A peek inside a dedicated Big Buck Hunter Pro

roothorick

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A while back someone was asking about converting a pre-PC-hardware Buck Hunter to Pro. They wanted a look inside a dedicated Pro or later to get an idea of how the computer is wired up. Well, I just happened to be poking around in Badger's dedicated Pro so I took some pictures.

IMG_20120420_102305.jpg


The power supply died on this computer. A standard ATX power supply drops right in from an electrical standpoint, but doesn't physically fit inside the case. My solution is to leave the PSU sitting loose inside the cabinet and run the wires through the hole, as seen here.

The connections are, left to right: I/O comm (serial), VGA video out, security dongle, audio out...

..and the connector on the far right is interesting. Insetad of including a power supply in the cabinet, PlayMechanix opted to leech power from the PC's power supply. That is, this connector provides DC power to the cabinet, not the other way around. The pinout, top to bottom:
+12V
GND
Reset (more on this later)
+5V
GND

And the I/O board this all connects to:
IMG_20120420_102325.jpg


Clockwise from the right: Audio in from PC, Serial comm with PC, Guns 1&2, Video out to monitor, Video in from PC, and Edge connector for everything else

The I/O board has a watchdog that connects to the reset wire on the PC power connector. If the game goes out to lunch, it puts a signal on this wire that makes a special board inside the PC short out the reset button header on the motherboard, resetting the whole system.

The edge connector has power in, ground, speaker, start button lamp control, the start button switches themselves, the reset signal, and the coin door stuff -- volume +, volume -, service, test, coin meters, coin switches, DBV pulse, and on and on.

Pretty sure the video signal is VGA. Dedicated machines have a Wells-Gardner multisync in them (either a D9400 variant or a D9800 depending on production run, ours has a D9410) so I'm not 100% sure.

If you buy the PC and the I/O board you should be able to drop the game into any cabinet you'd like if you can figure out the edge connector. If someone actually wants to do this, I can probably figure out that pinout for them.
 
Hmm, I know the Vortec V3 cabinet depending on production (early or late) have something similar to the end power connector. The early models that were a generic PC strapped in have an extra power supply, but once they went to "graphite" PCs, it then leeched off of the internal power.
 
A while back someone was asking about converting a pre-PC-hardware Buck Hunter to Pro. They wanted a look inside a dedicated Pro or later to get an idea of how the computer is wired up. Well, I just happened to be poking around in Badger's dedicated Pro so I took some pictures.

IMG_20120420_102305.jpg

Funny, my Dig Dug aftermarket retrofit solution looks strangely similar :D

CIMG6178.jpg
 
Those computers are big pile of turds. I've got one in the shop that refuses to load after using the recovery disc. The big buck hunter logo will appear and say its loading, but then goes to a blank screen with an underscore in the top left corner on the screen. I'd performed recovery 3 times and ensured that the BIOS has the proper settings adjusted. Not to mention connecting the watch dog reset line to the mobo won't appear to let the computer start properly. Its pretty redonk if you ask me and Raw Thrills/Betson closes early so right now I'm in a pickle for getting this thing fixed anytime soon.

Post any info ya'll know about fixing these things, I would greatly appreciate it myself.
 
@riki...

First part of your problem. The watch dog reset connector is probably backwards on the mobo. Flip it and I bet the CPU will boot just fine.

Second part. Are you using on board video or an expansion card? If the expansion card isn't supported by the game (a lot are NOT) then the game will do EXACTLY what yours is doing. What version of the game is it and what revision software are you trying to load.
 
@riki...

First part of your problem. The watch dog reset connector is probably backwards on the mobo. Flip it and I bet the CPU will boot just fine.

Second part. Are you using on board video or an expansion card? If the expansion card isn't supported by the game (a lot are NOT) then the game will do EXACTLY what yours is doing. What version of the game is it and what revision software are you trying to load.


