, as did Circus Circus in Reno and Las Vegas. Sadly, all of those Parlors are gone now.
Read more about Fascination here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascination_(game)
The original tables were completely electromechanical beasts with large relay racks to control them and detect “wins” in any of twelve paths. Over the years, many Parlors decided, for whatever reason, that their machines needed to be “modernized.” Each operator came up with different methods and followed different paths to accomplish this. All involved ripping out the relays and ball switches to replace them with Logic Boards and optical Ball Detectors.
Who would ever predict that the act of “modernizing” these machines would actually CONTRIBUTE to their demise. Here’s what I’m talking about...
As Logic Boards in the “modernized” tables began to die, many Parlor Operators discovered that there was no one to turn to, to repair them. Oh sure, you could attempt to go back to the company or individual(s) who performed the upgrades, but where WERE they? Vanished. Gone out-of-business, retired, or worse... dead! Now what? No documentation exists for the Logic Boards, mainly because all the upgrades were proprietary. Every vendor had a different idea on HOW to do it. Since there were NO standards for doing conversions, there’s also no universal solution to repair dead equipment. This situation spelled doom for Fascination Tables everywhere.
As I mentioned earlier, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk had a Fascination Parlor
In 2014, the Logic Boards in these rescued tables began following their siblings to the grave.
next... “Can I help?”
Fascination was such a popular game that there were THREE Fascination Parlors in San Francisco alone! One was located at Playland at the Beach and another was on Market Street. I’m not sure where the third one was. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk had a Parlor, as did Circus Circus in Reno and Las Vegas. Sadly, all of those Parlors are gone now.
Read more about Fascination here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascination_(game)
The original tables were completely electromechanical beasts with large relay racks to control them and detect “wins” in any of twelve paths. Over the years, many Parlors decided, for whatever reason, that their machines needed to be “modernized.” Each operator came up with different methods and followed different paths to accomplish this. All involved ripping out the relays and ball switches to replace them with Logic Boards and optical Ball Detectors.
Who would ever predict that the act of “modernizing” these machines would actually CONTRIBUTE to their demise. Here’s what I’m talking about...
As Logic Boards in the “modernized” tables began to die, many Parlor Operators discovered that there was no one to turn to, to repair them. Oh sure, you could attempt to go back to the company or individual(s) who performed the upgrades, but where WERE they? Vanished. Gone out-of-business, retired, or worse... dead! Now what? No documentation exists for the Logic Boards, mainly because all the upgrades were proprietary. Every vendor had a different idea on HOW to do it. Since there were NO standards for doing conversions, there’s also no universal solution to repair dead equipment. This situation spelled doom for Fascination Tables everywhere.
As I mentioned earlier, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk had a Fascination Parlor
- Former Fascination Parlor at Santa Cruz
and
their converted Fascination Tables began falling victim to this issue. As more and more of their “modernized” tables lost their Logic Boards, SCBB found themselves dedicating considerable (and valuable) Real Estate to a growing number of dead tables. In 2008, the difficult decision to close the Parlor and remove all of the machines was made. Some of them were sold to collectors and disappeared from the public eye. Luckily, four of them were donated to Playland-Not-At-The-Beach, in El Cerrito, where they were placed in service in 2009.
In 2014, the Logic Boards in these rescued tables began following their siblings to the grave.
next... “Can I help?”
Monday, May 14, 2012
Learning To Embrace Our Differences
When your enemy or opponent makes a critical error, that could take them out of play, you are normally happy or elated.
It would then stand to reason that Republicans should be happy about Obama recently "evolving" on the subject of marriage equality. They should be delighted that their opponent has "shot himself in the foot" and could lose votes and ultimately the 2012 election. Are they happy? No, quite the contrary, they are furious!
Why do they have so much anger over their opponent taking a stand on a volatile issue which could hand them the election? Could it be that deep inside their hearts they know that marriage equality is really the right thing for all Americans? Perhaps.
When both parties were against marriage equality, Republicans really didn't have to deal with the issue. Choosing a Democrat or a Republican didn't have any substantive affect on LGBT relationships.
Now the leader of the free world has taken a courageous stance for marriage equality and Republicans are livid! Why? Because they are suddenly being forced to go on the record to try to justify their bigotry and explain why they believe a portion of Americans should not have the same rights as everyone else.
Even church pastors are starting to say, "How can I tell my congregation that I believe in equal rights… except for those people?"
Will Obama lose votes? I don't think so, because people who don't like and didn't vote for him still won't. This doesn't really change anything for them, but for non-traditional families who were feeling slighted and discriminated against by the him… being acknowledged as a legitimate part of society makes all the difference in the world.
LGBT people are not aliens. They are your brothers, your sisters, your friends, your coworkers, your teachers, your firefighters, your police officers, and yes sometimes even your mother or father. They don't want "special" rights, they just want the SAME rights.
Isn't it time we stop trying to find reasons to hate and attack each other and focus on living, loving, and caring for each other, even with our differences?
