Anyone replace a working Q*Bert power supply with a new ArcadeShop one?

[SuperGunGuru]

A wise man once said "if its not broke dont fix it"

It doesnt surprise me you got it going. My Q-Bert as I have said befor has been going strong for the last 8 years its 100% stock all the way with no modifications. I have come to depend on it and know when I plug it in at a party or barbecue he's going to say "Hello I'm turned on" cracks me up everytime Great you got it going congrats.....Dave

I agree that you shouldn't fix what isn't broken, but I think Q*Bert machines have enough possible issues to warrant some preventive maintenance. Oddly enough I've been very lucky with my Tempest that's had very little trouble since I bought it 6 years ago.

 

[SuperGunGuru]

Speaking of the interlock near the coin door, mine was mounted right to the coin box. That just seems like a really weird place to put it since the door has no effect on it.

 

[Wiz]

All this Q-bert talk motivated me to buy the AS PS today. I also bought the cap kit for the CPU and sound boards. I have been a little freaked to put a sound board I picked up in there without doing something to the PS as I suspect that is why my game did not have a soundboard when I bought it. I will be putting this in next week!

I also splurged and bought the LV mod for my Tempest. The new version is $29 as opposed to the $39 it used to be. Preventive maintenance is good when you know you have a high probability of problems with certain games.

Thanks for the motivation!

 

[tec9]

I'm one of the weirdos that prefers to use the original linear power supplies in all of my machines. I have found that once you rebuild a linear power supply, they are reliable. My Q-Bert is no exception, and I have been running the original REBUILT power supply with no issues for 3 years.

That being said- I have 2 switching power supplies that I think would work great for a Q-Bert machine, or any other Gottlieb. I will be posting them in the FS section.
-Mark

 

[Fudd]

that qbert original power supply runs so hot that when i had mine on the other day for about 8 hours and i went to shut it off i put my hand over the top vent and could feel the heat pouring out of it. i was amazed.

 

[JamBurglar]

Yep, I got my knocker working with the old supply but a few days before installing this switcher, so I noticed the difference immediately. I never had a knocker before, then I had a huge knocker for a few days, now I have less than a handful.

Did it affect, you know, . . . coily?

 

[p1899m]

That can be said for pretty much any linear supply.

I'm sure you're right but none of my other games power supplies run hot enough to bake a cake in the cab.

 

[blkdog7]

I think it's only 12V. The knocker is weak, and now my sounds go out after a while. It may be something else causing the sound issue, but really, it started happening after installing this switcher. I like the less voltage/ less heat idea, but the other side effects are starting to bother me.

That's discouraging. I am curious how they can get away with running a 24v board or whatever it is with 12v. How can that possibly work??

I think I just might leave mine original for now. It's working perfectly and all of my boards have been rebuilt/serviced by Eldorado or another east coast op (whose name escapes me right now). It has service tag/locks all over all the boards.

 

[p1899m]

That's discouraging. I am curious how they can get away with running a 24v board or whatever it is with 12v. How can that possibly work??

Usually the power used for sound is unregulated and can run a bit higher or lower than it's supposed to be and still work. Although 12V does seem a bit low. I don't own one of these and was under the assumption that they had figured a way to output more than 12v to the sound board and knocker. apparently I'm wrong. There is another option. I know riptor sells switchers that have all the voltages for qbert including 24v. Although you are just buying the switcher as I don't believe he had time to make more than a few of the harness to make it plug and play.

 

[Riptor]

I have the power supplys but wont be making the harness for them. I had planned on it but arcadeshop came out with theirs first.
The sound board amp will run fine at lower voltage, at 30v its at the peak of the amps voltage rating. Its the knocker that is more dependent on the 30v. Anything below 24v and performance is marginal. I wish gottlieb had of made the knocker voltage seperate.

 

[blkdog7]

I wonder if any pinball machines or manufacturers ever used 12v with their coils. Maybe there is a 12v coil out there? I looked and came up empty.

 

[shertz]

I put in AS Qbert PS in my machine and I have to say I am kinda disappointed. The knocker is not as loud (as to be expected) but the some of the audio is distorted. Usually will the samples like Qbert speaking. I also bought the sound amp cap kit which I have yet to install. I hope it helps. I heard you can get Qbert PS rebuiled kit from Bob Roberts which I am thinking about doing.

I would buy the Riptor Qbert PS switcher if it ever comes available. ;-)

 

[Malice95]

Why not run the knocker on the orignal supply or a replacement 30v supply
and trigger it using an opto isolated solid state relay from the qbert board
using the switcher. That way you get the loud knock and the safety of a switcher.
Should be a pretty easy circuit to make.

Malice95

 

[p1899m]

I would buy the Riptor Qbert PS switcher if it ever comes available. ;-)

He already has the switchers for sale. What he does not have is the plug and play wiring harness to go with it. You would have to build that yourself. Or someone would have to build it for you.

 

[Slackmoe]

Has anybody bought the nvram mod? Was curious if it worked good or not

Andrew

 

[elfyhead]

i have the switching power supply from AS, and an original. what folks have already said is spot-on - the AS supply runs much cooler, but you will notice a quieter knocker (the AS supply only has +12V). on the original i replaced the zener (which was burned out anyway) with a 24V and had to replace a handful of capacitors and resistors, and one of the big bottle cap transistors on the heat sink to get it to work. i'm using it now as a backup - if the AS one goes out i have a replacement. i'd rather not have it in there running all the time as it is *really* hot (and i don't mind the quieter knocker *that* much).

i don't see how the AS supply could be the cause of bad speech. i've used it with two sound boards and it works just fine with both (though with one i had to adjust one of the pots because about half the sounds were much louder than the others). maybe a bad connection from the switchover?

i also bought the high score kit from AS, but it didn't work for me. i've tried it on the two working logic boards i have and it doesn't work on either. i'm guessing bad NVRAM, so have some on order from mouser.

 

[Fudd]

what nvram mod?

Has anybody bought the nvram mod? Was curious if it worked good or not

Andrew

 

[blkdog7]

Has anybody bought the nvram mod? Was curious if it worked good or not

Andrew

I ordered it and will be installing it. My board has a new battery in it but it's not saving high-scores. So, I am looking forward to the NVRAM mod. I hope it works! Will post about it when I install it next week.

 

[elfyhead]

what nvram mod?

it's two replacement NVRAMs to replace the battery powered ones on the logic board (which you remove as part of the process). plus a jumper to replace diode D2. and a bigger capacitor (470 uf instead of 47 uf), but that comes in a different kit from AS (the cap kit for the sound and logic boards).

EDIT: when i say "high score kit" in my response above, i mean both the NVRAM and the bigger cap...

 

[blkdog7]

what nvram mod?

ArcadeShop sells it!