Chexx CX-83: a few q's for the experts

[jp2]

Hi All,
I'm looking to do some what is hopefully easy and general work to my CX-83.  

1. Moog scoreboard works except for: (1) the under scoreboard lights do not work and (2) on one side the "C" and "E" periods do not light up at each of those periods or in OT.  The "I" works in the first period and it does flash in OT.  I noticed the cable ribbon has 2 fried outlets - I suspect this is the issue and I have a new one one the way so we'll find out (i did replace the under the scoreboard bulbs).   
     

** In terms of the "C" & "E" indicators I have not taken the scoreboard fully apart yet-  I did pick up the correct bulbs,is it easy to replace these?  At fist glance it does not appear that these can be opened.   Am I wrong here?

2. I'd like to install a free play button on the base or, like post 1988 (or was it 1993?) models, as part of the boo button.  Can this be done with the CX-83 board?  Has anyone done this?

3. The on/off switch is located inside the base- I'm thinking of moving it to the outside of the base (just by the coin slot).  Has anyone done this?  I would seem logical to simply disassemble the existing one (add a longer wire) and attach to base accordingly.  Is it that easy or is there an even easier way?

I'm no electronics expert but can handle my own with some general guidance so I appreciate your candid feedback.  I do have a guy who can repair and modify pretty much any old (or new) so that's my fallback plan if this gets too complex.

thanks in advance.
JP

[render]

Hey there,

I also have an '83.

The under scoreboard lights and the fan are powered through those last two rails on the ribbon cable. if it is cooked at either end that could stop them from working. A new ribbon cable should fix this. I also had the same issue with mine when I got it.

The "ICE" lights are really simple inside. After you carefully take apart the scoreboard and unhook the power connectors at the backs of the light blocks (note the connection locations) you can push them through the sides of the scoreboard. They dont even screw in they just kind of clip in the holes. Once you have them off you can unclip the opaque white face and see inside the block. Inside the block are two little bulbs loose in there - thats all they are. A few of mine have one bulb burnt out but still work with the other so I havent bothered replacing them, not sure of the specs on the bulbs but they should be super easy to find.

I dont know about installing a free play button. I had wondered the same thing and was thinking a switch between the two terminals on the coin op mechanism at the bottom of it might work?? I have no idea, I just keep the doors open and a loonie in the bin =)

Moving the on/off switch sounds like it wouldnt be too hard. A previous owner of my machine made the power cable the on off on.

Hope some of my rambling helps. I've got lots of pics of my tear down and rebuild if you need any reference.

Cheers!
Dan

[jp2]

Hi Dan- thanks for the reply and details. I have to say this is my first "old school" game restoration and it's been fun and interesting. Here's what I've learned and done thus far:

1. My original ribbon had 2 burnt outlets- since i was planning to purchase a new dome I ended up buying the dome/surface kit from ICE which included a new ribbon. That fixed the fact that the fan nor the underneath lights were working. Check one for the good guys.

2. I took the entire SB apart and opened up the I-C-E lamps- i cleaned them out (32 years of dust and dirt gone in 30-seconds) and observed. I ended up going to advance auto parts and purchasing a pack of sylvania mini bulbs (#73 or #74) which are 12v/1.2w. (the housing calls for 12v/1w)- since i do not have mini hands nor do i have a miniature surgical bot I took the SB to a guy who does game restoration & repair. His feedback was to nix the whole idea (the sylvania bulbs and the wire in the housing is very small and might not hold a soldering) and he recommended replacing them entirely with LEDs for each box (he would solder them in). I have not done this yet but am planning to have him do it within the next 2-weeks (will post a picture once complete). I figure I only want to do this once and LEDs should last the life of the machine and beyond.