I'll try re-wiring the watchdog reset cable see if that does anything, but the version of software is 1.07, Raw Thrills says it is older but to go ahead and try it and call back if there is something wrong. I'm using the on board video, no expansion because none of them ever came with video cards. I know how these things are wired as I've repaired one before.
 
I'll try re-wiring the watchdog reset cable see if that does anything, but the version of software is 1.07, Raw Thrills says it is older but to go ahead and try it and call back if there is something wrong. I'm using the on board video, no expansion because none of them ever came with video cards. I know how these things are wired as I've repaired one before.

Re-wiring the watchdog reset cable produced the same results. Fans are on but not video. Shut off the computer, remove the watchdog cable, turned it back on and I get video and bios. This mobo and psu are both new and were ordered from Raw Thrills, including the I/O board......so it doesn't make a lick of sense to me. Either the software is too old, or the hard drive is the issue. I'm just waiting to call them tomorrow when their offices are open.
 
reset output is probably bad from the I/O board or its not wired right in the cabinet. No big deal, it really isnt needed. Your game doesnt have the USB mini fuse board does it?

1.07 of what game? BBH World? 1.07 World is FULL of bugs and is also dongle specific (Betson may tell you its not but trust me, it is). You need BBH World 1.17 to get things working right.

You can download it from Raw Thrills website.

You sure your running a MicroTel and not a Dell?
 
One more question. Are you unplugging the watchdog cable from the Mobo or are you pulling that molex off of the back of the MicroTel PC?
 
Well I'm pulling the watch dog cable from the mobo, not the molex connector. My I/O board is getting power, and I do not have that mini fuse block like some of them do.

The version of the game is 1.07 BBHP, not world. The serial number for the dongle matches the recovery disc. My hope that the I/O board is wired correctly because it is a direct replacement with that jamma edge connector. This one is installed on the cabinet wall and not the metal plate that some of them have with the mini fuse block.

Its running on a microtel, we had found this cabinet stripped of its monitor, I/O board but not the computer. The original hard drive burned up, and we found a drive we could use to run the recovery disc on, but to tell you the truth I'm not the one who had originally talked to Raw Thrills about this installing on another hard drive. The Hard drive could be un-original and missing some specific files, but I wouldn't know why Raw Thrills would tell my co-worker he could run it on that drive. Why I want to personally talk to them myself tomorrow.
 
Oh, confirmed this is a refurbished blank hard drive that we have run the recovery disc on. So I'm pretty sure its not going to budge if it doesn't have an original.
 
OK, so BBHP is up to version 1.25. You mentioned a new mobo so I bet thats your problem, the new board isnt supported by old software. Linux is typically very flexible but not when it comes to video drivers. I'd start there (1.25 can be downloaded from RT's website).

I've been able to install BBHP on anything from a 20gig drive all the way up to 200gig's. So long as the drive jumpers are set right you should be good up to 2 terrabytes (not that you would want to wast a drive of that size on the game).

Something just clicked in my head. On your I/O board theres a chip that will say something about its version number. I seem to recall some games having problems with version 9 boards but worked fine with version 10 and higher boards. That might have been Safari though.
 
Ok, so I'll try to make a new recovery media when I get home tonight. Computers at work suck and I wouldn't be able to burn or move it to a USB drive easily. We got a 40 gig Western Digital which isn't far off from the original 20 gig version they had in there before. Yeah, I imagine now that the software this had previously ran would not be compatible with the newer mobo. The older mobo was a MCP6P M2+ver: 6.1, the new mobo is a Biostar N685+.

The I/O board, says version 10 BB Pro, I made sure to order the right version when I had previously talked to Raw Thrills parts department. Hopefully all should go well tomorrow when I get back to it tomorrow with the newer version of recovery media.
 
