CHAMM44 meters, CON1S and a LINKER...how to hook up to an S+?

[stayouttadabunker]

Well,
They all came in...(Wow!) I have a lot to learn...been reading Mikohn posts from 2006!
Reading about PSP's and everything.
What else is physically (Wiring layout?)) would be needed to get this display up and running?
Here's some pictures>>>

[stayouttadabunker]

And here's a coupla more of this stuff - I paid $200.00 for all of it.
I have one more meter coming in to make it a 1X3.
Any help on this would be overwhelmingly appreciated!

[stayouttadabunker]

Here's everything I know about what I have:
 
 I have a 16"CHAM 44 display meter w/ the Mikohn bin#54.
This display meter has 16 (2" square) LEDs. Each square has 16 LED dots in them.
The 16 Square LED's are connected with a short 20-pin ribbon cable (used for display data?) to make a total of 32 LED light squares and 32"inches in length.
Each of these LED light meters have a 2-pin connector also (used for power perhaps?) and is roughly 16" by 4" in inches (length/width).
I am not sure but I think this display meter would be called a "1X2"?
I bought another 16"CHAM 44 display LED light meter last week  ,which can be attached/connected with this pair of meters to form a"1x3"?
 
 I have another unit which is a Mikohn CON1S Rev.C. That is also missing cables.
One cable should be a 5-pin on "J1-Machine Inputs" and the other should be a  8-pin harness for "J2-Display Outputs"
The other two jacks/connectors are a round "power" and serial port named "Programming Input".
I think I have to fashion a serial harness for the computer and jump pins 1and 5 on the serial input connector harness in order to connect serially to a desktop computer running Windows XP.
I am not sure what "power" supply is needed on "J3"...12volts DC perhaps? I could probably get one at Radio Shack or somwhere- I just need to know what voltage is needed for that.
 
 Finally, I have a "341-001-808 Linker".
The part number is: 341-001-808. I fixed the 110VAC power cord that was missing.
There's a eprom which says "LINK 12c V7.15 1989 Mikohn checksum C198".
(Does "12c" mean a 12cell meter? Perhaps this wont work with the meters I have? )
The other very long eprom says "PRC V6.1 1989 Mikohn checksum ODCE"
That unit needs a 20-pin ribbon cable on "J1", and something that plugs into "J4"- which is a 2-pin connector.
There is also a RS-232 serial port on J5.

I think I'll be able to figure out the PSP program later on but first I need to get this hooked up properly...
I would like to make this display meter roughly 3' long and 4" high.

[jay]

The Linker offhand looks like a LED5 not a LED4.
The proof in the pudding is if the ribbon cable fits into the ribbon cable port on the linker. All pins are used by the ribbon cable.

To get this fired up I would start by using the Linker and use a ribbon cable over to the Meter.  The linker power supply should have a two extra power leads. One would connect to each meter.
At the very least you will either get a C1 or other error. You might get someones old message or even just 0.00 using the dipswitches you can put it through self tests and such.
If you don't have a ribbon cable you might be able to steal the one between the two panels and use that to play. Its short but you know you want to play.

Next....
On the CON1 you have display output J2
Your display output is a multi-pin connection you use the first and last pin. I believe the last pin is the common.
Its not really polerized so your not going to get into any trouble if its backwards.
However if you have 5 displays the common goes to all 5 so you will need to figure it out eventually.

You use a 2 wire connection over to J4 on the linker which is a 2 wire connection down by the serial plug.
The LED on the Linker will begin to blink showing that data is being transmitted from the CON1 to the Linker.

Next.....
You will want to get PSP fired up on your laptop and use a serial cable. I will leave that description to the old posts.

Finally......
You will want to use J1 to connect to your S+
Once again use the first and last Pin. Just looking at the traces on your pic I think Pin1 is common.
Again not polorized so no trouble...
Before you connect it up to your slot I you can play by quicly touching the two wires together to increment the progressive amount.
A longer short about 5 seconds will generate a jackpot win.

Its always reassuring to know this works on the bench before you start putting it in the machine.

[stayouttadabunker]

Okay,
First of all, Thank you very much for your reply on this, Jay! I was stuck even after reading 44 pages of Mikohn posts that THOR reposted from 2005 until recently. Most of it is about CHAMII's anyways. I havent even gotten to the Mikohn manual yet.

