On 13 Mar 2012, at 12:06, Sven Killig wrote:

> As you can see, it's very similar to your's, but there's a discrepancy that 
> makes me headaches: on page 49 in
> http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/311/Williams_1989_Black_Knight_2000_Operations_Manual.pdf
> I can recognize 3 different resistor values for the segment areas, whereas in 
> the PDF from Vishay/Dale there are nine...

You are correct, Williams Pinball use only three values as follows. You need to 
look at the lettering in your diagram for the segments.

As you would expect, smaller segments have less current and a higher resistor 
value.

Segments:
Dot, Comma, g, m = 18k
e, f, c and b = 10k
r, p, n, d, k, j, h, a = 8k2

Which makes your 16 segments in total.

Note that the right hand two numbers on the display do not have commas, no need 
for them with numbers under 1,000. You might need to know this if you are 
intending to scroll sentences with commas!

I believe Data East used the same displays around this time. Robocop is a 
pinball I had that I am sure had 16 digit alphas. I have the schematics for 
that somewhere but really, just go with the three Williams values, they are 
fine. If you want to get picky, just adjust them yourself afterwards if you see 
one segment that seems brighter or dimmer than the others. They look fine using 
the three values, as far as I am concerned on the board I made. The Black 
Knight looks OK too, I cannot see any difference in brightness among the 
segments.

The displays are pretty bomb-proof unless you bust that nipple off the back. 
Glue a piece of tubing over it at the very least. You don't want to be breaking 
these displays, they are costly.

On old displays it's quite easy to rip the metal tag connectors out. Even if 
you do pull one out, they will usually push back in. There is a bead of resin 
to hold the connectors into the glass, but this has often flaked off in places 
and can lift quite easily if you bend the metal tags. I've resurrected displays 
that had a dozen or so connectors ripped out and it was OK after pushing in 
some contacts from a broken donor display. Some go in one way round and some 
the other. Hot glue them in if they are loose. I've even heard of pinball 
people using a dremel to grind away some glass when a connector has broken off 
inside the glass. Conductive paint can be useful too.

John S

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