(Topic ID: 70333)

Centaur 'Say It Again' Replacement Boards- Third run in production!

By matthess

10 years ago


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Topic Stats

  • 59 posts
  • 25 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 5 years ago by MtnFrost
  • Topic is favorited by 11 Pinsiders

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There are 59 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 2.
#1 10 years ago

Now back in production and will be available from your favorite pinball parts retailer soon!

These are a limited run of plug and play replacements for your broken or missing (or for a backup or mod!) Say It Again board. These boards are through hole design and professionally made with top and bottom solder mask and silk screen top layer, and then hand soldered. Based on a proven design, All boards are tested 100% working before the are shipped.

Say It Again_Complete.jpgSay It Again_Complete.jpg

#2 10 years ago

Matt does great work - deal with confidence!

#3 10 years ago

I'm picking my machine up tomorrow. Any idea how quickly this run will go? I don't know yet if it will need it. Board looks great by the way. Plug and Play I assume?

#4 10 years ago

Plug and play with existing brackets and standoffs. They are currently selling quickly, but I just posted their availability.

#5 10 years ago

I ordered and my original still works fine. I will probably use this board and save the original.

#6 10 years ago

NICE WORK.. My centaur thanks you, thanks you, thanks you....

#7 10 years ago

Matt, glad ya did this. I just ordered.

You know what would be really helpful? If you could post a wiring harness diagram. I'm sure I'm not the only guy that is gonna have to either tweak what is in there now, or make something up from scratch.

Also, for those of us without a SIA board now, don't forget there is a jumper you need to change on your S&T board in order for the SIA board to take effect.

Cheers

#8 10 years ago

Thanks for your order! I will take some photos and try to come up with some steps to make it easy to do. The biggest thing is to make sure you're squawk and talk board is a RevB (61b). This has the 10 pin J2 connector. The connectors can be made without a terrible amount of trouble. I have a Centaur II that I will take photos of.

#9 10 years ago
Quoted from mrbillishere:

Matt, glad ya did this. I just ordered.
You know what would be really helpful? If you could post a wiring harness diagram. I'm sure I'm not the only guy that is gonna have to either tweak what is in there now, or make something up from scratch.
Also, for those of us without a SIA board now, don't forget there is a jumper you need to change on your S&T board in order for the SIA board to take effect.
Cheers

Just ordered mine.Thanks for the information about the jumper. I don't have a Centaur yet but I'm building up to one, so far CPR pf and plastics,NOS BG and now the SIA board.

#10 10 years ago

Cool- here is a pic of the board required, the J2 connector is circled in red- and the "F" jumper must be removed when the SIA board is used.

263px-SquawkAndTalk-61BRevision.jpg263px-SquawkAndTalk-61BRevision.jpg

#11 10 years ago

I am interested, I have another aftermarket one but have had mixed results.
Do you mean jumper FF? Also I have a Rev. D any tips because like I said I am not getting good results but really like your design.

#12 10 years ago

I think these sound pretty good compared good compared to the original. The f should be unjumpered in order for the board to work.

Also a bump for the after work crowd.

#13 10 years ago

I have REV D. Am I going to be able to use this?

#14 10 years ago

I do not think J2 connector is a 10 pin on the rev D which you need for the SIA. I think you could convert to a rev B by adding the connector along with the other required changes. I was considering that until I repaired my rev B.

#15 10 years ago

Pinwiki
Jumpers
Centaur C, E, G, Q, S, U, W, Y, BB, D, H, DD, N, EE, FF (if no SIA board), and L or K

I am also curious about compatibility on the RevD board too. I Have looked around but have gotten conflicting answers.

#16 10 years ago

could it be possible to run this on other Bally speech games? Would be cool to reverb EBD etc.... Have you experimented at all?

#17 10 years ago

First 21 boards shipped today!

IMG_20131116_113959_191.jpgIMG_20131116_113959_191.jpg

This will work for any Squawk & Talk game that uses the 61b Rev. If you and modify others to work with a Say It Again, then yes, this will work. You will need to pull power (43V) from somewhere to power the board though.

#18 10 years ago

How can you tell what rev board is in the machine? I am not seeing a rev number.

#19 10 years ago

If your Squawk & Talk has a ten pin connector at J2, you're good to go.

#20 10 years ago

Only 5 left in stock!

#21 10 years ago

I would assume this will work with an Alltek MPU?

#22 10 years ago

The MPU doesn't matter- it the right rev sound board that is key here. Look for a 10 pin connector at J2 on your Squawk & Talk board.

