AREA 51 / MAXIMUM FORCE gun issues

starfighter2

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Looking to purchase AREA 51 / MAXIMUM FORCE game with gun issues. One of the guns is no longer tracking well and the other the seller tells me needs to be replaced.
Other than a sensor, can this be a board issue? anyone have issues with light gun games? this is my first and want to ask the right questions and look at the correct things before I purchase. Any comments, Questions, or ideas are welcome.
 
Monitor Monitor Monitor. The guns track the scanning beam on the monitor; a monitor that is too dark or has sync / image stability issues can (will!) confuse the guns.

Make sure you try switching the guns (1P on 2P's header and vice versa); if the problems follow the guns themselves, chance of a board or monitor issue is very slim; if so, it's a keeper, since lightguns are easy to rebuild.
 
gun games require a bit of TLC. the good news however is that once you get them running the way they should, they should be fine for awhile.

there's several tools and concepts that you need to know first... most notably about power supplies. ALL JAMMA based video games are powered by +5 volts, and depending on the age of the power supply, resistance across wiring, or simply the game board's power needs will all determine how you need to adjust the +5 setting on the power supply.

there's a +5 adjustment knob in most cases, others will require you to use a small phillips head screwdriver to turn the adjustment pot on the inside.

you will need a digital multimeter to determine what the +5 is set to. your power supply can come in any variety of form factor. the most common ones are the screw terminal types (all the necessary JAMMA power wiring are forked and screwed into lugs) or they'll be in a small computer power supply-like box with a molex connector with different colored wires going into a 9-pin plug.

the red wiring is for +5, yellow is for +12, black is for ground, and white is for -5. depending on the kind of game that's in your cabinet, you may or may not have or need -5. so to test, set your meter on a 20VDC range, put the red probe of your meter where the red +5V wire meets, and the black probe to where the black ground wire meets. you will then get a reading for what the +5 is set at.

to get the most accurate reading, you would do this at an IC on the game's board, but that might be a bit much to tackle all at once.

if the power supply is old, the components inside will break down some, and the unit will become less efficient, meaning that it won't output voltage as efficiently at the current +5 setting as it did before. if you're under 5 volts, like say 4.92 or something, that will definitely cause your gun tracking problem.

with your meter still attached so you get live readings, gradually turn the adjustment pot up (make note of which direction you have to turn it, it will be labeled) until you reach 5.15. then try calibrating the gun again and see if the tracking improves.

there's more...

if your monitor hasn't been cleaned in forever, the dirt on the screen will prevent the gun from tracking effectively. you will need to remove the monitor glass and clean both the glass and the monitor tube, preferably with Windex. additionally, if the monitor isn't set right (brightness is too low) it will also cause tracking issues. you want your brightness to be turned up high enough to where a black background is still pitch black... you don't want to be able to see the on-screen pixels in a black background.

if you find that the monitor is still too dark, or the colors are smearing, you're looking at a monitor issue that will require further diagnosis entirely separate from your gun issues.

I don't remember what size heads they are off hand, but you will need a security torx set to open up the guns. your gun that's completely dead may have something as simple as a broken wire or a connector that popped out of it on the inside. you'll never know until you look inside though.

I hope that gives you a good start of what to look for!
 
if the power supply is old, the components inside will break down some, and the unit will become less efficient, meaning that it won't output voltage as efficiently at the current +5 setting as it did before. if you're under 5 volts, like say 4.92 or something, that will definitely cause your gun tracking problem.

PSU droop can cause gun tracking issues? I need to spend some time with our ST:V again, maybe it's not just the monitor...
 
PSU droop can cause gun tracking issues? I need to spend some time with our ST:V again, maybe it's not just the monitor...

oh yeah, to my understanding the 4 wires that go to the connector on the gun are +5, GND, the trigger, and the monitor sync.

if +5 is too low, it will cause tracking issues. happened on our Carnevil, back when I was a noob at this stuff, I hated playing the game was it was so inaccurate. I go to tap the PSU for a +5 reading, it was running at like 4.95. guess what happens when you feed a Seattle board 5.15? the guns work a lot better ;)

monitor will only be a problem if the tube is shot, or it's horrifically adjusted wrong (like white balance and such). it also won't work if the wiring in the gun is broken anywhere, obviously. any one of those wires goes, you have no gun. period.

the last facet of the gun dilemma of course is the optic itself on the gun board. depending on the amount of abuse the gun's received, one of the legs on the optic can snap in half, and then you'll have a gun with no eye. you can always resolder those though, otherwise, you can track down a replacement somewhere/somehow.
 
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Thanks all. I al familur with jama and the power requirements. I did ask about the monitor quality as well. I think I have enouph to at least take a look at it. Let you know how it turns out.
 
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