New Life Games Tech Forums

Just wanted to ask, do any of you recap your old S+ or Bally boards? Reason that I ask is that in the radio restoration world, replacing all the electrolytic caps in a radio usually brings it back to life. With the impending shortage of S+ boards in the coming years do you think that the same could be applied to these boards to rejuvenate them?? :103-

Caps are fairly inexpensive right now and I like your question reho.
I would try and get a bunch of different kinds of caps before those go away as well.


Someone told me something once about rebuilding old cars.
If you put in a brand new part - that part is stronger than the rest.
Pretty soon the others start failing with trying to keep up with the performance of the newly installed part.
Somewhere down the line - it's a losing proposition and you end up selling the car.

Whether or not that applies to slot boards - is beyond my knowledge of electronics.

Also, I don't know if that guy was lying to me...lol

Most of the problems you will have with the S+ board can be repaired using IGT's electronic repair manual for S+ and PE+, it has a list of the most common problems and the components to check in that circuit.

I am not sure what the expected life of an electrolitic cap is.
The point being made here is that electrolites can dry up and then the cap is toast.
I am not sure if they dry up due to age or due to service life
-electic current passing through a component generates heat as a byproduct and I am sure that has something to do with the drying of caps.
if its age and we put a bunch of caps on a shelf will they be any good in 20 years when we go to use them ??
If this is the case then perhaps just buying a spare board or two will do us just about as good.

I think we need one of our electronic techs to whey in their comments.

What we do know is that our machines our S+'s have a mean age of 15years... assuming a mid 1990s build date.
So far I have not heard of anyone having to recap a S+ board - perhaps thats because they are so cheap with an average price of $20 that the ones that need re-capping have just been thrown out.
Or it could be that other things go first......

I have a buddy that has a 1950's erra TV and has a whole lot of tubes sitting on the shelf to keep it running. He has had to get a digital tuner (ATSC) to convert the signal down to analog.
He hates it as he says his tuner doesn't get any exercise so he occasionally runs the TV on different channels just so none of the contacts get too corroded.

The electrolytics dry out whether they are used or not. I have a 33 year old Yamaha stereo receiver in otherwise perfect condition to prove it. I suspect that they will last longer if stored at room temperature and humidity, as opposed to the more extreme environment one would find in a garage, and I can't say how long they last -- except that it's less than 20 years. :96-

Hi Guys

Have fixed a fair amount of S+ boards. Caps on these are not something that I have really replaced before. I think the biggest problem with electrolytic caps is that they start acting more like resistors than capacitors as they age. This is especially a problem when they operate at high frequencies as found in CRT's and switch mode power supplies. The S+ is old tech and uses a linear PSU so filter caps are unly running at 50Hz (60Hz on your side of the pond) so ESR is not so much of a problem.

For anyone that does a fair amount of electronics repair I would recommend and ESR tester. I have this one its compact and easy to use - http://www.peakelec.co.uk/acatalog/jz_esr70.html
There is a review posted for their older model here with some details - http://www.peakelec.co.uk/downloads/esr_review_tv_mag_jun05.pdf.
BTW their DCA and LCR testers are both also great little pieces of test equipment.

Agree with FireBird. The S+,PE+ repair manuals is one the Best manual IGT ever did. Pity they never did something similar for their newer models.

Ian