Fixing Electronic Boxes

[Tim McMackin]

Does anyone know of any books or net sites that could tell me anything about fixing scoring boxes? I have a decent knowledge of electronics, but are there any schematics that could tell about a 10-20 year old prieur box? The numbers are sanded off the chips, so I haven't been able to do much to fix it myself. Either that or it's stolen.
:-)

And I have used Barry Tice's great foil tester box from the point control website, but I don't suppose there are any schematics for a quick and dirty homemade two person foil box online or in print out there.

Tim

[neevel]

I can ask around, as I recall Joe Byrnes once mentioning to me that someone had figured out what the Prieur components were, but they were notorious about not wanting anyone but themselves to do repair on their machines. What specifically is the problem with the box? Have you eliminated the power supply as the problem? One common thing that crops up with the old orange Prieur 2-W boxes (not the newer ones with the blue case) was that it took a 12 V_AC_ power input. Lots of people would assume that it was 12 V DC, and get a DC power supply instead of a 12 VAC transformer when the original one went bad. They kinda-sorta work with 12 V DC, but not terribly well.

Another basic rule for electronics troubleshooting after eliminating the power supply as the issue is to look first at anything that is subject to physical wear and tear (switches, plug sockets, light bulb sockets). Some of the older, cheaper boxes use the light bulbs in series as part of the main circuit, and can be affected by having a bulb that's of the wrong type.

There are a few 2-W schematics out there on the web (I don't recall the location, though). Frankly, with 3-W boxes like the Eigertek selling for $350, I don't think it makes much sense to build you own one-off box, except as a project for your own edification. A college club could probably host one or two small tournaments and make enough to cover the cost of an Eigertek.

-Dave

[saberkid]

to tell ya the truth.. i dont like the Eigertek box's they dont always work right (in sabre anyways) and.. one time.. i... turned.. it... on... and well... it played a song... i was kinda scared at first like "wtf is it doing?!?!" and well yeah, it was... odd as for teh old box's yeah, whats the problem, i did some circut repair on them, pretty basic stuff, but it seemed pretty easy... as for schematics.. no clue there, i tryed to find some a long time ago, and couldnt..

Chris

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Fence with the best die like the rest!

[neevel]

You accidentally tripped the self test mode when it did that song and lights routine-- if the weapon selector button is being held down when you turn it on, it'll do that.

I strongly suspect that any other issues you have are flaky body cord or floor cord problems-- I've never seen our Eigerteks act up, and I've found (as have most all off the other national armorers) that intermittent, tough-to-trace issues in sabre generally wind up being due to a cheap or poorly maintained cord having a bit of inter-line leakage or high resistance (and since sabre doesn't have a definite state change of a button to cue off of, it's a bit more vulnerable to these sorts of issues). There's a reason why Chris Green had the Marxses stencil "It's your bodycord, stupid" on to his polo shirt . It is true that the Eigerteks won't let you fence with an improperly grounded weapon (when the white light is on, it won't register touches) and are more sensitve than some boxes about picking up on intermittent B-C breaks, but then you _should_ be keeping your gear in working order.

-Dave

[Mergs]

Thanks for the Eigertek info, Dave. Question, do you know where to get three or four conductor, 18 to 20 guage speaker wire? Realatively cheap (<$.20/ft or there about). Thanks, need to redo some body cords and floor cords.

[neevel]

Well, the cheapest way to get 3-conductor cable for floor cords, so long as you don't insist on having flat cord, is just to run out to Wal Mart or Home Depot and buy a long, 3-conductor extension cord and cut it up. A couple of 100 footers will yield cable for 6 floor cords.

As for flat 3-cond stuff for body cords, I found a bunch of 6-ft appliance power cords at American Science and Surplus here in Milwaukee for $0.75 apiece, and so haven't had much need to look elsewhere.

-Dave