Adding a new power supply to a Ms. Pac... How difficult?

mschwartz01

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Adding a new power supply to a Ms. Pac... How difficult?

Ok, next and hopefully last step of my ms. pac restore is the power supply.

How easy is it installing a new switching power supply?

Really wierd I'm not getting any readings with my multimeter, but the marquee light comes on.

I replaced all the fuses and the set of 2 fuse holders as they were corroded.

Kinda has me puzzled that he marquee light works and nothing else!
 
Ok, next and hopefully last step of my ms. pac restore is the power supply.

How easy is it installing a new switching power supply?

Really wierd I'm not getting any readings with my multimeter, but the marquee light comes on.

I replaced all the fuses and the set of 2 fuse holders as they were corroded.

Kinda has me puzzled that he marquee light works and nothing else!

It's a bit of a pain as the board has the AC/DC conversion on the board. The board is fed via AC unlike most boards that are fed DC.

I would keep the original power supply setup for the Pac unless you don't have the original transformers, etc...

If not, Arcade Shop caries a conversion kit.
 
It is not a big deal depending on your skill set. The game runs fine on DC, but you will need to modify the edge connector slightly unless you want to solder directly to the game board which is acceptable but I don't do it.
 
Don't swap to a switcher man, it's unnecessary and just an extra expense. Since the pcb itself does the power regulation all you have to do is get the ac voltage out of the transformers (which hardly ever go bad) over to the board. The problem is in either the fuse holders, or your edge connector. Get all those clean and snug and making good contact and your 'power supply' will be fine.
 
I replaced all the fuses / fuse holders... Luckily I have a working Ms. Pac to compare everything to... On the good Ms. Pac, I was getting AC voltages coming out of the transformer, but nothing on the transformer of the project Ms. Pac...

Honestly, I should have known because this transformer looks pretty corroded.

Quite honestly it has to be the problem, everything else was tested and working by the people I bought them from (I even switched PCB's int he 2 machines, so I know thats working)
 
The switching kit conversion will run you about 40 bucks. I did one in a Pac and it was worth it.
 
The switching kit conversion will run you about 40 bucks. I did one in a Pac and it was worth it.

You can do the same yourself without a "kit" for a lot cheaper :)

And really, you should NOT need to put a switcher in a Pac. The only reason would be if your original transformer is shot. Are you SURE it's not working correctly? Check for voltage at the input too - if it's not getting any power, then it won't output any power.

It's been my experience that those transformers very rarely fail, just because they're ugly and rusty doesn't mean they don't work. It's pretty hard to kill what is essentially a block of iron wrapped in copper wire.

-Ian
 
This kit from Arcade shop doesn't look too bad...

pac-mspac-ps-kit.jpg


For those of you who have used them, how is installation? Are the yellow wires grounds?
 
You can do the same yourself without a "kit" for a lot cheaper :)

And really, you should NOT need to put a switcher in a Pac. The only reason would be if your original transformer is shot. Are you SURE it's not working correctly? Check for voltage at the input too - if it's not getting any power, then it won't output any power.

It's been my experience that those transformers very rarely fail, just because they're ugly and rusty doesn't mean they don't work. It's pretty hard to kill what is essentially a block of iron wrapped in copper wire.

-Ian

I'll be spending some more time on it tonight and I'll add some pictures...

Its driving me crazy for sure!
 
Ok, take a look at this:

ir7ths.jpg


Here is my power supply. Correct voltage off of the plug connector, but I can't get a reading anywhere else...

How about the silver box just above the new fuse holders I put in??? Looks like its got battery acid coming out of it... What the heck is it and cab I buy one at radio shack???
 
For reference, the brown and blue wires go into the back of it, the yellow / green striped wires come out of it and the flat yellow grounds are attached to the screws
 
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