Arcade Projects
Replacement Capacitors for Wizard of Wor PCB
Got my order from Bob Roberts tonight as planned. I did end up getting some sort of replacement for the original glass caps used on the Wizard Of Wor PCB, here are what they look like.
What I had been reading on the original ones on the board was a little off. On these caps you’ll see printed AVX 104 M5J 911. I don’t know what most of that means, other than 104 is synonomous with the .1 on the schematic. However, they don’t have the typical signs for polarity, and since they are caps and caps have always had polarity in my experience I will have to figure that out before putting it on the board.
Bob emailed me back right away, he is so great like that, and let me know that these caps don’t have a polarity on them, so either way is fine. I did just that and soldered the cap onto the board.
I powered up the game, and it seems to be working fine. It didn’t reset on me when I played, so that is great news. However, it does still have the lines through the screen so the next step will be a cap kit. I also thought that the one and two player buttons were a bit sticky, and the game voice seemed a little weird, like it was repeating. I have to test the Mame version and see what that does, hopefully that will give me a good indication. Otherwise I can go to Robert’s and test his Wizard of Wor to see how the voice piece works in his.
Sorting out Wizard of Wor Caps
Well, stopped in at Menuier today and the microfarad cap I had described to her on the phone wasn’t what I needed. Based on what I told her I needed
in person, she pulled out these capacitors that were more radial than axial, tiny in size, and not a glass / ceramic combo like the capacitor I had on the board. I took a couple just in case I needed them, this is what they look like.
So I stopped at King’s electronics, and they couldn’t help me with my Wizard of Wor PCB either. I was able to see with a magnifying glass that the other caps had a label of 50V on them, and what looks like an underlined U and a 561.
So, I came home, frustrated, and emailed Bob Roberts because I knew he knew. I just didn’t want to have to send away for one tiny part like this. I also emailed the collector who had helped me before and he sent me a link to a thread about these glass ceramic caps on the KLOV group.
A couple of things I did take away from the thread was that these caps were generally associated with the power of a game, and they were unreliable to some extent, so that is good news for me and fixing the game. More than likely the exploded charred one I have is the problem. Also, the thread said they haven’t been made in over ten years, which is also why I can’t find them now. Supposedly searching “glass encapsulated ceramics capacitors” in Google will give you some good background information, but I will wait on that to see if the game works first.
Bob got back to me right away. He called what I needed a .1UF 50V Axial Ceramic / Mylar Cap. I trust him, he knows his stuff, so I just did a combo order and had them sent to me. Hopefully I’ll get it on Thursday or Friday. In that thread, the contributors also think you should replace them with something different and more reliable. I don’t know why Bob didn’t suggest something else, I asked about appropriate replacements, but since I am selling it and it was free, I am not going to worry about it.
Where I got the Wizard of Wor
Kind of an interesting story. Back in November of 2006 there was a post for a free Wizard Of Wor machine on craigslist Bloomington, IN. I emailed the guy to see if it was available, because I think I saw the post a few days after it was online. He said it was already spoken for, and apologized. Well, that was the end of that. Or so I thought. Then, in late March I get an email from him saying that the other guy never came to get it, was I still interested. I told him I was, so I emailed him asking him when he was free.
Well, we kept missing each other. He would get back with me very sparatic, so we sent something like 20 emails back and forth over the course of the next three months trying to make arrangements. Usually he was only free for a couple hours on a Saturday and that was it. But finally, June 24th, I made arrangements and went down to Bloomington to get the game.
Wizard of Wor .1 microfarad capacitor
Called over to Menuier with my new found information. Once I said my Wizard of Wor PCB needed a “.1 microfarad ceramic cap” she knew right away what that is. She said they did have them. So hopefully I can make it over there on Monday to get a couple.
How do I get the Pengo Sound Control Panel Out?
I took a short look inside my coin door today to see if I could figure out a front way to get the sound mount out of the cabinet. I know I should be checking for loose connections, maybe I just need to test continuity and that is it. But I can’t really get my hands inside the cabinet much.
I haven’t drilled out the bottom coin door yet, and am not liking that idea. But if I have to in order to get at the remaining screws that hold the whole door in, then that is what I need to do.
Wizard of Wor Capacitor Problem
I got a tremendous reply about my Wizard of Wor capacitor problem. A number of the collectors emailed me back and said they could provide me with photos. Another one went one step further and helped me identify from the schematic that it was indeed a capacitor I needed and what it is called.
On the schematic (Page 166 in the PDF online document) within the shape of the component there is a hand written .1. That means squat to me. I didn’t see a corresponding components “shopping” list with the diagram, only a list of the IC’s and other chips. Well, this collector let me know that usually .1 means that it is a “.1 microfarad ceramic cap”. That doesn’t give me a voltage, but that was specific enough.
Component C21 is what was burnt up and exploded.
Pengo PCB arrived in Pittsburgh
Heard from Richard today. He got the PCB in the mail, and he was able to set it up on a test rig and check it out. He was getting the bars across the screen just like me, so I wasn’t crazy. He said one of the chips felt like it was getting hot and that probably means that it is bad. It may be just that simple to swap it out and have it work, so here’s hoping.
Once the holiday is done things should move fairly quick, and I could have my PCB back hopefully before I go on vacation. (Nearly one year after I got the silly game)
