Whatever happened to HimuraGames, anyway?
I wish I knew what happened.
I’m sure this idea has probably been said somewhere, but it still just came to me. What about calling this PCB Flash2?
If this project is completed and Sanwa hears that it’s called Flash2, I can only see very bad things coming out of that. I think Spark or whatever Toodles has in mind would be wiser, just to be on the safe side.
No kidding!
I kind of wonder if he’ll get in trouble just by reverse-engineering the thing. Seriously.
Gotta be careful about this.
I’m thinking Sanwa discontinued this PCB just because it hurt their repeat business and ability to sell replacement parts. You know there’s a reason most consumer products fail after 5-7 years. Companies want repeat business!
I agree with Spanky. Don’t call it “Flash” anything!
You know what’s worse, this would’ve been great for CONSUMER-level sticks.
Imagine if you never needed to replace the stick in your TE/HRAP!
Can’t wait for this
No, the PCBs were made by Perfect 360 and stopped being made after they were bought out by Happ. Japanese arcade owners were also not too keen on it.
Actually, the TP-MA microswitch part was a more reliable part for AO’s versus the Flash1. The reason is that the life of the Flash1 is dictated by power-on hours. So machines that were not being played would still need repairs because the Flash would just eventually burn out. Whereas the TP-MA would not need replacement if no one was using it. Coupled with the fact that the flash was more expensive, and the main advantage of the flash (in my opinion) - being quiet, was a moot point when using in a noisy arcade.
The flash is a perfect product for the home user. If only plugged in when in use, it will last a very very long time. Also the joystick is much quieter without the loud (albeit reassuring) clicks.
Two of the new housings are completed and picked up Wednesday, along with pcb’s received Tuesday, all using the hole measurements provided by Per. Early tomorrow morning will be me soldering together boards, and the Boise crew will be hashing out some ST or SFA3 on the cabinet most of tomorrow. The goal of this testing is mostly to be sure that the Spark is reliable with this housing (no oddball activations from stray IR light) and that the different spacing boards have a different active zones between them; meaning the sensitivity is based on the board and not the housing.
If I can get those shown to my liking tomorrow, then I’ll be placing the order to have the housing mold made.
The guys milling the housings now said they may have another 3 to mill out for me. If so, there may be a Christmas dutch style ebay auction for as many as 4 of the well working prototypes.
Hey, I don’t want to rain on the parade or anything (because this is really friggin cool stuff), but is this legal? I mean, didn’t sanwa have to stop making the flash for legal reason?
Its fine here is ur question on top Comrade, plus im sure toddles knows what he is doing.
I expect a small text saying “Per” on the housing. ^_^.
Oh, cool. Thanks meus.
oohhh this is starting to get exciting! going to bid on these for sure!
Same here! Cant wait!
Seven boards assembled. All popped in and tested. All seven with the IC soldered on backwards.
Toodles is an idiot. I’ll have the other seven put together and tested soon.
ha ha.
Laugh like used to say god old jdm
Sig’d this.
I only had three of the chips left, so I assembled three boards; the smallest spacing I had, the largest and one in the middle. I setup a little test rig with LEDs to show me which direction(s) were activated, and a GT-C round restrictor plate that had some marking on it for testing the activation ranges of the TP-MA board. The middle spacing board would activate and deactivate at the same spot the TP-MA would deactivate, so there was already a mark on the restrictor for me to compare to. Pop in the other two, and the wider spacing board would activate noticably sooner, and the tighter spacing would activate noticeably later.
We happy.
I want to make one small tweak to the housing design file, and put some text on it, but once those changes are made to the housing part file, it’s being sent off and I’ll be out some serious dough to get a production run of housings made.