£8 eBay job lot | Can they be fixed?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มี.ค. 2024
- This little lot cost me a whopping £8 off of eBay. Just sold as "faulty" without much explanation.
We have a lovely retro MB Pocket Simon, a PMS(L) Sudoku Challenger and a Mini Arcade game thing.
Let's see if we can get them all working!
Hope you enjoy!
Steve
PS. I'm not an expert in repairs at all. I do this for fun, and it may not be the best or safest way to go about repairing broken stuff. I'm pretty good at melting plastic though. Please don't copy me - I'm an idiot.
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Stupid Spoiler Saver
I've got a cold 🤒
Hope, you'll get well soon 🙂
Go Away cold ! so... I hope that helped
Just get a warm and it should balance out.
your "singing" cracks me up
Stupid cold
Nice to see all the returned Amazon batteries coming in handy.
I reckon you reflowed some of that solder with the hot air gun, the speaker was just a coincidence...great as always..
i agree. would have been nice to see without a speaker again though.
it's using the resistance of the speaker in the circuit, instead of adding a separate resistor. I don't think it has anything to do with reflowing the solder.
@@iaincowell9747 you think so?
@@goku445 I've seen it in cars before where the engine won't turn on unless the door and it's electronics are attached (Porsche are really bad for that sort of over-engineering), it appears as if there's a general electric failure in the engine but it's because the door electrics are needed to complete the circuit!
This is Saturday morning cartoons for adults. Never a bad episode and I love all the little discoveries you make. =)
These old Pocket Simon machines used incandescent bulbs and the old TMS1000 series microcontrollers. The controllers or the brain of the thing ran on 9V, and the AAs were just a power source for the lamps. The big version was the same, but the lamps were bigger, so it used a 9V, and two D cells.
Yep. I love these older ones with the tms mcu instead of a cheap chinese blobbed asic/microcontroller
Same with Big Trak with it's, I think, 4xC (or maybe it was 4xD) batteries for the muscle, and the high-voltage PP3 for it's brains. Other toys with the same chip inside did the same thing.
Nice that the lamps still work after all these years, modern ones would surely use LEDs. I suppose when they don't have to be too bright you can keep them comfy and under-run and prolong the batteries too.
@@greenaum I have one of the larger 1970s Simon games that I got cheap off ebay not working and restored, and I have to say there's no comparison to the appearance of incandescent lamps on these.
They're not driven very hard so they have a very notable ramp up and down when in use, which really adds to the charm of the things. Mine had a split bulb holder, a bad switch and generally just poor contacts under the strange little snappy switches inside, so it was a fairly routine but nontheless satisfying repair.
Not to mention, I love the fact the big Simon includes a spare lamp inside the case in a little compartment. They'd never bother these days.
@@ShokaLion You'd really need a spare bulb. Those things blew at a fair rate. Back in the day...
(Christ, I can't believe bloody LIGHT BULBS don't exist any more. Not the incandescent ones for torches. I did SO MUCH tinkering with those, improvising a lamp holder with stranded copper wire, tape, and aluminium foil! You could buy them for like 20 pence in shops that sold odds and ends, "cheap shops". My introduction to Kirchoff's Circuit Laws! Without knowing it!)
...so yeah especially in torches where they ran bright. Hard on the batteries too. But they were irresistible to just mess around with and waste the battery and brightness before you needed them, they were just so cool to look at! Well, depends on the model but some were. I remember a 3V, 2xAA torch, would take a 2.4V bulb, or a 5V bulb in a 6V torch, etc. All run past the voltage stamped on the case. Though I suspect that's deliberate, the manufacturers could make any voltage they wanted by varying the wire in there. They probably made them to be over-run so they'd be brighter, but live a lot shorter life.
But then the bulbs in the video appear to have lasted decades if it's an original like it looks. That said, blue LEDs only came around in about 1995. You could get them previous, but not the type we use now, the prior ones were *really* expensive and dim. You need blue for Simon, so there's the fatal flaw. They could have done the other 3 colours with a single bi-colour LED! Wired up right to make red, green, yellow, orange, and anything else red and green could make. But not blue.
Maybe a model should've used LEDs for the colours except blue and leave the torch bulb for that, I dunno. I did love those old torch bulbs though! Look after yours!
@@greenaum Oh yeah, loads of fun!
You can still get the bulbs these days, but as you say I don't think they're being made any more so they're all NOS at this point, and they charge crazy money for them. Like £1.20-£2.00 per bulb type thing.
