What’s your favorite game (card, board, video, etc.)? Why?
For me my favourite board game has always been Monopoly. Over the years I have had numerous versions and this is what I like about the game, it has developed and changed with time.
The old original game will always be the best version, but I like how the makers have also created regional versions or versions that use a credit card payment system, there are so many versions out there.
I currently have two versions at home and that is one based around the city of Leicester, as well as a version that incorporates electronic banking – yes you get your own credit card!
The Leicester edition
Electronic banking edition
I know a lot of people don’t like this game just because the time it takes, and sometimes people get so frustrated with it that you often see them “flipping the board” in anger and frustration. We have none of that here and it has been known for the wife and I to have a game go on so long that we’ve stopped one evening to continue it the next day. It’s a game that the wife and I really enjoy. We’ve also both been known to play the online version, against others around the world with varying degrees of success.
Other games we really enjoy are plain old card games and a good session of darts in the garden “Pub”
Darts
Why do we enjoy it? Because it’s fun and a wonderful way to spend some quality time together, and to switch off from all the other nonsense going on in the world. It’s lovely at home when things are getting a bit hectic to just say, “Fancy a game of darts” and then off we go. It’s a great break from the norm and something else to give your attention to for a few hours. And who doesn’t like a bit of friendly rivalry?
I like games. They are a superb way to break the ice and relax. Something we all need in today’s manic world.
Remember this? Everyone had one around 1978 apart from me that is. Well, now I’ve got one, only 47 yrs late and it doesn’t work. But hey that’s what this site is all about, and that’s how I roll. Always late to the party, and even then you’ll probably find me in the kitchen 🥳
What the listing said:
Cosmetically in very good condition but does not work. Please see attached pictures to judge condition for yourself.
EBay
Another one with all battery covers! I’m shocked. And what’s that screwdriver there for?
The guy was after £17:00GBP and that included postage, but I put in a cheeky bid and managed to get it with postage for £9:80GBP. Anything under a tenner is good in my eyes.
Here’s some history:
Simon is an electronic game of short-term memory skill invented by Ralph H. Baer and Howard J. Morrison, working for toy design firm Marvin Glass and Associates, with software programming by Lenny Cope. The device creates a series of tones and lights and requires a user to repeat the sequence. If the user succeeds, the series becomes progressively longer and more complex. Once the user fails or the time limit runs out, the game is over. The original version was manufactured and distributed by Milton Bradley and later by Hasbro after it took over Milton Bradley. Much of the assembly language code was written by Charles Kapps, who taught computer science at Temple University and also wrote one of the first books on the theory of computer programming. Simon was launched in 1978 at Studio 54 in New York City and was an immediate success, becoming a pop culture symbol of the 1970s and 1980s.
Wikipedia
From what i can see in the pictures the item seems good, cosmetically. I may be able to see just a little contamination around the battery contacts but I can’t be sure. It worries me when i see a picture that shows a screwdriver alongside the item you are buying, it just screams at me that the seller has been in side and is not being truly honest about its issues. Let’s just wait until it arrives to do a full assessment. I’m genuinely excited about getting this working, as my age veers ever closer to the higher numbers. I need something to stimulate my mind, what’s left of it. 😂
Assessment:
The unit has arrived and on first impressions looks clean and tidy cosmetically. The pads are not very responsive and the battery contacts are seriously corroded. The unit is a power hungry beast, taking two ”D” cell 1.5v batteries and one PP9 9v battery. The unit does not work with its batteries in place, and i’m not surprised really, and to round it all off two screws are missing from the case, and one screw mount is broken. All four plastic springs that sit under the coloured pads are broken, and just to clarify someone has already been in here and it doesn’t bode well. My previous concerns of a screwdriver being in the original photos have been confirmed. It’s been tampered with.
Broken screw mounts and contamination Bad contacts – contaminated Pads unresponsive due to broken plastic spring mounts
The board is a typical of many circuit boards from this era that were produced for MB. I had a similar circuit board on this item here: MB – Computer Battleship
Top of boardUnderneath the boardYou can see the board structure that is typical for this era. The contact points are indicated by the red arrow marks.
In the picture above you will see two arrowed points. These points are the power contacts that make contact with the two seriously corroded battery contacts you can also see above. No wonder there is no power getting to the board. I suspect this might be the cause of our electrical problem.
