Asteroids Cocktail Restoration

csa3d

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Hi There! I'm a first time poster on this board. I am currently working on an Atari Cocktail Restoration project which I've started a thread on here:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=94356.0

I have posted a bunch of questions on that forum all ready, and was wondering if I could get some eyes on it from over here. This board appears to be very geared towards restoration, and if need be, I can recreate the thread here.

I'm a first time restorer, new to fixing old electronic components, and am in the process of gathering a list of parts I'm going to need to purchase in order to get my machine up and running to the point where I can test the monitor. I've ripped out the power brick, main board, and A/R board. What I"m looking for is some expert advice on what parts I need to order from Bob Robert's site.

Any help you can provide would be awesome.

Thanks so much!
-csa
 
I do not have an account at BYOAC, but I do want to tell you that you need to ask around and find out what caused thosed DIODES to fail. The one component that is burnt in half and the other one that looks heat damaged on the A/R are diodes, which basically act as a one way gate for current flow....something had to have went wrong to fry those...and honestly I have not seen that type of failure...

The edge connector could have been put on backwards at some point, the Poer brick could have something going on...I just don have a chance to look at the A/R Schematic at the moment...but you will definitely want to ask around and abort any future testing until you at least find out what killed the A/R and repairs are made.

The edge connector on your board looks like someone used the solder trick to half-ass repair the edge connector issues that plague atari games. You are going to want to remove the solder from the traces and get a replacement edge connector from Bob Roberts, along with the appropriate pins to repair it properly and to prevent damaging your newly repaired A/R Board

As far as the glass top goes, arcadeshop sells a glass underlay, but you would need a clear piece of cocktail glass. If you didnt want to take that route, it is a fairly simple color scheme to touch up (from the back) and then you will want to mask off the clear areas and apply a coat or two of Krylon Triple Thick to prevent further flaking.

I have one of these, in the long line of projects waiting on time....

Any other questions just lemme know
 
I do not have an account at BYOAC, but I do want to tell you that you need to ask around and find out what caused thosed DIODES to fail. The one component that is burnt in half and the other one that looks heat damaged on the A/R are diodes, which basically act as a one way gate for current flow....something had to have went wrong to fry those...and honestly I have not seen that type of failure...

Great.. should have got a CarFax report on this machine ;) Wouldn't be fun if I wasn't learning, right? Now knowing that they are diodes, I'll scan the schematic PDF one more time and see if I can't discover what part numbers/ratings these are.

The edge connector could have been put on backwards at some point, the Power brick could have something going on...I just don have a chance to look at the A/R Schematic at the moment...but you will definitely want to ask around and abort any future testing until you at least find out what killed the A/R and repairs are made.

So I feel like my plan of attack should be to start with the power brick, get it up and running, and verify it's outputting the correct voltages... yes? Is it possible that I put all the fuses in the power brick, connect it back up to the power source in the cab, then leave the monitor, pcb, and audio boards DISCONNECTED while I test voltages? Do I *need* to have all parts wired up before testing to get accurate values? Seems safer to not have as many parts isolated out of the problem to test. Again, this is my first restoration so if this sounds retarded, just say so.

The edge connector on your board looks like someone used the solder trick to half-ass repair the edge connector issues that plague atari games. You are going to want to remove the solder from the traces and get a replacement edge connector from Bob Roberts, along with the appropriate pins to repair it properly and to prevent damaging your newly repaired A/R Board

So some more searching on this forum led me to find Bob Roberts page on PCB Edge Repair (http://www.therealbobroberts.net/pace.html). I measured my board edge and I have 7 pins per inch, which leads me to believe I need to order a, "PCB Edge Repair Kit 22/44" for a cost of $7.50 from Bob.

As far as the glass top goes, arcadeshop sells a glass underlay, but you would need a clear piece of cocktail glass. If you didnt want to take that route, it is a fairly simple color scheme to touch up (from the back) and then you will want to mask off the clear areas and apply a coat or two of Krylon Triple Thick to prevent further flaking.