It would then stand to reason that Republicans should be happy about Obama recently "evolving" on the subject of marriage equality. They should be delighted that their opponent has "shot himself in the foot" and could lose votes and ultimately the 2012 election. Are they happy? No, quite the contrary, they are furious!
Why do they have so much anger over their opponent taking a stand on a volatile issue which could hand them the election? Could it be that deep inside their hearts they know that marriage equality is really the right thing for all Americans? Perhaps.
When both parties were against marriage equality, Republicans really didn't have to deal with the issue. Choosing a Democrat or a Republican didn't have any substantive affect on LGBT relationships.
Now the leader of the free world has taken a courageous stance for marriage equality and Republicans are livid! Why? Because they are suddenly being forced to go on the record to try to justify their bigotry and explain why they believe a portion of Americans should not have the same rights as everyone else.
Even church pastors are starting to say, "How can I tell my congregation that I believe in equal rights… except for those people?"
Will Obama lose votes? I don't think so, because people who don't like and didn't vote for him still won't. This doesn't really change anything for them, but for non-traditional families who were feeling slighted and discriminated against by the him… being acknowledged as a legitimate part of society makes all the difference in the world.
LGBT people are not aliens. They are your brothers, your sisters, your friends, your coworkers, your teachers, your firefighters, your police officers, and yes sometimes even your mother or father. They don't want "special" rights, they just want the SAME rights.
Isn't it time we stop trying to find reasons to hate and attack each other and focus on living, loving, and caring for each other, even with our differences?
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
High Fructose Corn Syrup and Mercury
I wrote to the makers of “Sweet Baby Ray’s” BBQ Sauce with a simple comment and question…
“You have a great product but I have just one concern - the High Fructose Corn Syrup.
I’ve cut HFCS out of my diet and would like to continue to enjoy your product.
Is there a chance you’ll come out with a version without HFCS?”
Short and to the point, right?
Here’s a portion of their bizarre response…
“I would like to inform you that our High Fructose Corn Syrup contains no artificial or synthetic ingredients or color additives and meets the FDA’s requirements for the use of the term ‘Natural’ Our High Fructose Corn Syrup supplier does not use caustic soda or hydrochloric acid, which is produced using mercury cell technology.”
WTF?!? Mercury cell wha’?!?
Maybe someone here knows what she’s talking about. All I asked was if they’d be selling an HFCS free version - that’s all!
Things that make you go hmmm!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Sad Times for Our Country
January 21, 2010
I’m disgusted with the Supreme Court of the United States. They’re violating the very document that they are sworn to protect and should be impeached! Why is everyone afraid to do it?
They’ve blocked California’s Proposition 8 trial from being televised because it could bring harm to its defendants. What about all the harm that’s being done to ME and MY right to equal protection under the law? The Prop 8 trial should be televised so that its supporters can be seen for the bigots that they are! I’ve been following the trial via the Prop 8 Trial Tracker and National Center for Lesbian Rights websites and it’s been CLEARLY established that support of prop 8 is based in religion. If you vote against Marriage Equality you’re saying that you believe Gay and Lesbian relationships are inferior and not on-par with heterosexual ones. ANYONE who thinks that registering as Domestic Partners is equivalent to marriage is a fool!
And now the Supremes granted personhood status to big corporations and non-profits (read churches). I fear we’re beginning to see the end of our country as we know it. Corporations and churches are now going to be able to donate unlimited amounts of money to the candidates and causes of their choice. There will be NO HOPE of Independent candidates or ANYONE who bucks big corporations being elected -- if you want to get elected, you’d better get yourself a corporate sponsor. And what of churches being able to run candidates who are toxically anti-choice or anti-gay? They’ll bring all their religious dogma with them and attempt to legislate their brand of morality. What will happen to the separation of church and state?
These are sad times for our country.
I’m disgusted with the Supreme Court of the United States. They’re violating the very document that they are sworn to protect and should be impeached! Why is everyone afraid to do it?
They’ve blocked California’s Proposition 8 trial from being televised because it could bring harm to its defendants. What about all the harm that’s being done to ME and MY right to equal protection under the law? The Prop 8 trial should be televised so that its supporters can be seen for the bigots that they are! I’ve been following the trial via the Prop 8 Trial Tracker and National Center for Lesbian Rights websites and it’s been CLEARLY established that support of prop 8 is based in religion. If you vote against Marriage Equality you’re saying that you believe Gay and Lesbian relationships are inferior and not on-par with heterosexual ones. ANYONE who thinks that registering as Domestic Partners is equivalent to marriage is a fool!
And now the Supremes granted personhood status to big corporations and non-profits (read churches). I fear we’re beginning to see the end of our country as we know it. Corporations and churches are now going to be able to donate unlimited amounts of money to the candidates and causes of their choice. There will be NO HOPE of Independent candidates or ANYONE who bucks big corporations being elected -- if you want to get elected, you’d better get yourself a corporate sponsor. And what of churches being able to run candidates who are toxically anti-choice or anti-gay? They’ll bring all their religious dogma with them and attempt to legislate their brand of morality. What will happen to the separation of church and state?
These are sad times for our country.
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