ARII on Pole Position 2 - what are these mods?

ArchNorway

Active member
Joined
Oct 10, 2012
Messages
247
Reaction score
59
Location
Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Hi all,

I was hoping that you could help me understand what mods have been done to my two ARII A035435 boards that sit in my Atari Ireland Pole Position II.

I really don't know anything about this PSU setup. The cab has clearly been converted to using a switching power supply, but I am not sure if that is _all_ that has been done to them, or if there is more. Do these have the "sense mod" for instance? Any info on these mods, and what would your approach to them be? Leave them like they are or try to convert this back? Just me asking the question should give you an idea about my tech insight, but at the same time I'd like to bulletproof this as much as possible. PP2 boards don't grow on trees.

I attach a couple of pictures where I've marked the apparent changes, - plus one burnt up resistor. The overview picture of what the cab was like when I opened it should show which board goes where. Hover pointer over the detailed pics to get the number.

Thanks in advance!

Arch
 

Attachments

  • ARII_mods1.jpg
    ARII_mods1.jpg
    137.9 KB · Views: 48
  • ARII_mods2.jpg
    ARII_mods2.jpg
    73.1 KB · Views: 46
  • SwitchingPSU_setup.jpg
    SwitchingPSU_setup.jpg
    140.5 KB · Views: 39
Those look like hacky 'repairs', rather than mods.

Hard to tell for sure from the pics, but it looks like maybe the AR died (given the burnt resistor), and someone soldered in a switching supply to the 5V trace, as a shortcut. The sense mod doesn't appear to be done.

I would repair both AR's (which is what PP was originally equipped with), as they can work fine if properly repaired, and your edge connector is well-maintained (and/or you do the '5V mod', which simply involves running extra wires from the 5V and GND test points on the AR, to the PCB). Remove all extra wires, and repair any cut traces (which it's hard to tell from the pics).

Replace that red resistor, and the burnt one, both with 10 Ohm, 1/4 Watt resistors. Test the AR's with the game board unplugged. As long as you can adjust them to 5V without the game boards plugged in, you should be ok to then test them with the game board plugged in. You may need to tweak the voltage slightly after plugging the game board in, in order to get 5.05V measured on the game board.

Do the above, and if you run into issues, post your findings here, for next steps.
 
i have the rebuild kits for the a/r boards and if you need the big blues i have them too plus most anything else you may need. if you have trouble finding them on my site shoot me a PM and i will help you out.
 
Andrewb, you are a champ! Thanks a lot for your answer. <3 I will give it a shot, and I'll post on progress/failures here.

Just one question, is the red resistor on the back original?

Securituy0001: thanks, I will check out your site. I might need some other parts as well for my Tempest.
 
No, the red resistor was originally a 1/4 watt 10 Ohm resistor on the other side of the board. When the boards get burned (and specifically the plated holes), it can be harder to solder a new one on the top side, so people often just stuck them on the back.

However you should be able to replace it on the front, and just leave the long leads on the resistor, and run them through the board, to where they need to go (basically use the resistor legs in place of any traces that are burned or missing). I also try to elevate the resistor above the board slightly (a few mm), so if it burns again, it won't damage the board any further.

If you have any questions about where stuff connects, try searching for other pics of undamaged ARs, which you should be able to find pretty easily (or ask here).
 
Back
Top Bottom