Repair:
First thing to do is to get those battery contacts cleaned, as well as having a good clean of the main board. This has now been done. I’ve repaired the broken screw post by simply using a rubber washer that has been sufficient for this repair.
Contacts before and after
A friend of mine has kindly offered to print me off four of the “Double Y” springs to replace the ones that are already in place and broken. He owes me a favour or three and needs some subject matter to run through his new 3D printer so I’m very pleased to help him, as pending the outcome I may well buy one myself, as I have been threatening to do so for a while now. This should sort out the issue of the unresponsive pads, first found in the assessment of the item. He’s panicking that they might not be smooth and beautiful, I’ve told him not to worry as they are hidden inside anyway.
What I currently have on the left, what I’m expecting on the right
He’s just supplied me with five double “Y” pieces just in case one is damaged in some way. Let’s get these put in place to see the difference these make.
Out with the oldIn with the new
With the new springs in place the pads are working as they were originally designed to, now with some springiness in their operation. The battery contacts have now also been put back in place.
Cleaned contacts back in place
When assembled, the buttons are a little erratic and not always responsive so I decide to look into this further. A quick Look at the board shows that the solder contacts on the board for all of the button connections are worn, the solder has failed so I decide to reflow all these solder joints to improve the contacts. This appears to have worked as the unit when reassembled, now has uninterrupted operation. This is an age related issue. A simple fix.
Old solder joints that have failed and needed re-flowing
Result:
Another 47 year old saved from the scrap heap, it’s been an interesting and sometimes confusing repair and I thank my friend who stepped in to save the day by utilising his 3D printer to make some parts. Without his assistance this repair would not have been achievable.
Looking smart after a quick clean
It’s just another old piece of retro history to add to my ever growing collection and much to my wife’s dismay. Bless her.
Now working
Thanks for passing by, as always it’s very much appreciated.
My wife is a fantastic organiser. The family owes an awful lot to her as she always arranges meals and get togethers keeping us all in touch. Without her doing this I very much believe we’d all lose contact quite rapidly. She keeps the family together. And she is brilliant at what she does.
Today is one of those days, Easter Saturday, she has hired the Skittle alley at our local pub and we are all meeting there for a meal prior to throwing our “Cheeses” at the skittles. No perfectly round balls here, these are good old solid wood, full of splinters and shaped more like tin cans to be honest. And they can go off in any direction, there is no way to control them. Just don’t get in their way!
We play it differently up here in the East Midlands as can be seen here:
In the East Midlands, people play Long Alley in which the projectiles are rough balls or small capsule shaped logs called “cheeses” and a score is only made if the cheeses bounce a single time just in front of the pins.
Wikipedia
It can be quite brutal. But that’s how we roll in the East Midlands 😂
Our local
It’s a beautiful old pub, and we kind of adopted it when we moved up here. A right old traditional pub. I think there is about 22 of us up there tonight from all different areas, so it should be a nice evening.
Tomorrow is a different story when we will all be off to watch our home football team get slaughtered at home to our visitors- Liverpool.
But let’s not get too depressed about that, here’s how today has gone instead.
Paul wins the skittles
Winner and his prize.
4 rounds of 3 cheeses each and we had sorted out the final four of the contest, cousin Paul wins outright and wins the first prize a Cadbury crème egg. Highest score of the evening went to niece Julie who managed to down eight skittles in one round.
Overall winner Paul, and high scorer Julie.
The remainder of the evening was just people talking and catching up. It was a lovely day and My wife has already sorted out the Christmas party dinner. She’s so damned organised.
The day started at our house earlier when everyone went down our garden pub to play darts, have a drink and kick the day off in a really fun and friendly fashion. It’s ended around 12 hours later when the tiredness sets in and people start to make their excuses and gradually filter off into the night.
In the bar, after.
Tomorrow we go again when we meet at my nieces home for her house warming party. It’ll be a little more subdued as some are back to work on Monday, however I’m really looking forward to meeting up with them all again.
Item is for spares repair only. Powers on but appears to be stuck on game.
