The Simpsons Pinball Party
Stern, 2003Hi,
I just bought a nice TSPP that is working as it should...
I took a look at the backbox and noticed that there were no AA batteries in the battery holder. Scores and setting are saved though, so I'm thinking that there might be a NVRAM chip somewhere, but I haven't been able to identify it. Or are batteries used to save something else?
Where should the NVRAM chip be located (if there is one there)?
RAM / NVRAM would be @ U212 (see picture). If it's just a standard IC (not a pcb with a smaller smd chip on it) then look for either "RAMTRON" or "SIMTEK" marked on it. Or report here what is marked on it for further identification. Most likely if it's an nvram it's either RAMTRON, SIMTEK or it could be a DALLAS (internal battery) nvram chip.
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http://www.pinitech.com - "Pinball Inspired Technology"
Kits, upgrades and test equipment for pinball machines
Quoted from Lermods:Is it just a chip you plug in or is some modification required?
For DE v3, and Sega/Stern Whitestar, it's a socketed chip you pull out and pop the new NVRAM chip in.
Easy-peasy.
RussM
The simtek is a sram that has auto stores the data in a nonvolatile section at power off. It is plug and play no battery needed solution.
I have Fm1608 starting at $12 each which operate the same way using different technology.
SIMTEK will not work in all applications that the RAMTRON does.
As far as I'm aware, SIMTEK won't work in Data East (possibly System 11?) without modification. User "MarAlb" here on Pinside commented on some incompatibilities with SIMTEK & Data East.. and MPU modifications necessary for SIMTEK to work properly on DE boards. SIMTEK isn't plug-and-play as much as RAMTRON. It will work in Sega/Stern Whitestar as a plug-and-play nvram, but I'm pretty sure there's a fluke scenario allowing the autostore to function because of how one of the address lines maps out. You basically set the "wrong" RAM size. Technically should be set as an 8k RAM and instead you set it as 32k to allow the autostore to occur via an address signal. I just know that it technically shouldn't work correctly/reliably without the additional circuitry the data sheet mentions.. and the way people have used it on Stern Whitestar is by setting an incorrect RAM size via the jumper on those boards. Haven't really dug into the details of it any further than that.
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http://www.pinitech.com - "Pinball Inspired Technology"
Kits, upgrades and test equipment for pinball machines
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Oslo
Linwood, NJ
what the......