3. Free play button- bingo, you nailed it. My coin slots are both in working order so i purchased a button (a whopping $3.49 value), drilled a 1-1/8th hole into the base to the right of the coin mech and attached the two wires from one of the coin slots to the button- viola! Now you can still use one of the coin slots or simply press the button.
www.ebay.com/itm/BLUE-LONG-LEGNTH-ARCADE-PUSH-BUTTON-ALSO-FOR-MAME-/380171086259?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5883f669b3

4. On/off button on the base versus inside. I had to order a new power cord as the one on the machine seemed to be from 1943 let alone 1983 so i wired it up and noticed that it should be a simple process of moving the existing switch to the base cabinet. I have not done this yet but will do so at some time- for now i have the machine plugged into a power strip and use that on/off switch as the main. Funny thing about the cord from ICE: there's no white/black wire- they've been replaced with blue/brown. I don't know why- all i know is apparently blue is the new white and brown is the new black

I found a guy who has exact replica's of all the original stickers- i have not received them yet but have read positive feedback from others who have worked with him:
www.thisoldgame.com/products/chexx-hockey-art-restoration-decal-kit-

No one (including the folks at ICE) can tell me the exact blue color name of the table. "Blue" and "that color hasn't been used in over 25 years" is all i got from ICE- which i thought was very funny (thanks guys:). The table is not in bad shape at all but i want to do some touching up- I can scrape a piece off and take it to my local paint store and they can match it up.

Players: I received some brand new Bruins/Canadian players and am planning to re-paint the original USA/USSR players sometime in December. This way, depending on the audience we can replay the "miracle of 1980" or simply go down the path of playing (and beating) the much hated les habitants canadiens.

[render]

Hey JP! Thats great I'm glad the cable fixed the lights and fan. Ive seen two cables from the original '83 machines and they both had those last two terminals burnt out and melted. No idea what would cause that to happen to them.

Changing the ICE lights to LEDs would be cool. If you can get the specs off of the guy changing yours out let me know. Do your ICE lights all have the correct letter silhouettes in them? I have a few extra now. My machine was missing all of the letters, all of them were 'I's, all six.

Thats cool that the free play button works! I might do the same to my machine =)

Those are the stickers that Im going to use as well. I purchased two CHEXX stickers from ICE but they are nothing like the originals. That guy that make the replacements are much nicer.

When you paint the table how are you going to strip the original blue paint off? Also I would be curious to know the colour you come up with as well.

I removed a Canada / Russia team from my machine (its the 83 blue base model) and put on the painted 1983 USA / RUSSIA team from ICE. They look great, but a handful of games and the paint on the skates is staring to chip on a few of the players.

Does your machine play an anthem? Just curious as I appear to be missing several of the sound ROMs on the MOOG board.

Cheers dude! Glad its coming together!

Dan

[grather]

Hi guys,

Just reading a little about what you are saying.  

I bought a '83 and am trying to get it to work.  I first tried to power it up and had a circuit blow on the scoreboard.  I'm getting that replaced this week.

I'm having a major issue troubleshooting the mainboard. I have what looks to be a power cord on the back of the board soldered to "P8" and the first 2 pins of P1 on the back of the board.  Weird.  I didn't know the guy that I got the chexx from so I don't know what had happened to it.  

I have some pictures if you guys are interested in helping me out.

Anyways, thanks!  

[render]

Dec 2, 2014 20:34:18 GMT -5 grather said:

Hi guys,

Just reading a little about what you are saying.  

I bought a '83 and am trying to get it to work.  I first tried to power it up and had a circuit blow on the scoreboard.  I'm getting that replaced this week.

I'm having a major issue troubleshooting the mainboard. I have what looks to be a power cord on the back of the board soldered to "P8" and the first 2 pins of P1 on the back of the board.  Weird.  I didn't know the guy that I got the chexx from so I don't know what had happened to it.  

I have some pictures if you guys are interested in helping me out.

Anyways, thanks!  

Hey there,

I believe that P8 is the MOOG board main power. The first two pins of P1 power the fan and light in the scoreboard. On my machine they had at some point unplugged P8 and tied it directly into a splice in the ribbon cable.. haha. 