Please view photos for details of listing
Any questions please message me
EBay
R36S game console. Boxed. Good condition externally
Here’s the info:
Whether you missed out on the gaming golden age of the 2000s or want to introduce your kids to those unforgettable classics, the R36S Retro Handheld Video Game Console supports 15,000 iconic games, making it your gateway to reliving the magic. It’s the perfect way to take a nostalgic trip back and rediscover the joy of childhood favorites.
Revisit your childhood memories with the R36S. Whether you’re rediscovering the excitement of Super Mario, the thrill of Pokémon, or the challenge of Zelda, the R36S brings your favorite games back to life.
Perfect for those who want to experience the magic of the 80s and 90s games all over again.
Equipped with dual joysticks, L/R bumpers, and a vibrant 3.5″ HD IPS display at 640×480 resolution, the R36S Retro Handheld Video Game Console delivers precise control over gameplay mechanics and stunning visual clarity. Enjoy enhanced color accuracy and fine details for a gaming experience that perfectly blends nostalgia with modern innovation.
r36s.co.uk
I’ve managed to secure this item for an all in price of £16:25GBP and thats including the postage. The seller had a number of these selling, I suspect they are customer returns as they still have screen protection, they are in original boxes with stickers on them, and that makes me suspect they are returns.
I think I may have paid over the odds for this unit.
The fact that as soon as this batch were purchased, another set had taken their place on the selling platform confirms this. On the r36s.co.uk site, these consoles retail at around £65:00GBP, you can get similar items from other Chinese outlets that are considerably cheaper. This is an emulator unit that runs via the Linux operating system, and is supplied ready installed with around 15,000 games already on the unit utilising a number of gaming system platforms. As the operating system is open source, you can also add additional games should you wish to do so. The one I have purchased is stuck on just the one particular game i believe. I think I have some work to do.
I very much suspect the issues with this unit lays solely with the software and are not in anyway hardware related. I could however be very wrong. My knowledge on these systems is very limited so I’m going to be very reliant on information and tutorials that i can find on line.
And i may as well download some operating instructions prior to its arrival, just to be a step ahead and furnished with the most basic knowledge of its operation, maybe then i won’t come across as a totally clueless clown.
Assessment:
It’s arrived and cosmetically it’s fine. It just doesn’t work. It doesn’t even do what is stated in the listing. More EBay untruths.
Looks nice. Just doesn’t work
Powers on, charges ok and that’s about it. Box looks nice. Finding it hard to talk of anything else positive. Oh, and it’s not an original it’s a clone machine… cheapo copy. Any way, let’s have a look at getting it to work.
Repair:
So first thing was to download a new OS for the unit, unzip it, and download it to the removable sd card, easier said than done. I think I’ve probably lost all the games that were installed, but without a system to run it all, what’s the point. I can always download games later, I have however backed up a number of files as suggested so let’s just wait and see.
Trying to prepare the new volumes on the drive
The first operating system downloaded did not work, because now I’ve been informed that this machine is one of many clones out there, it’s not original. Lovely. Not a problem, we can still get another operating system, it’s just going to take a bit more of my time to do so, and god knows how long it will take to download the games. This is the biggest pain in the ass with these systems, the sourcing of the programs to ensure the system runs smoothly.
But it will be repaired. And I’m in no rush. I’m off out for a while.
I have had to download an alternative operating system ArKos_K36_v2.0 to my computer. It then has to be run through a disc imager programme to prepare the disc and install the correct partitions and system information, onto the micro SD card used by the unit.
That all done, time to plug the card into the unit and see if it turns on.
Hallelujah! It works.
The operating system successfully installed
Having to format the original card obviously erased all the games that were originally on the card. There were around 15000 games on this unit, but let’s be honest most of them would have been games that were either inferior, similar to others, or just used to bloat the card out. I’m now in a position where I can be choosy about the games I load on the system, and this will allow me to not have it so cluttered.
This is where it gets a little more tricky.
There are a number of people and sites I have spoken with or looked to, to find out the information required to carry out these tasks. And for someone who hasn’t messed about with computer and program files and structures for many a year it is quite daunting to say the least.
I have downloaded a file that is recommended and contains many of the 15000 games originally on the card but with a lot of the bloatware removed to make it a more structurally pleasing and easier to handle package. It’s called the Tiny best set go package and is downloaded from GitHub.