Good news today. Was able to get the 1.25 version loaded and the game started. Worked like a charm and saved us some time waiting for them to send us a disc. Only problem now is this crazy Makvision monitor we ordered for it. Colors would seem ok if it would fire its own degaussing coil....tried a manual one and it hasn't done it any good. Hopefully not a color purity issue with the yolk........
 
Good news today. Was able to get the 1.25 version loaded and the game started. Worked like a charm and saved us some time waiting for them to send us a disc. Only problem now is this crazy Makvision monitor we ordered for it. Colors would seem ok if it would fire its own degaussing coil....tried a manual one and it hasn't done it any good. Hopefully not a color purity issue with the yolk........

Recently had to deal with a BBH with a Mak in it. The game wouldn't shoot the bottom 2 inches or so of the screen. Had to turn the screen control down on the flyback. Adjusting the brightness and contrast with the remote board didnt help.

Good to hear that you got it going.
 
Those computers are big pile of turds. I've got one in the shop that refuses to load after using the recovery disc. The big buck hunter logo will appear and say its loading, but then goes to a blank screen with an underscore in the top left corner on the screen. I'd performed recovery 3 times and ensured that the BIOS has the proper settings adjusted. Not to mention connecting the watch dog reset line to the mobo won't appear to let the computer start properly. Its pretty redonk if you ask me and Raw Thrills/Betson closes early so right now I'm in a pickle for getting this thing fixed anytime soon.

Post any info ya'll know about fixing these things, I would greatly appreciate it myself.

On the flipside, it's a perfectly normal PC, which makes things a lot easier.

@riki...

First part of your problem. The watch dog reset connector is probably backwards on the mobo. Flip it and I bet the CPU will boot just fine.


That connector can be BACKWARDS!? That. Explains. A LOT. I need to give our Drifts a once-over now...

Second part. Are you using on board video or an expansion card? If the expansion card isn't supported by the game (a lot are NOT) then the game will do EXACTLY what yours is doing. What version of the game is it and what revision software are you trying to load.

That makes sense... if the boot checks work but X fails it'd do pretty much that yes.

Its running on a microtel, we had found this cabinet stripped of its monitor, I/O board but not the computer. The original hard drive burned up, and we found a drive we could use to run the recovery disc on, but to tell you the truth I'm not the one who had originally talked to Raw Thrills about this installing on another hard drive. The Hard drive could be un-original and missing some specific files, but I wouldn't know why Raw Thrills would tell my co-worker he could run it on that drive. Why I want to personally talk to them myself tomorrow.

Raw Thrills/PlayMechanix PC-based games are stored in their entirety on the recovery disc(s) -- it doesn't matter what's already on the HDD; they overwrite EVERYTHING and start fresh. They'll work with literally any functional standards-compliant IDE drive that's big enough. 8GB is usually more than enough. You could install it to an IDE SSD if you're feeling wasteful.
 
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The deal with the watchdog reset connector is actually very simple. Its a two pin plug that can be turned 180 and plugged in. One side is grounded (via the cabling the game) and the other side is the signal from the I/O board. If the grounded side is applied to the reset pin on the mobo the PC will power up but will never POST because it thinks that some one is holding the reset button on the face of the case. If your games come up then its in the right position.

I just got one of these MicroHel's in today from a Drift in Reno. I'm not even going to bother with it even though its just a bad video card. These computers may just be "regular PC's" but they still suck!
 
The deal with the watchdog reset connector is actually very simple. Its a two pin plug that can be turned 180 and plugged in. One side is grounded (via the cabling the game) and the other side is the signal from the I/O board. If the grounded side is applied to the reset pin on the mobo the PC will power up but will never POST because it thinks that some one is holding the reset button on the face of the case. If your games come up then its in the right position.

I just got one of these MicroHel's in today from a Drift in Reno. I'm not even going to bother with it even though its just a bad video card. These computers may just be "regular PC's" but they still suck!

Grounded through the cabinet wiring you say? Hmm, I have an idea regarding the static issue we've been having...
 
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