Special request for Rik or anyone else

blue6demon

I'd need a picture of where the speaker wires are soldered on a Coleco Frogger, mine does not have a speaker in it Evil or Very Mad

and i wish to resolve that issue. Thanks in advance !
_________________
Keep on playing... no matter what !

Rik · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:33 am Post subject:

Damn, just packed away all my Colecos for a little move, I probably won't see them again until Jan... If it's like the Pac Man on my website, look for the letters PZ, P, Z or SP on the circuit board... Sometimes they actually label where the speaker attaches.

I'll take a pic of my Frogger board when I can get to them again (might be this weekend or next, if not, then after the holidays). So if no one beats me to it, you'll have the info then... Smile

mario101 · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:16 am Post subject:

Where you going Rik?
_________________
Emulators are for the non collectors

blue6demon · Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:11 am Post subject:

Thanks Rik, i'll try to find those letters on the board. And take your time for the pic, no rush there, i probably won't have the time to play in it until january anyway !
_________________
Keep on playing... no matter what !

blue6demon · Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 10:03 am Post subject:

Hey Rik ! Do you think you'll have a chance to take that frogger picture ? My soldering pen is dying to get to work Mr. Green

Thanks !
_________________
Keep on playing... no matter what !

Rik · Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:49 pm Post subject:

Okay, finally found my Frogger... (Way too many boxes in storage... Rolling Eyes

).

I didn't see a Rev # on the board, so maybe all the Froggers are the same? (Doubt it...) Anyway, here's the one I have:

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/_Temp/FroggerCircuit.jpg

The two large red circles are where the speaker attaches. Following the traces, you will see that one connects to pin 5 of the main CPU chip, and the other to pin 22. If your board layout is different, you can probably use that info to track down the correct connections. (I doubt the chip changed, even if it's in one of those smaller surface-mount type chips like the Pac-Man on my website...)

Let me know if that helps.

Rik

(Also, if your board is different, take a picture of front/back if you can. I'm going to try to document as many different boards as I can...)

blue6demon · Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:25 pm Post subject:

Great ! I'll try it in the next few days ! And of course will give you some news.

Thanks !
_________________
Keep on playing... no matter what !

blue6demon · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 7:07 am Post subject:

All rigth i wanted you to have a look Rik before i do anything, but for me it's the same board with an exception, it seems that there were never any speaker wires soldered to that board, and it certainly does not look like a tampered board, it looks brand new. The places you showed me on the board go to the same pin numbers on that board.

Tell me what do you think ? A problem at the manufacture ? By the way it's a green top sticker.

_________________
Keep on playing... no matter what !

Rik · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 10:43 am Post subject:

Yeah, it looks like your solder points are the two big blobs near the ones in my picture (the top one is the same, it looks like they soldered the other one directly beneath it, just to the right of the word 'Coleco'). The wires can break off pretty smooth with the solder, I bet if you melt those two big solder blobs, you will find little pieces of wire inside them.

Rik

blue6demon · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 3:44 pm Post subject:

Well the one directly beneath the first one has a small hole in it (you can see it in the picture on the rigth side of the soldering) because there is no component on the board, in your picture i'm pretty sure that i see one. When i look at the board there, i see a place for a resistor or something like that but it's empty... and that component is between those 2 points of soldering where i should solder the wires. Could you check what is that component if you do have one there ? I'm curious to see if a component is really missing...
_________________
Keep on playing... no matter what !

Rik · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 4:15 pm Post subject:

I'll check when I get home... It could just be filled with solder. They may have decided it was a component no longer needed...

You can also test this by just holding the two wires from the speaker on those two points and play the game and see if you get sound.

I'll let you know later tonight...

blue6demon · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 4:22 pm Post subject:

I'll be testing for sure before doing any soldering Wink

What i'm really looking for is, was that someone's doing or it's someting that happened at the factory, because if it's a father that was annoyed by the sound, he did a pretty clean job ! Laughing

If it was a factory problem i may leave it that way and buy another one, to keep this one as an oddity.
_________________
Keep on playing... no matter what !

Rik · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 5:29 pm Post subject:

Was there any evidence that the game had been opened when you got it? If not, that would be kind of interesting. You can open these without damaging them, but most people would probably leave some evidence.

Look at the wires on the speaker. If the tips of the little wires look a lttle 'frayed', then it probably just broke loose. But it would still have to be opened to d this. I don't think the wires would have 'wiggled free' without opening the game...

Still, that best bet would be to melt the solder blobs on the circuit board. I bet you find little pieces of wire inside them.

blue6demon · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 6:15 pm Post subject:

Ok i guess i forgot to tell you that... there is no speaker in there, there is the transparent plastic "amplifier" in place, but no wires or speaker (the brass coin). And also no evidence that the game was opened at all... seriously i don't think anyone did a surgery in there...

Now that i think of it, most of the time i see those speakers scotchtaped in there, i don't see any trace of glue on the sides of where the speaker sits in.
_________________
Keep on playing... no matter what !

Rik · Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 9:00 pm Post subject:

Well now, THAT's interesting... Sometime the big cone is just 'screwed' in place by the collar... But, if there's no speaker at all, and the control panel overlay didn't look like it had been pried up previously, then there is a good chance the speaker never made it in there... Cool

That's kind of funny, actually... You would think someone would at least turn the game on at the factory to test it...

Well, I can send you a speaker if you need one... Or keep it as an 'oddity' like you mentioned...

Rik