These games are broken down into Rom packages and have to be removed from the download and placed into the easyrom folder on your operating system, it’s a little more complex that that but that is the crux of the task. I won’t go into finite detail as it will bore your asses off and there is plenty of information on how to do it already out there.
I will recommend this one guy as having a superb little site regarding hand held consoles such as this and their issues: Handheld database
Anyway the task has been completed. I’m probably not going to get involved with such time consuming repairs as this again. It’s been a learning curve, but just too time consuming for me. I’ll leave these issues for the younger generation.
Result:
It works. It’s been saved from landfill and there is no better outcome than that. To be honest it’s unbelievable that so many games and so much information can be held on such a small memory card.
Space invaders….im now content
In general the game quality is really good, only let down sometimes by the way that the emulator software interprets the program in question. There is more than enough on here to keep anyone occupied during some downtime. There are many classic old school games on here that will also keep the old farts like me amused as well.
Overall it’s been a tough repair, I pretty much knew from the start what the issue would be and went into this repair totally blinkered. I have learned a lot from it, but will I be working on these again? I doubt it unless one of the younger members wants one then I might have another go. But until then it’s job done, another bit of throwaway hardware saved from the scrap heap.
Edit: I couldn’t keep away could i? I found a chap local to me who works on these units, and he has kindly offered to assist me if I should ever need anything clearing up. Well I couldn’t resist that offer and in two emails he has shown me just how to get these games downloaded, it’s simple when you know how.
19939 games now. Blimey.
So simple that rather than download a few games I’ve gone a tad over the top and now have 19939 of them. That should see me right beyond my natural existence and into the afterlife. What a lovely fellow. There are still lots of nice and helpful souls around.
Can’t get to turn on unfortunately. No battery cover. Any questions please ask
EBay
Dirty unit No battery cover
I know, there is no battery cover, however I have already sourced a seller of one if needed. This item looks quite dirty so a good soak might be the order of the day to get started. I’ll wait for its arrival before I jump to order any other bits for it.
Now as I’ve said in the past these units fall into that crazy price category on the selling platforms as the “New Antiques” of today. For an item that was low cost, somewhere between £25-40GBP when it came on the market, they can certainly command a wide range of crazy prices, here is an example of price ranges from today:
The massive range in prices for these units
This one I purchased today only came up for sale about 3 hrs ago and I thought it would have been snapped up by now, it hadn’t so I didn’t hang around any longer and purchased it for a total of £16:38GBP including its delivery. I’m not going to get too smug yet, as for all I know I may have just purchased an empty shell. Let’s wait until it arrives.
Here’s a little history of this unit:
Grandstand “Invader from Space” is a tabletop LED game dating back 45 years to 1980. Four ‘AA’ batteries power the unit or, alternatively, the Grandstand 5.5V@300mA power adapter (or an equivalent power pack) sold separately. The game, licensed to Grandstand, is a copy of Epoch’s “Invader from Space”
The company initially behind the “Grandstand” label was Adam Imports Ltd., (from 1980 Adam Leisure Group Ltd. and by 1983 Adam Leisure Group PLC) founded in 1973 by Chris Rycroft and Les Kenyon of Harrogate, UK. The company initially started as a mail order company and was the single largest supplier of calculators in the UK by 1974. By August 1978, George Bassett had acquired a 75% holding in the capital of Adam Imports for £750,000 cash, plus 60p in the pound of profits before tax in excess of £500,000 for year to December 31, 1978. Adam Imports was re-acquired from George Bassett by Chris Rycroft in 1980. It chiefly imported electronic products from other manufacturers such as VTech, Epoch, Tomy & Entex, selling them in the UK re-branded under the Grandstand name.
Wikipedia and others
So that’s the history
There is a good link to a similar repair on YouTube from a guy I follow named Stez Stix Fix, it’s very much worth a look and he has a great if not sometimes crazy way of diagnosing and repairing items. A cool guy though.
The Grandstand invaders from space game
Anyway back to my own purchase.
Assessment:
I must admit the unit doesn’t look as dirty as in the original pictures. The battery cover is missing and there is a crack in the side and a deep scar at the bottom, this won’t be too much of an issue if I can weld it all back together. I will still give it a good soak to clean it all up though. I’ve put four batteries in place, and the unit is definitely dead. There are no loose wires, voltages are getting around the board according to the multimeter and nothing is getting hot. There appears to be no short circuits, and then I notice this, capacitor CO7, slight bulge on top and what looks like leakage from the bottom. We have a candidate as to why this unit is not working.
