Tron Fully Functional…On To The Cabinet Restoration

Just wanted to drop a quick note that I finally got my Tron working 100%. Took many weeks of PCB, Power Supply, and Controls troubleshooting. From my last update, I had the game boards working completely, but my spinner optical encoder board was not working properly. The game characters turned clockwise no matter which direction the spinner was rotated. I bought a couple new optical sensors. I had to buy two because shipping was so expensive. Replaced the old one with a new one, and no change. I then got a spare optical encoder board, made for a different Midway game, from another collector (Thanks Mongo!). I swapped the IC’s from my board with the ones from that board, and STILL no change. Then I went through and tested EVERY circuit trace on the board to make sure there were good solder joints and traces. They all checked out. Finally, in desperation, I replaced the new optical sensor on the board with the 2nd new optical sensor I purchased. It worked! I ended up wasting hours on this thing due to a faulty new part. Fun!

One other quick Tron note: I ordered a Tron Freeplay chip from Hobbyroms.com. Should get it soon. I highly recommend this chip. It’s a great way to minimize screen burn from having credits sitting on the game. Hobbyroms.com has been great to work with as well. Just a tip if you do order one - let them know what ROM Revision date is listed on your roms. There are 3 or 4 versions and they have to send you the correct Freeplay revision to match.