There are plenty of people who've made a good stab at emulating the original light characteristics with LEDs plus a driver board to ramp them up and down, but the only trouble is they go for actual red, blue, green, and yellow LEDs, and they just don't have the same appearance as the old incandescents behind a colour filter.
It's kind of like the new breed of christmas LED lights. Absolutely granted they're far less faff, far more likely to Just Work when you fish them out of the attic each Christmas, but the quality of the light from them, if you ask me, doesn't compare. There's a warmth to those old coloured incandescent lights that you just lose with LEDs, they're too...perfect? Stark? I think the same about the Simon games that get converted.
So yeah I do keep a few of those on standby just in case!
If you have something like this again it would be interesting to see if removing the speaker again unfixes it.
sometimes a speaker IS necessary to be connected in order to work. I once desoldered a speaker from a device, and it just refused to work until I soldered it back on. it was also a Chinese device, and would loudly speak Chinese on startup. So I guess it's using the resistance of the speaker in the circuit, instead of adding a separate resistor of some sort.
I was thinking that the speaker provided some resistance like a resistor on the board. And without the speaker that resistance wasn't being met.
Would of been worth desoldering one of the speaker leads to have proved that. Maybe the speaker was loose originally.
Or else it was announcing the CCP's orders for that morning, and citizens were required to comply before any of their electronics would work. Hua Wei tried the same thing in Britain once, I believe.
@@darksageaura That would be a weird sort of circuit. You don't want power constantly across a speaker, the coil would get hot, they're only designed for AC, ie audio. If it was smart enough to talk, maybe the software was written without the possibility of losing the speaker so just stayed in a loop til it got a connection.
That could be as simple as connecting one terminal of the speaker to gnd, then connecting sound from an amp to the other, for normal use. But to check it's there and functioning, use a microcontroller input instead of an output. Check the connection to gnd is still there. 8 ohms, or even 64 ohms, isn't much of an impedance for an IC input. So a circuit could connect an input and check there's still a gnd connection through the speaker. If there isn't, then the speaker isn't connected up properly.
Why it'd do that, no idea, but I suppose they really wanted the thing to say what it had to say. Did it do much apart from threaten to report your family for the camps?
£8 well spent. An annoying game, an impossible game and a WHOLE bunch of Stupid Games. I wonder if the speaker was required to complete some sort of power circuit... maybe you should desolder it for giggles and see if that's what it was - imagine... all that time spent looking for an issue.... :D
Haha, yeah spot on... I daren't touch it again, but it would be nice to find out the actual problem! 😁
I would say that yest that transistor was bad along with a cold solder joint in that area that you hit with hot air and the iron when you put the speaker back on.
@patrickradcliffe3837 yeah, I was going to say something similiar. There was a lot crappy solder joints and when he fluxed and heated them up, it fixed the issue.
Nice fixes Steve! I would just dessolder the speaker to test if it was the solution!
I was waiting for him to try that.
Fantastic as ever!
Spoiler saver?
Annoying when you fix something but not sure how you did, but at least its a fix!
😁 I like to think it was just magic. Or something.
5:14 wow there's a lot of replacement part! Maaan glad that I still saved my busted walkman! The board were fine but I forgot to get it fixed!
I have a feeling it may be the ribbon cable, would make sense as to why it worked intermittently
So I am a new follower and become absolutely obsessed with your videos
They are absolutely amazing, you’re daft and funny and the videos are brilliantly made with music which is always great and the endings are always funny “stupid game”
The concept you have here is really fun! I’m going to send you something to your P.O. Box.
Keep up the great work
Stupid channel! ❤
ive still got my pocket simon after 25 years and beaten it on all levels amazing what it does when you beat it on highest level ...love the videos ... very entertaining .....
Filmot quickly shows me that the J3Y resistor also appeared in that knock-off Game & Watch console repair. You’ve got a good memory for these things.
The replacement transistor is absolutely fine. The original can take 0.5A at 40V, the replacement can do 1.5A at 25V. Since you go nowhere near those voltages, they'll work just as well.
Nice one Steve. Stumbled across you a couple of weeks back and I’ve been playing catchup. Stupid TH-cam 🤦♂️
Toys were so simple on the 80s, but so much fun 👌🏼
And we had nothing else too.
@chongtak simpler times, grateful for what we had but also the beginning of alot of today's technology, good times they were.
@@matthewmaidment8464 agreed
I don't think any of these are from the 80's though.
@@MJFallout Only the first one was around back then. I the bigger version I think.
Stupid Games, YES! Entertaining, also YES! A joy to Watch, again, also YES!
and a little bit of Monica on the Side.
