Asteroids Deluxe modded power transformer question?…

Lukey13

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Hi can anyone shed a bit of light on what might be going on here please?..

I have this Asteroids deluxe cab which has been labelled as both chassis and the AR2 being re-capped 2017, and 'sense modded', but I'm confused as to why the two orange wires from the transformer have been cut and instead there are new lines ran from an additional transformer to supply power to what should be my 20A Fuse, where I appear to be getting 9.9vac with this set-up..

Although it's removed from the cab in the pics this is exactly how it is installed currently and I'm wondering if there's any reason why I shouldn't look to return the configuration back to original…

Can anyone identify what the idea might be here with this set-up?

Thanks in advance for any input
 

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My guess would be a rare winding short, which knocked out that section of the transformer. You can check resistance of the orange wires (power OFF) to the core material. If it's low ohms (less than 1000 ohms) the core is shorted in that section.

It would be cheaper to put in that little transformer (and easier) than to replace the transformer. Short of finding a donor cabinet, obtaining one of those multi-stage transformers that matches the original spec is hard.
 
What @ArcadeTechGW said, you're not in the US so finding a replacement brick for Asteroids Deluxe is probably a bit harder. Would also explain why your "big blue" cap is lookin a little small there. What size capacitor is that?

1734447789435.png
 
Great thank you both I will definitely check this out, I had tested the orange wires live and recall getting what seemed like the correct voltage 10.2vdc..
With the current additional transformer I am getting 12.04vdc where I believe I should be expecting the 10.3/10.6…
Does this sound like it's too high and would be likely to cause me problems?
 
Great thank you both I will definitely check this out, I had tested the orange wires live and recall getting what seemed like the correct voltage 10.2vdc..
With the current additional transformer I am getting 12.04vdc where I believe I should be expecting the 10.3/10.6…
Does this sound like it's too high and would be likely to cause me problems?
If you're measuring without load the voltage will be a little higher than with load. Your transformer is set to output 9.5V , so a little lower than what it should be. I don't think that should be an issue though since looks like the game board itself doesn't use the 10.6VDC for anything directly. So as long as you're getting +5V from your AR board you should be fine.

Schematics if you don't have a set

1734461334738.png
 
The 10.3 winding from the original transformer will produce close to 15V DC at the brick. That's normal, as it's unregulated.

You can always try looking up the original orange wires and seeing what happens. Worst case you'll blow a fuse. Just check all voltages before connecting anything to that brick. It's possible someone made a wrong diagnosis about what's wrong with that brick, when they were trying to solve some other problem. But you can't measure the voltage direct from the transformer, as it's AC at that point. You need to hook it to the rectifier and big blue filter cap in order to get the rectified DC.

Worst case if that winding is shorted, I'd just replace the whole brick. You can find one on ebay. Or you can get someone here to relay one to you. (I've done it for other UK KLOVers.) These b/w vector bricks are easy to get, as they are the same as the color raster bricks. Ignore the comments above claiming otherwise.
 
Great thanks for these replies, yeh I guess I can re-connect the original wires and see what I get at the 15-pin plug and across the fuses.. then report back?
I certainly don't want to connect the game board up until I'm sure it's safe to do so.
One other thing, the underside of the 'big-blue' replacement connects straight to the wires.. should there be an interface of some sort?
I will upload a photo of underneath mine to better show it…
 
Yes, reconnect the wires.

Regarding the big blue, search here for 'Atari brick' to find lots of threads with pics.

That replacement cap you have is a physically smaller aftermarket replacement. The original ones are much larger, and bolt straight to half a dozen wires underneath the brick.
 
Should there be some kind of rectifier pcb underneath the 'big-blue' cap?
 

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No. The rectifier is in the upper right corner of your first pic.

You're thinking of the Asteroids brick, which has a half-wave rectifier on the big blue itself. Atari changed the design to use a full-wave rectifier, which is the black square thing with the 4 terminals.

See this thread for an Asteroids brick:

 
Aha, yes I think this is the brick arrangement I was expecting to see… so this photo below is from a standard Asteroids brick?
 

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Yes.

If it has that small board with the two diodes on it, it's an Asteroids brick (which was also used in Lunar Lander). All of the later bricks have the 4-terminal bridge rectifier.
 
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