2 weeks later
#23 10 years ago

My mini review:

Board came packaged well. There was a delay in delivery and Matt was on top of it the whole way. He was more concerned than I was but it arrived safely. Quality and construction of the board look to be top notch.

I installed this board this morning played around with adjustments and played some games. Installation was quick and easy. Board is a little less than half the size of the original and lines up with mounting holes on bracket exactly. In my opinion best bet is to remove the plastic standoff and use two screws to hold board in place.

Board worked immediately with no changes to anything on my machine. I played with the adjustments and have the sounds dialed in about 90 percent of how I want them. Sound is close enough to original board that no one could tell the difference when playing the game. No two Centaurs sounded identical anyhow and with the easy to use adjustment knobs you can find the balance of delay and distortion that you like best.

The only thing that would be a nice addition to this board would be calibration marks on the adjustment knobs. This would help in two ways. If I found a setting that I liked I could still go looking for other settings and return to that exact spot. I may mark them myself for this purpose. Other benefit would be if someone else with this board found settings they liked or thought really compared to the original settings then I could easily dial those in on my board. Might be a picky detail but I would find it helpful.

Overall I find this board to be a great value. My original was still working so this is cheap insurance. To someone who didn't have a working original this is priceless.

#24 10 years ago

Great review Rusty!

#25 10 years ago

Did anyone use a credit card? After entering all data, the last step displays a paypal screen with errors.
Will the site only take paypal?

Thanks.

Edit: It took the credit card when I tried again.

Post edited by NickDanger : cc worked 2nd time.

#26 10 years ago

Thanks for the review Russ!

I only have 1 board available for immediate shipment, but will have 5 more tested and ready to go by this weekend. I also can add a new wire harness for the Squawk & Talk to the Say it Again replacement for an extra $10. Just let me know and I can send an invoice.

Thanks-
Matt

#27 10 years ago

Just ordered one. Looks really nice and professional. My Centaur is at HEP for restoration and I'm not sure if Chris will need it, but it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. This helps close out one more of those hard-to-find parts for this great game.

#28 10 years ago

Deal with confidence. Matt did a nice job with these.. and they work beautifully!

#29 10 years ago

Works great in my Centaur also.

I also bought an extra and put it in my Vector. Doing this requires building the missing wire harnesses which isn't a big deal if you've got the parts and experience to do it (which I did). It's an interesting experiment, but I think it has less effect since the game has somewhat of a cavernous background sound to it already.

#30 10 years ago

SOLD OUT! These boards are now sold out. I am planning on another run most likely after the new year. If you have interest, send me a note and you will be notified when the boards are ready for delivery.

4 weeks later
#31 10 years ago

The 2nd run is currently in production and should be ready for sale/shipment by 1/17/14. If you send me a message, either here or at http://www.parlorcitypinball.com, I can reserve your spot in line.

Matt

1 month later
#32 10 years ago

I have 3 available- PM me with interest. I will invoice you via PayPal.

Thanks-
Matt

#33 10 years ago

2 left.

#34 10 years ago

If you are on the fence, buy one. You won't be sorry.

#35 10 years ago

Sold Out! But will be available from Big Daddy Enterprises in 2 weeks or so.

#36 10 years ago

I got one a few months ago and glad I did! Does your board replace this?

ebay.com link: RARE Bally Pinball CENTAUR SAY IT AGAIN AS 2518 81 PCB Reconditioned Tested

Don't have a Centaur yet but there's light at the end of the tunnel!

#37 10 years ago

Yes it does, it works flawlessly on mine.
Bob

#38 10 years ago
Quoted from matthess:

Sold Out! But will be available from Big Daddy Enterprises in 2 weeks or so.

I will take one when your next batch arrives. By the way to the pinsiders. If you want to amp up your Centaur these boards are a must because they are super quiet and don't add noise in the system when you amp it up compared to an original. I put a 85 watt amp in my Centaur with a 10 inch Eminence Coaxial driver and these boards are AWESOME.

10 months later
#39 9 years ago

what do you al think about a new repro look say it again?2014-12-22 19.32.04.jpg2014-12-22 19.32.04.jpg2014-12-22 20.34.19.jpg2014-12-22 20.34.19.jpg

#40 9 years ago

I realize you wanted to keep the look of the original design but you probably should have re-worked the 5V section using modern day switching or buck regulator technology to eliminate the ceramic power resistor and the large filter caps.

#41 9 years ago
Quoted from comrep:

what do you al think about a new repro look say it again?

2014-12-22 19.32.04.jpg 263 KB

2014-12-22 20.34.19.jpg 339 KB

Are you talking about an exact replacement? My understanding is that the chip that adds reverb on that board is obsolete, and unreasonably expensive to replace.

