Asteroids power brick voltages potentially off?

It is always so much fun trying to figure out how someone hacked something to make it work. The unfortunate things about work like this that the guy who works on it later has some bad expectations that can confuse him or cause great damage. I hate trying to figure out mods from a distance because I can never get my head around these things without being hands on. andrew will get you through getting it running again after he figures out your mods
 
Ok back home for another crack at it. Here is a picture of the connector from the harness. Looks like pin 8 isnt keyed, a wonder how it even fit in the power brick. 1000006407.jpgand also here is how the power supply output is wired up. 1000006410.jpg
 
Unless you have a 80V G05-801 (which you don't since that was 19" only), just mod the power supply to match the harness.

Blue + Brown to pin 11
Blue/white + Brown/white to pin 13
Grey/blue + Grey/brown to pin 12
Frame ground to pin 15

Replace pin 8 with a female pin.

There's not reason to buy and ship a new brick.
 
I don't understand how you were saying this game worked at one point.

From the pic you posted, that cab harness can't even physically plug into that brick, because of the male key pin on pin 8 of the brick. (Which won't plug into the male pin 8 on the cab harness.)

Did the bricks get swapped by you or someone else at some point?

You can buy crimpers, and the pins, and move pins around to make that brick work. But when you figure the time it'll take you do to that, it'll be easier to just buy the right brick. I can sell you one for $80 shipped. And you can sell the one you have for close to that, and recoup most of the cost.

(Versus buying a $20 crimper, $15 to get the right pins, another $10 for a pin extractor, and spending an hour of your time repinning that brick.)
 
I don't understand how you were saying this game worked at one point.

From the pic you posted, that cab harness can't even physically plug into that brick, because of the male key pin on pin 8 of the brick. (Which won't plug into the male pin 8 on the cab harness.)

Did the bricks get swapped by you or someone else at some point?

source.gif
 
I don't understand how you were saying this game worked at one point.

From the pic you posted, that cab harness can't even physically plug into that brick, because of the male key pin on pin 8 of the brick. (Which won't plug into the male pin 8 on the cab harness.)

Did the bricks get swapped by you or someone else at some point?

You can buy crimpers, and the pins, and move pins around to make that brick work. But when you figure the time it'll take you do to that, it'll be easier to just buy the right brick. I can sell you one for $80 shipped. And you can sell the one you have for close to that, and recoup most of the cost.

(Versus buying a $20 crimper, $15 to get the right pins, another $10 for a pin extractor, and spending an hour of your time repinning that brick.)
It was so weird. When I got it, it was working, albeit very faintly. Then after I cleaned it, only a bouncing line was displaying. After replacing fuses and removing those 2 ceramic resistors on the deflector board, half the game was displaying. Finally after reflowing the edge connectors, the deflector board went up in smoke. I think I may take up your offer on just getting the right brick because i do not want to take any more risks on this thing haha.
 
It was so weird. When I got it, it was working, albeit very faintly. Then after I cleaned it, only a bouncing line was displaying. After replacing fuses and removing those 2 ceramic resistors on the deflector board, half the game was displaying. Finally after reflowing the edge connectors, the deflector board went up in smoke. I think I may take up your offer on just getting the right brick because i do not want to take any more risks on this thing haha.


Right now, if you try to plug that cab harness into that brick, it won't physically fit. So the game cannot be powered up. There's no way for it to work.

So I don't understand how this cab was working at any point, unless something changed from what you are showing us now.
 
1000006415.jpgthis is as far as the connector goes, i think the contacts are barely touching eachother to make the voltages work? I have no idea what else could be different otherwise.
 
Yeah, that's not how it's supposed to work. The connector is only seated partway, and is crooked. So you might have gotten power on any pins that are touching, but it's not possible to seat all pins correctly. The monitor voltages (which are the top 6 pins in the pics below) are different between the two pinouts. So even if you do get them to touch, you're sending the wrong voltages to the monitor.

The male key pin on that brick is meant to prevent that harness from being inserted into that brick. (Male doesn't go into male.) And that was done intentionally, because the monitor voltages have different pinouts between the two bricks.

You just need to get a proper Asteroids brick. Or repin the brick you have, to be compatible with your harness (per HudsonArcade's instructions above , which involves moving some pins, AND replacing the key pin to a female one).


1749772436392.png
 
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another case of some one elses problem from someone who swapped parts and forced things to fit that don't. I feel sometimes I should have ptsd from the weird things I have seen someone do then again some stories of dead games inherited from family who passed who could never get there favorite game to run with multiple spare parts thrown into the deals can really make you sad
 
another case of some one elses problem from someone who swapped parts and forced things to fit that don't. I feel sometimes I should have ptsd from the weird things I have seen someone do then again some stories of dead games inherited from family who passed who could never get there favorite game to run with multiple spare parts thrown into the deals can really make you sad
Ugh, tell me about it. Went on a wild goose chase thinking it was my fault that caused it only to realize it was all set up wrong from the start.
You just need to get a proper Asteroids brick.
I think I will take up that offer you brought up, no use in modding a perfectly good centipede/AD/BZ/whatever power supply when it could be put in a game that actually needs it. DM me info and we can go from there, thanks.
 