I have seen the underlay, and will likely purchase a new one eventually when the game proves to run. I have the original glass, it's a bit beat up but I think it's ok. I imagine getting a reproduction piece would cost a bit considering it's tempered glass.

I have one of these, in the long line of projects waiting on time....

Any other questions just lemme know

Thanks so much for what you've provided thus far! I'll see what I can dig up on those diodes.

-csa
 
Thanks to Josh, I've been able to narrow down what those fried components are on the A/R board. They appear to be CR2 and CR3, 50v Silicon Rectifier 1N4001 Diodes. Locating a better scan of the asteroids manual was key in being able to read the ID numbers overlayed on the circuit board.

Questions:

Based on the images in this thread (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=94356.msg1050479#msg1050479) and the following shopping list:

From Bob Roberts
1x Atari Asteroids PCB Cap Kit
1x Atari A/R Repair Kit (caps+Q2/3+R29)
1x Atari "Big Blue" Capacitor (Transformer Assembly)
1x PCB Edge Repair Kit 22/44

Local Retailer (Frys/Radio Shack)
2x 50v Silicon Rectifier 1N4001 Diodes (A/R Board, CR2 and CR3)
4x 3amp glass fuses
4x 7amp glass fuses

1.) Would you add/remove anything from this list
2.) Does Bob sell the items listed under Local Retailer? Am I better of finding those parts locally? Are there any things to look out for when purchasing those items locally?
3.) On the A/R board, I don't see R29 in the parts list in the manual.. is something in a Deluxe or different board?
4.) Should I go ahead and and replace CR1 (Which is between the two white jacks on the AR board, next to the fried CR2? It's not fried, but was near the burnt component.
5.) What about replacing any of the parts around the other burnt diode, CR3?

Thanks again!
-csa
 
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I was actually referring to the housing for the harness where it hooks to the edge connector. Those pins lose tension over time and then people add solder to the pads on the board to make them connect...you may very well find, that when you remove the solder off the board, your edge connector on the board could be fine and you would just have to replace the housing and pins on the harness...


** EDIT Scratch that....your edge connector does look damaged as well....you could try to repair it without doing Bobs mod, but if you wanna go that route I think it works on Asteroids boards....**

As far as testing goes, You should be able to kinda check the power brick for the obvious stuff ( Make sure your Bridge rectifier is good, clean the fuse holders, replace the big blue cap) and you may find that it is ok....you may want to shoot a post in the repair forum on here and see if anyone can tell you what caused the diodes to fail. Also, I have not seen a A/R that does not have R29 on it....At least that I can remember I'm gonna have to look at the pictures again...

Those diodes should be a Fry's or similar item by the way...
 
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My brief quick and dirty scan of the schematic for the board leads me to the preliminary conclusion that Q3, the large "Bottlecap" transistor on the Heatsink on the A/R could be suspect....

If you have a meter, you could try to set it to the continuity beeb setting and touch the red lead of the meter to the transistor case, and the black lead to the heatsink. If the meter beeps, the the transistor is bad and thats a starting place....It could have been replaced inproperly and the insulating mica might not have been put under it....

Let me look at the schematic a bit more....maybe I can dig something up....I would still post on the repair section of the forum...

Now I could be barking up the wrong tree...I was just working on electronic gadgets all day at work and sometimes I get too many different things going through my head lol....
 
Thanks so much for your quick replies!

I was actually referring to the housing for the harness where it hooks to the edge connector. Those pins lose tension over time and then people add solder to the pads on the board to make them connect...you may very well find, that when you remove the solder off the board, your edge connector on the board could be fine and you would just have to replace the housing and pins on the harness...

So you're suggesting I should get this harness and pin standard set, then cut off the old pins, crimp the new pins to the wires on the harness, then ensure they are placed back in the correct spot on the new harness?

** EDIT Scratch that....your edge connector does look damaged as well....you could try to repair it without doing Bobs mod, but if you wanna go that route I think it works on Asteroids boards....**

If I didn't buy that edge connector repair kit, how else would you suggest I repair it? I gather that step one should be to remove the soldier blobs from that edge connector and hope the traces under them are still there, yes? Again, this is my first go at this sorta thing, so I'm still largely green on all the options.