#42 9 years ago
Quoted from Collin:

Are you talking about an exact replacement? My understanding is that the chip that adds reverb on that board is obsolete, and unreasonably expensive to replace.

Reticon SAD ICs are impossible to get, and anything you do get will be used and probably won't last long. All specialty analog ICs from the late 70's and early 80's are on the same boat.

#43 9 years ago
Quoted from Collin:

Are you talking about an exact replacement? My understanding is that the chip that adds reverb on that board is obsolete, and unreasonably expensive to replace.

No, its not an exact copy, just a replacement. In the upper right corner, you can see that he used the Holtek 8955 chip along with the DRAM IC to sub for the SAD BBD. I think he meant that it was more traditionally an analog board with most of the original amps and filter designs duplicated on a same foot print PCB.

#44 9 years ago
Quoted from CactusJack:

No, its not an exact copy, just a replacement. In the upper right corner, you can see that he used the Holtek 8955 chip along with the DRAM IC to sub for the SAD BBD. I think he meant that it was more traditionally an analog board with most of the original amps and filter designs duplicated on a same foot print PCB.

This design should sound faithful to the original due to keeping the schematic exact, sans the SAD IC, granted the filtering has been matched to sound like the original.

I've done a lot of experimenting with BBD & digital delays, and a PT2399 with some low-pass filtering to match the original low fidelity of the SAD4096 is indistinguishable in Centaur. I am partial to the PT2399 because they're cheap, have built in RAM, and are lots of fun to play with on a breadboard due to minimal parts needed to run them. I dunno how the Holtek chip sounds, but I never experimented with them because I couldn't find one easily.

#45 9 years ago

What I didn't originally realize is that comrep "Repro" board is mostly a "dummy board" to fill the original foot print of the Bally SIA. Only the components you see in the first photo are necessary to make it function. The rest of the board is just for "looks" and serves no function.

I realize the intent but its probably not going to fool too many. Without having the original silk and proper logos, it seems pointless to me to go to all the trouble and a bigger board just to have something that resembles the original analog SIA board. Either of the 2 plug and play subs already out there work just fine.

At least to my ears, the HT8955 design floating around out there is true to the original sounds of the SAD IC and Bally SIA board. And so is the simple MN3205 chip replacement approach. In fact, for me, I prefer using the MN3208 which has half the buckets. You get the same required reverb effect but you can actually understand the words being spoken. I stumbled on this since most of the MN3205's I received from China were duds so I thought I would give the 08 a try.

#46 9 years ago
Quoted from CactusJack:

What I didn't originally realize is that comrep "Repro" board is mostly a "dummy board" to fill the original foot print of the Bally SIA. Only the components you see in the first photo are necessary to make it function. The rest of the board is just for "looks" and serves no function.
I realize the intent but its probably not going to fool too many. Without having the original silk and proper logos, it seems pointless to me to go to all the trouble and a bigger board just to have something that resembles the original analog SIA board. Either of the 2 plug and play subs already out there work just fine.
At least to my ears, the HT8955 design floating around out there is true to the original sounds of the SAD IC and Bally SIA board. And so is the simple MN3205 chip replacement approach. In fact, for me, I prefer using the MN3208 which has half the buckets. You get the same required reverb effect but you can actually understand the words being spoken. I stumbled on this since most of the MN3205's I received from China were duds so I thought I would give the 08 a try.

For real, those stuffed components aren't even used on that board? I'd of thought they'd want to keep the pre/post buffering identical along with same opamps to try and preserve the character (why, I have no idea, I think the original SIA sounds like shit and is a poor design).

The Coolaudio clones of the MN series stuff are cheap enough and are exact copies on modern litho process so they won't suffer from metal migration issues. I can't tell the difference between stuff that uses them vs the original panasonic ICs.

I like using a fairly agressive low and hi pass filter on delays. They get too muddy if they allow anything below say 250hz and too tinny if you allow much above around 2-4khz. The regen is the only place where I ever hear a difference between the BBD and digital ICs.

5 months later
#47 8 years ago

any chance of getting a replacement board? just got a Centaur and Big Daddy has closed their doors.

1 week later
#48 8 years ago

In production.

Production.jpgProduction.jpg
#49 8 years ago
Quoted from threepoint:

any chance of getting a replacement board? just got a Centaur and Big Daddy has closed their doors.

Big Daddy had some flooding, and was closed for a few days. They're back open.

#50 8 years ago

Just in time! picking my first centaur up on friday and it's a safe bet that none of the boards work

There are 59 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 2.

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