CO7 looking unhealthy to me, you can see the component to the left that looks like it’s covered in a fur ball. The result of the old capacitor “coughing”
I’ll whip this out and see what we have but I suspect this old capacitor has failed and is causing an issue, heres hoping I have a suitable replacement.
Repair:
This little beast is a 330uf 10v electrolytic capacitor. I have none available so have had to purchase a pack of ten. These should be here in the next few days. There are three other old electrolytic capacitors that I will also change whilst I’m in there, as these are all likely to fail at some point soon. These components are now all around 45 years old, it’s a wise move to change them out.
One very dead capacitor removed.
I’ve ordered a 3D printed battery cover to replace the one that is missing. This should be here in a couple of weeks.
Whilst waiting I have cleaned the inside and outside of the casing as best I can. I still have a piece of broken surround to repair, however this is just a simple glue and a little bit of support job.
Case inside and out cleaned
Broken surround repaired
The surround that was broken has been repaired and secured with some nylon soaked in a superglue compound inside the casing. It’s rock solid. Outside the break is hardly noticeable. The break is secure and much stronger now.
New capacitor here
I’ve replaced all the offending capacitors and the unit remains dead. I’ve reflowed most of the board as there were some dry solder joints. I’ve also rewired the bridge from the control panel to the main board as one of the wires here had broken.
Bridge required resoldering
After using the multimeter to check some traces and components it’s now pointing to this component (a power transistor D882) being the cause of this catastrophic breakdown as its readings are all over the place. I suspect this item has overheated, the capacitor has blown and then it’s just died itself. I’m probably wrong, but I know what I mean. Probably just a catastrophic chain of events that all contributed to the units demise.
D882 transistor – power regulator
And as usual I have none available so will have to send for some new ones. The new components have arrived and the new power transistor has taken its place on the board. Now reassembled I place some new batteries in and the unit comes to life. It was the power transistor at fault, I should have really checked here first after seeing that damaged capacitor at the beginning.
All old components removed and replaced in this unit
Not to worry though as it’s had a good overhaul and has been totally recapped as a precaution. I’ve used some conformal coating on a few tracks that had some copper exposed after a good clean, to ensure they don’t deteriorate any further.
It has life
The unit is looking really good and these items were traditionally very loud and this certainly is. It’s working well just as it should do and I’m exceptionally happy with this repair. I’m still awaiting the battery cover that I have had 3D printed and this should be here in the next week to complete the fix.
No scoreHere we go3D printed cover arrived. Minor adjustments needed but in all a good purchase
So with that I will bring this build to a conclusion. It has been a fun project, I’ve learned a number of things about this circuit board and gained valuable knowledge.
But best of all we have rescued another item and saved it from landfill.
I so much wish to write some posts of substance on this blog but in the last few weeks I just can’t be bothered. I’ve reposted a few posts that I’ve liked or found a familiarity with but that’s about it.
Looking at my draft posts I have 14 – yes 14 that are in the process of being completed dating back to May of this year. These are all a number of projects I have on going including Camera repair, musical keyboards, video games, a complete radio control boat build as well as radios and some old cassette players that I have taken on board. I’m stuck for a number of reasons.
I do most of my repairs in our conservatory out of the main house away from the wife. My equipment that I use can be moved in three large boxes that take about an hour or so to assemble and disassemble, hence I like to be able to leave it assembled for a while to get any satisfaction and achievement out of what I’m trying to repair. If I had to put it all together and take it straight down again I think I’d lose total interest in the task at hand.
However it’s getting near Christmas and the wife has invited her entire family around for Christmas Day dinner, hence I have had to make myself and my gear scarce, as she plans to be feeding them all in our conservatory, my workshop.
It’s like I have had to shut up shop for the season, with so much still to do. I’m also awaiting a good number of parts to finish these projects, so that doesn’t help either.
A selection of the backlog of projects I have ongoing
So as it stands, unless I can adapt my kit to be a bit more stealth like then I’m probably not going to be attending to any of these much before the new year.
That said, has anyone tried these usb portable soldering irons at all? I may be in the market for one.
