Taito Phoenix

[jonhughes]

Bought this Taito Phoenix a while back and decided to attempt to fix it. Sounds were missing from the game.

The sound section had been heavily shot-gunned before it came into my possession. Almost every component relating to the sound section had been pulled and replaced but the problem persisted. Turned out that the resistor at R47 had sheared in two. Replaced the resistor and the sounds were, thankfully, restored. Don't have a photo, but the resistor can just be seen in the stock photo.

Replaced resistor.

Game seemed to be fixed, had a few games and all was well. However, out of curiosity started a two player game and when two player started the sprites were wrong with letters in them on the diving birds and the ship was stuck at the top of the screen. This only happened for player two.

Player 1:

Player 2:

Game couldn't progress in player 2 mode, ship could not be hit

Problem turned out to be the 2114 at IC44.

Replaced the 2114 chip and now I have a very nice working Taito Phoenix PCB.

 

[Eddhorse]

Great work and great info.

 

[LAZORIAN]

Nice job, it seems Phoenix sound is a common problem.
I fixed mine by reading up on Guddlers fix log and replacing the 555 timers.

 

[philmurr]

Nice fix Jon - glad to see it working

For completeness, here's a close up photo of that broken resistor (oh and it wasn't me who shotgunned the board

)

 

[Alpha1]

Very obscure PCB! Does it have a Taito copyright on the screen?

 

[Judder]

In case anyone needs a reference, I've got one too, also with the Taito custom music daughterboard

http://www.ukvac.com/forum/bring-out-your-phoenix-boardsets_topic346283.html

 

[jonhughes]

Very obscure PCB! Does it have a Taito copyright on the screen?

I have no idea, I burned new Taito(MAME I.D. pheonixt) ROMs for it - erasing most of the ones contained in the board. I tried those ROMs in a known worker and got nothing so decided to just re-do the whole lot. They did work at one time - there were no distinct labels on them so I wasn't too fussed about erasing them.

The PCB is Taito marked both sides. Works perfectly now.jonhughes2015-12-28 22:03:07

 

[jonhughes]

Nice fix Jon - glad to see it working

For completeness, here's a close up photo of that broken resistor (oh and it wasn't me who shotgunned the board

)

Thanks Phil - I'm just glad it's working now.

 

[joe34]

hi Jon, R47 resistor looks like you didnt put any solder on the top side of the pcb like the other resistors have?
(or doesnt matter perhaps, if the solder 'wells' go right through the pcb)

 

[jonhughes]

In case anyone needs a reference, I've got one too, also with the Taito custom music daughterboard

http://www.ukvac.com/forum/bring-out-your-phoenix-boardsets_topic346283.html

Not sure about my PCB on the custom melody chip. The standard MN8221AA chip was in the PCB when I got it. Are these basically the same in essence?

This PCB also has no wire hacks in sight, so not sure about the differences with the one you own.

 

[jonhughes]

hi Jon, R47 resistor looks like you didnt put any solder on the top side of the pcb like the other resistors have?
(or doesnt matter perhaps, if the solder 'wells' go right through the pcb)

Yes, there is no (how do I say this) meniscus in the solder to the parts side of the resistor leg. The resistor leg on to the solder side is perfectly formed. The hole makes contact on both the parts side and solder side of the PCB so doesn't really matter - I tend to use as little solder as possible because it looks crap on the solder side and can do the same on the parts side.

 

[Del Griffith]

Nice work Jon