Advice before Buying a Defender cabinet

farquh

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I am thinking about buying a Defender cabinet. Eventually, I plan to put a jrok Williams board in it, but I am looking for advice about the cabinet before I decide.

The current owner of the cabinet says that upon power on, you need to go through the audits, then it will boot into the game.

Someone has suggested to me that this might be a battery issue. I know that this is very little to go on, but I am wondering what everyone else might think? If I plan to put a jrok board into this cabinet (along with the jamma harness adapter) this 'auditing' would become a non issue since it's most likely on the Defender pcb, and I'd be removing it when I put the jrok board inside - am I correct with this thinking?

Also, does anyone have any advice for me before I being turning this jamma cabinet into a jrok williams board playing cabinet? Is there anything I should know before I begin?

My decision to possibly buy this particular cabinet is because I am located in Canada, and so is this cabinet. I think the price is fair, and the owner claims that other than the auditing cycle, it is in working condition (I've not seen it in person yet of course).

I like the idea of a jrok Williams board in an original Williams cabinet, but I am going to obviously need to new control panel to play all of the different Willaims games.

Any thoughts or advice from people who know their work would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help and taking time to read this post.
 
Yep. If you don't have a working battery then it will boot up that way. That's just how it's designed, so nothing is wrong.

I would plead with you to not convert a working classic.
 
The batteries are dead or the battery holder is corroded. It basically means that you are reinitializing the CMOS every time you boot it up.

If the price is fair, then buy it. Put new batteries in it and then play it for a while. You can always put a JROK card in it later. He also makes a harness adapter so that you don't even need to hack a JAMMA harness into it. That will keep the Williams wiring intact so it can be converted back with little effort.

ken
 
I think my plan would be to enjoy it as an authentic Defender cabinet for as long as the many 30 year old boards will allow me to.

One thing I need to make sure with the owner before I buy it is to figure out exactly what he has done to the wiring.

In his description he says that the cabinet has -

all new electrical parts: Line Cord, AC Line Filter, Power Distribution Block, Power Switch, Isolation Transformer, Power Supply - and Bob Roberts PS -> Defender adapter. New florescent light fixture. All new power wiring. Custom made wiring harness (we couldn't find an original anywhere, so we made our own). All new molex connectors. Lithium battery modification. Repro control panel.

Since I am new here, I only truly understand what a small fraction of these modifications really mean. Based on what he says, does it sound like the original wiring is still there, or does it now have a jamma adapter? If so, is the machine technically a jamma cabinet now, or will it always remain non-jamma?

I know I'm not giving you guys anywhere near the full amount of information you'd need to pass along an educated opinion, but please bear with me as I learn first hand by actually attempting something new!
 
Sounds like you have a switching power supply in there (looks like a metal box hooked up to the transformer). I would suggest going back to a linear power supply (an original one). A guy here named "Dokert" rebuilds williams power supplies so if you don't want to take one on yourself you can get one from him for a good price. He also reproduced the wiring harness so you might want to consider replacing the wiring that's in there if it's pretty messy and/or hacked up. He sells them for a great price as well. He's a really helpful and nice guy too.

You're in the right place to make sure it's running like (almost) new. Good luck with your purchase.
 
I have a Defender with a switcher power supply which makes it boot up in the game settings menu even with batteries installed .

My advice is keep it a dedicated Defender .
 
I have a Defender with a switcher power supply which makes it boot up in the game settings menu even with batteries installed .
Either your 5101 isn't getting the voltage from your batteries (probable), your 5101 is bad (not as likely), or your batteries are dead. :) Those battery holders can have problems, especially if they're corroded.
 
... Lithium battery modification...

Probably sucked the battery dry. Defenders are notorious for pulling a lot of juice for the CMOS RAM (where the settings are stored). This has been a point of some debate as some people have gotten 2+ years out of a lithium button battery and many more have gotten less than a month.

Try replacing the litium battery and see if it will boot past the adjust settings the second time (the first power up after a battery change will cause it to go through the adjust settings and then it should hold the settings for the second boot).

ken
 
I'm in the one month camp. I ultimately replaced the ram with a battery backed ram and I've been happy ever since... except for the fact that I can't seem to clear the high score table.
 
This is all great advice guys, thanks a lot - I only wished I owned the thing at this point! I've yet to hear back from the owner about going to see it!

And not to worry - my thoughts are to keep it as an original Defender machine. I'd probably get more enjoyment out of restoring it than I would turning it into a multi-cade.

Once I get it I will certainly look back to this thread for all the tips you've given me.
 
I know the exact machine you're talking about. The wiring is not original but looks to be redone nicely. (neatly bundled and routed, proper connectors) It's non-Jamma and has an original Defender boardset. It is using a switched mode power supply, so you'll probably want to get an NVRAM adapter eventually to prevent the settings/high score reset. (or better yet, an original transformer + linear supply, if you can find them) If you want to finish the side art, stencils are available here: http://www.gamestencils.com/index.php?crn=207&rn=397&action=show_detail Good luck, and let us know if you get it!
 
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If the original transformer is still in the bottom (a lot of them stayed and were used to run the isolation transformer for the monitor), then you just need the power supply board. I have rebuilt Defender power supply boards on hand. They are $30 + shipping.

This will also help with some of the boot up into settings mode issues, which can happen when the CMOS gets overwritten during CPU shutdown. The original power supplies had a clever hack to help prevent that.

ken
 
Yep. If you don't have a working battery then it will boot up that way. That's just how it's designed, so nothing is wrong.

I would plead with you to not convert a working classic.

I would second that! Leave it all original you will regret converting it later. Also being in Canada we both know how hard these classics are getting to find.
 
Got the Defender cabinet today - it actually plays great. The monitor is a little bit 'shaky,' but other than that is was a bargain.

I even ordered some cabinet art from arcade shop.com.

So no need to worry, I'll not be installing a multi-williams board and an original Defender cabinet is still alive and operational!
 
Got the Defender cabinet today - it actually plays great. The monitor is a little bit 'shaky,' but other than that is was a bargain.

I even ordered some cabinet art from arcade shop.com.

So no need to worry, I'll not be installing a multi-williams board and an original Defender cabinet is still alive and operational!

whoo hoo! great job.

shaky monitor - as a starting point:
- check out /cleanup all your mains earth connections, including iso trannie and the monitor frame earthing
- check/clean pcb ground connections (main mpu pcb /monitor chassis in particular, but check em all while you're there)
- check/clean monitor signal interconnect (rgb and sync) cable pins/sockets and associated pin headers (cpu &monitor)
oh and check you dont have the mains supply cable pair for your monitor or degaussing leads close to or crossing the monitor signal cable. if so, seperate by a good inch

enjoy!
 
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