In the meantime I suppose I’ll just have to mingle and be nice. It’s going to be a tough Christmas 😂
Is there an age or year of your life you would re-live?
For some reason 1976 always features in my memories. It was the year of the heatwave, summer was just how you’d expect it and the six week school holiday was utter bliss.
Things were different back then when you went out and played in parks, woodland and farmers fields, making your own entertainment and just having such fun. Now they are all sprawling estates.
No distractions such as mobile phones etc, you went through seasons of football, marbles, cricket, conkers, making catapults, you name it and we did it.
We had national strikes and power cuts but as a youngster that was still a couple of years away from being a teenager, none of that really mattered.
I sure miss those days of innocence, fun and enjoyment with your mates. Truly superb times.
Then we grow up.
I do believe the younger generation of today have missed out on those hazy days gone by. But then again I guess it’s our generation that changed that.
I have always found it easier to be a child rather than an adult. My wife would whole heartedly agree.
FAULTY no power, NOT WORKING for Spare Parts or Repair.
TEST NOTES: Does not power up, no further testing, unable to check any functions. Battery leakage with corrosion in and around battery compartment.
Ebay
The unitYes…there is corrosion
Another low priced item that I fancy getting working. And as is standard with me it has corrosion. This item is from 2003, it is a self contained game arcade system that plugs into the tv. It has five games installed including classics such as Galaxian and PAC Man, so compared to some items I’ve purchased of late, at 21 years old this one is a relative baby.
Well, we now await its arrival where we can give it a good look over and assessment. Hurry along now delivery person…..
It’s arrived.
It’s in pretty much perfect condition, all stickers are in place and it hasn’t been previously opened.
I’ve put in 4 new batteries, and damn it. It powers on. It’s working.
It switches on
I’ve plugged it into the back of a television and it also plays.
Damn, it works
Yes there is a little corrosion on the battery springs but I’ve seen a lot worse. I’ll give these a little clean just so I can say I’ve done something.
It’s quite rare these days to get a bargain off of EBay, and for the seller to be truthful in his description, in fact he’s been exceptionally honest, just writing it off without testing. A big bonus to me.
As the saying goes, if it ain’t broken, don’t try to fix it.
Makes a boring post though, sorry about that. A bargain, yes, and another one kept from the tip and will be used at home in the garden pub, the wife will love this as she’s a big Pac-Man fan.
Here I purchased the toy I most wanted back in my teenage years. Unfortunately I wasn’t available to get the original MB version produced in 1979 so I had to settle for the latter “improved” version made by Zeon Ltd that was made in 2010.
It’s arrived and to be honest dosen’t look too shabby, needs a bit of a clean up and maybe some new transfers applying but we’ll get to that at another time, for now we need to try and get the machine up and running.
I’ve eventually managed to get the lid off. This unit was built to ensure that it was difficult to get into so repairs couldn’t be carried out. Some of the screws are buried under fascia dressings, and if you aren’t careful you could end up snapping some of the body shell.
Big trak body shellBig trak circuit boardDetached speaker wireDetached battery wireBig trak wheels removed
With the two halves of the body shell detached it’s obvious there are some detached wires. One was a battery wire, one was a speaker wire. Oh if this was the issue wouldn’t it be great? But it wasn’t. I soldered these wires back into place, put the three D types in place and it was still dead.
I’ve now desoldered all connections from the circuit board to assist in carrying out checks for continuity and tracing voltage. I can also check the board under the microscope. I may change all the capacitors for SMD ones.
I started checking continuity and tracing voltages and was doing really well until I got to a large section of the main board where everything seemed dead and unresponsive. What the heck was going on here? And then I noticed the wire had detached from the positive probe of my multimeter thus ending any further testing for today. I need to order some new probes. Well, I’ve ordered some nice new probes and croc clip connectors as well, so as soon as they arrive I’ll get back on with the testing. They arrived and were damaged on arrival, so back to the drawing board.
Big trak worn cogsBig trak worn cogs
I took the drive train to pieces and here it became apparent that a number of the cogs are damaged. I believe there is also some issues with the motion detector but I can’t confirm that until I get some power into the motors. I can’t find spare cogs online so I have ordered myself a second damaged unit to use as salvage. To be honest this new unit has all the transfers in place so I will probably use that shell and the guts of my original unit to form one complete Big Trak.
