Charlie_ Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 I have an Ivory C-380 Video pinball. The buttons were not responding well and it turned out I had to re-flow the solder on the under side of the board. For the right bumper button I even had to run wire from the button to the next solder point along that trace to get it to work. After all that the RESET button was not working well. I cleaned it but maybe it was just worn out.... Anyway I had a broken set of VCS paddles (I had stolen the pots to make 5200 paddles) and I remembered the buttons look similar. Turns out the PCB of the Video Pinball has holes in it to take these buttons. So the paddle buttons can be used as replacements in the Video Pinball. I removed the old button and soldered in the paddle button. Works great!. I really dig this old C-380. Its been a pain to get going. 1st I had to replace the speaker with a speaker from a PC. Also the internal female jack for the RF cable was corroded or just broken. I had to cut the cable end off and solder it directly to the back of the board where the cable was supposed to plug in. Now all this soldering and button replacement.... Now I can enjoy it. I really like the Pinball and Breakout games in this unit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_ Posted February 24, 2012 Author Share Posted February 24, 2012 After fixing this unit it worked for a few days and I was enjoying it. Played it a lot. Then,suddenly, it broke. It thinks the button for the right flipper is being held. I checked continuity and there is no short. The trace runs to a small chip under the metal shield. I can only assume that chip must have gone bad. I really wanted a wood grain one anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 I've got a Sears one and I love it. I like the Basketball/Rebound game (or whatever it's called) too. It's tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it it's a good game. I think I scored close to 200 at that once (I'm sure others have done much better!). Fortunately for me, mine is in really good shape, so I can't really speak to anything in the way of repairing it. You might just need a new unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_ Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 Yeah, I'm keeping an eye on ebay. I'll try to get one as cheap as possible. Is there a model number on the sears unit or is it also c380? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 The model number is 99713. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegamezmaster Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Just got mine slowly back to life. Great little machine. Still have a problem with static sound through TV. Any thoughts on how to repair? Also in breakout the paddle has lines coming off it, fix? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Just got mine slowly back to life. Great little machine. Still have a problem with static sound through TV. Any thoughts on how to repair? Also in breakout the paddle has lines coming off it, fix? Thanks. You shouldn't have any sound through the TV at all; the game sounds come from an internal speaker. There's no audio signal in the RF connection, hence the static. Just mute/turn down the volume on your television. I don't know about the paddle thing though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegamezmaster Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Just got mine slowly back to life. Great little machine. Still have a problem with static sound through TV. Any thoughts on how to repair? Also in breakout the paddle has lines coming off it, fix? Thanks. You shouldn't have any sound through the TV at all; the game sounds come from an internal speaker. There's no audio signal in the RF connection, hence the static. Just mute/turn down the volume on your television. I don't know about the paddle thing though. New to this machine. Thanks for the info about the sound, I didn't know that, thanks again for the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian D. Deuel Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 (edited) I'm working on repairing one now. Non-working left flipper and no sound. I've isolated the left flipper problem to a bad resistor. I can trigger the flipper by grounding the correct pin on the selector gate IC, and jumpering the leads of the resistor does the same. I'll try a new speaker before trying to trace that issue, and see if that works. Just got mine slowly back to life. Great little machine. Still have a problem with static sound through TV. Any thoughts on how to repair? Also in breakout the paddle has lines coming off it, fix? Thanks. If the game chip is socketed (as mine is), CAREFULLY remove the game chip and spray some electronic cleaner into the socket. Take an eraser and CAREFULLY clean the pins on the chip, then replace it in the socket and see if that fixes your Breakout paddle lines problem. Regardless of if it does or not, I'd go ahead and replace the socket anyway (this is on my to-do list as well), but the procedure I outlined is one way to attempt to isolate the problem. After fixing this unit it worked for a few days and I was enjoying it. Played it a lot. Then,suddenly, it broke. It thinks the button for the right flipper is being held. I checked continuity and there is no short. The trace runs to a small chip under the metal shield. I can only assume that chip must have gone bad. The chip is a Quad And-Or Select Gate, and is most likely quite easy to find (or, at least, a equivalent can be cross-referenced). Check the resistor(s) along that circuit as well. You're probably right and one of the lines on the chip is stuck, but it's possible that a resistor could be causing this stuck signal. The data sheet for the chip is here: http://doc.chipfind.ru/html/re/scl4019be.html Gotta love old electronics. Easy to work on, as long as the chips aren't custom. Edited April 10, 2012 by Brian D. Deuel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_ Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Gotta love old electronics. Easy to work on, as long as the chips aren't custom. Hi Brian. I got another from ebay for less than $25 shipped. It was really dirty but the insides were much better than my 1st unit. Everything worked great except the power button was flakey. I transplanted the power button from my old unit to the new one and all is 100% I took the thing apart and cleaned the body in the sink. What a difference. Looks like new. Video Pinball is a neat old device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kev23777 Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 Just got mine slowly back to life. Great little machine. Still have a problem with static sound through TV. Any thoughts on how to repair? Also in breakout the paddle has lines coming off it, fix? Thanks. I don't know if you ever figured out a fix for your static paddle problem. I recently acquired a C-380 and had the same problem. I ended up opening up the pot for the paddle controller and cleaned it with 91% isopropyl alcohol and it fixed my issue. There was a lot of black dust from mechanical wear over the years and it was preventing good contact when the knob was turned. It works great now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegamezmaster Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 Forgot about the sound. Thanks Brian for the tip on the paddle problem. I'll have to check it out when I have time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie_ Posted November 6, 2012 Author Share Posted November 6, 2012 During my week long power outage, this C-380 with 6 - C batteries and a 5" color RCA CRT with 9 D batteries kept me and my son busy for a good amount of time in the evenings. What a great unit. Love the breakout in this thing. I did as was suggested by kev23777 and opened up the paddle pot cleaned it all out with 91% alcohol and it works jitter free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Mitchell Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Adding to this thread about the power button switch for the C-380. These are available at Best Electronics: "the New Atari C-380 Locking / latch On/Off Switches are in stock. Cost is only U$D 3.95 each." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassGuitari Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Adding to this thread about the power button switch for the C-380. These are available at Best Electronics: "the New Atari C-380 Locking / latch On/Off Switches are in stock. Cost is only U$D 3.95 each." Were those the same ones used on Ultra Pong consoles as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andromeda Stardust Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Neato. Yeah vintage electronics can be tempermental. I'd love to own one as I collect pinball sims. Any good videos of the action? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegamezmaster Posted August 8, 2015 Share Posted August 8, 2015 I don't know if you ever figured out a fix for your static paddle problem. I recently acquired a C-380 and had the same problem. I ended up opening up the pot for the paddle controller and cleaned it with 91% isopropyl alcohol and it fixed my issue. There was a lot of black dust from mechanical wear over the years and it was preventing good contact when the knob was turned. It works great now. Took it apart and blasted it with contact cleaner and fixed the tearing issue. Thanks for the tip! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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