Reflowing the board was a moment of genius, I am pleased to see you didnt blow your own trumpet over it. Pure inspiration on your behalf.
Great vid as always, I do wish you would of unsoldered the speaker and tried it again to prove if it was a fluke or not and looked a bit deeper into it, but I also wouldn't of blamed you if you said you couldn't be arsed lol
It was sheer skill that fixed the arcade game, despite no one knowing how. Spot on.
These are so relaxing to watch, you sir are a youtube find!
In the simon game the 9v would be for the electronics, the 3v would be for the lights ;)
Great video, interesting stuff, thanks 😊
Always a great week when a video of yours comes out. Should have desoldered the speaker just for fun to see if it stopped working again.
That sudoku thing looks pretty cool
Awesome as always
These piezo speakers have a capacitance and are sometimes necessary for the circuit to work. I once removed a piezo speaker from a stopwatch to silence it and it refused to come back on. I replaced it with a capacitor (I think it was 33pF) and everything worked.
When you fast forwarded during the Simon gameplay, it almost sounded like the opening to The Who's Baba O'Reilly.
Another great video with 100% success rate. Keep up the great work
You asked the question .. surely it doesn't need the speaker attached to make it work and that you hate things that work for no apparent reason ...
Can I ask why you didn't just desolder the speaker briefly just to check that ?
Simple, don't tempt fate and break it again when it is already working.
I don't know why someone would waste a perfectly good mini-case by sticking a NES-blob in it and then dare to sell it. If I had that case I'd replace the board with a Pi Nano and emulation setup, not that Steve needs it. Thanks for sharing the fixes with us!
Its china. They do everything in their power to produce something as cheap as possible and sell it for a profit just so under the chinese greedy government they can actually live a life
Really like watching your videos -- you have a 'McGiver' approach at some points to fix things which I like. Keep up the momentum!
Nice fixes Steve!
Hi Steve, I have recently found your channel and I have to say "Nice" I have therefor been watching your back catalogue so have been watching your talents and presentation grow, it's brilliant how you can keep going on a project and not giving up till you have exhausted everything, if it was me I would have enjoyed my universal fixit tool long before I get to your stage....so keep it up, you are keeping me entertained for hours....ps universal fixit aka Hammer 👍👍
Nice! New camera angles included in this release. 😊
Very entertaining, thank you! 😅
I think the resistance of that speaker acts as another way of controlling voltage. Using that heat gun did a sneaky reflow of the board might have just been dry solder joints.
On the Simon, I'm pretty sure the 9 volt is to power the lamp and the 3 volt is to power all of the logic. As I'm sure you know a lot of 80s toys did this because its cheaper to make you pay for batteries then to try and step voltage.
That last game looked like a clone of Duck Hunt. Loved Duck Maze on the NES, probably one of those games I just played over and over and over again :) I have Duck Maze on a HES cartridge with 3 other games, because HES was one of those gamecarts you had to have here in Australia.
Crazy, I remember the smell and feel (mostly the structure of the buttons) of the simon pocket. Had one as a kid and was never very good in it. But the lights and sounds were very cool.
Those old Pocket Simons are quite expensive. That's a great deal for £8.
Liked the tip of using a spring clamp to hold the small part while cutting!
6:25 I don’t want to be that guy, but it may be time to reset the “Days without burning plastic” counter… Great video, as always
Hi Steve, You could have disconnected the speaker to see if it stopped working to eliminate the speaker being required.
Wow, Builtem Badly really earned their name on that Simon game.
I wonder if, by some freak of design, it uses the resistance of the speaker as some integral part of the circuitry
I was about to make the exact same comment!
I've got that exact same third console right here on my desk. I think it still works, let me check........yes, all good :D
You contemplating where you've seen the J3Y before has me realizing that with my OCD I would likely document every part I replaced and every part I consumed in each video I made, even if it was simply in an Excel sheet or something, so I could go back and search for past references for this very reason. For me, it's a curse.
That was fun! The TR replacement re-flowed some of the crappy solder blobs - maybe that?
I hate it when the kids get to the hello fresh box before you do ❤
"PMSL" got a genuine LOL outta me.
Thank you very much for the great videos. Which tweezers do you use in the video, if I may ask?
I love that stupid game you just played Steve, you have to bring down with you the stuff you pushed in the beginning of the game. And the screen will automatically scroll down until you reach the end of the level.😅. Nice videos Steve.
That speeded up Simon sequence sounded like the intro to Baba O'Riley by The Who.
Excellent selection Steve, strange fault that last one definitely something wrong maybe heat made it work could be something failing .
