6 replies to this topic

[Jimbo]

Hi guys! New user here!

I am considered seeing about geting a short run of System 80 main IO boards made up, brand new and with the infamous missing pulse detector mod.

Just wondering if you guys think there will actually be any demand for them!

Cheers.

[Toddyuk]

I have nt a clue what your on about lol But love the oldies , If that means more system 80 machines can be eumulated then that would very much welcomed

[kensplace2]

Guess it would depend on if there are any collectors out there, or arcades that still use these old machines, and want spares. A new board would probably cost around the price of a full second hand machine though surely
(as you can pick up old machines for next to nothing, however system 80 machines are probably harder to come by)? Specially in a small production run, as you would not be able to bulk buy components or get cheap pcb production. If you could sell them cheaply enough then I suppose you could always list them on ebay for collectors, but not sure if there would be enough demand to justify actually designing and producing the board from scratch. (Unless your just stealing JPM's design outright, which would save time, but could well land you in trouble with jpm.........)

Out of interest, do you make the boards yourself, or are you getting a firm to make them from your design?

Im looking around for prices, at the moment Im just starting out making my own boards, with a laser printer, a steam iron (on non steam setting), bench drill, etchant, and patience..................

Would be nice if I could find somewhere that could do *reall* cheap boards, theres someone on ebay that can do a huge board (cant recall exact size, but it was big) for 65 quid, but Im thinking more along a lot less than that

[Jimbo]

If you could sell them cheaply enough then I suppose you could always list them on ebay for collectors, but not sure if there would be enough demand to justify actually designing and producing the board from scratch. (Unless your just stealing JPM's design outright, which would save time, but could well land you in trouble with jpm.........)

Out of interest, do you make the boards yourself, or are you getting a firm to make them from your design?

I was just going to rip the JPM design and incorporate the mod directly. I have approached JPM, they have advised that they no longer have any circuit diagrams, manuals or designs for these machines, so I can't see them having a problem with it! Obviously I'd need to check for sure though.

I was going to enlist the help of a firm to run off the boards and then set to making them up to order as it were.

I'm interested in what you are doing though... what size of board could you do?

[kensplace2]

Only made a couple so far, still experimenting.

I started with a tiny board (couple of inches) but there is no reason why I could not do a full a4-size board.

(or a3 if I got a larger laser printer cheap on ebay)

I use diptrace (www.diptrace.com - HIGHLY recommended package as it rocks, so easy to use compared to eagle etc, tell em ken from lsblogs sent you if anyone buys it) then print it out.

Once printed basically you iron it onto the copper board, then peel the paper off.

Then etch.

Its a learning experience for me (ie what types of paper work best, what iron temp to use etc) but you can get good (hobbyist) results, not upto the standards of a pro pcb fab house, but it does the job perfectly well, and doesnt look that bad.

Just got some drill bits of ebay, to use with my 29.99 bench drill from aldi (last of the big spenders here!) so can now drill holes, just wish I could afford a second hand through hole plater/wave solderer/decent automated drill machine and I could set myself up in business doing boards in bulk.

Im just doing it so prototype boards, but one day fancy selling them online,
lots of ideas, including fruity related ones . My only problem would be if they did get succesful I would not be able to cope with demand and would have to get em done in bulk, which needs money...... This method is DIRT cheap, just takes time, and patience.

If you want to know more feel free to pm me.

[mythicos]

Red Rose leisure would kill for some of these.

They had a froghop which had a screwed sys80 board.

Pop over to www.fruitemu.co.uk (the mecca) youll find a much warmer reception for all things old over there mate

Also, www.redroseleisure.co.uk and contact phil or andy, theyll be very interested I reakon