After replacing the shorted HOT and power regulator, as well as a bunch of way out of spec caps, the picture is not too bad
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Goodbye Star Rider
Well I never expected my Star Rider cockpit to be going to its new home stuck out the side of a transit van :) Best of luck to you getting that back out
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Pole Position Playable
So today I built a utilty panel for Pole Position from the various bits required and an Atari metal plate I happened to find (2 volume controls + test and service switches). This brought the sound roaring to life.
Yet again I made the rookie Pole Position mistake of forgetting that during the power up sequence, the game board plays an explosion sound (whoever at Atari added that into the power up sequence is the biggest bastard in the arcade gaming world) - It made me jump as the speakers were turned right up.
Next I diverted my attention to the monitor, which, was lacking in green. Green was clearly working, but it seemed that the cutoff was wrong as light shades of green were not visible but bright green was perfectly fine. Adjusting the cutoff (it was nearly on maximum) resulted in either a very green screen or almost no green at all. Clearly another tube that I need to rejuvenate... urrgh! For now I have gone for the best compromise and then slotted the cab back into its place so that I could have a few games. Wow I suck at Pole Position! In fairness, I have not played it in years, other than on my test bench using a trackball for steering, while fixing other peoples Pole Position PCB s
The next thing I do to the cab is going to have to be to fit a switch mode PSU. The Pole Position boards drain loads of power and have endless power and heat problems, caused by the AR2's struggling to keep up with the power demands. Burnt edge connectors are also all too common with this game. I envisage connecting the swtich mode PSU directly to the boards +5 and Ground test points with crimp terminals, which should offer a much better power path than the edge connector.
Yet again I made the rookie Pole Position mistake of forgetting that during the power up sequence, the game board plays an explosion sound (whoever at Atari added that into the power up sequence is the biggest bastard in the arcade gaming world) - It made me jump as the speakers were turned right up.
Next I diverted my attention to the monitor, which, was lacking in green. Green was clearly working, but it seemed that the cutoff was wrong as light shades of green were not visible but bright green was perfectly fine. Adjusting the cutoff (it was nearly on maximum) resulted in either a very green screen or almost no green at all. Clearly another tube that I need to rejuvenate... urrgh! For now I have gone for the best compromise and then slotted the cab back into its place so that I could have a few games. Wow I suck at Pole Position! In fairness, I have not played it in years, other than on my test bench using a trackball for steering, while fixing other peoples Pole Position PCB s
The next thing I do to the cab is going to have to be to fit a switch mode PSU. The Pole Position boards drain loads of power and have endless power and heat problems, caused by the AR2's struggling to keep up with the power demands. Burnt edge connectors are also all too common with this game. I envisage connecting the swtich mode PSU directly to the boards +5 and Ground test points with crimp terminals, which should offer a much better power path than the edge connector.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Pole Position Lives
There we go, PCB fixed and monitor sorted. Just need to wire up a pair of volume controls so we can have some sound
Pole Position Almost!
Too much blue on the monitor and a bad video line buffer it seems, but after owning this cab for about 9years, I have finally got it nearly right
Last will and testament
Fortunatly before the Centipede monitor died, it had written a will leaving its chassis and power cord to Pole Position :)
Centipede more broken
Well the centipede tube was nice and bright for a few seconds, then after a flash of blue the tube crapped out and is no more :(
Centipede less broken.
Funny how the monitor works alot better with the anode connected :) However the tube is on its last legs (2 minutes to warm up enough for a picture) and the vertical sync is miles out. Lets see if we can improve anything
Centipede monitor
It is now quite clear why the centipede monitor was making very strange noises. Can anyone else see what is wrong in this picture? LOL
Success
I had to spend about half an hour repeatedly performing the Clean and Ballance operation, but looks like it has paid off
Discharging
The chequered flag monitor has lots of colour bleed, so time to work on the monitor and see if we can fix it
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Return of the Jedi fail
Having my first game on this machine in a year and the pcb craps out on me :(
Friday, May 20, 2011
Reshuffle
Major game of real life tetris going on. The problem with having too many machines is that moving 1 machine involves moving 5 others
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Packed
3 pinball machines, 2 electromechanical upright games, 1 candy cab, 1 flatpack lethal enforcers, 5 populated playfields
Monday, May 16, 2011
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