Centipede Help in Cleveland

jamesmallen

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Burnsville, North Carolina
I'm having some issues with a Centipede that I've been working on. The voltages off of the power supply and AR2 look good, but I'm only getting garbage on the screen:



Is there anyone around Cleveland who has a working Centipede that I could try my PCB with to help identify the problem? Alternatively, if anyone has seen the symptoms above and has other things for me to try, I'd appreciate that too!
 
I had some similar symptoms (solid colors) on a Centipede board recently. It turned out to be a bad CPU chip (6502). Your symptoms are slightly different than what I was seeing though.
 
Thanks for the info. I'd love to be able to try the board in a known working cabinet, though, just to rule out any power supply issues. Is there anybody in Cleveland that could help? :confused:
 
These games are real easy to narrow down the problem. Centipede like most operates off 3 major componets. The power supply supplies voltage to the game board. The game board needs +5 volts to give you a picture. The +12 gives you sound. The board then gives the monitor an image they want seen. The monitor is not going to go off on its own and start showing garbage for no reason. The board is giving it garbage to view. So, if you tested the voltages and all looks good it can only be your board. Check all fuses at bottom of the cabinet. I would not waste my time taking it to someone else to plug in. Thats a board issue hands down. Good Luck.
 
Howdy! I agree with captainP about it being a board issue. Have you tried cleaning and reinserting all socketed chips yet? Cleaned the edge connector? I live in Strongsville and maybe able to help if you need. I have a Centipede game and a Jamma test rig with a Centipede adapter. I also have several Centipede parts boards. Nice to see another local guy.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I also feel it is a board issue, but since I'm not that familiar with this hobby, I wanted to compare the results to a "known good" board and see. I've PM'd rzgrip, and will hopefully know one way or the other soon!
 
rzgrip really helped me out here. I took my PCB and AR2 over to his place, and both of them ended up being just fine. He suggested it might be an issue with my power brick, and was able to loan me a spare brick with a good-looking Big Blue capacitor. This morning I swapped out my old Big Blue with his, and the game fired up and played just fine! This despite the voltages on the AR2 looking within range beforehand...

So if anyone else experiences similar issues to that video, I'd suggest looking at the power brick. Good luck, and thanks for the help, everyone!
 
Glad to be of help. Thanks for posting the fix, it might help others down the line. I hate it when people post for help and suggestions and never post the results!
 
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