Is the ribbon cable burned or charred around the first two pins?

[jp2]

@dan- I will let you know as soon as i have the LEDs installed. If i had faith that i could solder I'd do it myself but instead i think it's best to spend 50-75 bucks and let someone who does this routinely handle it. I received the stickers from This Old Game and they are great- what a pita to get the old stickers off ( i used a combo of rubbing alcohol and goo gone and a lot of elbow grease) and once done the actual paint was not bad at all so I decided not to repaint it. SO i have a few dings here and there- with age comes beauty. I sold off my original 1980 USA/USSR team and bought the new (1980) teams from ICE as well. I have a few extra old players and I purchased Tuff Toe black via Amazon ($24) - this stuff is meant for pitcher shoes and workboots and puts a hard shell glossy cover over the surface and is supposedly impenatrable- i read another post about it and will be giving it a try. Will report once it's done with results. In terms of sounds my Moog board is working well (lucky for me).

@grather- dan is correct. P8 should be a green and purple connector which leads to the Power Box and P1 is for the Scoreboard ribbon. Most likely, like the rest of us, you have 2 burnt connectors at the scoreboard end- i've seen/read many people say the same thing and suspect the surface lights after running fur hundreds of hours killed those two pin connectors. I purchased a new dome and included was a new CX83 scoreboard cable- BUT you can purchase the CX83 cable as a stand alone item (check their website under parts- it's there). Neither of those two connections should be soldered onto the board- I would guess maybe somewhere along the way the pins broke on the board and someone macgyver'ed the connector(s) on. If you ordr a new cable the board side comes with a P1 connection and a P8 connection. When i received it I was confused - I called ICE and they instructed me to connect the scoreboard ribbon to P1 (which i got) and the other connector is to go directly to the P8 connector from the power box (versus directly to the board) and, viola!, it worked perfectly. Sounds like you might want to buy a new SC ribbon- remove the soldered power box P8 connector, splice an actual female connector to those two wires and then connect the new SB P8 ribbon to it. I guess one of the issues you can now face is removing the soldered wires and "hoping" the PINS are i good shape while also not breaking the pins....

hope this helps.

John 

[grather]

Hi guys,

Thanks for replying so quickly. I think this is exactly what happened to my game.

The only problem is, is that I don't have a connector from the Power Supply to the board that matches the one that has been rigged on the board.

I will keep you posted. I just want this to work. It's an awesome game! Thanks guys.

[grather]

Hi all,

Just wanted to give an update to tell you where I am.

I have now got the power going to the scoreboard properly. I have the ICE lights on, but none of the LED's work nor the fan. I have blown a circuit in on the board where everything plugs in, but I bought two just incase.

I'm not really sure where to go next. I am picking up two pucks on Friday, I want to see if it is atleast playable. The sound chips have been taken off the main board so I can't tell if it's working or not.

Any help would be appreciated. [e-mail] is my email address if anyone could help that would be great.

Thanks!

[jaredei13]

Hey guys,

This is all good info. I have an original 1980 Chexx working great, except,that the scoreboard doesn't REGISTER the goals. It COUNTS them though, because it starts overtime when we are tied. Also, our I. C. E. lights don't work. I just sent the main board and scoreboard off to ICE and am waiting to hear back.

In the meantime, I've begun painting my players back to USA. USSR. They look sweet.

Later!

JE

[Denny]

Hi I need a power supply for cx83 do you know were I could get one

[Denny]

Jun 30, 2020 18:08:43 GMT -5 Denny said:

Hi I need a power supply for cx83 do you know were I could get one

[Denny]

Jun 30, 2020 18:10:55 GMT -5 Denny said:

Jun 30, 2020 18:08:43 GMT -5 Denny said:

Hi I need a power supply for cx83 do you know were I could get one

[CAPTAIN]

Try asking On Facebook On National Bubble Hockey Association "Group"

Good Luck

Captain KO