I recieved the other CHAM44 Display meter board w/V2.1 DRVR piggyback board today.
It came with a short 20-pin female to female harness. My guess that will connect J1 to the other displays' J5.
On the display board ,behind the LEDs, it's printed LED4DSP Rev.C. (Matches the 2 displays I have)
I plan on chain-linking this to the other two display boards, to complete a "1x3".

I hooked up the LINKER to the power supply and got one LED on the LINKER to light up very good.
When I hooked up the LINKER to the CON1S, I got the other LINKER LED light to blink.
Even the short 20-pin ribbon fits into the CHAM44 DSP from the LINKER.

But power to the display boards? 
The only other connection on the CHAM44DSP is a 2-pin male header (J2) coming off the piggyback board next to the 20-pin(J1) short ribbon.
Where is that power to come from? The LINKERS' power supply?
Right now there is a 4 wire connector going from the PS to the LINKER.
There is capability however for two more 4-wire connectors coming out of the PS.
They are : pin1>-12Volts(Red)
               pin2>+12Volts(Green)
               pin3>return(Black)
               pin4>5Volts(Yellow)
Which two of these 8 wires go to the CHAM44DSP 2-pin female (J2)?
I tried pin4>5Volts with pin3>return , but it didnt light up the CHAM44 DSP at all.
I dont want to try the 12Volts yet , at least not until further instructions/confirmation.
I dont want to fry anything out.
I gotta go read some more......
 

[jay]

Red and Black....
Unlike my earlier posts these two are polorized .... I have never hooked them up backwards so I can't say how forgiving the board is.

I would work with a 1x2 until which point you get a 1x3 eprom. The third panel will only display garbage without the right software.

Is it 7.15 or 7.22 ?

[stayouttadabunker]

Hmmm,
Thanks Jay.
Okay...Red and Black. That means the meters use 12Volts and the black means "return". I would have thought  the Black was ground.
Maybe the ground wire is called "return" in Mikohn's labs.

 I believe it says on the eprom "LINK 12c V7.15  1989 Mikohn checksum C198".
My guess is that it all means it's a 12-CELL Version 7.15. I may be in trouble with all these 16-cell display panels!
As far as "checksum C198"- I havent a clue what that means...maybe something to do with the way the chip was burned.

Now that we know the eprom is a 7.15...does that mean a 7.22 chip will enable me to use 3 display panels?
Or does a 7.22 chip allow one to run a different type of display panel...

[jay]

7.15 and 7.22 are two different versions.
The roms are not interchangeable due to other issues on the boards.

[stayouttadabunker]

It's too early to tell yet, but I think I may have damaged one panel.
The set of photos are with two good LED4 display panels hooked up to the CHAM44 controller.
The second set of photos are with the "damaged" board on the right.
Played with the test modes so far...havent hooked up the CON1S yet.
Still reading tons of documentation...argh!!!.....

[stayouttadabunker]

No matter which way I hooked up the right display panel, I get these two horizontal, green lines...

[jay]

Looks like you are on the way to the races..... Good Job.

Part of the test pattern. Is the all Green, then Red, Yellow etc.
Run it with one panel at a time and you soon see if one works and one doesnt.
If one does appear bad you might try swapping the little board that is on the back of the panel to see if its the panel or the add-on board.

You should be able to test the add-on board with your known good panel and vice versal.

Keep the notes and pictures coming......

[jay]

I replied before I saw your second post.

So looking at the panel with the display facing you. The cable between the Cham44 and the panel would be on the left side.

Try ach panel by themseleves to make sure that both are good.
Have you swapped the board on the left with the board on the right ??? and if the problem moves then it might just be the little cable that interconnects the two panels.

[stayouttadabunker]

I swapped the piggyback board on the bad LED4 display and it works perfect!
The problem lies with the piggyback board I guess, I was hoping it was only something not programmed into the piggyback.
....pulling out the GB instrument now ,  to see if I can find a bad trace on it.
Anyways, I still have two working LED4's...will begin hooking up PSP to CON1S soon.

[stayouttadabunker]

Not sure what trace is broken or where to start....probing around to find something that may be broke...
These little resistors...anyone know how to tell, using a GB GMT-18A, what I should look for needle-wise?

[stayouttadabunker]

I washed the LED4 piggyback board in the sink with warm water and dishsoap.
Rinsed it pretty good and blow dried it...yes blow dryer...lol
When I put the board under good lighting, I saw a bank of 8 resistors that were darker the the other 8 banks.
I will call this the 7th bank...channelmaniac...bellbenchtech....commtech...sometech....help!!!!

