Chess computer repairs including Novag Adversary

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Bryan Whitby
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Chess computer repairs including Novag Adversary

Post by Bryan Whitby »

Gents

I have a friend in Spain who repairs chess computers as a hobby and documents them in great details with many photographs.

Berger is both a software and hardware engineer and his latest repair was to bring a completely dead and damaged Novag Adversary back to life which I'm sure will be of interest to most of us here. There are also a couple of videos showing the Adversary back in action.

One thing to remember here is that Berger repairs these chess computers for his Spanish chess friends for free!!

Besides the documented chess computer repairs, there is also various other computer chess projects to read about including many that I have been involved with.

Although the site is in Spannish there is a small translation button at the bottom right hand side.

https://sites.google.com/site/proyectos ... es/ajedrez

Enjoy
Bryan
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spacious_mind
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Re: Chess computer repairs including Novag Adversary

Post by spacious_mind »

Chessmaster Ireland wrote:Gents

I have a friend in Spain who repairs chess computers as a hobby and documents them in great details with many photographs.

Berger is both a software and hardware engineer and his latest repair was to bring a completely dead and damaged Novag Adversary back to life which I'm sure will be of interest to most of us here. There are also a couple of videos showing the Adversary back in action.

One thing to remember here is that Berger repairs these chess computers for his Spanish chess friends for free!!

Besides the documented chess computer repairs, there is also various other computer chess projects to read about including many that I have been involved with.

Although the site is in Spannish there is a small translation button at the bottom right hand side.

https://sites.google.com/site/proyectos ... es/ajedrez

Enjoy
Bryan
This is an excellent site. Thanks for sharing it. I only wish that I had the nerve to try some of these things myself. I have no problems with opening things and taking things out and putting them back. But when it comes to soldering and things I get scared to death :P

I fixed my Monte Carlo IV by just opening it, loosening out the ROM and then putting the ROM back in and yippee !! It started to work again like new. I wish everything was so easy!!

Best regards,
Nick
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Berger
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Re: Chess computer repairs including Novag Adversary

Post by Berger »

Hi all,

Thank you very much for the compliments! :-)
Chessmaster Ireland wrote: One thing to remember here is that Berger repairs these chess computers for his Spanish chess friends for free!!
It's true that I have made some repairs without charging to MECA mates, but I have to clarify that I yes have charged this repair, because I worked on it for many hours, I have purchased materials, and also the owner is a very generous person. :-)

Despite having repaired the robot, it's not working perfectly (for example, sometimes piece detection fails in some squares), and I don't know if it will do for a long time: IMHO this computer has a really fragile design, which worsens with age.

Regards,
Berger
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Monsieur Plastique
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Post by Monsieur Plastique »

Great site. Good to see these irreplaceable machines being maintained like fine classic cars :)

This website is also a good example of why the newer machines are more robust than the older ones from the 80s in terms of electronics. The newer machines have very few electronic parts that wear out with age in relative terms, unlike the older machines that have a large number of electrolytic capacitors for example. Compare the insides of a early to mid 80s Novag or Scysis with the models currently sold today. I only see one or two small smoothing caps in the power supplies of modern machines, for example, and that is it! The rest is all surface mount stuff. The modern machines also tend to favour the more robust Chip on Board technology in many cases, unlike the oldies with traditional ROMs and CPUs, some of the former even socketed.
Chess is like painting the Mona Lisa whilst walking through a minefield.
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