New donor Big Trak – better than my original one
The donor unit has arrived and boy I’m impressed. It’s in far better condition than my original one, so as expected this one will become the working unit and my original one will be come the donor. Any parts left over will be sold on as spares or even used on another damaged one if I can source it.
My new Bigtrak
If you look at the video above you will see the new Big Trak going through the motions. However the one thing it dosen’t do is turn. Could be a wheel sensor issue who knows. Good thing is that the cogs haven’t broken as the drive wheels are both solid and not free wheeling.
There are only two real issues with the donor here. Firstly it will not do the turn command and secondly, one of the drive wheels is damaged. Luckily I have a spare wheel so this was swapped over, some decals were missing but I coaxed these off my old truck with a hot air gun and reapplied them with no issues.
Missing decalsDecals applied
Looking into the drive issue meant opening the gear box. In here we have two magnetic independent gear controls that should have a gap between them, these two were stuck together thus rendering independent motor operations of the turning control useless.
Magnetic sensors joinedMagnetic sensors as they should be
I removed the two motors and repositioned them and the cogs holding the magnetic gear, this gave a gap of about 3mm that now allows the wheels to turn in opposite directions allowing the unit to turn.
Now the Magnetic sensors are adjusted….it turns
Whilst in this gear box I was able to confirm the issue with my old gear box and it really is all down to two damaged drive cogs that I need to obtain. I’m pleased with that as I could now get two good working units for just a small outlay once I can source some cogs. I will have to repair the wheel I removed to replace the one on my new unit however I have an idea how I’m going to remedy this and again it’s a low cost option. But that’s a job for another day.
2:18 of rebuild magic
So if you look at the video above, it’s the full fix that I posted on YouTube. Really pleased with this fix, again I’ve learned quite a bit about these units and I’m going to have immense fun programming it. My wife dosen’t understand my excitement over this toy, but all my old buddies and colleagues understand it as they grew up in the same era. Maybe it’s the male menopause, reliving the past and all that.
But hey, it keeps me occupied and out of mischief so who should worry about that
This one is going on my shelf so when the kids visit I can show them the joys of basic programming we experienced back in the day.
I’ve just brought one of these, it’s a toy and I’m heading for the senior end of adulthood:
Big Trak CE3962
BIG TRAK / bigtrak is a programmable toy electric vehicle created by Milton Bradley in 1979, resembling a futuristic Sci-Fi tank / utility vehicle. The original Big Trak was a six-wheeled (two-wheel drive) tank with a front-mounted blue “photon beam” headlamp, and a keypad on top. The toy could remember up to 16 commands, which it then executed in sequence. There also was an optional cargo trailer accessory, with the UK version being white to match its colour scheme; once hooked to the Bigtrak, this trailer could be programmed to dump its payload.
WikipediA
Here’s what the original listing said:
Item probably does not work. I recall attempting to fix corroded terminals years ago and it’s still not working. I do not have D cell batteries to test now.
EBay
I was just browsing around as I do and this popped up on my timeline, the wife is going to disown me for bringing such junk into the house, however for a split second 14 year old me was in the house and a flood of memories, not all good came back to me. These toys came out in 1979 when I was aged 14. My friend over the way from me was brought one of these for Christmas and I experienced one of my first ever episodes of Jealousy. Back in 1979 I believe they retailed for approximately £39 Gbp, and my parents weren’t about to part with hard earned cash to invest in developing technology like computing – “It’ll never last, it’s just a fad” (Famous last words).
I made every excuse possible to go around his house to play and even offered to look after it for him when he went on holiday, he never let me though and I believe at that moment my friend realised what the term obsessive meant, as he was experiencing it big time with me.
Now I own one, however this is the later version from 2010, it only cost me £9.99 Gbp and its probably a wreck, but I’m really going to treat this like a proper full sized car restoration and I want this to work, crikey I’ve even found out I can buy the original decals from Australia, so it’s patently obvious the obsession is still there.
I can’t say I have genuinely looked so forward to a parcel arriving as much as this one. I sincerely hope I have no regrets…. And I have all fingers crossed.
This is going to be a labour of love and I can’t wait.
Foxes Den 
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