Excellent video. I enjoy watching your repair videos. The Sudoku Challenger game LCD screen row 7 and 8 numbers at the top look a bit "faded" (could be just the lighting). 7:21
Love it, hope I get as good as you with the heat gun, not long got mine and in first practice I nuked a transistor and a few capacitors whilst trying to get a resistor off 😅
Great music today, Steve
If you tried to fix it and it work's, then that's pure skill🕹👍 And nothing to do with blind luck.
Now that is a stupid.............Game. comedy gold timing there
3:31 ohh!! What?? XD XD I got a good chuckle over that one...
I had that MB Pocket Simon when I was a kid (maybe 7? 8? 9?) and it was my first electronic game and it was the first game I beat.
Ay! we are getting fire beats with this one 🔥😂
I would say that it was the screen ribbon once you moved it it made a good connection
£8 that seems to be a good deal for simple fixes for the items you got!(I am American btw but Apple phone keyboard has £ sign)
im thinking the heat gun must of remelt the solder on the ribbon cable that made it work 17:50 you can see the joints look better after that or something else though
19:30 a win is a win, don't question it too much.
I had a pocket simon years ago..
A video output mod would be interesting on the mini arcade machine.
Nice
Nice Parappa vibe today sir.
Well done. Probably illusions but, on the arcade game, the soldering looks particularly suspect on the 0V and output pins on the 3V3 regulator (13:42)
You had another game where the ground ran through the speaker
I wonder if the ribbon cable had a dry joint that reattached itself when you used heat to replace the Y1.
Sometimes, certain chinese manufacturers route voltage in a way that everything connected closes the entire circuit; this includes the speakers.
By removing it, you "technically" seem to have shorted the board, until you soldered it back again, closing the circuit properly, and allowing full power to run.
I can see some chinese manufacturers do that to prevent tampering to extract the SOC of mini arcades like yours, to prevent copying (which coming from a chinese knock off, is hilarious)
great video, altho wish you would have looked more into the fault on the last item
My gut is telling me there may be a faulty ground on that arcade machine and connecting the speaker provided a low impedance to ground and became the ground
I kind of wished you taken the speaker back off to see if it still works or not.
Not the real Stezstyx, wasn't he the Macclads drummer
Great vids 👍
Vince had the Sudoku one and had the exact same problem that he also overlooked (not all the segments show). It think it was him anyway. Cheap tat. Anyway, can't find the video now; soz!
Stupiditly binge watched your videos for the last days and weeks. Mate, it's like watching myself in the mirror... 😁 ... You' ve made a great progress over the past years, keep the good and funny work, up, it's always entertaining and for sure also everytime a small knowledge transfer for everyone... 👍
I think its awesome your repairing little stuff like this that doesnt really matter but it does in a way.your saving this stuff from going in our lamdfills an thats just great. Im wondering what you do woth all the stuff you repair,like this stuff .are people buying these little games ?
Wow that is a clone of Penguin Land, you gotta push the egg down the level without breaking it.
Great video as always, btw I've been meaning to ask what diameter tips you use for SMD testing?
Well some things are puzzling too be easy fixed but good job
Dave helped with title on the thumbnail 😂
for a spoiler below
surprised you didn't look at the speaker wires of the arcade since it has to be turned on to work. maybe it was cross linked to the power switch or something
Maybe something to do with a ground with the speaker. But whatever it was ...nice
Hey Steve. Thank you for another great video! I was hoping you're going to test that thing without the speaker again just to see if it won't start again.
Also not sure if intended but you're not giving us enough time to read your notes at 6:52 and 8:52! Just a suggestion to further improve your great videos!
Peace...
some digits seem unreadable on the sudoko. Are you sure it's 100% fixed ?
Reattaching the speaker in the last one must have completed the circuit somehow; I guess it wasn't complete before...?❓
Can we get playlist for some of tracks you played? You have excellent music taste. Lots of good driving music.
Would have love to see you desolder the speaker again to see if it stops working again :o
Should have took the speaker off again to see if it worked.
I think the voltage does go through the speaker on some of those..?
Hey Steve! MUSIC would be very interested to know where you get your music from (and I don’t mean your raps 😂). Love your vids 👌
I would love to send you a challenge to fix, it's a small Franklin crossword solver, turns on but 87.5% of the buttons don't work amd when it goes off you can't turn it back on because the power button doesn't work, it's very small so would make for a challenging video for you. I only paid 50p for it so you can keep it if you can fix it
No no no. Why not take the speaker off again and see what it does though?!?!?!?