You can buy crimpers, and the pins, and move pins around to make that brick work. But when you figure the time it'll take you do to that, it'll be easier to just buy the right brick. I can sell you one for $80 shipped. And you can sell the one you have for close to that, and recoup most of the cost.

(Versus buying a $20 crimper, $15 to get the right pins, another $10 for a pin extractor, and spending an hour of your time repinning that brick.)

Funny how you think problems should always be solved by sending you money.

Everyone should have a .093 crimper and pin extractor in their toolbox, so that's an investment he should be making anyway.

$15 for the 5 pins he needs is fucking hilarious.
 
I think I will take up that offer you brought up, no use in modding a perfectly good centipede/AD/BZ/whatever power supply when it could be put in a game that actually needs it. DM me info and we can go from there, thanks.

It's not a "perfectly good" supply -- pin 8 is already mangled and needs to be replaced.

That's by far the most common transformer brick. I probably have several dozen of them kicking around.
Nobody's going to miss one being converted for Asteroids.
 
Funny how you think problems should always be solved by sending you money.

Everyone should have a .093 crimper and pin extractor in their toolbox, so that's an investment he should be making anyway.

$15 for the 5 pins he needs is fucking hilarious.

I gave him the choice. Replacing the brick is less overall work, especially when he can sell the other one.

It'll cost him maybe $20 net, if he sells the old brick. How much is your time worth?

Also, those 5 pins are not going to come with free shipping. If you actually repaired things, you would know this.

He's a big boy, he can decide for himself.
 
Also, those 5 pins are not going to come with free shipping. If you actually repaired things, you would know this.

LOL...

10 packs of pins for $2.59 at APAR.
Maybe $2 for a bubble mailer.

Maybe if you had any interest in teaching anyone how to work on games instead of just fleecing them....
 
LOL...

10 packs of pins for $2.59 at APAR.
Maybe $2 for a bubble mailer.

Maybe if you had any interest in teaching anyone how to work on games instead of just fleecing them....


Obviously you have never ordered anything from APAR.

Keep making a fool of yourself, kiddo.

I'm also the one who walked him all the way through figuring out what was wrong here. Feel free to point me to all the threads where you demonstrate the social ability to take someone through to the end of a repair (as opposed to just shitting out one post about what chip to replace, which more often than not ends up being wrong.)
 
Obviously you have never ordered anything from APAR.
Of course not.
I buy parts by the hundreds from digikey when I need to restock.
Want a list of all of the other people here I've never bought from?

I'm also the one who walked him all the way through figuring out what was wrong here.
Then you tired to sell him something rather than teaching him how to make do with what he had.

Feel free to point me to all the threads where you demonstrate the social ability to take someone through to the end of a repair (as opposed to just shitting out one post about what chip to replace, which more often than not ends up being wrong.)

Hint:
Chip suggestions are intended to tell people where to look, but since all of your "help" posts end in "ship it to me and pay me" you wouldn't understand.
 
Of course not.

And that's why you don't even realize how incorrect your advice was.


Then you tired to sell him something rather than teaching him how to make do with what he had.

If you actually read the whole thread, you would have seen that I told that the brick could be modified, literally in the same post where I offered him a brick.

And unlike you, I have the social ability to assess someone else's level of skill, and interest. I know what it actually takes to repin a brick, when you're coming at it from the perspective of someone who is new to working on games. And I know in this case it's far more efficient to just get the right part, instead of wasting time hacking up the wrong one.


Hint:
Chip suggestions are intended to tell people where to look, but since all of your "help" posts end in "ship it to me and pay me" you wouldn't understand.

I've helped countless people here fix things without needing to send them in. Far more than you.

If you actually participated in threads here like someone with normal social skills, instead of shitting in other people's threads like an asshole, you would know that.
 
Dang even in the current year we get forum arguments. Incredible. Look, I already need to fix some molex stuff so its not like Im not learning a new skill among a bunch of other stuff I learned from this thread. Plus I would rather just have this thing in original working condition with no hiccups if the parts are available instead of yet another hackjob for someone else to have to fix later on.
 
And that's why you don't even realize how incorrect your advice was.
Wah... shipping costs money.
Buy more shit and amortize the cost.

If you actually read the whole thread, you would have seen that I told that the brick could be modified, literally in the same post where I offered him a brick.
And you provided zero technical information on how to do it, so your post helped nobody.

And unlike you, I have the social ability to assess someone else's level of skill, and interest.
I post for future audiences, kiddo.

And I know in this case it's far more efficient to just get the right part, instead of wasting time hacking up the wrong one.
If he had the parts on hand, it's a 5 minute job vs waiting for a brick to arrive an a slow boat.
...but that doesn't put any money in your pocket...

instead of shitting in other people's threads like an asshole, you would know that.
I posted technical information -- you tried to make a sale.

Who's the asshole.

Buy a mirror.
 
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