[jay]

Well if you hooked it up to the LED5 which outputs power via vi the ribbon cable my suspicion would not be the resistor bank.

The reason I do not think it is the resistors or the small chips assoicated with each bank is that each of these is assoicated with one segment of the board. Your whole board is mis-behaving rather than just parts of it. However I am just speculating at this point.

Resistors are pretty tolerant. If you fry them you usually smell them first and none of the little bands are left.  The rule of thumb with resistors is to take them out of the circuit and measure ohms (omega symbol on your meter). In this case you don't really care if you get an accurate measure of resistance you just want to know that it does have some resistance or if they have fried and no longer is producing connectivity. Since you have both a working board and about 5 banks that all look the same you can simply put your meter across each resistor and check if you get the same reading between the good one and the bad one.

My first inclination is that it may be the SCR or Transistor that is at the end of the board. I am not sure how to test these properly but again as you have a good board you can probably check one against the other for resistance when it is unpowered and voltage when it is powered.

[stayouttadabunker]

That's true, I can see what my good piggybacks resistors read on the meter as compared to the bad piggyback.
Awesome answer Jay, I'm going to try and see what the difference is between the two.
Details at eleven...

[CommTech]

I doubt you are going to find any bad resistors. Resistors normally do not go bad. With all of the LED's that are out, you may find that you have a cracked circuit board or maybe just dirty contacts.
We also know that the 7805 5 volt regulator (next to the power jack) is also working correctly since some of the LED's are working.
You have an 8 x 32 grid of Tri-Colored LED's. The Eight transistors at the center of your board control the 8 horizontal rows of the display.  From your picture, only 2 rows are active.
You also have Two Banks (4 in each bank) of UCN5821 driver chips. Each resistor coming from the top row of these chips control 1 vertical column on your display. 
One Bank of driver chips control the Green LED portion of the tri-color LED's,  the other bank of chips control the RED portion of the tri-color LED's.
When Both banks are active at the same time, you get the Yellow portion of the LED's.
Again from your picture, only 2 chips in one bank are active.
Is that the only set of LED's (8 green in two rows) that light up during the test (I.e. no other LED's or Colors)?
You can also check to see if all 8 driver chips are getting +5 Volts DC between pin 4 (+) and pin 8 (-).  (We know that at least Two of the chips are working).
Also try pressing lightly on the circuit board during the LED test phase, to see if any more LED's light up (this would indicate open traces or bad contacts).
If you have any electronic contact cleaner, you can also try cleaning the interface sockets. It's possible that the contacts are dirty.

Joe

[stayouttadabunker]

Thank you so much for a really good explanation of how the piggyback works on a CHAM44 display board.
That's exactly what I needed, I knew you guys knew what makes these tick!
I cleaned, and probed and wiggled but got nothing except when I removed the 2-pin power connector to the piggyback.
When I did that, I noticed the good board gets corrupted. When I plugged it back in, I got nearly 3/4 of the board lit up.
Scrambled and garbled....but lit. So, for the heck of it, I connected a 3rd board and noticed a number "5" during the "Version" test. This now leads me to suspect that in the past, this CHAM44 linker was set up as a "1x3"? Oh, by the way, those 2 green lines came back...argh!!!! I think I have to go locate another CHAM44 panel.

ADD>> At least I know now that it can display "VERS 7.15"

[stayouttadabunker]

Stuck 2 photos together...figured it can one day fully display "VERS 7.15"....hahaha

[stayouttadabunker]

I pressed ,and shook and shaked...nothing else happens...still two sets of 8-dot green lines.

Please correct me if I'm wrong:

The two 8-led horizontal green lines would mean that there's something wrong with 6 transistors...esp. 1,4,5,6,7 and 8. Assuming #1 is the top row.
AND there would be a problem (with maybe with power) going to the furthest left AND right UCN5821 driver chips?
Call them #1vertical and #8vertical?  

If there is THIS many problems with the board, I think this board is royally screwed up.
I'm afraid I'm just going to shell out some more money to April and buy another CHAM44 LED panel. ARGHHH!
Anybody want a LED4 piggyback? As is. It's missing a little smoke! Lights up!WOW!

[jay]

You might be able to pickup a orphaned daughter board. I would ask around.