As far as testing goes, You should be able to kinda check the power brick for the obvious stuff ( Make sure your Bridge rectifier is good, clean the fuse holders, replace the big blue cap)

I'll pull out the multi-meter and see what the bridge rectifier is up to then report back. Google tells me that testing this is strait forward. Thanks for the tip.

Also, I have not seen a A/R that does not have R29 on it....At least that I can remember I'm gonna have to look at the pictures again...

R29 wasn't listed on the list of parts in the cocktail manual, and I couldn't find it on the schematic scan I've found (which is legible).. but that doesn't mean I didn't miss it. Seems like the highest R Value in the list of parts is R24.

Those diodes should be a Fry's or similar item by the way

I wonder if it's worth my time to take a trip and just try to get all the parts locally or just send Bob a fat check for all the parts at once :confused: I'd probably be in that store for hours second guessing myself. It's probably not worth the time over saving a few bucks.

-csa
 
My brief quick and dirty scan of the schematic for the board leads me to the preliminary conclusion that Q3, the large "Bottlecap" transistor on the Heatsink on the A/R could be suspect....

If you have a meter, you could try to set it to the continuity beeb setting and touch the red lead of the meter to the transistor case, and the black lead to the heatsink. If the meter beeps, the the transistor is bad and thats a starting place....It could have been replaced inproperly and the insulating mica might not have been put under it....

Let me look at the schematic a bit more....maybe I can dig something up....I would still post on the repair section of the forum...

I'm gonna pull out the meter here shortly and will report back. Thanks for taking the time to look into this!

-csa
 
So I've pulled out my multi-meter to test for a bad bridge rectifier on the A/R board (Q3). Set the meter to continuity beep, red probe on the very top of the bridge and the black on the surrounding heat sink and got no beep. While this is probably a good thing, also note that I put both probes on different parts of the heatsink, which in my mind would make a connection, and got no beep. Therefore, my heatsink is either coated with something non-conductive, or my meter is weak, or the heatsink is non-conductive (which I find hard to believe).

I've read online that to test a bridge rectifier, it's just 4 diodes, which essentially restrict electrical flow to one direction. The test for this is setting the meter to ohms, and ensuring there is an infinite change in one direction, while the other direction stays around zero.

index.php


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Looking at Q3 which is currently attached to the board, I am puzzled on how I access these diodes. There are two nuts on the top which secure it to the heat sink, then two soldier posts underneath the location, along with two screws, which I assume are the posts for the nuts above. My bridge rectifier appears to have a thin rubber like surface between the base holder and the heat sink, and I assume the whole thing somehow pulls off. When it's off, I also assume I'll have access to the diodes.

Can anyone point me in the direction of testing the diodes and explain how this things comes off, or even if I need to take it off to test it?

-csa
 
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Sorry all, I've confused names in above posts.

There is a 2N3055 Transistor at Q3 on the A/R board. It is said to come out if you unbolt it from the heatsink and unsolder the leads directly under it. However, I tested it according to some instructions I found online, and it appears to pass those tests. A new one comes with the A/R Repair Kit from Bob Roberts, so I'll end up replacing it anyways.

Can anyone tell me what R29 is on my board, or if my board has an R29? I feel at this time that I'm going to fix the two blown diodes, the caps, Q2 and Q3 I should feel confident to test the board.

Thoughts?
-csa
 
Yeah it sounds like that transistor is good..

And no worries..that version of the A/R boards does not have an R29...I foergot thats the oddball A/R board....
 
I've completed the repairs necessary on the A/R board, the main PCB, and the power brick yesterday. Photos of the job are available here. Next I need to finish repair of the main PCB connecting harness, discharge the monitor to check it for issues, then plug all the parts back in and start testing voltages.

Thanks all for the help. I'm sure this monitor will dredge up more questions.

-csa
 
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